by Josie Brown
Jake demonstrated this by throwing a bucketful of the sand in the face of Tre Hanover (a.k.a. Lawrence Walter Wrigley Hanover III), to Mrs. Hanover’s horror.
And Nina’s too, for that matter.
As she ran to the window to motion Jake to stop his rampage, an arm reached out to stop her.
“Don’t worry. Time-outs are short in the Kinder Garden. Otherwise the parents would take their kids home immediately, and Pickering wouldn’t have time to pump us for gossip. Besides, Tre started it when he stole Jake’s dump truck.” This reassurance came from the freckle-faced redheaded woman whom Nina knew only as “Ben’s mommy,” from the school’s last Earth Day extravaganza and fund-raiser.
At that function, Ben and Jake had played emperor penguins who had been separated from the birds’ breeding ground when the ice shelf it nested on had cracked due to global warming. The two boys had been directed to stay “stranded” in the back of the tableau while the other penguins told this sad tale. Instead, Jake and Ben stole the show by acting, however inappropriately, like seals, which got them big laughs and a whopping two thousand dollars in donations for that cause. (“A ham, just like his pa,” proclaimed Nathan proudly between yelling “Encore! Encore!”)
“I’m so relieved it wasn’t all Jake’s fault.” Nina laughed nervously. “Otherwise I’d feel guilty about being inside while he’s being incarcerated.” She made sure to take just a dainty nibble of her German chocolate cake. It wasn’t until after she picked up the gooey concoction that she noticed that none of the other mommies was likewise indulging, but had opted to sip tea instead. Their sacrifices were obviously paying off: not one of them was any less buff than Uma Thurman mid-Kill Bill II. And although Nina was a size 4, she felt pudgy next to this pack of Pilates princesses.
As if reading her mind, Ben’s mommy stuck her finger in the icing of Nina’s cake, put it in her mouth, and gave a blissful sigh.
“Sorry. Just couldn’t help myself. Glad someone finally broke down after all these months and took a piece.” She wiped her finger on her low-riding Hard Tail yoga pants and stuck out her hand. “We haven’t been properly introduced. My name is Casey Cattrall.”
Nina stuttered back, “Nice to meet you. I’m Nina, uh, Harte.”
Of course Nina knew the name Casey Cattrall! To put Ben’s mommy’s face with it, though, was something she hadn’t done before now. Casey was the Casey Cattrall, as in wife of Jarred Cattrall, Oscar and Golden Globe winner twice over. As in Casey Cattrall, producer in her own right, of the third-largest grossing box office film of last year, which had been based on a truly inspiring story of female empowerment.
Casey and Jarred were also perennial contenders in People magazine’s “Hollywood Hottest Couples” list. Their marriage was considered “one of the happiest in tumultuous Tinseltown” by practically every celebrity magazine’s standards.
“Hey,” said Casey. “Have you met some of the other people here?” She herded Nina over to Susannah Myers, a very pretty, very skinny brunette with a husky voice and infectious smile, whose husband was an independent producer; and Jill O’Keefe, a willowy blond who had retired from a highly rated sitcom to be a full-time mom.
“I think it’s time to blow this pop stand,” murmured Susannah. “We’re taking the kids over to my place, in Brentwood. Tea is okay, but I’d like something with more of a bite to it, like an appletini. Would you and Jake like to join us?”
Nina wouldn’t pass it up. Besides, she told the others, Nathan had already left a voice mail that he’d be home late from the set. “He’s playing opposite Katerina McPherson,” she said proudly albeit a bit shyly. She didn’t want to come off as if she were boasting.
Upon hearing this, the women exchanged glances.
“Kat McPherson, eh?” Casey wrinkled her brow. No Botox there, thank God. “Have you visited the set yet?”
“Uh, no,” Nina replied sheepishly. “I didn’t know I was allowed to.”
“Don’t wait too long,” counseled Casey firmly. “It’s always a good idea to meet the leading lady. And the sooner the better.”
Seeing the four of them head for the door, Brad Pickering made a beeline for Nina. He was just about to ask her if she had enjoyed his generosity (in the hopes that she would say she had—when she spoke next to Mr. Cahill, that is) when suddenly the sound of little voices chanting, “We want cake TOO! We want cake TOO!” was heard emanating from the Kinder Garden. Having noted his mommy’s chocolate bounty through the window, Jake had decided it was time that he and the other students lobby Headmaster Pickering to bend one of the cardinal laws at SOA: no sugar-laden foods for the children.
Needless to say, Pickering would never fold on this demand. He did, however, concede defeat in getting gossip out of Nina, as she and all the other parents dispersed to appease their children’s cries for something substantially tastier than the tofu panna cotta provided by the Kinder Garden staff.
The trill of the telephone sang out to Nina and Jake long before they opened their apartment door. She fumbled for her house key in her pocketbook, juggling Jake’s backpack, his half-finished juice box, his asthma aspirator, and her appeltini to-go cup all at the same time. The search was that much harder because she was more than just a wee bit tipsy from her poolside initiation into what Susannah called the “Mothers Without Fear” Club. When she finally found it, she wrenched open the door, stumbled through the living room and on into her bedroom, where she grabbed the phone, only to spill the remainder of the fruity concoction on the carpet.
“Damn—” she declared before she realized that the receiver had been knocked off the phone, then: “Hello? Um…Hello?”
First there was a telling silence before she heard a woman’s haughty murmur, “Yes. Hello. And to whom am I speaking?”
“Nina. Harte.” Taking a second to collect her breath and her patience, Nina added, “And you are?”
“Serenity Lancaster, Mrs. Harte. So very, very happy to have this opportunity to talk to you—personally. I’ve been so eagerly following Nathan’s career…So exciting, isn’t it? And so deserved, considering the personal struggle you two have had…”
Serenity Lancaster? As in the syndicated columnist and renowned “chronicler of the stars” Serenity Lancaster?
Calling Nina? To compliment Nathan?
This was just too much!
“Um, yes, it is!” Flushed from both the appeltini and Serenity’s kind words (and because she had yelled a profanity in this very powerful woman’s ear just now), Nina added, “Gee, Ms. Lancaster, coming from you, that is quite an…an accolade!”
“Ah, my dear, get used to it. You’ll be hearing a lot in regard to that handsome hunky hubby of yours,” Serenity’s words were pure silk. “In fact, darling, I can just imagine how your ears must be burning right about now, what with all those annoying little whispers about Nathan and Katerina McPherson—”
“Nathan…and Kat? Oh…I’m sure that’s just—you know, mindless gossip.” Nina tried to shake off her vodka buzz. Jake, having found the remote control under the pillow where Nina had hid it in the hopes of coercing him to do his “junior stockbroker” homework first, had already flicked on Nickelodeon, and was now shouting a warning to Jimmy Neutron as he flew into peril.
Nina’s nagging suspicion that she was doing the same was confirmed with Serenity’s sugary sweet response: “Well, you know what they say: Where there’s smoke, there’s fire…Then again, maybe you’re right. Maybe there’s nothing to it…By the way, Nathan’s shoot wrapped early last Wednesday evening because it was Hugo Schmitt’s birthday. Did you enjoy the party afterward, at Ago?”
The set closed early last Wednesday? There was a party later, at Ago?
But—but hadn’t Nathan been working late on the set that night?
And if not, then why hadn’t he asked her to go with him? Or at least come home?
Because of Katerina?
Ashamed to admit that she hadn’t been invited, Nina mumbled some inane ex
cuse as to why she had to hang up now, and gently laid down the phone. She then picked up the note Nathan left for her Wednesday night, and reread it, again and again.
No way, she thought. No damn way he is falling for Kat.
Then again, there was only one way to find out.
After calling Casey to take her up on her offer of an impromptu play date for the boys (“They’re inseparable anyway, so why not? Sure, drop him on by…”) Nina scooped up Jake and headed out the door.
8
The Betrayal
KAT’S QUOTE OF THE DAY
Sure, there are things I’ll regret having done, but that’s why I look at each day as a gift: No matter whom I’ve hurt, or what cruel thing I may have said to someone else, give it twenty-four hours and they’ll have already forgotten it. Now, that’s true friendship!
Posted on Katerina McPherson’s official website, WeLoveKat.com
All the interior shots for Forever and Again were being filmed at Flagrant Studios, which rented space on the Fox lot on West Pico. It was studio protocol to check in with the guard in the security kiosk before be-bopping on over to stage twelve to see movie magic being created.
Or, in this case, not.
If the visitor was not on the day’s guest manifest, a call was made to the director’s assistant, who then checked with the director as to whether the guest should be allowed on the set. Since the guest in question was one Nina Harte, who claimed to be the wife of the film’s male lead, Nathan Harte, and as it was the tail end of the crew’s dinner break, that answer should have been a cursory “Sure, send her on over.”
Instead, Hugo’s production assistant told the guard to have Nina sit tight while she rustled Hugo from his inner sanctum, where he was viewing that morning’s rushes, fully oblivious that the best melodrama of the day was about to be played out off the set, right then and there.
Heck, too bad there weren’t cameras in the actors’ trailers, thought the PA, making a mental note to mention to Hugo that he should consider doing so.
If cameras had already been in place, the money shot was in Kat’s candlelit sanctuary, where, courtesy of the reverse cowgirl that she’d opted for, the actress was enjoying the final throes of orgasmic ecstasy…for the third time.
Climbing down off her very studly stallion with a sigh, Kat murmured, “So, handsome, how about being my date for the Oscars?”
Nathan was confused. “You mean—you, me, and Nina?”
“What are you crazy? No, you dolt!” Miffed, Kat roused herself out of his arms and, without any warning at all, slapped his face.
Hard.
“Ow! Shit, Kat! Why’d you do that?” His eyes flashed angrily as he rubbed his sore cheek. Reflexively he started toward her…but then thought better of it.
Damn! She knows how to get my juices flowing, he thought.
Suddenly he was aroused again.
As if sensing this, Kat’s mouth puffed up into a pout. During these little boink breaks, she’d discovered that Nathan loved a little physical abuse now and then, guessing (and rightly so) that he craved penance for the guilt he was feeling over their affair.
“Because you can be such a—a pussy, sometimes, Nathan! Jeez, just make something up, okay? Hell, tell her that costars of films in production always escort each other to these shindigs, you know, in order to publicize their new movie before it comes out. That it’s just par for the course. Believe me, she’ll never figure us out.”
“Sure. Okay.” He didn’t sound too convinced, though. Not that he was going to call Kat a liar to her face. Heck, that would only assure him another slap. And if that happened, he promised himself he’d haul off and slap her back.
Or make love to her for a fourth time.
Besides, he knew Nina would be hurt if he went to the Oscars without her.
Maybe even pissed.
Or worse yet, she might figure out what was going on behind her back.
As if the fates had read his mind, just then Hugo’s PA banged frantically on Kat’s door, imploring Nathan to come out and greet his wife, who was making her way through security in the front lot of the studio at that very moment.
Jumping into his Jockey boxer briefs and jeans as if a fire bell had gone off, Nathan bounded out of bed and out the door.
Kat’s slap still hurt like hell. He hoped he could find a makeup artist who could cover up the bruise before Nina saw it.
“I am so excited to meet you…finally.”
Nina was trying very hard to be cordial. She was really, really trying.
And really, how much kinder could she be?
Katerina McPherson, that is.
Sitting there, naked—except for that very flimsy robe, which wasn’t tied very tightly at all (this Nina realized because it kept opening up, exposing Kat’s fully inflated breasts—all 37CC of them), Kat put out a limp hand for Nina to shake.
Of course Nina shook it, quickly though, then she tried hard not to glance down to compare Kat’s most obvious assets to her own meager 34Bs.
Not that Kat would have noticed. She was too busy running that oval horsehair bristle brush through her hair while yammering on and on about how Nathan sang Nina’s praises constantly (“He was so right! You are so gorgeous! You’re an actress, too, right?”), that is, when he wasn’t relaying stories about their cute little boy (“What’s his name again? Jake? Why, how sweet! So—boyish!”) or reverently studying his script.
As he was now. By himself. In his own trailer, Kat readily assured her.
What finally did catch Nina’s awed attention was when Kat tossed out the words Oscars and gowns in the same sentence.
“I never seem to have a date for these things. Gosh, I’m beginning to feel like a spinster! Well, at least I’ve got some great choices. Both Valentino and Versace want me to wear them, but I’ve sort of got my eye on this gorgeous Elie Saab sheath…”
Suddenly she stopped brushing and turned excitedly to face Nina. “Hey, I have a super idea! Why don’t you come over to my place when my stylist brings them over, and help me make my decision?”
To think, Katerina McPherson wants me to give her my advice on her OSCAR gown! Me, Nina Sue Wilder, of Joyous Missouri!
Nina was confused. And concerned and, well, torn.
She’d been duly warned. And since she was a firm believer that, as Serenity had said, where there was smoke, there was fire, she knew that she had better be damn well certain flames weren’t licking at the love nest she’d built with Nathan.
Then again, Kat was being so nice. She was just a normal girl…
And wouldn’t it be fun to at least touch a couturier gown?
“—kind of disappointed that Nathan blew me off when I asked him to escort me—”
“I’m sorry,” murmured Nina, half comprehending what she was hearing, “did you say that you invited Nathan to go to the Oscars…with you?”
“Oh, yeah, sure…but that was a while back. Ha! That silly goofball turned me down, flat. Said he’d feel really bad going without you. What a gentleman, huh?”
She looked up at Nina with wide-eyed innocence. “Of course, I said I understood. But sometimes these guys just don’t understand women, do they? I mean, how would he know that the last thing you’d ever do is keep him from going to the Academy Awards. My God, am I right?”
She paused from brushing her long, satiny curls to catch Nina’s reflection in the mirror. “Just think of the exposure that would have given our little movie…not to mention Nathan’s career…”
Kat leaned forward conspiratorially, which forced her robe to fall open. Ooops, there was that boob again! Yep, it was certainly more than a handful…
“Can I let you in on a little secret? And puh-leeez, don’t tell anyone, especially not Nathan…I have to tell you that, personally, I’m just a wee bit worried that this film may…well, that it might get overlooked. By the public. And the reviewers.” She sighed sadly. “Don’t get me wrong, Hugo’s a great director. I feel so honored to hav
e been chosen to work with him, believe me…And just think of the opportunity this gives Nathan…that is, if it doesn’t bomb. Still, it is very small budget, you know. And Nathan—well, he’s not exactly a known name who can carry a film—at this point in his career, anyway. That’s why any promotion we can do will be so important. You know, for all of our careers.”
She went back to brushing her hair slowly, methodically, but kept on chattering. “Hey, and don’t think I’ll be upset if you say no to the idea of Nathan going as my escort. I just thought it would be a nice gesture, you know, since he’s such a newbie and all. If he passes, I’ll just have the Owen brothers escort me. They’d jump at the exposure…Or maybe George. He’s always a blast at those things. Hey, have you met him yet?”
Suddenly she stopped brushing. “Aw, gee, wouldn’t it be just awful though, if—” Kat thought better of whatever it was she was thinking and shrugged instead.
This prompted Nina to say, “Uh, I’m sorry, if what were awful?”
“Oh…well…hmmm. I guess I’m putting my foot in my own mouth, but I’d hate myself if it did come true and I could have stopped it…What I mean is, wouldn’t it be just awful if Nathan never even got another chance to go to the Oscars?”
Never got another chance? Because of me?
Nina could never live with herself if that were the case.
