by Brandy Blake
“You’re my agent and you have given me nothing. This is nothing. I can’t work with that at all. If you think of any other bright ideas, please let me know, but otherwise, don’t call me unless there’s a job. This ridiculous idea of yours… this… pornography; that’s not a plan. It’s career suicide. Goodbye Al. Call me when you have some real work for me, and please do it soon.”
With that, she turned and walked out of the room, closing the door sharply behind her.
Al looked over at Tristan. “What about you? I know you’ve had a lot of competition for the roles that you’ve been trying out for. You’re not getting anywhere fast. We can find another woman for the sex tape. She was my first choice for you, but there are plenty of other starlets out there who would jump at a chance to lay you in the sack in front of a camera and get their careers going. You ready for the big time?” Al lifted his chin and gave Tristan a sort of strange smile.
Tristan gave his head a long slow shake and looked at Al straight in the eyes. “No, Al. She was right. This is no way to do it. I’m disgusted that you even brought it up. This isn’t how I want to become famous. This is a cheap way to an end, and it’s not even the end that I want. It’s just a shot in the dark and a quick way to wreck my reputation and my career. I’m not going to sign up for that. She was right… call me when you have some really good work for me.”
“You are not going to get where you want to be, and you’re sure as hell not going to get past John Phillips if you keep doing what you’re doing and you let this go. You’d better figure it out and make a decision. Why don’t you sleep on it? Think about how easy it would be. You’d even make a little money doing it. You’ll have a good time. You’ll send your career to places you never imagined it would be.” Al smiled a thin, wide toad smile.
Tristan stood up and gave his head another shake. “Yeah… I’ll send it into the trash can with an idea like that. Talk to you when you have some good roles for me, Al.”
He turned around then and walked to the door.
“You think about it, think about it real hard, and then you call me back, because it’s going to happen, Tristan, and it’s going to change your life.” Al sounded supremely confident.
Tristan walked out of the door, closing it behind him.
***
Valerie pulled up in front of a decent sized bungalow house near the beach. It was painted in white and a bright, friendly peach color, with a white picket fence and a carefully tended yard. She got out of her car, closing the door hard, still angry about what had happened with Al Oliver.
She walked swiftly to the door and rapped smartly on it. A few moments later, it swung back and in the doorway stood a woman about the same age as Valerie, though she was much shorter.
Her skin was a little darker, her eyes a similar shade of dark brown, her figure dainty and trim. She had short hair cut to her jawline, styled in big curls around her head, and she had a big smile on her pretty face.
“Hey, Val! Come in!” she bubbled happily. She stepped back and Valerie walked into her house with a solemn face.
“I just saw Al Oliver.”
The young woman closed the door and turned to face her. “That doesn’t sound good. What happened?”
Valerie turned sharply and gritted her teeth for a moment. “You’re not going to believe me when I tell you, Lisa. It’s only the most ridiculous and horrific idea ever.”
Lisa walked to her and took her hand. “Come on… let’s go out to the porch. I just made a batch of margaritas. We can talk it out.”
Valerie sighed and her shoulders slumped slightly. “This is why you are my best friend. I love you. Thank you.”
She followed the petite young woman out to the back porch and sat at the little café table that she had set up there.
Lisa set another glass beside the pitcher of green relief, and poured the concoction over ice cubes in their glasses, adding a wedge of lime to the salted rim.
“Okay, spill it. What’d he say that’s got you so riled up?”
“You probably want to sit first and set your glass down.” Valerie rolled her eyes. Her friend did as she was bid. “He had this other guy in the meeting with me. Tristan Dane. I guess both Tristan and I went to him with our own personal requests for help and he came up with the worst possible idea in the world to help us both.”
Lisa held her hand out and touched her fingertips to Valerie’s arm. “Wait… Tristan Dane the actor?”
Valerie looked at her in surprise. “Wait… you know him?”
“Well yeah! He was in Tides of Time and Walter’s Journey. Didn’t you see those? He was the time keeper in Tides of Time and Walter’s son in Walters’ Journey. You didn’t see those? I mean… they were both B films, but they were good. I liked them.” She grinned at Valerie. “You got to meet him?! Wow. Is he nice?”
Valerie took a long swig of her margarita. “Yeah. He’s nice. Al wants me to make a sex tape with him so that both of our careers will take off. He said he will leak it to the public and then do a few other tricks to get the media to notice us, and then we’ll be global names. I just can’t believe he even suggested it. It’s unbelievable.”
Lisa’s mouth fell open in shock. “He wants you to do a sex tape with Tristan Dane? Wow! What did you say?” Lisa leaned forward and grinned a little bit.
Valerie’s brows furrowed sharply. “I said hell no, of course! I’m no hooker! I’m no porn actress! I’m not going to screw some guy and have it published for the whole wide world to see! What kind of trash is that?”
“It’s trash that could make you famous. Al’s not wrong about this, Val. Look at Kim whatsherface. She did it. Now she’s famous for no good reason. You at least already have some kind of a name modeling. You’re getting out there a little bit, at least in Los Angeles. I have to be honest… I think Al might actually be onto something here.” She shrugged and picked up her own glass of lime green margarita.
“I can’t believe you think that.” Valerie eyed her with distaste. “How in the world could I ever do something like that?”
Lisa looked at her with calm simplicity. “Easy. You go do it and I’m pretty sure having sex with Tristan Dane isn’t going to be the worst thing you ever do in your life, and then if it goes viral… well… you’ll be an overnight sensation. If it doesn’t go viral, it’ll be buried in a graveyard of other sex tapes and no one will ever really watch it. Probably.
“It’s a gamble, but with you and him, I think it could work. You’re both pretty successful, but neither of you is big. Some people know who you are, some people know who he is. You’re just big enough that it might catch the public’s eye. You’re both gorgeous people, and that could be newsworthy. That could be something of interest to people.
“That might very well do just what Al said that it would do. I think you should maybe scoff at it a little less and perhaps give it a little more thought. I’m being honest here. If it was me, I’d do it. Especially with Tristan Dane… heck, with him I’d do it twice!” She laughed and smiled at Valerie who sipped sullenly at the drink in her hand.
“I can’t believe this. I feel like I’d be a sell out and you’re trying to convince me to do it. That’s so crazy,” Valerie grumbled quietly.
“So crazy it just might work….” Lisa trailed off, lifting her glass in a toast to Valerie. “Think about it.”
***
Tristan parked his truck in his brother’s driveway and walked around the side of the big house, looking at the add-on that his brother was constructing in the back of the house, thinking that it was an ever-growing home.
“Gavin!” he called out. There was no immediate answer. He wondered if his brother was in the house, but it looked like there were tools and various pieces of work equipment about, and he looked around seeing no one, and called out again, louder. “GAVIN!”
A moment later, a dark head appeared over the edge of the roof, and a pair of bright blue eyes found him. “Tristan! What are you up to? You were suppo
sed to be here this morning! Get your lazy ass up here! We have work to do!”
Tristan waved at him. “I texted you! I told you I was seeing my agent today. Come down here, please, I need to talk to you, and I don’t want to try to have a serious conversation with you while you’re hammering in tiles on your roof!”
“You mean while we’re hammering tiles onto the roof!” Gavin called back.
“Hey! I need my big brother to help me work something out. Could you please get down here?” Tristan planted his right hand on his hip and with his left hand, he shielded his eyes from the bright sun.
Gavin waved. “Alright. Hang on.”
He vanished again, and Tristan sighed and dropped his hand from his eyes, looking around the big yard he was standing in. It was a wide grassy space, except for the swimming pool, the pool house, the gazebo, and the Jacuzzi. There were trees strategically planted around to give shade to all of the places where anyone might want to sit in the shade, except where he was standing. That spot was still waiting on the addition of the room before him to be finished, and when it was, Gavin had plans for more trees that would shade the area where Tristan was standing.
Tristan walked over to an umbrella covered table beside the pool and sat down, pulling a bottle of water from the ice chest near the table. Gavin walked around a corner of the house, picking up a bottle of cold water from the ice chest as well.
“I guess it’s a good thing you’re just here to talk; you’re definitely not dressed to work.” Gavin eyed his brother’s dress pants, button down shirt, and tie.
“I told you; I texted you that I had a meeting with my agent this morning.” Tristan sighed, tipping his water bottle back and drinking almost half of it. He set it on the table and held the lid in his fingers, rolling it around as he looked at his brother.
“So what’s so important that you dragged me off of my roof? Not that I’m not grateful for the break… it’s a scorcher out there today.” Gavin tipped his water bottle toward Tristan and then took a long swig.
Tristan leaned forward and placed his forearms on his knees, looking at his brother intently. “I went to my agent last week and told him that I really needed a way to kick start my career. I’m kind of… in a slump. I mean… I’m getting work, but it’s not the work I want. I audition for the good roles… the big roles, and I just keep getting passed over.
“They keep going to that smarmy jackass, John Phillips. He’s so damn smug. Just drives me up a wall. Anyway, I really need my career to get a big jump, and I went to Mr. Oliver and asked him to help me do it. He called me in this morning and when I showed up there was a woman there in the meeting.
“One of his other clients… I guess. She must need some help too, by the way it sounded. Anyway; he told us that he wanted us to make a sex tape. He said that it would shoot my career and hers straight into the stratosphere, and we’d both have the fame we want and the work we are both hoping for.” He frowned darkly and looked at Gavin.
Gavin’s blue eyes were bright with mischief and curiosity. “So? What’d you tell him?”
Tristan sat up straight and glared at his older brother. “Well I told him no, of course! I’m not about to do something like that! I don’t want a sex tape of me out in the public eye! What are you thinking?”
Gavin leaned forward then. “I’m thinking about you telling me just last week that you would do anything to get your career really going. I’m thinking of the thousand times you’ve told me how irritated you are at John Phillips for stealing all of your roles. I’m thinking that what your agent told you, while a little out of the box, is probably not a bad idea. There are dozens of celebrities who are famous for doing just that.”
“Well, I’m not going to be one of them,” Tristan stated flatly.
Gavin grinned and winked at him. “Why… is the girl not pretty enough?”
Tristan’s eyebrows went up a bit. “No, actually, she’s gorgeous.” He pulled his cell phone from his pocket and searched Google for her name. “Valerie Martin…” he said in a quiet voice. “That’s her…” he handed his phone to his brother, whose face grew serious quickly.
“Tristan, she’s gorgeous. There isn’t a downside to this. You get to take this woman to bed and you’re worried about people finding out about it or seeing you have her? Have you lost your mind? And… to top it all off, there’s a damn good chance it will make you famous. Are you going to get paid for doing it?” Gavin asked, eyeing the pictures with admiration as he scrolled through them.
“Yeah, I’d get paid for it,” Tristan said with distaste.
Gavin handed his phone back to him. “Then I don’t know what your problem is. You should have signed on the dotted line before you even left his office. This is the deal of a lifetime. Trust me; there’s not a downside to this at all.”
“You said that already.” Tristan sighed and put his phone away.
“I meant it,” Gavin said, giving him a serious look. “I’ve never steered you wrong, and I’m not about to start.”
Chapter2
Valerie pulled into the worn driveway; the concrete was cracked and slightly shifted, and there were bright green blades of grass growing up out of the crevices in it. She turned off the car and got out, closing the door gently behind her as she looked up at the weathered home before her.
It was light blue with white trim. There were pretty Victorian shutters on either side of all of the windows; once pretty and colored white like the trim, time had left only stubborn chips of paint clinging steadfastly to the old wood.
The trees were tall and thick with leaves, shadowing more of the yard than they were meant to when they were planted, cooling the variant wild grasses and flowers that had once been a carefully maintained garden.
Three steps led up to a wide front porch that ran the length of the house. To one side was a large wooden door with beveled crystal and stained glass set in an intricate and beautiful design, and to the other side of the porch there was a swing that hung, facing the front yard, and on it were a few pillows, once blue but long since grayed by rain and sun.
Valerie sighed and promised herself that as soon as she was able to get some help, she would fix the old place up and make it look as sweet as it once had when her grandfather had been alive and he and her grandmother had worked so hard to keep their home up.
She swung the wooden gate open in the white picket fence, closing it carefully and smiling a little as the hook latch caught and clicked gently. She remembered the sound from her childhood, just as she remembered playing in the trimmed grass and blooming flowers that were the pride of her grandmother’s garden when she was a child.
She had known many wonderful days in the place where she was walking; days of carefree bliss, unfettered play, and sweet adoring love from her grandparents. Days of cookies and lemonade, of flowers tucked in behind her ear, and old jazz playing inside, wafting through the open windows and billowed curtains of lace, filling the sound of her young days with dance and smiles.
Those days had slipped away like fog in the morning sun, vanishing swiftly one by one, and she didn’t look back to them very often, at least until she visited her grandmother, and then they rushed back to her as if they were just over her shoulder, waiting for her to look back at them and she’d be reminiscing in them as if they had just happened.
She let her fingers brush delicately over the tops of the flower petals as she passed them growing where they would along the edge of the sidewalk. They felt like silk and life; like nature reaching out for her to remind her that she was part of it all, just like she had been in her young days.
With a knock at the door, she pulled at the handle and pushed the door open. The light was dim inside, but even in the dim light she could see a thin layer of dust covering nearly everything, as if time was settling itself inside the house, as well as outside of it, slowly claiming it bit by bit.
“Grandma?” she called out, looking for the old lady who was her mother’s mother.
&nbs
p; For a moment she felt a pang of resentment at her mother for leaving them and moving to New York for her career. She never visited; she never came back to help her mother or spend time with her daughter. She was too caught up in her own life to be a part of anyone else’s.
100“Grandma?” Valerie called out again, stepping into the house and closing the door behind her.
She walked through the small entryway into the living room and smiled at what she saw. The older woman was leaned back in her thickly cushioned recliner, her eyes closed, her feet propped up. She breathed softly, like the brush of angel’s wings on the air.
Her hair was white; small curls all around her head. There were age freckles on her face, and the traces of time had drawn themselves on her skin, but not so much as to show her true age. Her youthful glow was something that Evelyn Martin was somewhat proud of, but as Valerie looked, she could see that her grandmother looked much more tired than usual, and the glow that normally made her shine brightly seemed to have faded, leaving her to look as if she was in need of a long rest.
