by Brandy Blake
The sight of her grandmother in her chair that morning, telling her about the cancer and the treatments, about her fears of losing everything came back to her and haunted her, clinging to her like a dark thorny vine around her heart. Something had to be done right away, and the longer she thought on it, the more she realized that there was no other way for her to realistically get the financial help that she needed.
Closing her eyes, she pushed the thoughts from her mind as best she could for just a moment of peace, and she swallowed all of the wine in her wine glass in two drinks. Setting the glass down on the table beside her, she poured another glass full, and set the empty bottle down on the table as well. With a groan of resignation, she picked up her cell phone and struggled within herself as she searched for Al’s phone number and pressed the button to call him.
She got his secretary, who asked her to hold. Classical music came on and she tried not to think too much about what she was doing. A few minutes later, Al’s voice sounded at the other end, and she knew that she was about to change her entire life forever.
“Hello, Valerie, what can I do for you today?” he asked in a cool tone.
It sounded as if he knew. Almost as if he was smug. He had made her an offer and she had thrown it back in his face and walked out on him. She was glad that he was even taking her call, even if she didn’t want to take him up on the offer that he had made to her.
“Hi, Al. I wanted to let you know that I’ve given some thought to what you offered to me and to Tristan, and I’m not sure where he left it with you, but I guess I’m calling to let you know that I’ve decided…” She closed her eyes and tried to swallow the knot in her throat. She had to force herself to say the words. “I’ve decided that I’m going to go ahead and say yes to your offer. If it’s still available. And… if Tristan wants to go ahead and do it.”
There was a pregnant pause at the other end of the line, and she could almost see him sitting there at his desk in his dimly lit room with his unlit cigar held tightly in between his teeth, grinning and gloating over having gotten what he wanted in the first place. She tried to push the image from her mind and focus on the money. She made herself think only of the money.
“Well now, that sounds quite a bit different than what you said to me the last time that you were in my office.” He paused again, taking his time answering her. “Are you sure that you want to do this?” he asked, drawing it out.
She knew he was getting her back for being so rude about it and shutting him down before.
“Yes, I’m sure,” she answered quietly.
He chuckled and she squeezed her eyes closed tight.
“Well then, I’ll have my secretary send over the details of where you’ll need to be and when. And Valerie, I just want you to know… you just made the biggest decision of your entire career.” He chuckled again and then ended the call and Valerie set her phone back on the table beside her.
She knew full well that she had just made the biggest decision of her career, but she couldn’t help but wonder if it was going to be a rocket ship to stardom, fame, and wealth, or career suicide.
Chapter3
Hot southern California sun burned down on the rooftop where Tristan and Gavin were working near each other, finishing putting shingles on the room addition that Gavin was putting onto his house. They had been working most of the morning, and as the heat index rose, they threw off their shirts and used them only to wipe off the sweat that ran in rivulets over their hard sculpted muscles and tanned skin.
There was little conversation as they focused on their work, until a sound stopped both of them where they were, and Gavin looked at Tristan. Tristan’s phone rang again. He set his tools down and reached into his back pocket, pulling it out. Glancing at the screen, his eyes lit up and he gave his brother a wide-eyed look before swiping his finger over the phone and answering it.
“Hello?” he asked almost breathlessly. It was a call that he had been waiting to hear back on, and he was more than a little anxious to speak with the man on the other end of the line.
“Hi, I’m looking for Tristan Dane,” the man said politely.
“This is Tristan. What can I do for you?” he asked, knowing full well who it was he was speaking with, as he closed his fingers tighter around the phone.
“Tristan, this is Roger Carlson. You came and auditioned for a role for me last week.” The voice was steady and even, and Tristan couldn’t begin to tell where Roger was going with the conversation just by the sound of him.
“Yes, I was glad to be there. Thank you for having me in to audition. I’ve been looking forward to this call,” Tristan said with a bubble of hope rising up in him. He had wanted the role more than just about any other role that he had been up for to that point.
It was for an action-packed movie that he knew would be a blockbuster when it was released. He’d actually been able to audition for the role of the hero in it, instead of any of the secondary roles, and there hadn’t been an immediate answer on whether or not he had gotten the role. As he knelt there on the roof he began to hope that this was the call telling him that the role was his.
“You know, I wound up getting it down to two people, and I’ve given it some careful consideration over the last week. I absolutely have to have just the right person for this role. I wanted you to know that you were a close contender on this one, Tristan. Very close. I had to give the role to the other guy though; he’s a little more well-known than you, and that was actually the only reason why he got the part.
“I needed a name that people would recognize and want to see. I wanted to tell you myself that you tested really well for the part, but in the end it had to go to him. If you ever want to come back in for another audition, I would be glad to see you, and I may have other parts for you in the future. Please keep that in mind in the time to come.” He sounded slightly sympathetic, but truly professional.
As the words came through the phone and began to stick themselves one by one in his mind, and as he comprehended just what he was being told, his stomach felt as if it was dropping right out from his body, falling all the way to the ground several feet below him.
“I see…” he managed to say in as level a tone as he could manage. His heart was beating fast and he felt his nerves tingling as if they were on a live electric wire. “Well, thank you for letting me know. I appreciate the personal call, and of course I’d be glad to audition for you again any time.”
“Very good. Wish you the best of luck, Tristan,” Roger said, and he sounded as if he meant it.
“Hey… Roger?” Tristan asked quietly, cursing himself for needing to know so badly that he stooped to ask.
“Yeah?”
“Who got the role?” He bit at his lower lip, wishing that he didn’t have to know.
There was a brief silence, and then Roger answered him. “John Phillips,” he replied. It was all that he said.
Tristan closed his eyes and sighed, doing his best to make it inaudible. “Thanks, Roger,” he said quietly.
Roger bid him goodbye and they hung up. Tristan looked down at the phone in his hand and shook his head, sliding it back into his pocket. He lifted his hand and rubbed his fingers over his forehead.
“Can I ask what that was about?” Gavin peered at him.
Tristan dropped his hand down, letting it fall on his leg as he knelt on the roof. “That was the director of a movie that I auditioned for last week. It was one I really wanted. It’s going to be a big hit; I can already tell.”
“And?” Gavin asked, watching his brother closely.
Tristan looked over at him with a sullen gaze. “And it went to someone else.” He tried to keep emotion out of his voice. He tried to make it the nothing that he wished that it was, but he wasn’t able to fully mask the disappointment that he felt.
“This isn’t just about you not getting the part, is it?” Gavin probed a little more.
Tristan shook his head and pursed his lips. “No, Gav, it’s not.�
� He sighed and picked up the tools he had set down to answer his phone. “It went to John Phillips. John is… quite a thorn in my side, actually. It seems like we wind up auditioning for a lot of the same roles, and he keeps getting most of them, and it’s really hard for me to take. The director on this one said that he had a hard time choosing one of us, and the only reason that he gave it to John was because his name is a little better known than mine is. That’s it. That’s the only reason. It’s… it’s tough to take.”
He looked down at the roof and began putting the next shingle on. Gavin watched him thoughtfully and spoke after a moment. “You want to outdo John Phillips?” he asked, looking as if he was waiting for an answer that he already knew.
“Yes, of course I do! But, more than that, I want to prove to myself that I’m doing the best job that I can be doing, and the phone call that I just got… well, that had less to do with my work and more to do with his and my publicity than anything else.
“It’s just… it’s not right. I want to get the roles that I’m best suited for; you know, the ones that are right for me so that the outcome of the movie is the best that it could be, but I feel like pure talent isn’t always the way in through the door.
“He got that last role because he’s more famous than I am, and not by much. If my name was bigger, I’d have gotten the role. That’s got nothing to do with talent, and it’s frustrating. That’s wrong.” He sighed and banged his hammer onto a nail, driving it into the shingle.
“Well, little brother,” Gavin said in a conversational tone, “it seems to me that the best thing for you to do is to get your name in lights then, right?”
“I’m working at that! It’s just going slow, but it’s happening.” Tristan answered him with a frown.
“You know, if you want it to happen faster, you could always take old Oliver up on his offer. I know it sounded like it wasn’t the way to you, but I’ve got to be honest with you, I think it is the way. I think it’s the best way to make you one of the most well-known names in Hollywood.
“I’ve just seen strange things like that happen way too many times. I know that you don’t want to hear it, but I think he’s right. I think you ought to do that sex tape.” Gavin looked down at his work and not at his brother.
Tristan looked up at him seriously. “I can’t believe you’re still saying that. Would you do it? Honestly? Would you put your professional reputation on the line like that?”
Gavin looked back up at him then. “Well, my profession is a little different than yours. I’m a professional football player. I’m the quarterback for one of the biggest and best teams in the league. I’m a national football champion; MVP from the last Super Bowl. What I know about competition is that it’s fierce, no matter if it’s on the field or off of it.
“If there’s a goal you want to reach, then you put everything you have into reaching it, no matter what it takes, and you don’t stop until you hit the goal. That’s what makes me different than other guys in the league. That’s what makes me a winner. That’s why I have a Super Bowl ring and an MVP trophy.
“Because when I want something, I go after it and I don’t stop until I get it no matter what. You are getting there, but you’re taking your time and choosing your battles. You’re sidestepping so many things. Why do you think John Phillips is doing so well? He’s a lousy actor.
“He’s nowhere near as good as you are, but he is well known. He has a huge online presence, and a ton of followers. Even I know that, and they don’t follow him because of his work, they follow him because he’s famous… or notorious. So, yeah. If I was you I would jump at the chance to do that tape. It’s going to get your name out there.”
“It’s going to get a lot more than my name out there…” Tristan grimaced.
“It’ll get you noticed, and everyone will want a piece of the fame. Everyone will want a piece of you, and John will be getting call after call like the one that you just got. You want to change that? Then you do the tape, and you see how fast things shoot forward for you.
“You don’t have to do it, and don’t think I’m pressuring you, because I’m not. I don’t care whether or not you ever do it; I’m just saying that if you want what you say you want, and you don’t want to wait around for the spotlight, then that sex tape is the best, fastest way to go.
“Plus… as I said before, sleeping with that model wouldn’t be the worst thing you ever do, that’s for sure.” He winked at Tristan then, and turned back to his work on the roof, whistling in the silence that followed what he had said.
Tristan pursed his lips into a thin line and focused on the roof, wishing that there was just about anything else that he could do to become famous fast, without making the tape. Not that his brother wasn’t right about sleeping with Valerie Martin, because she was easily one of the most beautiful women he had ever seen, but he felt as if the sex tape wasn’t the right way to go, and while he wanted the fame and the success, he wanted to earn it.
They worked hard on the roof until it was finished later that afternoon, and Tristan told his brother goodbye and went home to shower and relax. The more he thought about the phone call that he had gotten, the more he realized that he was probably going to have to do just what he didn’t want to do.
His brother was right. He could take his time working his way up the ladder of success, or he could find a way to go shooting up it like a rocket, and the only way to do it was to do something that made him famous. To his chagrin, nothing he could think of, other than landing the best role of his lifetime, which had just been handed to John Phillips, was to do the sex tape and hope for the best.
It would be a shot in the dark, but it might work, and after having suffered losing the role he had wanted so badly to the one person he couldn’t stand to lose any more roles to, especially for the sole reason that John had a bigger name than he did, he finally had to admit to himself that both his brother and Al Oliver had the right idea. He was going to have to go way outside of the box to change his future, if he wanted to really make it big fast.
After a lot of thinking and consideration, he picked up his cell phone and called Al Oliver’s office. The secretary answered the phone and put him through to his agent.
“Tristan! What a pleasant surprise.” He heard a soft chuckle in Al’s voice. It was as if he had just won some secret bet.
“Hey, Al,” he said in a quiet tone.
“What can I do for you today?” Al asked, sounding as if he already knew just what it was that Tristan was calling about.
“Well, Al, I gave some thought to what you suggested the other day. The, uh… the sex tape, and I wanted to see if that was something that you still wanted to try to do.” He tried to sound as if it was something he was interested in, but he was fairly certain that his disinterest in doing it came through the call pretty clearly.
Al chuckled louder then. “Well, what a nice surprise. I’m glad that you finally came around to my way of thinking.”
“Is there any chance that Valerie Martin is going to change her mind, or would I be doing it with someone else?” he asked hesitantly.
He guessed that it didn’t really matter who he did it with, but he had already met Valerie, and she had definitely caught his eye long before Al had said anything at all about sleeping with her. At least he could do it with someone he liked, rather than a total stranger. If she would change her mind, he thought.
“You know, it’s funny that you mentioned her. I just got off of the phone with her. It seems that she had a change of heart as well, and she’s ready to do the tape with you, so you’re one lucky son of a bitch, Tristan, you get to have Valerie Martin as your partner. I’ll send you the details about where to go and when, and we’ll see you then.” He said goodbye and ended the call, and Tristan put his phone down and leaned back in the chair that he was sitting in.
He might not have wanted to do it at all, but at least it would be with Valerie. He closed his eyes and covered his face with his hands, wond
ering if he had just made the biggest mistake of his life and his career or not. He prayed that it wasn’t, but one thing was certain; he was going to find out fast.
Chapter4
Valerie stepped off of the elevator into an elegantly designed foyer on the top floor of the hotel. Her heart was beating so fast that she could barely feel it; it was more like a continual flutter, and her breath was barely there.
Looking around her, she was surprised to find that she was alone. She had half expected people to be there when she arrived, but then she thought they might be in the hotel suite itself. Al Oliver had spared no expense, renting out one of the penthouse suites at one of the most prestigious hotels in downtown Los Angeles. He wanted it to be the classiest version of a sex tape that they could make.
