Not Talented in Hollywood: Not in Hollywood Book 3 Read online

  Not Talented in Hollywood

  Leonie Gant

  Copyright ©2015 Leonie Gant

  All Rights Reserved

  License Statement

  Thank you for downloading this ebook. This book remains the copyrighted property of the author, and may not be redistributed to others for commercial or non-commercial purposes. If you enjoyed this book, please return to your favourite ebook retailer to discover other works by this author. Thank you for your support.

  This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  About The Author

  Upcoming Book

  Chapter One

  The darkness of the theater did nothing to disguise the fact that we were sitting in a very small space. As a small community theater, it had less than one hundred seats to be filled. Unfortunately at this moment there was a grand total of nine people in the audience. I knew this because I had counted them as a distraction from the show that I was being forced to watch. Another unfortunate point was that the group I was with made up four of those nine people. I’m not really a big theater goer. My pretensions of culture kind of begin and end with a big budget science fiction or action movie. I’m really one of those people who wants to be entertained. I don’t want to have to actually think.

  Spending a Saturday evening in a theater is not exactly something that I would go out of my way to do. Tonight though, I was supporting a friend. In fact we were all here to support a friend. Edwin lives in my apartment complex with my friend Crystal, our landlady Miss Betsy and our teenage project Sean. This was not the first time we had attended a play that Edwin had performed in. He was an aspiring actor, determined to work his way up into the movies. He was the hardest working person I knew. He kept taking temp jobs to earn his way and he also took any part in any production no matter how small to perfect his craft. By all rights and if the universe was fair, his big break should be just around the corner.

  Unfortunately Edwin Litchfield was also one of the worst actors that I had ever seen and some of the theater groups I had been forced to sit through had contained some very ordinary acting. Edwin had started off as a model in his home country of England and that suited him. The guy was impossibly gorgeous, tall with a defined body, blonde wavy hair and deep blue eyes that a woman could drown in. Modeling bored him so he decided that the next natural step was acting. I used to believe that acting was easy and that anyone could do it. It isn’t until you see someone who is genuinely, excruciatingly bad at it that you appreciate that there may actually be some talent behind the ability to act. My friend Crystal works in her father’s casting agency. She lives in fear of the day that Edwin asks her to help him get a real acting job. I know he won’t. Edwin has a major crush on Crystal and he knows that she is hit on by unknown actors often purely for her connections. He has some noble idea in his head that he can make it without her help. Once he breaks through and becomes a star he intends to seriously pursue her. I think he’s an idiot and I have told him that it is a ridiculous plan. Male pride is a tricky thing though and sometimes you just withdraw from the argument, as you are just butting your head against a brick wall.

  I felt an elbow hit me sharply in the ribs and glared at Crystal. She was small but I’d learned from previous experience that she could pack a punch when she wanted to.

  “Wake up Trudie” she hissed as the curtains went down.

  “I was awake” I whispered back rubbing my side.

  “Are you sure? You didn’t twitch for like a full five minutes, that’s usually a sign that you’re fast asleep.”

  I glared at her. I wish I could argue the fact but she was right. I cannot stay still for any length of time. I always need to be moving or unconscious. I really don’t have an in between state.

  “Is it finished?” I asked.

  “Yes” she groaned as the curtain came up again and we started clapping as loudly as we could to hide the fact that most of the seats were empty.

  Sean leaned over. “I am not coming to another one of these. I don’t care what you threaten me with” he said, with all the whining petulance that only a teenage boy can muster.

  This time I had threatened to cut off his supply of homemade cookies. I had recently taken some time off work and gone on a baking binge. Thankfully having a teenage boy around meant I had a ready customer and nothing went to waste. I frowned. I really should be getting back to work. I had taken some time off on the advice of Crystal who thought I needed to relax and find myself away from the stress of my job. I work for the very wealthy who are lacking the ability to deal with staff on any kind of level. My job is to be the personal assistant to people who alienate the dedicated employees who work for them. This kind of work takes an extraordinary patience and the ability to stop talking before you tell someone the truth. I do that well. However my last few jobs had managed to push those stress levels through the roof.

  Miss Betsy leaned over from her seat on the other side of Crystal.

  “So what are we telling him this time?” she asked as we all looked expectantly at Crystal.

  Being a casting agent, Crystal was well versed in letting people down with as little damage to their ego as was humanly possible. In an industry where people seemed to pride themselves on how cruelly they could destroy someone’s dreams, Crystal was able to gently guide people to their full potential.

  She was thoughtful for a second. “I’ve got nothing” she said grimacing.

  I could understand what she was talking about. Edwin was our friend but watching him act was a truly painful experience. It would be better if we could see some improvement, any improvement. In the year we had been coming to these plays there had been no progress and it was becoming harder to watch. We would of course, if Edwin wanted to continue with this dream then we would support him. It was just difficult knowing that he was never going to achieve it.

  “I’m going to take this one home” Miss Betsy interrupted, looking pointedly at Sean.

  “Why did I have to sit through that torture and now I have to miss out on the party?” Sean complained.

  “Because you’ve got homework and you’ve been having trouble with your algebra lately” Miss Betsy said sternly.

  Sean looked at me pleadingly.

  “Not going to work on me” I said airily. He pouted in that way that sixteen year old boys have, before following meekly behind Miss Betsy.

  “He’s been getting a little bit harder to deal with lately, especially while you were gone” Crystal said.

  I snorted. If Crystal thought Sean was hard to deal with she really didn’t have a clue. I had just come back from a three month placement with an eighteen year old pop star on tour. On my first day he tried to get me to carry his drugs through an airport. Wh
en I refused he threw a temper tantrum that would have made a two year old proud. When that didn’t change my mind he decided to get his father and mother to deal with me. Doing his best to disprove Darwin’s theory that only the fittest survive to propagate the species, the teenager’s father threw his own temper tantrum which worsened the calmer I was. Fortunately for me I had been hired by the record company and not the client. I was being paid very well to do my job and to try to limit the excesses of this particular pop star and his massive entourage. I had signed on for three months and I completed that three months despite the entire entourage doing their best to get rid of me. People who live their lives on the coat tails of a spoiled brat do not react well when you are trying to pull back on the gravy train. At the end of the tour the record company tried to get me to extend the contract and work permanently in that role. I would have preferred to have my eyes poked out than spend any more time with that particular client. He was just as happy as I was when that placement had come to an end. I was now taking a well-earned break before taking on another client.

  “Oh, of course” said Crystal, “your runaway job.”

  “I did not run away” I said, annoyed at the change in conversation.

  “Please, you ran so fast and so far because you didn’t want to face him.”

  “We’re not talking about this” I said gathering up my purse.

  “He came by your apartment” Crystal said.

  “Please can we not talk about this?” I pleaded. I really did not want to talk about what may or may not have been the biggest mistake I have ever made.

  Crystal looked at me knowingly, but wisely held her tongue. I had been a coward. Three months ago I had walked away from Detective Jake Griffin and grabbed the first out of town job that I was offered. At the time I had been convinced of the rightness of my actions. He was a dedicated officer who was single minded in his approach to his job. Nothing came between him and being a cop, not even the tentative thing that we had started. I had not wanted to come in second to his career, so thought the best thing for me to do was walk away and make a clean break before I got too involved. Three months later and I might not be happy with my decision but I had made peace with it. That didn’t mean that I was particularly proud of my actions and Crystal knew that.

  “Thank you.” I was relieved when she stopped talking. “Now it’s time to put on your game face so we can get down there and tell Edwin how proud we are of him.”

  “Proud of what?” she asked skeptically, obviously remembering the hour and a half of fairly ordinary acting we had just sat through.

  “That he has the courage to go after his dream no matter what” I said.

  “Right, that.” Crystal plastered on a smile at the same time I did.

  Chapter Two

  Getting backstage wasn’t difficult. Hearing the vitriol coming from behind the door however was. The director obviously had decided that the performance was not up to her expected standard and was letting the cast know in quite loud and explicit language. Hesitating to open the door I looked at Crystal.

  “That’s Catarina Badal.” Crystal must have noticed my confusion. “She’s kind of fallen pretty far.”

  That was an understatement. Ten years ago Catarina Badal was the artistic prodigy of directing in Hollywood. Her debut low budget movie had come from nowhere and had been a critical and box office smash. Her second movie had won her a host of awards including an Oscar. Since then though her movies had become more and more bizarre. I hadn’t heard anything about her for a couple of years. I had to say that finding her directing in a community theater was a bit of a surprise.

  I felt Crystal stiffen beside me. Catarina had just started giving a rather blistering critique of Edwin’s performance. I put my arm out to stop Crystal from storming in there. She looked at me fiercely. Crystal is my best friend. She is tiny. When not walking around in her favored four inch high stilettos, she doesn’t quite make five feet. Despite her lack of size, when it comes to the people she cares about, she is like a vicious little Pomeranian who has no fear when it comes to taking on a Rottweiler. I always worry that one day that Rottweiler is going to bite back.

  “Don’t” I whispered. “If Edwin thinks you heard that he will be humiliated.”

  Crystal stopped as my words got through to her and nodded her head. We stepped back, away from the door waiting for the tirade to be over. The door swung open and Catarina Badal charged through with barely a look in our direction.

  “What are you doing here?” she snarled as she saw me first. I stumbled as I tried to find something to say but it was too late. Her gaze had swung to Crystal and just like magic her attitude changed. She held her hand out to Crystal and oozed friendliness.

  “Crystal Bronstein, it is so good to see you. You’re working with your father now aren’t you?”

  Crystal had put on her work face. That one that looks polite and interested, but because I know her so well, I know that it means she is fully aware of how fake the person talking to her really is and she’s not falling for it at all. Crystal’s father ran the biggest casting agency in town. He is considered one of those powerful people in Hollywood who can make or break careers. As his only child Crystal had learned very early that most people were only nice to her based on what her father could do for them.

  Catarina Badal grabbed Crystal’s hand as if they were the oldest of friends. “I would love to catch up with you” she said as she started dragging Crystal along.

  “Actually” said Crystal extricating herself, “I’m here to see Edwin Litchfield.”

  Catarina stopped as if she’d been struck. “Well I guess that’s one way for him to get a job. God knows he wouldn’t based on his acting.” With a derisive look at Crystal she stalked off.

  Stepping up I grabbed hold of Crystal around the waist as she went to take off after the director.

  “Don’t do it” I warned. You’d think I’d have a lot more trouble holding on to a squirming woman but surprisingly enough over the last year of knowing Crystal my technique had been honed well. I just needed to remember if she started kicking, those stilettos hurt badly.

  “I’m going to kill her” hissed Crystal.

  “No you’re not” I said.

  “Okay, maybe I won’t kill her but I’m going to destroy her career.”

  I pointedly looked around the theater we were standing in.

  “You may be a bit late for that. Looks like she did a good enough job herself.”

  Crystal stopped squirming and looked back at me, a short bark of laughter coming from her.

  “So is this my opening night gift?” drawled Edwin from the doorway.

  We both looked over to him and our faces must have shown our confusion. He waved his hand at us and at the same time we realized exactly how we must look. I had my arm around Crystal’s waist as her back was plastered to my chest. As she’d been trying to get away my taller body was slightly bent over hers and at that moment we both blushed.

  “I’m not saying I don’t like it” said Edwin. “I mean I know that flowers are traditional but if this is how you were planning to go, you could at least have waited until I got here.”

  I quickly let go of Crystal and stepped back. Crystal stumbled on her heels and Edwin pushed forward to hold her up.

  “That wasn’t what it looked like” she said as Edwin straightened her.

  “Oh I prefer to think that it was exactly what it looked like.” Edwin smiled down at her. Crystal blushed and Edwin grinned wider. “So were you going to tell me what that was about?” Edwin asked.

  “No, I don’t think so” Crystal said slowly.

  “Well then I will go back to my version” he said. Crystal balled up her fist and hit him in the stomach.

  “Oh” he gasped. “I think you wounded me with your tiny, tiny fist.”

  “You are such an idiot” she said smiling, as she swept past him into the backstage area.

  “After you” Edwin said to me as he waved
his hand in front of him.

  The party was small but the cast and crew seemed to be having a lot of fun, especially since Catarina had left. Of course, the second Crystal walked into the room everyone wanted to be her new best friend. No one is quite as popular at a community theater event as a famous Hollywood casting agent. Throughout the night I slowly got pushed further and further away from the center of the action.

  “How are you doing?” Edwin asked handing me a drink as we watched Crystal hold court.

  “Not too bad” I said, “Crystal seems to be having fun.

  “Nothing like a group of unemployed actors who want to make it big” Edwin said with a little bitterness.

  “You okay?” I asked putting down the drink and really looking at him.

  I had been away for three months with my pop brat job and had only been back for a few days. With Edwin in rehearsals I hadn’t seen him much, but there was a tension in him that I’d never seen before. He pushed his hand through his hair.

  “I don’t think I’m going to make it Trudie” he said softly.

  “Why not?”

  “I’m not very good” Edwin stared intently at his drink. “I know that. I thought I’d get better but I just don’t feel it.”

  “Maybe it isn’t for you, maybe your heart isn’t in it” I said sympathetically.

  “I notice you didn’t say that I was getting better regardless of what I think.”

  I winced. Edwin put his hand on mine.

  “No Trudie, don’t feel bad. I value your honesty.”

  I leaned into him and put my head on his shoulder.

  “I think you’re amazing for going after it the way you have. I would never tell you to stop or that you weren’t good enough.”

  “I know Trudie, but I think I need to get a dose of reality.”

  I straightened up. “Maybe you need to look at what you really want, what are you passionate about?”

  I followed Edwin’s eyes as they turned towards Crystal, the longing in them almost painful to watch. I nudged him in the side.