Free Fall (10 page)

"I'll take care of it, Nina. I promise."

"Okay. Want some dinner? I’m cooking."

"What are you making?"

Nina headed toward the kitchen. "You’ll eat whatever I give you and like it."

After she left the room Joseph pressed the call button on the cheap little phone and waited again while it rang at the other end. After fifteen rings a man answered.

"What?"

"I’m sorry I think I’ve dialed the wrong number," Joseph began.

"No shit? This a pay phone you called!" The man slammed down the receiver.

Joseph slipped Nina’s phone into his pocket. He would buy her another cell phone and add her to his existing plan. He would also change his number too while he was at it.

Karen stood on a street in North Hollywood. She handed a woman twenty bucks and said, "You going to go smoke some crack now?" The hooker was haggard looking and well past her prime.

"I did what you asked. You and me are done. Now get the fuck out of here," she gave her a hard look.

Clearly reading a warning in her expression, Karen tossed back her blonde mane and walked to her car. Two for two. Now, I’ll just show up at that dive he hangs out at on Saturday nights. If she’s there he’ll see us side by side and boy, what a comparison that will be! She’d go to the mall later and buy something so sexy, every guy in the place will be drooling all over her. Then he’d see what he gave up!

"It's been more than a month. When are you coming home?" Trish asked over the phone.

"I don't know." Nina had no plans to return to Seattle anytime soon. "Why don't you come down here for a visit?"

"Hmm, I'm not sure if I want to come down there and party with a bunch of celebrities," Trish joked.

"Actually, it's not all that glamorous. Joseph is gone a lot during the day. I read and work on my book. I putter around the house, and once or twice a week we go out and have dinner or go to one of the clubs down here. So far he hasn't taken me to any hot parties."

"God, Nina. Did you just say putter? I never took you for the little wifey type. Does he have a maid?"

"Yes, he has an Ecuadorian woman who comes in once a week, and a gardener too."

"What does he do all day?"

"He starts a TV show on Monday. He also does voice-overs and he’s involved in some play."

"A TV show? Like, a sit-com?"

"No, it's a crime show."

"Another crime show? We've already got a hundred of them. Is it good?"

"I don't know, Trish. I haven't seen it."

"Ah. Have you guys talked about your relationship any?"

Why does she have to bring this up every time we talk? Nina switched positions on the sofa. She felt pressured by Trish and an unaccountable defensiveness whenever she talked to her now. Trish was only looking out for her. She was worried that Nina would get hurt again. But, she and Joseph still didn't talk about their status.
Of course she knew she loved him. She had dropped everything at his phone call and came barreling down here full speed to be with him, hadn't she? And here she was, installed in his house in California. It wasn't like it was a taboo subject between them. There just wasn't a need to gush romantic nonsense all the time. She also wouldn’t tell Trish that Karen was still trying to keep herself in the picture. It was embarrassing. Trish would question her choice in Joseph and Nina didn’t want to explain that she was in it for the long haul, no matter what.

Nina attempted to change the subject. "So how is the club doing?"

"Has he said he loves you?"

"No, Trish. He doesn't need to say it. He's very loving to me."

"Okay, well I just thought since your apartment is standing empty, your spot at the club is also standing empty and everyone misses you, that there'd be some kind of commitment in the works."

"If I stay here another month, I'll sublet my apartment. And I miss the club, but you do have someone else tending bar in my place."

"Yes, but honey, you have
fans
here."

"Oh, please. I can sing anywhere I want."

She would also have to make arrangements for the profits to be divided differently. Although she didn't receive a paycheck, she did get part of the profits each month from the club. Since she wasn't an active participant in its upkeep, she didn't think it was fair that she get a third of the money as before. The thought of less money didn't worry her at all. She still had a nice chunk of change in savings and investments and so far Joseph had paid for almost everything else.

"Let me get online and see what flights are available," Trish said.

Nina heard clicking noises over the phone as Trish typed on a keyboard. Nine-inch nails, she said to herself thinking of Trish's long, lacquered, product enhanced claws.

"Thursday, June seventeenth," Trish announced. "The plane arrives at LAX at nine forty five am, United Airlines flight two twelve."

"I'll meet you out front by the baggage claim area. And Trish? Don't go being all pushy with Joseph. This is my thing and I'll deal with it the way I want to."

"Who me? Interfere with true love? I'll be the soul of discretion, sweetie."

Nina and Joseph were at Willie's, a club that had a jam session on the calendar every Saturday night. Joseph wanted to hear her sing and he also wanted to show her off. She was jacked up, her adrenaline running so high she couldn’t sit still. Most of her performing was done with the familiar back up of Luke’s band and the regular guys at the club. She had put in her name and chosen a song on the list that the band could play. Catching Joseph’s eye she said, "I’m gonna puke!"

"No, you’re not. You’re going to do fine. You always do fine."

"Don’t talk to me that way, it just makes me more nervous." She always felt this way before she sang. Her nerves were zinging and every muscle in her body was tense.

"Okay," he patted her back. "You’re going to sound like shit! You’re going to choke and not remember the lyrics!" Joseph burst into laughter, obviously pleased with himself.

"Just shut up. You're not helping me."

Joseph stroked the back of her neck and looked around the bar at the other customers.

When her name was called from the stage, Nina got up from the table and turned to kiss him.

"Knock ‘em dead!" he said.

The first notes of 'Run Baby Run' started. Joseph immediately got caught up in the music. As usual Nina performed the song flawlessly, her sweet husky voice pierced through him as if she were singing to him alone.

When she finished, the lights came on for the band to take a break. Joseph saw Nina walking towards the stairs off the stage and stop right in front of them. He realized that she was literally blinded by the lights. He walked over and reached for her hand, pulling her off the top step and catching her in his arms.

"Thanks sweetie."

"You were great."

Nina giggled, "Thanks sweetie," she said again.

"I always feel like you’re singing to me only."

"I’ve been singing to you only since the day we met. Could we go outside for some air? I’m all hot and sweaty."

From the corner beside the bar at the far end of the crowded room, Karen watched the pair of them walk to one of the exit doors and step outside. She was truly baffled. The woman was quite ordinary, average—almost mousy looking. And though she could sing, she was missing something in her performance that, in Karen’s opinion, made the song fall flat. She just didn’t get it. This is what he left me for? She started plotting how she could casually show herself so that Joseph could make a side-by-side comparison.

She smiled at the guy sitting closest to her and he immediately got up and offered her his seat. "Thank you," she cooed. Making a show of arranging her skirt under her, she slid onto the chair. She crossed her long legs and gave him an uninhibited view of tan thigh. The guy was short and dark, with a scruffy beard and wearing dirty work clothes. He offered to buy her a drink.

"No, but there is one thing you could do for me. If you do it right now I might do something for you." Karen ran a finger down the front of her shirt and pulled it down, exposing more cleavage.

The little man moved closer and Karen, breathing through her mouth so she wouldn’t catch a whiff of him, whispered into his ear.

Outside, Nina fell against Joseph and pushed him against the side of the building. She burrowed her face into the material of his shirt and Joseph put his arms around her.

"Are you using my shirt to wipe off your sweat?"

Nina breathed in the smell of him—laundry soap, warm skin and smoke—and said, "Yep."

"Thought so." He held her close.

"By the way, are there any parties we can take Trish to?"

Joseph smiled, "Yes, my agent is having people over Thursday night."

"You sure it won’t be too much with taping the same day?"

"No, not really. But I do want you to run lines with me tomorrow, okay?"

"Of course I will. You want to go back inside or you want to go home?"

"Let’s go in and get some nachos."

Together they walked back into the building and parted ways inside the door so Nina could use the restroom. At the sink she wetted some paper towels to wipe the sweat from her face and neck. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw movement and watched the reflection in the mirror as a very beautiful, tanned blonde appeared beside her.

"Gets hot up there, don’t it?" The blonde dug in her purse for a tube of lip gloss and started to carefully apply a deep, pink shade to her full, luscious lips.

Lunchmeat lips, Nina thought idly, thinking of Trish. Chew them up. Trish was a big fan of Angelina Jolie and had coined the phrase to describe the beautiful star’s mouth.

"Yeah, are you up on stage tonight?" Nina’s eyes were drawn to what seemed to be a shimmering snakeskin like material that encased the woman’s slim, boyish hips. Are they shorts? No. A very short skirt. Butt skirt, lunchmeat lips and a boob top, she recited to herself, taking stock of the white, plunging, off-the-shoulder silk blouse that didn’t do much to cover enormous breasts. Boob job, boob job, warning! Things are not what they appear! But wait, they are strangely fascinating in a freak show kind of way. And Nina
was
fascinated. So far she hadn’t met any celebrities or seen many of the foretold beautiful people of California. Is she famous? Who is she? The woman turned to look her full in the face and Nina was struck by how perfectly sculpted her bone structure was.

"No, I don’t sing but I do work in the music business. I’m Ronnie." She held out her hand and Nina shook it.

"Hi, I’m Nina. I would take you for an actress. You’re very beautiful," she said.

The woman smiled, showing a set of white teeth that Nina could only envy. The kind of choppers behind full, ripe lips that sprang out at you and made you want that person to smile again.

"Why, what a nice thing to say! You know I work with a very well-known agency, perhaps you’ve heard of Suckmyass Music? I’m here scouting talent and I think you might have what I’m looking for. You have a lovely voice. Have you ever considered singing jingles in commercials?"

Nina stared at the woman feeling like she had stepped into some kind of weird vacuum. Did she say ‘suck my ass’? Nina wasn’t sure, it might have been succotash. Was there such thing as an agency that scouted voices for commercials? In a bar? Something was trying to push itself to the forefront of her mind. There’s a red flag here, her instinct was telling her. The woman continued smiling at her, beaming her white caps expectantly.

"I, no, I don’t. I’m not." Nina stammered. "I only sing for enjoyment. I’m really not interested in doing it professionally."

"Well, you should!" The woman exclaimed. "You must have done some kind of professional work. Are you retired from the business?"

"No, I’ve never sang professionally."

"Where do you live? Are you from LA?"

"I’m here visiting friends," Nina said vaguely, seeking a way out of the conversation.

"Are you married, divorced?" The woman asked around the smile that was starting to look forced and a little clownish.

"Excuse me." Nina walked past her, anxious to leave.

"If you don’t do this professionally, how do you make a living? Are you on welfare?"

"What?" The woman was still staring at her with that fixed smile on her face, her blue eyes glinting. And then it clicked in Nina’s mind.

"Karen." She'd purposely avoided seeing any photos of Karen. She didn’t want to cause herself any more pain when she first found out about her, and then she didn't want to put a face to anything that might come between her and Joseph.

She felt trapped. She backed up against the bathroom door but was unable to swing it inward because Karen came closer and laughed in her face. "Bingo!" Karen hooted joyfully. "You got it! It seems you’ve heard about me?"