Chapter 22. Plans For Amy’s Visit

Wednesday September 24, 2008

When I got to my office Wednesday there was a stack of messages including some from Jessica Stern about her cousin Amy’s upcoming visit.

When Amy called last week about her Red Carpet visit she spoke as if she hoped for both Jessica and I to attend the functions together with her, the two had become very close in the last few years even before they knew they were distant relatives (third or fourth cousins through their mothers).

I learned that when Amy called the Stern household last weekend Jessica was not there. Amy recognized there was some tension in the house so she just said to say hello. Then she called Jessica’s cell phone and the two show business cousins opened up to each other about some recent events of the sort not discussed with the Judge present. They had not talked since I rescued Amy from the club and she vanished from sight, so they had a lot to cover.

During the time period discussed I had been intimate with both girls. I assumed any such discussion would be used against me at some time. Do Wong might also be mentioned by both. That could be more trouble.

Amy was nice enough to send me a digital recording of the entire conversation. She felt she owed it to me as I had rescued her ass, and she wanted to be sure she had not let something slip, or if she had then I could cover. She mentioned the Do Wong conversation. I was impressed that she considered me.

Both Amy and Jessica were in show business and they knew of each other from the studio lot, but they had never been attach to the same projects or producers, so they had never worked together or socialized there. That changed three years ago, when David Barnes started the law firm’s wife exchange socials where they were formally introduced as wife-exchange substitutes for old lawyers.

Both young women work in an industry where many young women use sex for currency. Rich and powerful less attractive men naturally expect offers to be made. Both women are attractive enough of face and figure to draw interest of the wrong type, and in fact Amy has experienced such things first hand.

Amy’s first big break was a barely legal near-sex scene for a TV show, a police procedural drama where the cops stopped by while she played a student who was dressing. To help the ratings, she kept things on the very edge of what was allowed. She rehearsed the scene privately the night before the shoot with the two male stars. The blocking on the scene was a big item, casting her depended on her wearing only the shirt with a single button closed, and her moving showing the maximum of flesh allowed, but no more. When they practiced in a hotel room, they sometimes went beyond what was allowed. She kept working until she had it right.

When they were done working, the young handsome men, who was supposedly dating an A-list female actress, suggested that, “as long as she already had her clothes off” that the three of them were adults who might enjoy some adult activities, to relax. Amy made the decision to build up some goodwill with her fellow actors by going farther with both of them, both individually and eventually together in a spit-roast. It was not the last time she went further.

My mentor Pope brought Amy to the first law firm wife-exchange social three years ago as his #2 wife and introduced her as Amy Pope. Some people recognized her face as a working actress. Vi, who was Pope’s actual wife, was not inclined for sex with other lawyers and to be honest the other lawyers were much happier with the substitution. Amy was very popular. Amy and Vi were both happy to share Pope in the bedroom, they each got more attention from him then they would have gotten otherwise plus they really got along with each other, both in the daytime and in bed at night. As a working actress Amy considered sex a part of her job and chose to view the pleasures she got on both sides of the bed as a plus instead of a minus. The fact that she was sleeping with a reputable lawyer allowed her to keep the more repulsive studio nightmares at bay.

Jessica had been a serious academic who shifted to movie scripts at the suggestion of other academics. She was a natural at it. Her stepfather was Judge Stern, his presence (a picture on her desk where he looked like a hanging judge) gave Jessica ‘cover’ to ignore the unwelcome sexual advances in her side of the business. (Most writers don’t get hit on that much, they keep their clothes on instead of changing 5 times a day and they are always busy reading something. But Jessica was more attractive than most writers.) Essentially Jessica’s first sexual encounter was that first wife exchange, when she took her mother’s place for the “brief dance in the dark” overnight involving one of her step-dad’s law partners. Over time she got naked with David Barnes and some of the others. Like Amy and Rose Barnes the substitution of a younger woman “with cause for discretion” was part of the law firm rules which seemed better for all concerned. In fact, until the auction at the start of the month, all of Jessica’s sexual experiences were the one-overnight-per-month with a seemingly random group of her stepfather’s very appreciative old partners. At the time she honestly did not know any better.