Chapter 9: LA and More Playmates

Crystal’s laughter was contagious, even over the telephone; “Ellen told me you two destroyed her, and you should know she’s more in love with you now – times ten – than she was before you and Nadia did your night of debauchery with her. I wish I’d been there!”

I chuckled, “Well, Nadia was full of surprises. The girl in insatiable – even I had trouble keeping her sexual happy. As for Ellen’s feelings, I am trying not to either encourage or discourage her. I do love her, and I love you, too.” I thought for a minute, “Hey, how was your dinner with George Rinard night before last?”

Crystal laughed again, “Why, I got laid, re-laid, and parlayed – and that first night, I wiped him out. He’s a considerate lover, and he met all expectations, but he tires easily; he wasn’t a challenge in that regard. We’ve been seeing each other every evening, so you might be prepared to field a question or two if one of the paparazzi corners you. We have been spotted as part of the Parisian nightlife. The movie marketeers love that we’re being spotted here and there. It’ll help create a ‘buzz’ about the movie, but slightly at the expense of our relationship.”

“I’ll just say ‘we’re not exclusive’ or something to that effect. Is that all right with you?”

“Yes, that’s about all I can think of. Getting into defining our boundaryless ‘open relationship’ would only create a quagmire of further questions you’d never get out of. I’ll use the same line. And, just know, you are my most special person in the world by ... times infinity. I love you, and I thank you for letting me sample others, and I thank you for taking care of Ellen – so carefully, too.”

“Just my cowboy ways, ma’am,” I said, faking a western accent. Crystal knew that for much of my life the furthest west I got was Natick, Massachusetts – thirty miles west of Boston.

“Gotta run, darling,” Crystal suddenly said. “My studly dinner date is here. Go fuck my sister and our housekeeper. I love you.”

“I love you Crystal,” I pledged.

We ended our call. I wondered how many other people in the world had similar calls – sharing sexual details, and encouraging other sex-based relationships, even with one’s sister and housekeeper. Although I found internal conflicts here and there, I relished the situation.

I spent my last afternoon in Nashville singing up a storm in our home studio. Ellen had learned how to work the music boards, and she sat behind a glass window manipulating the various controls for the music I heard as well as the voice I produced.

Ellen’s voice came over the PA speaker in the room; “I recorded that one. Shall I play it back for you? It sounded really good.”

I nodded, and the sound of my voice with a full country band resonated from the various speakers in the room. I had to admit; the song did sound good. When it was over, I said, “Why don’t you send that one to Terry? See whether he thinks it’s good enough to take to the next level?”

She nodded, and I could see her turn to the computer beside the soundboard. I thumbed through some more sheet music I was supposed to know, and as the afternoon rolled by, we did a few more songs and sent the demos to my agent so he could confer with Sony about them.

About six o’clock, Ellen walked into the studio. She gave me a hug and a kiss. “Honey, we have to pack tonight. Our flight to the coast leaves pretty early – seven-thirty in the morning. We have to leave here before five-thirty a.m. to be on time for the flight.” Part of Ellen’s work included keeping me on schedule for all the arrangements she made, often consulting with Terry.

I groaned at the thought of the early hour. “OK. I’ll miss this place for the months we’re gone.” I looked around the studio as I stuffed the sheet music into a rough-out leather briefcase Terry had given me to enhance my western cowboy image. I slipped my iPad and few other things into the case as well.

Ellen smiled, “I asked Nadia to make an early dinner for us, plus she’ll be up to drive us to the airport and see us off in the morning. If you want, she’ll spend the night with us.” She smiled, and I could tell by her look that she wanted our new friend and consort to be with us.

I smiled inwardly at the thought and recalled the first night I’d gotten Ellen, Nadia, and me together for a sexual romp. Nadia and I had wasted Ellen over a three-hour evening.

“Yes, I want.” I affirmed my desire to have both women with me overnight. Ellen broke into a happy grin, and skipped off to the kitchen. I knew my decision would also make Nadia happy; she liked to be with us, although she pretended that she could be entirely neutral about whether we wanted her or not. We always wanted the pretty and petite Russian girl.

The three of us had dinner, did a communal clean up, and then played in the shower and in bed before we all fell asleep, happy and sexually sated. The following morning Nadia saw us off. She would be alone in the big house for the first time. Crystal had helped her arrange to take college courses nearby, and Nadia did have aspirations to be more than a housekeeper, so I thought this might work out. She wanted to work in the background in the entertainment industry in some way after college.

Nadia drove us to the airport in my new Prius, a car that would be primarily hers to run errands in or drive to campus. On the plane Ellen and I slept most of the way across country to LAX, holding hands in the first two seats. I’d opted to fly commercial first class instead of a private jet, so we’d hung out in the VIP room until seconds before they closed the door on the flight. Although I know we got recognized by a few of the other passengers, no one paid us any mind other than to nod a friendly hello.

We were the first off the plane in Los Angeles, and thanks to an efficient airport security staff, we were whisked through some back corridors to a limo waiting at curbside for us. Our luggage would follow. We’d departed Nashville a little after seven-thirty a.m. and were in L.A. about ten-thirty a.m. west coast time.

I sent Crystal an email from the limo to tell her we’d arrived, and that I was now officially in the movie business. She’d already been filming for a month.

The limo took us to Sony Pictures headquarters in Culver City, dropping us right at the door of the Gable Building, part of the main offices named after Clark Gable. Ellen adopted her most efficient ‘aide de camp’ posture, and followed me demurely to the conference room where another aide produced coffee and a snack lunch for us, acknowledging that we would be jet lagged for a couple of days.

Terry Ross, my agent (and Crystal’s agent), hustled into the room followed by eight other people. Half of them were from Sony, one I recognized from photos as my stunt double Jason Lake, another my co-star Barry Peters, and then there was Jill Danes – the young, beautiful, desirable, and talented Jill Danes. Jill introduced a young woman with a glowing mane of red hair as her aide with acting aspirations; a young woman close to Ellen’s age named Claire. Claire dressed chic and in a manner that commanded notice.

Introductions were made, and then the man I learned was our executive producer, Lloyd Hoffsteder explained his vision and goals for the picture: words that boiled down to a blockbuster, exciting, multi-national, sexy, daring, and explosive movie that would make about five-hundred million dollars in the first two weeks after release. Dream on! Lloyd acknowledged that my name, Barry Peters, and Jill’s on the marquee ensured a high interest in the film by the general public, even before release. He introduced Mark Ang, the director – and no relation to the famous Ang of movie fame, but he was doing his best to coast on those coattails. I liked him immediately, and knew we’d have fun working together. Jill apparently knew him as well. The atmosphere was cordial, and we were all eager to get started.

We all went around the table, and I went last, apologizing for my lack of theatre and acting experience. Everyone dismissed my lack of skill in their industry, and Terry gave me a wink that suggested something was ‘up.’

After the kickoff meeting, two noteworthy things happened. First, Terry pulled me aside, and informed me that he’d arranged intense acting lessons for me for the next month for four hours each morning. “It’ll just give you more confidence. The coach is one of the best and he’s done other fresh start celebrities too, the most famous being Emma Stone, although that was a few years ago. You start tomorrow; here’s the address; be there at eight sharp. You have to be here in this room at 1:00 p.m. tomorrow to start a script review.” Terry walked away leaving me with a scrap of paper with an address and name on it; Ellen, who’d been standing next to me, plucked the paper out of my hands so she could takeover managing this part of my life.

The second noteworthy event happened as Jill Danes came over to me, and I must have stiffened. After all, I’d never been this close to a movie star except for Crystal and a couple of other country singers we made appearances with. Jill patted my arm and said, “Jim, calm down. I’m not going to eat you up – yet.” She broke into laughter at her own joke. She maneuvered me into a corner of the room as the others talked; Ellen gave us some space.

Jill continued, “Look we are going to have to get really comfortable with each other and chummy, particularly for some of our love scenes – scenes that I eagerly await – a great deal. So, loosen up. Now, hug me and give me a big kiss, and we’ll take it from there.”

I could see the logic in her words and in breaking the ice with a significant kiss. I stepped forward and took Jill into my arms. Suddenly, she seemed smaller than she’d looked just a second ago; only slightly taller than Nadia and not quite as nice an ass – but noteworthy. We kissed somewhat tentatively, before she put a hand behind my neck and pulled me into her for a real soul-scorching kiss with our tongues roaming around in each other’s mouth. When she allowed us to pull apart, she whispered to me, “I hope that’s only the first of many,” and nonchalantly moved off to get a cup of coffee.

I glanced around the room, and the only person who seemed to have paid attention to the kiss was Ellen. She just smiled and winked at me. As I turned, I also got a very friendly smile from Claire; the aide and starlet Jill mentored. Claire smiled enigmatically at me, tossed her mane of red hair, and moved off to talk to Mark Ang. As we went around the table, I’d learned that Claire would have a minor role in the movie we were making, probably thanks to Jill’s sponsorship. I wondered if Ellen would be interested in something similar; however, when I looked at her, she hadn’t reacted to the announcement.

I shrugged and followed Jill to the coffee urn. We made small talk about how we were picked for this movie, how she’d learned to act, and how a country music singer could suddenly become an actor. She knew about Crystal being in Paris with George Rinard and said a few words, even hinting about his womanizing; I got a sly look from her, as though she was testing me for how much I knew about what was going on over there. For now, I played Mr. Innocent and Mr. Naïve.

After our meeting broke, Terry gave us a quick tour around the studio, showing us where to check-in, which buildings to go to for what, and so on. He surprised me with how informed he’d become about the movie studio. He also took Ellen and me to the Sony Pictures security office and got us security badges and a guidebook to the property. We were official.

Terry has miraculously connected with our luggage from the morning flight. He escorted us out to a new Mercedes sedan, and we put our bags in the trunk. He then drove us about six miles west on the I10 to Santa Monica and turned north by the ocean to the Oceana Beach Club Hotel. This had to be one of the most expensive hotels in California I thought as we checked in.

Terry saw us to our suite and made sure everything was all right with the two of us. Much to my surprise he handed me the key to the Mercedes. “Here. The GPS in the car is programmed to take you to your acting class, the studio, and back here; other than that, you’re on your own and will have to program the device yourself. This will be your home away from home; and the place has a great restaurant and gym.”

He explained he had a ‘hot date’ he had to get ready for. He thought he’d see me tomorrow at my first acting lesson, but hinted that how his date went tonight would influence his punctuality. He disappeared and left Ellen and me sitting in the living room part of the suite wondering what to do next. I noted that Ellen didn’t seem to react much to Terry’s ‘date’ announcement.