Chapter 3: Balancing Act

Monday May 23

Cassidy and Kimberly cornered me at breakfast.

“I hear you have a new girlfriend,” Cassidy announced.

“Haven’t had one in over a year. I think the last official girlfriend was Harper, a year ago last spring,” I said.

I rubbed my forehead to fend off the headache that was sure was to come on if this line of conversation continued.

“Why don’t you have a girlfriend?” Kimberly asked.

“He has this dumb rule where he only ‘dates’ girls. All his girlfriends call him a ‘stupid boy’ because he doesn’t realize that they’re his girlfriends. They just let him believe that they’re ‘just dating.’” Of course, she had to include the air quotes.

“What do you mean, ‘girlfriends’? As in more than one?”

“Don’t get me started on how many he has. Let’s just say he has at least one for every day of the week,” Cassidy said with a satisfied look on her face.

“I should go,” I decided.

“No. Eat your breakfast,” Cassidy ordered, giving me a ‘mom’ look.

“Are you one of his girlfriends?” Kimberly asked.

“He wishes, but my dad won’t let me. He says that David isn’t the right kind of guy for me.”

“He never said that,” I shot back.

She just waved her hand to dismiss me.

“What’s the difference between him dating someone and them being his girlfriend?” Kimberly asked.

“Oh, that’s easy. David gets all territorial with his girlfriends. He’s very protective of them. I don’t think he learned to share his toys when he was little,” Cassidy surmised.

Kimberly smiled.

“Does that mean I’m one of his girlfriends?”

Cassidy thought about it for a moment and nodded. WTF!

“Good!” Kimberly announced.

“Why, good?” I asked, confused.

“I can tell ... uhm ... someone that you and I are together, so he needs to back off,” Kimberly explained.

“If we’re talking about the same someone, then I would kick his ass if he tried anything with you. Feel free to let him know that if he’s confused, he can talk to me,” I said.

“Yep, you’re his girlfriend,” Cassidy said, and then focused on my date yesterday. “Tell me about your date.”

“I went to church with Sarita.”

They looked at each other and then back at me.

“He’s sometimes short on details. I wish Gina were here. She can get him to talk. I can too if I decide to hurt him,” she said, eyeing me.

I caved and told them all about my day.

“I want to meet her,” Cassidy said.

“Why?”

“Your girlfriends will expect a report,” she said as if it were obvious.

“First of all, I don’t have girlfriends.”

“Keep telling yourself that.”

Today we were doing location scenes. I told Roger about the church I went to yesterday and the great square they had. He said he would check it out because it sounded perfect for what they planned for later in the week.

We were shooting in the old Partagás cigar factory. It was fascinating to watch them hand-make them. Everything there smelled of dried tobacco leaves. There was an older woman smoking a cigar while she worked rolling cigars. They used the whole leaves and stacked them up before rolling them tightly. They then cut off each end and put them in a container that looked like an egg crate for cigars. When they had several full, they stacked them and then used a press to compact the cigar even tighter. Each step was done by hand.

We spent the morning shooting our scenes. Laurent wasn’t as much of an ass as he had been, but he still demanded perfection, and at one point I was forced to do a scene twenty-some times before he was happy.

When we were done, we all bought cigars. Their special cigar was called ‘Bolivar Belicoso.’ I bought several boxes on the advice of Heath, who seemed to know about them. He said I could either save them for special occasions or give them as gifts.

Our second stop of the day was at Zapata Swamp, which was two hours from Havana. They planned scenes of Kimberly and me running through the swamp to hide from the American Mafia. They were upset with her father and the restrictions the new government was putting on their casinos.

The first scene was set up so that Ceci and my character Rick would run through calf-high water towards the camera.

I don’t know if you’ve ever been in a swamp, but it stunk to high heaven. On top of that, it was hot and humid and I would guess there were about a million mosquitoes that were intent on sucking all the blood out of me. Both Kimberly and Cassidy were whining nonstop. I could have handled all that, but I noticed one small detail that concerned me: there were park employees with rifles watching the water.

They took us out to a little island on a johnboat, and I saw that Kimberly had on high heels.

“Are you planning on running in those?” I asked.

“I’ll just run on my toes,” she explained.

“You do realize that we’re running through swamp water, right?”

“Why should that matter?” she asked.

We could hear Laurent on a megaphone calling out direction.

“Ready ... Action!”

I stepped off the bank, into the water. Kimberly must have thought if she leapt, it would be a shorter distance to the other shore. I stepped into muck up to my knee. Kimberly’s momentum caused her to face-plant into about the grossest water imaginable. When she tried to push herself up, she had green slime in her hair and her hands began to sink. If I hadn’t been there, she might have been in real trouble.

Imagine the reaction of any teenage girl in a dress with heels on who is now covered in green stinky slime. I think bursting into tears would be right at the top of the list, which she did. Suddenly trying to climb up my body and shrieking like I was killing her was not expected. That was until two crocodiles eased out of the brush and started for us.

In a moment like that, all grace goes out the window. All I can say is it was good that I was an athlete. I might have set a new forty time as I pounded to the shore. I ran past the cameras because I figured it was every man or woman for themselves at that point. That was when I figured out why there were men with guns. What baffled me was that the crocodiles stopped short of the shore.

Cassidy ran over to make sure we were all right. She had to pry Kimberly off me, and that was when her stupid hat suddenly was caught in the wind and flew out over the water. I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it. One of the crocodiles jumped out of the water and snatched the hat. Seriously, it jumped out of the water!

“No, I’m not getting it and that’s final,” I told Cassidy before she asked.

Neither Kimberly nor I could be talked into getting back into the swamp water again. In fact, Kimberly quit on the spot.

I talked to one of the park rangers and he told me about the Cuban crocodile.

“It is the smartest crocodile in the world. They know not to come ashore because we have trained them not to when people are present. If we’d known they were around, we would have put up some nets and kept them out of the area you were working in. They also sometimes hunt in packs. What you observed was them doing that when you ran to shore. They only get to about six to eight feet in length and top out at about 180 pounds, so you would have been a challenge to bring down.

“Something else that makes them unique is they can jump. I’ve seen them take a duck right out of the air before, so it wasn’t a surprise when that one grabbed the hat. They’re also aggressive. Even though they are trained, we won’t turn our backs on them,” he explained.

That was all I needed to hear not to volunteer to get back into the water. That, and I would rather be about anywhere else at this point. I stunk, and so just shucked my shoes and pants to get the worst of it off me. I had my gym bag with me, so I put on shorts.

Laurent found me and wanted to talk.

“We need to get more footage. What we got was great, but we need to show other scenes of you in the swamp. I think I can get around not having Kimberly in the rest, but I can’t use this without the other scenes.”

“You’ve been a dick to me before this movie even started. Why would I help you out? And even if I wanted to, there’s no way I am going back into the water with those things,” I said.

“What if I could guarantee your safety?”

“If you went in first and proved it was safe, I might consider it, but that still doesn’t solve your being a dick.”

“Do you really think there’s anything I could do not to be a dick, at this point?” he asked.

“Good point. I might actually enjoy you being gator food, so the only way I do it is if you do it first.”

I knew that Laurent would never go for it. Boy, was I wrong. That guy was crazy.

The park rangers chased off the two crocodiles and then put nets up to keep them out. They called in more rangers to watch the other side of the island and we were set up again.

Laurent, true to his word, went into the muck. I had my phone film him in case one of those crocs decided to snatch his hat with his head in it. He didn’t appreciate me pointing and jumping at every little bubble or ripple in the water. I figured he deserved it.

They had another girl play Ceci while planning not to show her face. It was her stunt double. I wondered why we weren’t using mine. The new girl wasn’t happy when they slimed her. Even I gagged a little bit when she got near me. Laurent got his revenge when we got into the water and a bunch of bubbles came up. I about peed my pants, but the water wasn’t deep enough to hide a crocodile where we were filming. I felt foolish but figured better safe than sorry.

When we finished for the day, I put this down as something I would never ever do again.

I came back to the hotel to find Caryn in my suite, talking to Megan.

“He’s back. I’ll talk to you tomorrow,” she said and hung up. “How was your day?”

“I almost got eaten by a crocodile.”

“Okay, that sounds like fun. I have some recruiting news. Michigan has stepped up their game. They confirmed having a camp at Lincoln this summer. Megan needs to send them dates when you’ll be in town and confirm your attendance.”

“Don’t you want to hear about the crocodiles?” I asked, somewhat hurt.

“Not right now. What do you think about the camp?”

“We may need to fire Cassidy. She didn’t even try to protect me.”

Caryn cupped her face in her hands and rubbed her temples. Mom did that sometimes.

“Tell me about the crocodile,” Caryn said.

“It was crocodiles...” I began.

I told her about what happened. They let me see it in playback and it was dramatic. Watching Kimberly face-plant was priceless. All I can say is you could never get a second shot of that, and we were lucky it came out well. Kimberly might get an Academy Award for her portrayal of a screaming girl who sees live crocodiles coming after her. She was very convincing, and I had claw marks on my neck to prove it. I thought she did a better job than that Jurassic Park actress who ran from the dinosaurs in high heels.

I might need to work on my running technique, but my excuse was I had a frightened girl wrapped around me.

Caryn thought I was full of it until she called Cassidy and confirmed my adventure. Then she was concerned, but not about what I would have thought.

“You don’t expect me to call your mom and tell her about this, do you?”

I hadn’t thought of that.

“Maybe she could just see it in the movie,” I suggested.

“You’re the boss.”

I gave her a look because that never seemed to be the case unless it was something she wanted.

Tuesday May 24

Since Kimberly had quit, I got the day off. The writers were frantically working to write her out of the movie.

After I ran for distance, I did my speed work. Paul had the honor of running with me. He begged off the speed drills. I then had Cassidy work with me on my outfield drills. I worked up a good sweat in the heat and humidity. The good news was the steam-bath air kept you loose.

I decided to relax by the pool when I was done. Cassidy joined me because Kimberly had flown out last night and Cassidy no longer had to help watch her. After our swim, we caught some rays and just relaxed. I needed some down time just doing nothing for a while.

“Do you really think I have girlfriends?” I asked her.

“You’re kidding, right?” Cassidy asked.

“No, I’m trying to be serious. What you said has me worried. I never meant to lead anyone on and I don’t want to hurt anyone either. I thought we were just dating and hanging out as friends,” I said.

“Be honest with yourself. Do you have feelings for them?” Cassidy asked.

“Well, of course I do. I think I love each of them in their own way. That doesn’t mean that I’m in love with any of them, though. To be honest, I don’t think I’ve ever been in love before. Have you?”

“I thought I was in love with you when I first arrived at Lincoln High, but I learned that was more infatuation than love. I really liked both Jim and Wolf. I think the closest I ever got was with Jeff. I miss him so much sometimes. He was such a sweet boy, and I knew he was totally in love with me,” Cassidy shared.

We were both quiet for a few minutes as we thought about Jeff.

“I thought I loved Tracy, and I was pretty sure I loved Tami, but looking back on it I’m not so sure. Why don’t I ever have any luck with girls? I can do just about anything else but figure out how to make a relationship work.”

“You really are a ‘stupid boy.’ Since I’ve come to Lincoln High, I’ve watched you do this amazing balancing act as you’ve juggled numerous girls. They all love you, but you can’t seem to get out of your own way to see it.”

“Then why can’t I ever seem to make it work? When I find someone that I like, they either go crazy, like someone else, want to change me, or are afraid to commit. What’s wrong with me?” I asked.

“I think you put too much pressure on it. Your idea of what a girlfriend is leads to always-and-forever. I don’t know of any girl our age who’s ready for that level of commitment. I think they all ran because they didn’t feel like they could measure up to what you want. I know I’m not ready for it,” Cassidy said.

“Is that why you won’t date me?” I asked.

“Why would I want to be one of many?”

“If I ever get a girlfriend, there won’t be any others.”

“Don’t you think that Halle, Zoe, Brook and Pam know that? Why do you think they’ve never tried to pin you down? They all know if you decided on just one of them it might not be them, and they’d be on the outside looking in.”

“Tracy has been pushing for me to find one,” I admitted.

“Tracy’s a crazy bitch who loves you to death,” she said and saw the shocked look on my face. “I mean crazy in the best possible way. Tracy would do anything for you and seems to think you’ve finally gotten past your infatuation with Tami and are ready for more in your life.

“I think if you talked to any of your girls, they’d probably agree that you’re in a much better place now than you were last fall. Believe me, no one wanted to be your rebound girl. Then everything sort of fell into place and they worked it out, so they could all date you. Pam almost screwed it up,” Cassidy said.

“By getting pregnant?” I asked.

“They were all afraid that would be a game-changer. I think if her dad hadn’t gone all psycho on you, the two of you might have locked it down. We all know what Greg did with Angie, and I don’t think he loved her near as much as you love Pam.”

It was fascinating to hear how Cassidy viewed my world. It was apparent that the girls had talked to her about it. I never realized they were worried about Pam and me getting together. I guess the real question was, did I want anything to change? Did I want to finally pick a girlfriend? Did the romantic in me want an exclusive relationship?

If I asked Mr. Happy, he would tell me absolutely not. Of course, if he were in charge I would be like Zak and try to get laid three times a day. Cassidy was right. I’d been doing a balancing act between commitment and being a horndog. I’d found a middle ground with dating.

“Why don’t we go back to my room and spend the day in bed? I think I could make you decide that you were my one and only,” I teased Cassidy.

“I’m not sure you could do it, but I’d be willing to give it a try.”

“It sounds like you’re just horny,” I teased.

“Maybe.”

I wasn’t sure if she was serious, so I stood up. She gave me a little smile and got up also.

“Are we doing this?” I asked.

“Shut up and take me upstairs,” she ordered.

It turned out my idea of a day in bed and Cassidy’s were very different. First, I had to talk to her, do her nails and give her a massage. If this was what girls did on sleepovers, count me out. Then she wanted us to do facials. The sad part was she pointed out I had everything we needed. I tried to defend myself by saying Adrienne made me get the stuff and use it, but Cassidy called me a girl.

Then we finally got naked and took a lousy shower, so we could wash our hair and then use my conditioner. I offered a sexier version, but she offered to make me cry, so I was good.

She then made me do her makeup. Tracy, who was now dead to me, had told the girls about me doing her makeup when she was depressed. Just because I picked up some skills while modeling, it didn’t give me expert status. But when we were done, Cassidy did look good.

Cassidy told me she was going to her room to put on nice clothes because I was taking her out. I got dressed and there was a call on the room phone.

“Mr. Dawson, your ride is here,” the front desk said.

“Tell them I’ll be right down.”

I went and knocked on Cassidy’s door and she was ready. She looked great. When we got downstairs, I was in for a revelation. My date tonight wasn’t Cassidy, it was Sarita. With her was Luis. We took a cab to Paz’s place. When we were seated, Paz came out to greet us. This time it was Luis’s turn to be made fun of.

“And here we thought my baby brother was scared to come out of the closet. We all love him, but oh, the shame it would bring the family. I can’t tell you what a relief it is that he found himself a beard.”

You have to understand that in Cuba guys are macho, or so they think. His big brother was pushing buttons that only a big brother can get away with. Luis went bright red and I was worried he might take a swing at Paz. Thankfully, Cassidy read the situation.

“I think he’s man enough for me.”

Luis puffed up and his brother laughed.

“You’re surely going to warn her about his drooling problem,” Sarita goaded her older brother.

“I think she can handle him,” he replied.

“Paz,” he said, putting his hand out to shake Cassidy’s.

“Cassidy,” she responded with a bright smile.

“What’s good tonight?” I asked, to save Luis any more grief from his siblings.

“I’ll have them bring out the pargo relleno. The red snapper is fresh today,” Paz said.

Dinner was another hit. Pargo relleno was a stuffed red snapper with lobster, shrimp and ham ground up and cooked in it. The fish was cooked on a bed of potatoes and had onions and peppers on top.

After dinner, Paz came back out with a bottle of rum and cigars. He sat down with us.

“I want to introduce you to the Cuban practice of sobremesa. It means ‘over the table.’ You drink nice rum, and it’s passed around the table after dinner while enjoying a fine cigar and stimulating conversation amongst family and friends,” Paz announced.

Sarita explained to me that when her uncles came to visit, this was what their family did. When she was younger, she would get a sip of her dad’s rum and he would let her have a puff or two on his cigar. It brought back fond family memories for her and her brothers.

She said there wasn’t an English translation for sobremesa, and the ‘over the table’ explanation didn’t adequately describe it. She better described it as time spent in conversation, digesting, relaxing, enjoying each other’s company, and certainly not rushing after a meal. Her family added the rum and cigars. I opted out of smoking a cigar, and after I had a small amount of rum I switched to Cuban coffee. Honestly, the rum might have been better for me, but I was still in training.

Cassidy should have stopped at one also. Luis wasn’t happy when she climbed into my lap.

“Take me home,” she ordered.

“I think we’d better go. I have a feeling that I’ll have to work tomorrow.”

“Come to practice tomorrow, if you can,” Luis offered.

“And after, we can go do something,” Sarita said.

“I think she wuves you,” Cassidy teased.

“Don’t get my brothers started,” Sarita added.

“I think I was right. I need to get her home,” I said, scooping her up.

I was enjoying hanging out with Sarita and her brothers. Paz’s little hole-in-the-wall joint had the best food in Havana, as far as I was concerned.

After I poured Cassidy into my bed, I called Maria Dowe, the girl I’d met in LA who wanted to get into porn. I reckoned she’d be up because of the time difference. She’d sent me a text saying she had big news.

Yes, Cassidy was in my bed. My little drunk ninja insisted, and I wasn’t willing to argue with her. It was better that I keep an eye on her anyways. She snuggled down. I got a bottle of water and aspirin and set it on the nightstand. I also got her a garbage can in case she had an emergency during the night.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you!” Maria answered my call.

“Did you get the job?” I asked.

“Yes. Felicia was super nice and explained everything to me. She said that Kendra Bianco and Tony Giovanni, the owners, said I was one of their VIP girls and would get special treatment at Nubile Productions. She said it was because of you.”

“I seriously doubt that. I barely know the owners.”

“Felicia was a little cryptic about how you met them. There has to be a story behind that,” she pressed.

“It seemed we had the same unpleasant thing we needed to deal with. I just happened to be in a position to make it go away. I’m sure that’s what they were talking about.”

Brandon Rigby had been a problem for many people. I was glad he was going to jail.

“You’re no fun, but thanks anyway. They flew me out to New York and I had my audition. They asked if there was anyone I wanted to do it with, so I told them about Ryan.”

Ryan was the model with the impressive equipment that I set Tracy up with for Prom. Maria and Ryan ended up going to the dance when Jim and Tracy got cold feet. Jim was afraid he wouldn’t measure up in some way. It didn’t help that Ryan showed everyone what he was packing. That was when Tracy finally believed me and chickened out. Jim and Tracy ended up going together and from all reports had a good time.

“Spare me the details, but I’m assuming it went well,” I said.

“They signed us both. Felicia flew me home to pack my stuff. They have an apartment for me close to the studio. The next time you’re in New York, you need to call me and I’ll take you out to dinner as a thank you.”

My bedroom door opened.

“I don’t feel good,” Cassidy announced.

“I gotta go, my friend is about to get sick,” I told Maria and then hung up on her.

I grabbed Cassidy and whisked her into the bathroom. I swear Duke had more common sense. I take that back; he would have found a rug to puke on. He could be on a hard surface that was easy to clean and head straight for a rug if he had a problem. She puked on my chest and all over herself. I tossed her into the tub and then puked into the toilet. She could have asked me to help her with anything else, and I would rather do it than deal with vomit.

I gagged the whole time I undressed her. I tossed the t-shirt and shorts I’d dressed her in into the trash. I also threw my shirt in with them. I turned the shower on her.

“David! Don’t,” she wailed.

“I’m never taking you drinking again,” I swore.

“But you love me,” she moaned.

“And that is why you’re not stark naked in the hall right now. Now hold still so I can wash your hair.”