Chapter 121

There was no interpreter with Anya because she spoke English like a native. She had a slight accent but it was no worse than Leslie or Jason's drawl. She showered first, but was still waiting with Shelly when Adam emerged.

"That was the best scene ever," Anya said. "Shelly tells me all your scenes are that good. You should offer lessons."

"Uh," Adam stammered.

"He does," Shelly said brightly. "Right now we have three others at our agency learning to do things just like he does. Do you know one of the Russian girls, uh, Ekaterina..."

She looked to Adam for help.

"Federova," Adam said. Anya nodded but looked sad.

"She is a good girl in a bad business," she said. "Me, I have control over what I do. She is a ... a pawn. They send her where they want to send her. She only got to come because she was there when one of the others went into quarantine."

"Quarantine?" Adam asked incredulously. "Like HIV?"

"HIV," Anya confirmed with a sad nod. "The other girl had done a 'Bi-Bi Love' scene. That is with two guys, you know. They guys do each other, too. One of them tested positive for HIV last week. That meant anyone who worked with him since his last test can't work for six weeks. It takes that long to be sure with the tests we use there."

"Jesus Christ," Adam said. "What about Ekaterina?"

"No," Anya said quickly. "We are all clean. We had blood drawn once there and once here. It is why Ekaterina got to come. She is clean. No trace of anything. If there was even something curable – gonorrhea has become common there – we were not considered."

"But does she do things with bisexual males?" Adam asked. His panic was starting to rise.

"No," Anya answered. "Or perhaps I should say not yet. I believe she will be doing those scenes soon. I almost hope she runs away while she is here. There is a large Russian community in L.A."

"I told her we'd sponsor her work visa," Shelly said. "I hope that won't create an issue with your group but if it does, too fucking bad."

Anya smiled. Shelly had spirit and she liked that.

"If I were in Katya's place, I would do whatever I could to stay here, fuck the consequences," Anya replied. "I am a star there but not big enough to help anyone else. I want to ask: Derrick, do you work for the major studios?"

"No," he said. "I work only for those I feel comfortable with. Right now, I've done scenes for three studios and five or six smaller web sites."

"If I refuse to work with anyone but you this week, will you do a scene for RapidFire?" Anya asked. She had really enjoyed this experience – the first time that had happened with a male in the scene.

"Sure he will," Shelly supplied. "When is it set?"

"Saturday afternoon at 2," she said. Adam gave Shelly a look.

"You're free Saturday," Shelly said simply. "In fact, you're free every day this week but Thursday. You have your shoot with Cassie and Ashley for 'Sporty Spinners.'"

"Shit, that's Wednesday," Adam said. "I just told Judy I'd help her."

"It's Thursday," Shelly said. "Thursday at 5 p.m. Hey! I just thought of something. Anya, what do you guys do when you're not working?"

"We take tours, swim at the pool and just hang out," she said. "We're each shooting two scenes this week. Then we go to Las Vegas where five of us are shooting. Then off to Miami for a week down there."

"Can you get your own jobs while you're here?" Shelly asked. Her mind was whirring. She grabbed Anya's hand and dragged her to a computer terminal. "This is 'Sporty Spinners.'"

"They are so tiny," Anya said, her eyes lighting up. "I could do another scene."

"If you do that, you'll be too sore to do something on Saturday," Adam pointed out.

Anya rolled her eyes.

"If I do this site it will be with you," she said. "If I do a shoot for RapidFire, it will be with you. My contract says I can cast the guy. I will cast you. You are a very gentle lover. I will not be sore tomorrow. My little pussy is very happy. Do you have a number I can call you?"

Shelly produced a business card for Five Friends Casting and handed it over.

"The others won't mind?" Anya asked.

Shelly shook her head confidently.

"So long as you don't mind if one or both of them go down on you," she said.

"Mind?" Anya asked with a laugh. "I have a rule. If I go down on them, they must go down on me. If it is the two girls I saw on screen earlier, I will be going down on them if I get the chance. I will talk to my agency to make sure it is no problem."

"I'll have Ashley check with the studio but I think they'll do it," Shelly said. "They really want Ashley to work for them. She is probably the hottest rising star in the U.S. right now."

Anya was beaming as she left the studio for the taxi ride back to the hotel.

"Don't go taking jobs for me," Adam told Shelly as soon as Anya had departed.

"I just saved Veronica from 30 phone calls in the next two days," Shelly said. "Her agency would have called a dozen times, RapidFire would have called a dozen times and she would have called you herself a half dozen times. Eventually, when you found out she wouldn't do the scene without you, you'd have given in and gone."

"Yeah, well, maybe," Adam said, "but at least then it would have been my decision. I don't mind working with Anya, but I'm not sure I want to do stuff for RapidFire. So let me make my own decisions even if it takes 30 calls. You don't want me to take jobs for you, do you?"

"Fine," Shelly said as they exited the building – and ran smack into three guys holding picket signs on the front walk.

"Scab!" one of them yelled toward Adam. "Derrick Driller is a scab!"

Adam glanced at Shelly who had stopped.

"Listen, Twit," Adam said, "first off, there is no union for this business. If there is no union, you can't strike. If you can't strike, I can't be a scab. Stop polishing your cock and read a damned book once in a while. All you morons are doing is killing your own careers. You think you're making a statement and I guess you are. That statement is: The men in this business are too fucking stupid to get out of their own way. Keep tripping on your egos, boys, because the ones of us willing to work are making money hand over fist."

Adam saw one of the men reach into a bag for something.

"Sport, unless you want that sign shoved up your ass and out your throat, I'd drop that tomato if I were you," Adam said. "Because if you throw that, you better be able to outrun a really pissed-off man 10 years younger than you and a hell of a lot more fit."

One of the other guys noticed what the guy was doing and stepped away from him.

"Don't count on me to slow him down," he advised. "Hell, I might just trip you so he doesn't come back for me."

The one who called Adam a scab puffed out his chest.

"I got your back, Perry," he said. It was then that Adam realized who was in front of him: Tony Armani.

"You know what," Adam said, his temper already pushed as far as it could go. "I'm going to beat the fuck out of you guys just on general principle. Go ahead, Percy, throw the fucking tomato. It's not going to make any God-damned difference. I'm sick to death of you fuck-tards and I'm going to put your stupid asses out of your misery."

Shelly's hand grabbed Adam's wrist.

"Stop," she said firmly. "The cops are on the way and so is security. Let them handle this."

"We ain't doing nothing illegal," the one with the tomato said.

"You can't protest without a permit," Shelly pointed out. "Also, you're on private property. Oh, and you misspelled 'practices' on your sign. It has two 'c's' and one 's.'"

"I'm out of here," the only with any sense said. "I don't know how I got talked into this bullshit in the first place. Sorry, dude. I hope there are no hard feelings. If you guys are riding with me, the car is leaving 30 seconds after I get there. And Perry, put the fucking tomato down. I don't think he's kidding. He'll beat you two shitheads within an inch of your lives."

"I'm staying," Tony said.

"Then you'll leave in handcuffs," Ben's voice said from behind Adam. "I'll file trespassing charges against you in a heartbeat. After your little escapades in April, I don't think you two idiots want to risk another trip to jail. Do you, Lance?"

"Fuck!" Tony swore. "This isn't over. We'll shut Daystar down if you don't work with us."

"Do you best, boys," Ben said. "Because I will close this fucking door forever before you ever work for us again. In fact, I would be surprised if you can get a single job outside the gay world after this stunt. Everyone knows which two brain surgeons thought it up and who hijacked it for their own purposes. The five of you clowns are done in this town unless you like being the bottom for an ass-fuck shoot. Now go on home before Adam does something you'll regret."

A car stopped and the second guy rolled down the window.

"Last chance for a ride in something without lights on top," he said. "Sorry, Ben, I knew this is a douche move but I went along with it anyway."

Tony Armani and Lance Thruster dropped their signs – and the tomato – and got in the car.

"Sorry," Ben said.

Adam simply shrugged and walked to his own car, Shelly trailing in his rather pissed-off wake.

Adam barely spoke to Shelly on the 20-minute drive home. She could see he was angry and he had been all day. She was thankful as hell that the driveway was clear and he didn't have to park five blocks away.

He didn't go to the main house where he knew everyone else probably was. He headed up the walk of the second house, went inside and plopped down on the couch to stare at the ceiling.

"I'm sorry for whatever I did," Shelly said.

"Can it, Shelly," Adam said sharply. "I'm sick and tired of all you people doing whatever the hell you want and telling me you're sorry. Then I come off as an asshole if I don't go along with it. So save your apologies and just skip to the part where you go whining to the rest of them about how big a dick I am."

Shelly felt tears coming to her eyes but she knew those would only make Adam feel guilty. So she turned and left to go to the other house.

Adam was still in the same spot when six more females came trooping in.

"What's up, Adam?" Sarah asked.

Adam continued to stare at the ceiling for a moment before he spoke.

"I'll tell you what's up," he said. "Anytime I try to make a decision, I get seven different points of view telling why my decision is wrong or how they would do it differently. But you think it's perfectly acceptable to make decisions without even informing me of them let alone discussing them with me. Does that sound like an equitable relationship?"

"Uh," Sarah said. She honestly had no idea what Adam was talking about or why he was so pissed off. "Well, no, but could you be a little more specific?"

Adam found that to be a reasonable request.

"Let's start small," he said. "The office that just had to get done last night. I went out and spent $1,100 on something you seven decided had to be done just so and it was used for what, 20 fucking seconds today? Shelly used her odd form of logic to convince me we want Veronica to feel like a professional. So what do we do? We have her hanging out on the deck naked. I realize what profession we're talking about, but that seems a little off to me."

"I don't see why that's a problem," Allie said.

"Of course you don't," Adam said. "How about the next time you do a shoot for Ben, he shows up with his cock out. I mean, by your standards, that's professional dress."

"That's different," Allie said.

"How?" Rebecca wondered. "I'm not saying it's wrong to let Veronica have some leeway but I also understand why it's an issue. When you open the office complex, you don't plan to allow the employees to skip out to sunbathe, do you? If you showed up for a photo gig with Renaldo, wouldn't you find it unprofessional if he decided he wanted to shoot it outdoors while everyone was nude? I would."

"I guess," Allie said. "But is that all this is about? Hell, I'll tell her tomorrow that she can't do that anymore."

"And you'll make it sound like Adam is being a hardass about things," Karlie said. "It's my fault, actually. I was going up there before class and I asked if she wanted to join me before lunch. Allie, don't be pissed off, but you do tend to turn things around on Adam. I'll talk to her tomorrow and let her know I made a mistake. If nothing else, I opened us up to a host of legal problems if she claims harassment. It is also highly inappropriate to allow her to do it during work hours. If she wants to come over after four o'clock, I don't think anyone would mind. But he's right about this part. What else, Adam?"