Page 11 of Dirty Like Me
“And by the way,” I told her, “I love you.”
I hung up and rinsed my mouth with some of the mouthwash that had been left, thanks to some small miracle, on the little tray of guest toiletries.
Then I took a deep breath, opened the door, and went to make out with a rock star.
CHAPTER 4
JESSE
I sat on the king-sized bed as the crew worked around me in somewhat-organized chaos, but it wasn’t the chaos that bothered me. I was no stranger to chaos. I just tuned it out and played bits of a new song on one of my old acoustics, which seemed to me a better way to process whatever shit was going on in my head than the methods used by my bandmates.
When Dylan had shit to deal with, he tended to vanish into the ether.
Elle got confrontational.
Zane fucked his feelings away. Which was at least better than binge drinking at them like he used to.
I played guitar. I made music. I wrote songs until I felt better about whatever the fuck was bothering me.
Lately, I’d been writing a lot. It was either that or do that brooding shit that drove everyone around me crazy. I’d already been obsessing over what the next few weeks of my life were gonna look like and the cold war I was pretty much expecting as soon as I arrived in L.A., but I was impatient as fuck to get down there anyway. And as much as I hated the process, this shoot needed my attention first.
This video had to do well. The song had to do well. The album had to do better than well.
I couldn’t let Zane fuck it up just by being Zane.
I told him to stay the fuck out of this room while we shot this scene. I didn’t tell him why, but the man wasn’t stupid. It was either tell him to fuck off or have him hanging around, throwing his fuck-me stares at Katie.
I saw that wide-eyed look she gave him. And I knew how things went from there. I’d seen enough chicks lose their shit over him to know when a girl was Zane-struck.
I could also see why Maggie and Brody picked Katie for this scene. She was super fucking cute. Yeah, I could snap my fingers and replace her with any girl in the house. But I didn’twantany of the other girls in the house.
Anyone could see this girl was different.
And since I wasn’t making out all afternoon with a super cute chick who was gone for Zane, I’d just have to make her forget about him.
I could see her standing at the bottom of the stairs talking to Maggie, but she hadn’t yet stepped into the room. She had her back to me, just her dark hair and white robe visible through the banks of lights set up around the bed.
We were shooting the scene in Brody’s walk-out basement, the legendary party room. I couldn’t possibly count, or even remember, all the times I’d been drunk, high or laid in this room. I’d never seen it like this, though. No kegs, no carousing, no half-naked babes. The pool table and other furniture had been pushed against the walls and covered with protective blankets.
More lights were set up in the backyard, beaming in through the wall of windows. Long, billowing curtains had been hung and fans were set up to blow them inward, the light glowing through them. The set was simple but gorgeous. Liv, the director, had shot several Dirty videos over the years and I knew she’d make this thing look hot.
With that cutie in this bed with me, it was guaranteed.
Even if she would’ve preferred Zane.
I watched as she turned to follow Maggie into the room. The second Katie stepped over the threshold Brody cranked the music, right on cue. The Rolling Stones’Start Me Uprevved through the room.
Katie stopped dead, almost tripping. A couple of crew guys dove in to catch her, and she blushed as she waved them off. There were electric cords running everywhere, taped down to the floor, and she lifted her robe, stepping gingerly over them in her purple shoes, flashing her bare leg.
Without even meaning to, the girl was making an entrance.
The song was perfect, the lyrics greased with lust and pretty much summing up the impression she was making on most of the guys in the room.
I watched her cross to the bed. Katie Bloom. Age twenty-four. Lived on East 7th in Vancouver. After I saw her in the dining room I had Jude get all the intel he could. Apparently she’d arrived on a skateboard, wearing a Stones T-shirt and bearing cookies for the crew, which never made it past security since Jude’s guys devoured them on sight. Other than a thing for baked goods, I had fuck all to go on other than an apparent interest in classic rock.
I strummed idly along on my guitar as she came to a stop at the very foot of the bed, pretty much the farthest point from where I sat near the headboard. Maggie introduced her to Liv, and Liv, a calm fixture amidst the hurried chaos of her crew, announced that we were about ready to start shooting.
“We’ll start with some wide shots and gradually move in,” she told Katie. “We’re looking for passionate morning sex, like you’ve barely slept and been at it all night but you can’t get enough. You’ve been briefed on all of this?”
