Page 30 of Second Act
“He is.”
“I know you’re here from England for a short visit,” Helen Berg said pleasantly. At Andy’s insistence, Violet had an agent now. Helen Berg had researched it and called him for Violet’s contact information, and he had told her she was only staying for two days. “I’d love to spend a few minutes with you before you go back. I’m sorry I called you so late last night. I wanted to catch you before you leave. You must have been celebrating. I’m sure you know that the Academy often follows the Golden Globes pretty closely. How long will you be here?” Andy was planning to change their tickets that day. He originally wanted to leave the morning after the awards, but since the trip had gone well so far, he had agreed to stay a few more days.
“I’m not sure. We were planning to leave today, but we all want to stay a little longer. We love LA.”
“Do you live in London?” Helen was curious about Violet.
“I just moved back. I’ve been living in a sleepy little beach town for the last eleven years. Our producer’s studios are right outside London. I’m going to stay in London now. It’s great to be back.”
“Would you have time to come to see me today?” Violet knew no more about why Helen wanted to speak to her than she had before she returned her call. “I won’t take up too much of your time, but I have some ideas that might be of interest to you. I’d love to meet you. Would sometime this afternoon work for you?” Violet didn’t know what Andy’s plans were for the day, but she knew he wanted to see his attorney and his financial advisor at some point, instead of constantly dealing with them by email and on the phone. “How does four o’clock fit in with your plans?”
“I can make it work,” Violet answered. “I’m very curious about what you have in mind,” she said to Helen.
“Let’s talk about it when we meet,” Helen said easily. She gave Violet the address, and after the call Violet went to find Andy. He was getting dressed in his dressing room.
“I still have no idea why she called. She wants to ‘toss some ideas around’ with me. What does that mean?”
“I don’t know either, but she’s a smart woman and a big deal at Webber. You should definitely go talk to her,” Andy encouraged her.
“She loved our movie.” Violet smiled at him.
“We’re going to get a lot of calls like hers. A lot of them will be bullshit, or people looking for work from us. But Helen Berg is definitely worth seeing.”
“Do you want to come?” she asked him hopefully, and he smiled at her.
“She asked to see you, not me. She won’t eat you. Go and see her,” he encouraged her again.
“She wanted me to come at four.”
“That’s perfect. I’ve got boring appointments this afternoon. I was going to tell you to go shopping if you want.”
“I’ll do that before I see her,” Violet said, and went to get dressed herself. She was sharing his spacious dressing room with him. He had an extra bathroom and walk-in closet for female guests, but not large enough for anyone to want to move in. He’d been clever about that with his architect and decorator. Violet had brought very little with her, since they were originally only going to stay for two days. She owned very few clothes anyway, everything she had of value had been seized by the prosecutor when Gabriel got arrested. She didn’t miss having a big wardrobe and the jewelry he had bought her, she knew they were all bought at the expense of other people. She never went anywhere for all the years afterward. Now she needed some new clothes for their life in London, and she could afford to pay for them herself. Andy had offered to buy things for her, but she didn’t want to take advantage of him. Andy and Dash had paid her handsomely for the story.
Violet had brought a plain navy blue pantsuit to travel in on the trip back and decided to wear that to the meeting. One of the maids took it to press it for her, and she had a pair of black high heels with her to wear with it, and a pair of gold earrings. The weather in LA was mild compared to London.
With only slight trepidation compared to what he’d felt before they came, Andy made a lunch reservation for them at the Polo Lounge at the Beverly Hills Hotel, and he explained to Violet whatan important meeting place it was for everyone in the film industry. He drove her to lunch himself in his Bentley sports car, and had Timothy follow them in the other Bentley, a sedan, so Timothy could drive her after lunch when Andy left her for his meetings.
When Andy and Violet walked into the Polo Lounge, heads turned. He nodded to a few people but didn’t stop to talk to anyone. He had asked for a quiet table. It was a little too chilly to eat in the garden, which he usually preferred. The maître d’ and all the waiters knew him. And the only word Andy and Violet had heard so far all day was “Congratulations,” and at the Polo Lounge, “Good to see you back, Mr. Westfield…. Wonderful to see you…. We’ve missed you.” Several people stopped at their table after lunch and seemed genuinely happy to see Andy. He was relieved to see that he had stayed away long enough that people seemed to have lost interest in his sudden career change ten months before. It was old news now, and his prize-winning indie film was a much bigger and more interesting subject. He had come back as a winner after all, more than he had realized. And the Golden Globe Award had won him new respect.
The number of people who came by, their obvious admiration, and the diligent attention of all the employees illustrated to Violet again how large a figure Andy was on the LA scene. She realized just how important he was, and what it meant that he had taken her under his wing and gotten her manuscript turned into a movie. He was averybig deal in LA. She could also see now all he had given up when he came to England, all the comforts and luxuries and his beautiful house in Bel-Air.
“You must miss it,” she said to him gently over lunch. He had recommended the McCarthy salad to her, and she loved it.
“I do miss it sometimes, it’s comfortable and familiar,” he admitted, “but there were other advantages to being in England for the past year, like meeting you for instance.” He smiled at her.
“Maybe we could come back and visit sometimes,” she said cautiously, not wanting to push him.
“We’re going to be busy with your new movie for the coming months.” He wasn’t rushing back to LA yet, but he was obviously enjoying being there, and he looked much more relaxed than when they arrived. And he seemed more at ease and confident.
When they left the restaurant, Andy looked genuinely happy. No one had made any unpleasant comments, and a paparazzo took a photograph of him and Violet and smiled at them both. Andy reclaimed his car and left for his meetings, and Violet went with Timothy in the other Bentley to discover the wonders of Rodeo Drive. She half expected to see Marilyn there, but she didn’t. The others were out doing their own thing. Godfrey had friends in town, Marilyn was shopping, and Dash had set up some meetings with agents.
At three-thirty, Violet left to go to her meeting. It was in a skyscraper downtown, and she followed Helen Berg’s directions closely once she got there so she wouldn’t get lost in a cluster of similar buildings.
The Webber Communications offices were on the thirtieth floor, and when Violet checked in at the desk an assistant came out to get her immediately, and she was whisked away to Helen Berg’s office, which had a sweeping view of the city, and a seating area. Helen Berg stood up to greet Violet warmly as soon as she walked into the room. When it was offered, Violet asked for tea and they sat in big comfortable beige leather chairs around a low table. Helen Berg wasa stylishly dressed slim woman somewhere in her late forties with well-cut short gray hair and was the only woman Violet had seen so far who didn’t look like she’d had a face-lift. She looked like a real person. She was businesslike as she finally revealed the mysterious reason for asking Violet to come and see her.
“We’re working on a number of new dramatic series, and since you wrote the original story that the movie was based on, I was wondering if you’d be interested in writing the bible for one of our new series, something in the vein of your movie. A thriller with a female star. We’d like it if you would write the screenplay too, but we can find someone to do it if you don’t want to. The only hitch is that we’re working on next season, so we’d have to get on it very quickly.” It was an invitation which any writer in Hollywood would have given their right arm for, but when Violet heard the timing, she knew she couldn’t do it. She didn’t want to miss the opportunity of working on another movie with Andy.
“It sounds like an incredible opportunity,” Violet said honestly, “but I’ve already started a new project with the same producers. But I’d be very interested in something like that in the future, and by then, maybe I’d feel ready to tackle the script. I don’t think I’m ready to do that yet. My original story was in book form. Andy Westfield wrote the screenplay forTightropebased on my manuscript.”
