Three
TAYLOR CHECKED THE clock on her desk for what had to be the tenth time that morning. 11:07. She tapped her pen impatiently.
He was late.
She should have been in court that very moment, arguing her motions to compel. As it turned out, Derek had nothing to worry about—if they lost on one single issue, she would hold Jason Andrews entirely responsible.
She glanced up hopefully when Linda stopped in the doorway.
“Any word?”
Linda sadly shook her head. A deep depression had begun to creep over the office at the actor’s failure to appear thus far. “None.”
They went through this routine for the rest of the morning, and then the afternoon, too. Assuming Jason Andrews would eventually show up at some point, and having cleared her schedule for the entire day, Taylor found it difficult to concentrate on any meaningful task. So when six o’clock rolled around, she began the futile task of filling in her daily time sheet with a whole lot of nothing.
Great, she thought—say hello to another Saturday in the office.
But then she was interrupted by a frantic knock at her office door. She looked up to see Linda, flushed with excitement and out of breath, as if she had run to Taylor’s office the moment she had received whatever news she was about to convey.
“His assistant just called. She said there was a mix-up, but that Mr. Andrews will be here first thing tomorrow morning.”
“Tomorrow?” Taylor repeated. Then she frowned. “Perfect,” she muttered in annoyance. Say hello to Sunday in the office, too.
“Did his assistant at least apologize?” she asked.
Linda put a finger to her chin and paused, as if trying to remember. “Hmmm . . . now that would be a ‘no.’ ”
Taylor rolled her eyes. Now there’s a f*cking surprise.
BUT BY THE next day, Taylor could definitively say that she had gotten over the issue of Jason Andrews’s lateness.
Because being late was no longer the problem.
The jerk had completely blown her off. No phone calls, no apologies, and no explanations.
So by late Friday afternoon, after a second day spent mumbling obscenities, pacing through the hallways, and generally huffing about, Taylor decided she was not going to waste one more minute of her life on Jason Andrews.
She shoved a stack of files into her briefcase, grabbed her suit coat off the back of her chair, and resolutely strode out into the hallway, past Linda’s desk.
“I’m going home. And I will be unavailable for the rest of the afternoon if, by some miracle, a certain person should happen to show up.” The haughty way she said this left Linda no doubt as to who the “certain person” might be. “For anyone else, I can of course be reached on my cell phone or at home.”
Linda panicked. She leaned over her desk and shouted frantically to Taylor, who was already halfway down the hall by that point. “But what am I supposed to say if Jason Andrews shows up?”
Ten responses inappropriate for the workplace came to Taylor’s mind.
Not bothering to stop, she called back a simple message for Linda to relay.
“Tell him I hope his movie bombs.”
SATURDAY AND SUNDAY thankfully passed by without further needless (and highly inconsiderate) delays. Taylor used the weekend hours to get back on track in terms of her pretrial schedule. Derek had informed her that the judge had continued one of their motions—the one most critical to their case—until Monday morning. Although neither mentioned it, both of them were quietly relieved that she would be able to cover the motion after all. Derek, a little on the shy side, had always been slightly uncomfortable with the subject matter.
Come Sunday afternoon, having billed almost fifteen hours over the weekend, Taylor decided to reward herself with some shopping at Fred Segal. As she left the mall a mere hour after getting there, she tried to figure out why she feltgood about dropping almost $500 on one pair of jeans and a small black velvet clutch. Then it hit her: she had just had her first “L.A.” experience.
As Taylor cut across the parking lot, she reached into her purse for her cell phone. She knew Valerie would be proud of this moment.
“Guess where I am right now,” she said as soon as Val answered on the other end of the line. She didn’t bother with an introduction, as Val had carefully selected a different ring tone for each of her friends. For Taylor, she had chosen the Darth Vader theme music.
Val quickly threw out a few guesses. “Lying on the beach. Hiking in the mountains. Matt Damon’s bedroom.”
Taylor juggled her phone as she took her Chanel sunglasses out of her purse and slid them on. It had been warm and sunny every day since she’d come to Los Angeles. She’d have to concede the fact that the city certainly had the advantage of weather over Chicago, which could be a miserable fifty degrees and rainy even in June.
“If I was in Matt Damon’s bedroom, I’d hardly be taking a telephone break,” Taylor joked.
“I thought you said you liked him for his intellect.”
“I caught a few minutes ofThe Bourne Ultimatum on cable the other night. My feelings for Matt now extend far beyond his Harvard education. Like how he looks in a fitted T-shirt.”
“Good. Because I used to think your attraction was pretty shallow.”
They both laughed. Their conversation quickly turned to Val and Kate’s visit, which was only a few weeks away. As Taylor listened to Val rattle on about hanging poolside at Chateau Marmont and dinners at Les Deux, she kept silent about the whole Jason Andrews debacle. She had decided, for now at least, not to mention it to anyone back home. At this point, she figured, it was a nonstarter of a story. What could she say, really? I wassupposed to work with Jason Andrews, but he never showed up? Wow, that was exciting. Plus, she didn’t particularly feel the need to share with everyone the fact that she’d been blown off by the man.
He may have been Jason Andrews, but she still had her pride.
ON MONDAY MORNING, Taylor rushed around her apartment getting ready for work. She had the television on in her living room, hoping to catch the traffic report. Although from what she had observed in the past couple of weeks, this was a meaningless exercise. Like the weather, the traffic in L.A. was always the same. Everywhere took twenty minutes.
Having traveled fairly extensively across the country for depositions and trials, she’d had the opportunity to observe that local morning shows kept to certain schedules. L.A.’s version—appropriately namedL.A. Mornings —was no exception. National news followed by local news, with weather and traffic on the “sixes.” And at precisely 7:20, Sarah Stevens, the show’s exuberant entertainment correspondent, treated Los Angeles viewers to the day’s “Hollywood Minute.”
And so it was on that particular Monday morning, as the clock struck 7:20, that Taylor happened to be in the kitchen pouring coffee into her portable mug when she heard the anchorwoman’s telltale introduction coming from the television.
“And now, Los Angeles, it’s time for Sarah Stevens and the day’s Hollywood Minute.”
Taylor had a view of the television from the kitchen, so she peered over with mild interest. She would generally watch “Hollywood Minute” if she happened to be in range when the segment came on, but it was hardly something she ran out of the bathroom with a mouth full of toothpaste for.
She watched as the television cut to Sarah Stevens greeting her public with excitement.
“Good morning, everyone! Today I have a treat for all you viewers—at least the female ones, that is.” The reporter lowered her voice conspiratorially. “This weekend, Hollywood Minute caught up with someone special as he enjoyed a four-day gambling spree in Las Vegas—none other than our favorite leading man, Jason Andrews!”
The coffee mug fell from Taylor’s hand and tumbled loudly into the sink.
She stood there and watched in disbelief as the television cut to footage of Sarah Stevens holding a microphone outside the Bellagio hotel. Just then, Jason Andrews exited through the revolving door, with some grungy-looking guy who appeared wholly uninterested in the mob of fans and paparazzi that immediately swarmed them.
The reporter pushed her way through the crowd and called out eagerly.
“Jason! Hi! Sarah Stevens withL.A. Mornings .” She barreled over to him, cameraman in tow. “Do you have a minute to say hello to our viewers?” She immediately shoved the microphone in his face.
For the quickest second, Jason appeared annoyed. But then he flashed Sarah Stevens one of his perfect-teeth smiles.
“Of course. I always have time for fans.”
“Have you been enjoying Las Vegas?” The reporter asked breathlessly.
“I always enjoy Las Vegas.”
Taylor noticed how the reporter glowed, positively basking in Jason’s presence. Or maybe it was just the blinding white light of his teeth.
“You know I have to ask,” Sarah continued coyly. “Who are you here with?”
Jason gestured to the grungy guy, who stood somewhat uncomfortably on the outskirts of the crowd.
“Sorry, no gossip to report this time. We decided to come out here on Thursday, sort of a last-minute guy’s trip. You know how it is—sometimes, the tables just call you.”
Taylor’s mouth fell open as she glared incredulously at the twenty-seven-inch prick in her living room.
A last-minute guy’s trip?That was the reason she had to work all weekend?
But that wasn’t enough. Oh no, far from it.
“I hear you’re about to start production on a new film—a legal thriller,” Sarah Stevens said. “That must be keeping you awfully busy.”
Jason shrugged this off with a breezy smile and delivered the final blow.
“Obviously not busy with anything important enough to temptme to miss a weekend in Vegas.” He and Sarah Stevens shared a hearty laugh over this.
But back in her kitchen, Taylor Donovan was not laughing.
Jason Andrews had just insulted her in front of the entire world.
Well, fine—maybe only the people who were watching “Hollywood Minute” on that particular morning. And really only those people who actually knew he had been scheduled to meet with her last week.
Jason Andrews had just insulted her in front of at least fourteen people.
And suddenly, Taylor’s feelings toward the actor were no longer very cordial.
She grabbed the remote control and with a satisfactory push of the button, made Jason Andrews disappear.
“A*shole!”
It was the only word she could manage.