She hears her mother answer, then silence until Joni calls softly, ‘Darling, it’s Lindsay.’
Tell him I’m outis the first thing that pops into her head. That rat has dropped her, but now that the director’s been arrested he wants to talk? Probably to come up with some excuse as to why he didn’t tell her about the director’s past.
Except she knows she’ll have to deal with Lindsay eventually. Maybe it’s for the best that it’s now. Get it over with.
Christina makes a face and goes to the phone. ‘Yep,’ she says into the receiver.
‘Chris-tina! Hi!’
He’s so sickly sweet that she wants to throw the phone at the wall. Maybe he’s worried she’ll sue for … what? Negligence? Maybe she should.
‘Hello, Lindsay.’ She keeps her voice neutral, like he’s the most boring person she could imagine speaking to.
‘Honey, howareyou?’
Now her patience runs out. ‘What do you want, Lindsay?’
‘Honey, look –’
‘I saw the news.’
Silence for a beat or two. ‘Right.Right. Of course. Look, here’s the thing – there’s a role.’
She can’t believe what she’s hearing. After he told her she’d never work again, miraculously work has appeared?
‘Where?’ she says, the neutrality falling away. ‘The Paramount commissary?’
Lindsay titters and once more she feels that urge to throw the phone. ‘You’re so funny. No, honey, an acting role.’
She sighs. It would be entertaining to leave him dangling. To not speak for a minute or two, let him wonder if the call’s cut out. But she still wants to get this over with.
‘Suddenly you have a role for me?’
‘Uh-huh. A lead.’
‘Aleadrole? Just sitting there, ready to go? For me?’
He has to be joking. Or else he’s shunted one of his other clients in order to get this for her – which is entirely possible. She thinks she was once shunted for an actress he’d just signed at the time.
‘Well, I pulled a few strings,’ he says.
‘When?’
‘Look, honey –’
‘When?’
Silence-two-three-four …
‘Last week.’
So that means he knew the story was coming out. Knew a week ago, if not longer, that she was telling the truth about the director. But he didn’t tell her what was coming. He waited until she found out along with everyone else, all the way down here in Australia.
‘I’ve heard enough,’ she says.
‘Don’t you want to hear about the role?’
‘Fax me the details,’ she says and hangs up, knowing full well there’s no fax machine in this house.