Page 26 of The Baller

“She’s on Fallon on Monday.”

“Why?”

One of Tanner’s shoulders lifted in anI-don’t-know-the-salient-details-and-don’t-care-shrug. “Dunno. Why does anyone go on Fallon?”

“Okay, what do you know?”

“I know this… she’s here for a few months. She’s renting a place in the village, but she doesn’t get the keys for a week. That’s why she was staying here.”

Ace reached for a banana, sniffed it, then put it down. “What’s she in the city for?”

“Her new movie.”

“What’s it about?”

“Dunno.”

“Who else is in it?”

“Dunno.”

“Who’s directing it?”

This time, Tanner took his time to answer, and grinned around at the three of us while he sipped his juice, until his eyes landed on Parker. “Martin Scorsese.”

“What?!” Parker’s coffee mug was slammed onto the counter. “How are you only just telling me this now?”

“I only just found out.”

If Tanner had lapels, Parker would have grabbed them. Instead, he fisted the front of his shirt. “I have to meet him, Tan. You have to get me on set. Oh man, this is so cool.”

“This is pretty big deal for her, right?”

“Yeah,” he replied, unclenching Parker’s fists and flicking him on the forehead.

Tanner’s twin sister, Holiday, had recently become an actress. Or rather, she’d been an actress for a long time, but recently been launched into the Hollywood stratosphere.

She’d had a small but vital role in a movie which had swept last year’s Oscars. It was one of those movies which always served to teach you some kind of moral lesson, so steeped in worthiness that you felt like a better person just from watching it… but inevitably fell asleep in.

Holiday had given us a link to view it here; we’d all settled in one night before Opening Day. I know I’d fallen asleep after Tanner had, but I’m not sure how long Parker and Ace had lasted.

Safe to say, we had to look up the ending on Wikipedia.

But this new movie… yeah. I didn’t think we’d be falling asleep. For one, Parker wouldn’t let us, based on his near obsession with Scorsese movies. We’d seen all of them.

But Scorsese or not, it didn’t help with the current situation.

“She can’t come here, Tan. She’s going to ask questions. Get her into the Four Seasons.”

“Okay,” he groaned, banging his head on the counter again. “Fuck.”

I slapped him on the shoulder. “I know the girl who runs the spa there, I can get her in treatments all day. She’ll be so relaxed by tonight she won’t question it.”

“Huh, that’s not a bad idea. Check me in, too.”

“And me. I want to go,” whined Ace.

“Dude, you’re not going anywhere or seeing anyone. For the next week, you go out in the dark and that’s it.”

---