Page 8 of Broken Rules

“So did I.”For the first time, there was no argument in her voice.It was soft now, almost regretful.“I didn’t mean to start things off that way.But wouldn’t you be pissed off if you found out there was a bait-and-switch going on?Nobody told me I’d be working with you and not your dad.How would you feel if that was dropped in your lap with no warning?”

“Pretty much the same way I’d feel if a director I wasn’t expecting to work with was dropped in my lap at the last moment,” I admitted, sighing.“We both need this.I wouldn’t normally spill my guts, but it’s the truth, and you deserve to know it.”

She was wary, her eyes narrowed as they looked me up and down.“What do you mean, we both need it?Is this your dad’s way of testing you?”

“What makes you say that?”

“It’s your first movie,” she reminded me with a smirk.“He wants to see if you can pull it off.You have to prove yourself.”

My spine stiffened.“I don’t have to prove myself to anyone.”

Her smirk deepened into a grin.“But you want to.”

“It would be nice,” I admitted.

“It would be nice to have your problems.I don’t have the luxury of messing up.I have to prove myself because I’m a woman.”

I was almost too late to stop myself from rolling my eyes.The past few years, I’d been bombarded with stories of how difficult it was for a woman to make it in Hollywood, no matter what career she pursued.I didn’t doubt it, but the song was starting to get a little old after playing on repeat.“It’s more than that, and we both know it,” I reminded her.“You have a reputation.If we’re clearing the air, let’s clear it for good.”

She bristled, and I regretted it, but it was too late to take it back.“Exactly what have you heard about me?Tell me the truth,” she added, like a threat.Like there was anything she could do to retaliate if I lied.

“I heard you’re difficult.I’ve seen that much for myself.”She rolled her eyes, but I continued, “You’re stubborn.You refuse to compromise.When Clyde Harris over at Sunset Pictures asked you to take on an assistant director, you quit the fucking movie.Tell me I’m wrong.”

“You know, that is hilarious,” she hissed as color flooded her cheeks.“You honestly believe I’d quit a movie at Sunset because I had to work with an assistant?Do me a favor and give it some serious thought.Does that even make sense?”

I might as well have been standing there without my pants down, completely exposed.How did she manage to make me feel like an ass when I was the one who was supposed to be putting her on the spot?“What are you saying?”I asked, serious now.

She released a shaky breath through her nose, like a bull ready to charge.“I guess good old Clyde forgot to mention the part where he had the conversation with me in his hotel room at the Beverly Hilton.He had asked me up for lunch.It didn’t take long for me to figure outIwas on the menu.He wanted to talk about ‘my career.’” She made air quotes with her fingers.

The unimaginative bastard.“What did you do?”

“I quit, obviously,” she snapped.“Not before I had to kick him in the nuts to get him off me.”

My father knew Clyde.They had been friends for years.How many times had I noticed him patting a girl’s ass as she walked past?And there was that Christmas party at Mom and Dad’s when I was a kid, where I watched from the staircase as he emerged from the powder room, followed by a girl who only stared at the floor as she bolted from my parents’ house without saying a word to anyone.

“What?”she challenged.“You don’t want to believe it?I bet the good guy would never do anything like that, right?”

“Don’t put words in my mouth,” I warned, and something about my tone snapped her mouth shut and wiped the sarcastic sneer from her face.“I believe you.And I’m sorry that happened.Really.You never have to worry about that here, though if anybody pulls any shit with you, I want you to let me know immediately.Do you understand?”

Her eyelids fluttered, and her cheeks went pink, but she nodded slowly.

“I guess that’s where your reputation came from, then?”I asked, regretting that I threw it in her face.

“Not completely.You mentioned wanting to work with Eric Danvers.”For the first time, her gaze darted away from me.It had the strangest effect.It was like being released from some sort of spell that had held me in place.“I’ve worked with Eric Danvers.I also dated Eric Danvers,” she added.“We were supposed to get engaged onceRoad to Glorywas finished.To be honest with you, I knew before final edits that we were never going to have a future together.Professionally or otherwise.Don’t ask me to get into it,” she warned, holding up a hand which she then ran over her hair, still in its bun with loose auburn strands now framing her face from all her exertion.

“I hate him and would dance on his grave if he died tomorrow, but certain things are personal,” she continued.“All I can say is he stole that film from me.He stole the credit.He stole that fucking award at Cannes too.That was mine,” she insisted, her teeth gritted, her eyes glittering with something close to madness.Or was it simply betrayal?

What happened to ambition when it got turned on its head?

“You’re serious?”I asked.Her head bobbed, and I didn’t know if she was going to smash something on the floor or burst into tears.It could have gone either way based on the emotions washing over her face.

“I honestly don’t know why I told you that,” she confessed in a shaking voice.“I’m embarrassed.I trusted him.It wasn’t enough for him to take credit for my work.He had to sabotage any sort of future I might have in this town.He had to get out in front of me, make up a story about how we clashed or something when he was the loser who couldn’t handle his shit,” she concluded, swiveling the chair away until she was staring out the window to her back.

“I’m glad you told me.”Her honesty left me wanting to leave everything out on the table too—the trouble the studio was in, how it was dependent upon this project, having something positive to show the Board when it came time for the annual meeting.

That was different.It wasn’t entirely my story to tell.What if word got out?I didn’t know if this woman was trustworthy enough to keep a secret like that.All she had to do was whisper to one of her friends, and facing a scandal was too risky.It would tank us long before the end of the fiscal year.

“So, now we’ve cleared the air,” she concluded.“What happens next?”

---