There was no answer to his first intercom buzz. He pushed it again, holding the button down for a full ten seconds this time. This did the trick.
"Hello?" came Carmella's heavily accented voice. "Can I help you?"
He pushed the talk button. "It's Jake, Carmella," he said. "I need to see Mindy right away."
"Jake?" she said, her accent thinning considerably now that she knew who was there. "We weren't expecting you. Did you call?"
"No, I didn't," he replied. "Is Mindy there? This is really kind of important."
"Hold on," she said. There was silence on the box for the better part of two minutes. Finally, a click and Carmella's voice again. "Jake?"
"Still here," he said.
"Come on up."
The gate opened and he drove through, following the narrow access road up to the guest slot in front of the house. He left the keys in the car and walked to the front door. Carmella opened it before he could knock. She looked nervous and slightly guilty for some reason, her cheerfulness at greeting him somewhat forced.
"Where's Mindy?" he asked.
"She's in her bedroom," she said. "She said to go ahead and send you back."
"Thank you," he said, heading that way.
"Would you like anything to drink, Jake?" Carmella asked him. "Or perhaps a snack?"
"No thanks," he said curtly, not looking back at her.
He opened the door to the bedroom — a room where he'd spent many an hour in sexual overload — and beheld the enigmatic actress sitting on her bed. She was dressed in a red velour robe, her pretty legs crossed in a lady-like manner. Her hair was wrapped in a white towel and her face was void of make-up though still quite beautiful. She had a serious expression on her face.
"Hey, Jake," she said, looking at him. "What brings you here unannounced? Aren't you supposed to be recording?"
"I left early today," he said, closing the door behind him and entering the room.
She nodded, unsurprised. "I assume you saw this week's American Watcher?"
"Oh yes," he said. "I found it quite interesting, especially the article."
"The article?"
"Uh huh. It tells a lot when one reads between the lines."
Her expression soured a little and then she shrugged. "Well, I guess the jig is up. You figured me out, didn't you? I was kind of expecting you to."
He stared at her. "You're not going to deny it? That you were the one who tipped off Paul Peterson about the beach and the lake?"
She shook her head. "Not really much point in denying it, is there? Yes, I tipped him off both times. I arranged for those photos of us to be taken. Georgette figured it out this morning too. I got off the phone with her about an hour ago. Man, was she pissed off."
"I can sympathize with her," Jake said. "I'm a bit pissed off myself."
She shrugged again. "Sorry," she said. "I wasn't doing it to piss you off, or to piss Georgette off. I hope you'll understand that."
Her casual, matter-of-fact tone was infuriating. She had just admitted to lying and deceit and was shrugging it off like it was nothing. He gritted his teeth, clenched his fists, and took a deep breath, commanding himself to keep his temper under control. It held for the time being.
"Why?" he asked her. "Why would you do such a thing?"
"Why do we do anything in Hollywood?" she replied. "For publicity."
"Publicity?" he asked. "You just destroyed your image! You've already lost one film role because you're seeing me and you'll probably lose any others they were considering you for now that there are photos of you traipsing around naked with the satanic, butt-crack sniffing rock musician."
She scoffed disgustedly, shaking her head. "You don't understand, do you?"
"No," he said. "I don't. Please make me understand."
She patted the bed next to her. "Why don't you come and sit down?"
"I'll stand," he said.
She frowned a little but didn't push the issue. "All right," she said. "The reason I arranged for those photos was because I didn't want any of those stupid roles they were trying to set me up in."
"You didn't want them?"
"No," she said. "Jesus, you heard what those fucking flicks were about. A film about a girl's softball team? A film about a girl and her horse? They're a bunch of cutesy, do-gooder, feel good films that no one but teenagers will ever watch. Meanwhile there are dozens of other films that will start production soon that are worth a shit. Films about gambling and war and nuclear weapons and hot, torrid love affairs between people who are not supposed to be having them. Films that are going to be nominated for academy awards next year, that will win academy awards next year. Films that need strong female leads and supports. Films that I can't even get a reading for because I'm cutesy little Mindy Snow who used to be on The Slow Lane, who looks like a fucking spokesgirl for the abstinence movement and the good Christian lifestyle. I'm tired of that shit, Jake. I'm tired of being trapped by my own image. So I'm forcing the world to accept my new image. I'm a sexy, provocative girl and I'm a damn good actress. I deserve more than just fuzzy little family movies."
"So you used me for this?" he said, though it was not a question. "You set me up and displayed me like a prop in one of your films?"
"Well, that's kind of a harsh way of putting it," she said, "but... yeah, I guess I did."
He clenched his fists again, took another deep breath. When he was semi-composed once more he asked, "So when did you decide to do this?"
"Quite some time ago," she said. "When you were on all the front pages for snorting coke out of that girl's ass and when all the parents who love my movies were carrying signs out in front of your concerts, that's when I knew you were the one. I insisted that Georgette invite you to the premier. She didn't want to at first but I convinced her that it was a good idea since we do have some fan demographic crossover."
"You were planning this before you ever met me?" he asked.
"Yes," she said. "You were the perfect bad-boy to change my image. I thought about going after Matt since he's got an even worse reputation than you, but that would've been too much, too shocking. That probably would have had the opposite effect than I intended."
"So... so the wholesome, old-fashioned girl bit you hit me with at the premier, and on the phone, and on our dates. That wasn't real?"
"Oh, Jake," she said with pity in her voice. "I'm an actress, remember? I figured out in our first conversation that you enjoyed the little miss innocent act I was putting on at the premier so I just carried it out a little further until I had you hooked on me. It was easy."
Jake was stunned by the casual, almost off-handed way she admitted her deceit. He had thought he was falling in love with her and she had just been pretending the entire time in order to help her career along. "This is unbelievable," he said to her.
"I'm sorry, Jake," she said. "I wasn't doing any of this to hurt you."