It could swing the other way too. My personal batting average was a gaudy .675. All my teammates in the one through four slots were hitting over .500. When you had a short window, your average could easily be skewed. I made it a point to remind everyone of that fact. I did mention that my average was probably about right. Sometimes it’s good that I have security with me.
◊◊◊
I was caught entirely off guard when I found Mia Hilliard and Stewart Thatcher in the lobby with Rita James.
“Go take a shower and put on something decent. The studio has arranged a mini press junket,” Rita explained.
When I got to my room, I found Halle sitting on my bed, waiting for me.
“You be careful of Mia. She looks like trouble,” she announced.
I blinked at her a couple of times and shook my head as I got undressed to take a shower.
“Pick out an outfit that looks like something a young James Bond would wear,” I said over my shoulder.
I caught Halle inspecting my naked bottom. She was such a bad girl. I had to turn the shower on cold to keep Mr. Happy from making an appearance.
When I came out, she’d found my black Dakora jacket with red trim and a skinny red tie to wear with it. I smiled when I noticed my new oxblood-red leather tennis shoes matched the color of the trim and tie.
Halle giggled when I preened like James Bond does in his movies. He was always ‘dressed to kill,’ so to speak.
“I had to do some research for the role,” I said to defend myself.
Frank had told me that he’d dug up a study that showed 98% of women loved James Bond. 95.7% of those had erotic dreams involving him. Those were the kind of numbers I was looking for in this role.
Some was knocking at the door. I found Frank waiting for me.
“I guess this must be a big deal if you showed up,” I said.
He gave me a quick inspection and decided I looked okay.
“Here, read these,” he said, handing me my talking points. “The studio decided to move quickly and start the PR machine, now that the cast is set. They caught me flat-footed when they told me they were sending out Mia and Stewart to kick everything off. They’ve set up interviews with People, Vanity Fair, and Rolling Stone to start. Vanity Fair wants to do a quick photo shoot with plans of putting you all on the cover,” he explained.
During the interview, Rita took the lion’s share of the questions. I had no problem with that because let’s be real here, she was Rita James. Stewart was every bit as charming, and his British accent just rolled off his tongue. I thought Chubby had hit a home run.
Mia Hilliard. What can I say about her? She was the up-and-coming female action star. In her previous movies, she’d been paired with a nerd or wimpy kind of guy. It left you scratching your head, wondering how the heck the guy could have gotten that girl. It very much reminded me of Transformers when Megan Fox was paired with Shia LaBeouf. Apparently, they’d come up with a formula so regular guys could imagine themselves as the hero with the superhot girlfriend.
I caught Mia glancing at me. I almost burst out laughing when the girl from Vanity Fair busted her.
“So, I take it you think David’s okay?” she asked.
“I … uh … yeah. When I got the part, I was excited that I would be teamed up with him. I can’t wait to see what kind of magic we can make,” she said for the save.
“Are you talking about on screen?”
Even Rita, who’s pretty much unflappable, let out a chuckle when Mia turned beet red.
“That’s not what I meant,” Mia said and then turned to see me with my eyebrows raised. “Sorry, I just got lucky … crud. Did I just say that?”
“This is good. I’m sure our readers want to hear all about that,” the reporter said, to all our amusement.
“Okay, I admit it. I have a little crush on him. Of course, now he’ll run from me because he just realized that his costar is a stalker,” she said, and then relaxed. “It’s a bit liberating to get that off my chest.”
“As long as you’re happy,” I said.
“I can hardly wait to see these two on set,” Stewart added.
“I think I’ll have to let my daughter know that Mia has designs on her boyfriend,” Rita said.
“Maybe I should date them both,” I shot back.
Mia was a good sport about it. I was impressed when she pulled the same shtick for the other interviews. It was a lesson on how good an actress she really was. I totally believed it each time Mia revealed that she had a crush on me. I had a feeling the tabloids would eat this up. They loved nothing more than a male celebrity stepping out on his girlfriend. The sad part was they didn’t really judge him for his poor behavior. The girl was just his latest conquest, as if that were normal.
◊◊◊
Rita invited Mia and Stewart to dinner. I was getting ready when my dad called me.
“Hey, your mom wants to know what she should wear for dinner,” Dad said.
I pulled the phone from my ear and looked at my caller ID to make sure it was my dad on the other end of the line.
“You’re asking me because …”
“Rumor has it you’re a model,” Dad clarified.
“Are you eating with me?” I asked.
“Yes, David. Rita called and asked that we join her for dinner with your other castmates. So, again, what should she wear?”
“Mom should go with that red dress she brought, and I would suggest that she pick comfortable heels. If we go dancing afterward, she will kill you when her feet start to hurt,” I told him. “Oh, and Dad: sport coat with no tie.”
“T-shirt?”
“No, that’s something someone my age can get away with. Wear your Oxford, and you can’t go wrong.”
I hung up on him and wondered when I started to be the person people called about what to wear. I remembered when Cindy and my mom had labeled my clothes so I didn’t mix plaids with stripes.
◊◊◊
The dinner was nice. Stewart recounted stories about me on the set of The Royal Palm. He warned Mia that she had to watch out for me because I would get the crew on my side. Halle told her about my antics in Star Academy and The Secret Circle.
Mia shared what it was like to work with Chubby Feldman. She’d done two movies with him and was excited to do a third.
“This is what I know about Chubby. There are a select few directors who virtually every studio has on their short list whenever a blockbuster goes into production. These are the directors whose creative visions are unparalleled by most of Hollywood. All it takes is a quick look at the people responsible for the majority of the biggest films coming up. If you list them, you’ll see that Hollywood is being dominated by a select few. And Chubby Feldman is at the top of the action-film category.
“What I love about him is he knows what he has to get on film so it can go to postproduction and they can do their magic. That’s a lot harder than you think. Chubby has an eye for it, though. He is super-easy to work with. He lets you do your bit and then will point out something, and the next thing you know, the scene is ten times better,” Mia said, getting excited.
“After the last film David and I did, he sounds like a dream. I was ready to walk several times,” Stewart said.
“I never realized that,” I admitted. “It seemed like Laurent was focused on me.”
“I think you were his personal whipping boy. I figured you had enough on your plate that you didn’t need to hear me make the same complaints,” Stewart said.
“What was it like doing a James Bond movie?” Mia asked Rita.
“Something you can count on is they won’t rush, and they’ll do it right. It was one of the best experiences I’ve had making a film. I am happy to do another one, even though they cast me as an old woman,” Rita said.