A month later, Nina had her answer.
‘That was,’ she hissed to Eddie as the credits began to roll to teen-friendly rock music, ‘the biggest pile of… of shit I have ever seen!’ As the other audience members applauded, she hurriedly stood and headed for the aisle, pulling her husband after her.
Eddie grinned. ‘See, you do swear loads more than me now. I really enjoyed it, myself. Didn’t like that they changed me into an American, but that’s Hollywood for you.’
‘You liked it? It was… it was idiotic! It was even more ridiculous than Grant’s stupid car movies, and I didn’t think that was possible. At the end, when they jump out of the jet without parachutes? There’s no way they could have survived!’
‘We actually did that,’ Eddie pointed out as they exited the auditorium and started down the stairs to the lobby.
She glared at him. ‘Yes, but — but it didn’t happen that way. Then there was that ludicrous action sequence where you — I mean Jason Mach’ — a snort of contempt — ‘steals a train and chases after me, or rather Eden Crest?’
‘That happened too.’
‘Shut up! And Eden Crest, what the hell kind of a name is that? Sounds like an environmentally friendly toothpaste. Also,’ a deeper scowl, ‘I really hated that they made you into the perfect hero and turned me into the damsel in distress who always needed rescuing.’
‘Yeah, I wasn’t keen on that either,’ he admitted. ‘Hopefully they’ll fix it in the sequel. You should have a word with Grant at the after-party.’
‘I don’t want to go to the after-party,’ she protested. ‘I just want to get home and see my little girl.’
‘After all that time you kept saying how great it’d be to finally have a night out without Macy, now you can’t wait to get back to her?’
‘This wasn’t what I had in mind.’
Before he could ask what she did have in mind, they’d passed through the lobby doors — and Nina stopped in her tracks. Many of the members of the press attending the premiere had made a beeline for the foyer to catch the celebrity guests as they emerged. ‘Oh God,’ she moaned. ‘Please don’t let anyone ask me what I thought of it.’ She shook her head. ‘I can’t believe I accepted that clause in the contract about not publicly bad-mouthing the movie. Marvin might seem friendly, but I bet he’d slap me with a lawsuit in three seconds flat if I told a reporter what I really thought about it.’
‘I can say whatever I want, though,’ said Eddie. ‘I didn’t sign any contract.’
‘Yeah, but you liked the damn thing!’
He squeezed her to him as more audience members thronged past them into the foyer. ‘Come on, love. It wasn’t that bad. And it’s a Hollywood action movie! What did you expect?’
She sighed. ‘I don’t know. I guess I’d hoped it would be more like Gorillas in the Mist than some pulp mash-up of James Bond and Indiana Jones!’
Eddie laughed. ‘You do remember all the stuff we’ve been through, don’t you? Like how we first met? I pulled you out of a car at the bottom of a river!’
‘I could hardly forget it. Although a lot of it, I’m still trying really hard to.’ Her expression became serious, even downcast. ‘To be honest, I almost walked out right at the beginning. That opening, where Eden Crest’s parents were murdered just as they found a clue leading to Atlantis? It hit way too close to home.’
‘That’s what was bothering you?’ he asked with sympathetic concern.
Nina nodded. ‘It’s not just that it was a dumb movie. It was a dumb movie that used my life for plot points — it took the worst thing that ever happened to me and reduced it to a way to get a character the audience’s sympathy. It… it hurt, you know? My parents were all I had, and that scene brought back how it felt when I lost them.’
Eddie was silent for a moment, then took her hand. ‘You’re right, we should go home. Macy’s probably still up waiting for us.’
‘I told Holly to put her to bed at seven.’
‘Macy never goes to sleep at seven for us; why would Holly do any better?’
They turned to leave — only for Grant Thorn to hurry across the lobby to intercept them. ‘Hey, there you are!’ drawled the Californian, looking sharp in a tuxedo. ‘I was hoping to catch you. What did you think of the movie?’
Nina was about to let him know her true feelings, but the sight of Marvin Bronze and several journalists arriving in his wake — as well as the actor’s puppy-like expectancy — persuaded her to be more diplomatic. ‘It was… interesting,’ she managed.
‘Guys, this is Dr Nina Wilde,’ Marvin said exuberantly to the reporters, ‘the author of the book the movie’s based on. You wanna find an ancient legend, you call her! She discovered Atlantis, King Arthur’s tomb, even the Lost Ark of the Covenant. That was a few years back, though, so Nina: what’ve you done for us lately? Joke,’ the tanned little man added on seeing her startled expression. ‘So, how much did you love the movie?’
The redhead recovered her composure. ‘Well, you changed a lot from my book, which was what actually happened, but it was all still very… exciting.’
Marvin chuckled. ‘You didn’t tell us everything, did you? All classified, very hush-hush,’ he clarified for the journalists. ‘We had to fill in some of the details ourselves. But we stayed with the spirit of the story, didn’t we?’
‘Insofar as Atlantis was being hunted for, yes…’
‘You did a great job,’ said Eddie, stepping in to save his wife. ‘Some of the story was different from real life, but you can’t have too many explosions, right?’ A couple of chuckles from the group. ‘But I just had a message from our babysitter saying our little girl’s missing her mum and dad—’
‘Mom,’ Nina corrected automatically.
‘—so we need to get moving. Family comes first, right?’
‘Aw, man, that’s a shame,’ said Grant. ‘You’re not coming to the party? We got celebrities there, Masta Thugg’s gonna do a set…’
‘Afraid not.’ Nina had rolled her eyes during the movie when she saw that Matt Trulli had been replaced by a wisecracking fictional character played by an American rapper. ‘We have to get back to Macy.’
The name caught Grant off-guard. ‘Macy. How… how is she?’
‘She’s great, thanks. She’s three now.’
‘Three! Man, has it been that long?’ He seemed about to add something, but then eyed the recording devices nearby. ‘I’m happy for you guys. And, y’know, calling her… It would have meant a lot to her.’ Nina and Eddie’s daughter had been named in memory of their friend, and Grant’s girlfriend, Macy Sharif, who had died trying to prevent a group of Nazi war criminals from finding the secret of eternal youth.
The trio shared looks of mutual sympathy, then the actor straightened. ‘Like you say, family comes first, right!’ he said, in a performance as obvious as any he had ever given on screen. ‘Glad you liked the movie, we’re all very proud of it. And don’t forget,’ he added for the microphones, ‘you want to find out what really happened, read Nina’s book! It’s called, uh…’
‘In Search of History,’ Marvin quickly said. ‘Great story, we wouldn’t have bought the rights otherwise!’ He looked around. ‘Hey, Claudia’s over there with Leviticus Gold. Let’s get all the stars together for the cameras, huh?’
‘Catch you guys later!’ Grant called over his shoulder as Marvin ushered his business partner and their entourage away.