Fairplay, Denver Cereal Volume 6 (47 page)

“
What happens if the song
belongs to the movie company?” Ava asked.

Jeraine gave Ava a blank look.

“
Tanesha?” Jeraine called.
She stuck her head out of the kitchen. “What is this police woman
saying?”

Tanesha nodded toward Bumpy.

“
I see what you mean,”
Bumpy said. “But that’s not brain damage. That’s general moronity.
Most people grow out of it when they’re twelve or
thirteen.”

Everyone laughed.

“
This is getting unfunny,”
Jeraine said.

“
The song was a present to
me, right?” Tanesha asked.

Jeraine nodded.

“
I gave your present to me
to Schmidty,” Tanesha said.

“
You see how popular it
is,” Jeraine said. “We could have had a number one…”

“
Let me finish. In return
for the song, I bought your freedom. To me, that’s worth more than
anything in the world.”

Jeraine’s face flushed, his eyes welled with
tears, and he hopped to his feet. He wrapped himself around
her.

“
He does get there,”
Dionne smiled at them.

As if to accentuate the moment, Jeraine’s
cell phone rang.

“
Ok, it’s them again,” Ava
gave the phone to Jeraine. “Heather? Sandy? Everyone knows what
we’re doing?”

The women nodded. Keeping an arm around
Tanesha, Jeraine took the phone from Ava.

“
Yeah?” he said into the
phone. He nuzzled Tanesha’s neck and made a point of loudly kissing
her.

“
Jer?” his former agent
said. “That you?”

“
Mmm,” Jeraine said into
Tanesha’s neck.

Heather giggled.

“
Kinda busy,” Jeraine
said.

“
We’ve been worried about
you,” his former agent said. “You disappeared at
dinner.”

He tickled Sandy and she laughed.

“
I found something else to
do,” Jeraine said. “You guys are interesting but a little honey is
a lot more…”

“
Jer…” Ava
said.

“
How many women do you
have there?” his former agent asked.

“
He wants to know how many
women are here,” Jeraine said in a perfect imitation of his former
agent’s voice. The women laughed. Tanesha hung up the
phone.

They stared at the phone until it rang
again.

“
What?” Jeraine’s voice
was slurred but angry.

“
Where are you?” his
former agent asked.

“
I d-n know,” Jeraine put
the phone against his chest. “Where are we?”

On cue, Heather and Sandy laughed.

“
My house,” Ava
said.

Jeraine smirked at her and put the phone to
his ear.

“
Capital Hill someplace,”
Jeraine said.

“
We’ll come get you,” his
former agent said.

“
Nah,” Jeraine said. “Dis
party’s almost over. The Church’s just a couple blocks from
here.”

Jeraine hung up the phone and turned it
off.

“
What’s next?” he
asked.

“
Bumpy goes,” Ava said.
“Seth’s at the club setting up.”

Bumpy got up from the table, kissed Dionne,
and left the suite.

“
Now, we wait just long
enough to make them nervous,” Ava said.

~~~~~~~~

Saturday night—8:45 P.M. MDT

Sissy got up from the couch in Jill and
Jacob’s attic loft. She looked at the boys playing video games.
Setting her book down, she walked over to where Valerie and Noelle
were painting their fingernails at the kitchen bar. Trying to be
nonchalant, she picked up one color and another until she found a
sheer pink. She’d never colored her fingernails and felt a little
intimidated by the movie star and Noelle’s weekly ritual of
fingernails and gossip.

“
In your face,” Nash
yelled at the video game

Charlie and Teddy cheered.

“
If you find a color, I’ll
help,” Valerie looked up at Sissy. Sissy blushed.

“
She’s never painted her
nails,” Noelle said.

“
I wondered,” Valerie
said. “Would you like to?”

“
Seems kinda pricey,”
Sissy repeated what her mother had drilled into her.

“
Lucky for you, it’s all
paid for,” Valerie said.

“
Plus, I have a bunch of
colors,” Noelle said. “You can use my colors and they won’t cost
anything.”

Sissy looked at Noelle and Valerie.

“
Why don’t you have a
seat?” Valerie nodded toward a chair next to her. “I’ll show you
how.”

Sissy sat down and Valerie pulled out a
stool next to her. There was a sound in the nursery; they looked up
to see Jill coming out. Jill went to Katy’s room, listened at the
door, and then came over.

“
How are the kids?”
Valerie asked.

“
Asleep,” Jill said. “Mack
kept climbing out of his crib. Crazy kid. Blane usually takes him
for a run to put him to sleep but he didn’t have time
tonight.”

“
But he’s asleep now?”
Sissy made a movement as if she was going to check on
him.

“
He’s asleep,” Jill said.
“Rachel too. After all their running around today, Katy and Paddie
are out.”

Jill picked up a nail polish color and sat
down next to Noelle. Sissy sat back down in her chair. Valerie took
her hands and looked at them.

“
You have nice hands,
Sissy,” Valerie said. “Long fingers.”

“
The nails never grow,”
Sissy said.

“
This will help,” Valerie
said.

Valerie began filing Sissy’s nails with an
emery board. Sissy waited until enough time passed so her next
question seemed casual.

“
Did you see Sandy when
she left?” Sissy asked.

“
I thought she was
beautiful,” Noelle said.

“
Aden looked like he was
going to eat her whole,” Charlie walked over to the plate of
chocolate chip cookies. He took a bite, and still chewing he said,
“She was super hot.”

“
Super duper hot,” Noelle
nodded.

“
Sandy’s always been the
sexy one of us,” Jill said. “I thought she looked gorgeous tonight.
What did you think, Sissy?”

“
I probably won’t look
like that,” Sissy said.

“
I don’t,” Valerie said.
“I’m not curvy at all.”

“
I don’t think I’ll be
curvy,” Noelle said. “Nuala isn’t. Is your Mom?”

“
Kind of,” Sissy
said.

Valerie set down the emery board to look at
Sissy.

“
Why are you asking about
Sandy?” Valerie asked.

“
Oh…” Sissy looked at the
movie star. Blushing, she was going to make a joke, but she felt
oddly compelled to answer Valerie’s question. “If I keep going like
this, I might get curvy too.”

Valerie squeezed Sissy’s hands.

“
I think you’ll be very
beautiful,” Jill said. “I knew your Mom when she’d just met your
Dad. She was lovely. I think living without your Dad really changed
her.”

“
Hmm,” Sissy
said.

“
What are you worried
about?” Valerie asked.

“
I won’t be a ballerina
because I’m too… big,” Sissy’s voice dropped. Her face became a
mask of shame and sadness. “You know, up here.”

“
I know
exactly
what you mean,”
Valerie said. “I was really scared that I wouldn’t ever be an
actress because I wasn’t very big
up
here
. Everyone I knew had plastic surgery.
You can ask Mike. Every single person we knew was sliced and diced
into a different body.”

“
But you didn’t do it?”
Sissy’s voice was filled with wonder.

“
Nope,” Valerie said. “I
wanted to. Bad. But when I was a kid, my Mom wouldn’t let me. She
told me that looking like me would always be my best asset. She was
right.”

“
I don’t want to look like
me,” Sissy said.

“
Me too,” Noelle
said.

Valerie glanced at Noelle then looked at
Jill. The women’s eyes held in silent confirmation. Valerie gave
Jill a little nod and she nodded in agreement.

“
I think every woman feels
some of that, Sis,” Jill said. “We’re sold an image of what women
look like, but we come in all of these different sizes.”

“
And go through all of
these phases,” Valerie said. “I know you read the article in that
magazine about how ‘fat’ I’ve become. Fat? Seriously? I’m pregnant.
The doctor still thinks I’m too thin.”

Valerie shook her head.

“
I worried that Jacob
wouldn’t like my body because I had Katy and I have some loose
skin,” Jill said. “He didn’t even notice.”

“
Oh,” Sissy
said.

“
We should talk to Sandy
about it. She’s felt a lot of pressure ever since she was little
about her looks,” Jill said. “I mean, even Katy feels it and she’s
four. This kind of pressure is a kind of slavery where we shackle
ourselves.”

“
With the help of the
media,” Valerie said. “And, to be honest, people like me. I look
amazing in the new film but that’s because I was thirty pounds
underweight, wore these push up bras, make up, wigs, special
clothing, perfect lighting and a billion takes. I mean, it took
almost two hours to just get dressed! If there was a hair out of
place, four people ran to fix it.”

“
That’s not real life,”
Jill said.

“
And who would do all of
that every day?” Valerie shook her head. “I wouldn’t.”

“
You don’t,” Noelle
said.

“
No, I don’t,” Valerie
said. “I hope to God I have better things to do with my time than
worry about my hair!”

Valerie gave a little chuckle.

“
Of course, I don’t worry
about my hair because…”

“
You have Sandy!” Noelle
laughed.

“
Right,” Valerie said.
“Does this help at all?”

“
I don’t want to be a
slave,” Sissy nodded. “I want to be a prima ballerina. But that
does mean I have to look a certain way.”

“
But you, Sissy,
you
have to look a
certain way,” Valerie’s hand cupped Sissy’s chin and gave it a
little shake. “Not robo-Sissy.”

Noelle squealed with laughter at
‘robo-Sissy.’ The boys looked up from their game to see what was
going on.

“
Sissy wants to be a
robot!” Noelle laughed.

“
I want to be a
ballerina!” Sissy said.

“
Ballerina-robot!” Noelle
laughed.

The girls collapsed into giggles. Shaking
their heads, Valerie and Jill shared a look and laughed.

~~~~~~~~

Saturday night—8:45 P.M. MDT

“
Hey, I’m Blane Lipson.”
He nodded to the young man behind the bar at the Church nightclub.
“I think I’m supposed to join you?”

“
Nelson,” Ava’s
bodybuilding colleague held out his hand for Blane to shake. He
lifted the bar pass-through. “Come on back. Have you tended bar
before?”

“
Sure,” Blane said.
“You?”

“
Never.” Nelson smiled at
Blane.

“
I guess that’s why I’m
here,” Blane chuckled. “Why don’t you take the taps and bottles and
I’ll take the mixed drinks.”

“
I was hoping you’d say
that,” Nelson said. “We need to create a chain of evidence. Seth
wanted us to handle this so it didn’t get too big, but…”

“
How did you get through
college?” Blane looked around the small bar for supplies. “I
thought everyone tended bar.”

“
My parents,” Nelson said.
“You?”

“
Fresh out of parents.”
Blane took a knife and started to make quick work of the limes. “I
tended bar and cooked.”

“
You have amazing knife
skills,” Nelson said.

“
Chef,” Blane
said.

“
I thought you were some
construction guy,” Nelson said. “That’s what Ava said.”

“
I was a Chef,” Blane
said. “Won a couple awards. Now I work at Lipson Construction with
Sam and Jake.”

“
Why did you stop?” Nelson
stood near Blane watching him set up the bar. “Cooking, I
mean.”

Blane squinted at Nelson.

“
Sorry, I’m nosey,” Nelson
said.

“
Why don’t you get the
glasses down?” Blane said. “Can you pour beer?”

“
Um…” Nelson
said.

“
Here,” Blane set the
knife and fruit on the cutting board. He took down a glass and
showed Nelson how to pour beer. “Now try a few.”

“
But that’s wasting it,”
Nelson said.

“
I think they’d rather you
waste it than give yourself away,” Blane said.

“
Good point.”

Happy that he had something to do, Nelson
practiced his pouring technique while Blane set up the bar. When he
looked up, Blane had the bar ready to go.

“
How did you get roped
into this?” Nelson asked.

“
My wife, Heather, is with
Jeraine tonight,” Blane said. “One of her friends is with our baby,
so I thought it might be fun.”