Taking Chances (26 page)

Chapter 12

FOR THE MOMENT
Ellen and Tom were the only ones at the table, as Matty had gone to the ladies’ room, while Michael went to wake up Sandy with the good news about Miramax. This was far from being the first time they’d been alone since the night they’d made love, for they’d had several script sessions in the past few weeks – which they’d now relocated to one of the ATI conference rooms – and Tom often stopped by the office to pick Ellen up and take her over to Paramount for the endless number of production meetings they were both required to attend.

So the early awkwardness had already been dealt with and Ellen would forever be grateful to him for the way he had handled things, assuring her that Michael would never learn what had happened from him, and that as far as he was concerned it was already forgotten. She’d laughed at that, and, realizing how ungallant it must have sounded, he’d winked and told her that were the circumstances any different there was just no way he’d be giving her the benefit of his selective amnesia.

Since that day they’d never spoken of it again, and though the attraction she’d felt before seemed to have gone, she sometimes wondered if it was the same for him. But that wasn’t something she was going to get into, for it could simply be her ego at work, still wanting to be admired even though she had no desire
whatsoever
to be unfaithful to Michael again.

But despite how loving and attentive Michael had been since that night, or how euphoric they both were now, knowing that the movie was going to go ahead much sooner than they’d even dared to hope, there was no getting away from the fact that things between them had changed. And in her bleaker moments she was terrified they would never be the same again. The problem was, the trust had gone. Perhaps if he’d confessed what had happened with Michelle she’d be finding it easier to deal with, except that was crazy, for the last thing she wanted was to be forced into confessing herself. So what the hell she was supposed to do about the way things were she had no idea, for though she desperately wanted everything to be right again, there was a very strong part of her that was still so damned angry that she almost took pleasure in pushing him away. She’d even considered calling off the wedding, though the thought of it filled her with panic. But it was there, on her mind, every minute of the day, and after what had happened with Robbie earlier, she wondered if she wasn’t a whole lot closer to leaving than she’d realized.

Michael didn’t know about it, and she didn’t want to tell him, for the last time Robbie had backchatted her Michael had smacked him, which had done nothing at all to help matters. Robbie saw her as the enemy now, the horrible, evil woman who was coming between his mom and dad and ruining all their lives. He’d told her that this evening, right after he’d told her how much he hated her and that he never wanted her coming into his room again. And he wasn’t coming to the wedding, he was going to stay here with his mom, because she was the only one who loved him. After that he’d slammed his door in her face and though she’d heard him sobbing into his pillow, she’d known that she couldn’t be the one to comfort him. So Lucina had gone in, and it had hurt
Ellen
terribly to hear him pleading with Lucina to make Ellen go away so that his dad could marry his mom.

‘Listen, I don’t want to get personal here,’ Chambers said, breaking into her thoughts, ‘but you haven’t heard a word I’ve been saying, and frankly, you look terrible. Beautiful,’ he smiled, ‘but terrible.’

Ellen forced a smile too. ‘Thank you,’ she said.

He looked into her eyes and let the humour fade as he saw how troubled she really was.

She turned sharply away. ‘It’s OK,’ she said. ‘I’m just tired, and stressed with the wedding.’

His eyes stayed with her, though she refused to meet them. It went much deeper than that, he could tell, but he didn’t blame her for not wanting to open up to him. Besides, now was hardly the time, as Michael and Sandy were heading towards the table and finding Ellen with tears in her eyes was going to look odd enough, without encouraging her to break down.

Getting to his feet he watched Sandy as she looked first at Ellen, then at him. Had she noticed the tears, he wondered, or had Ellen managed to blink them away?

‘Tom, this is Sandy Paull,’ Michael said, as Tom reached out to shake Sandy’s hand.

‘It’s good to meet you, Sandy,’ he said. ‘I’ve heard a lot about you,’ but no-one, he was thinking to himself, had told him how young she was.

Her turquoise eyes were shining with interest as she looked back at him. ‘Probably not as much as I’ve heard about you,’ she smiled.

‘Hi Sandy,’ Ellen said, getting up to embrace her. ‘How are you? Exhausted, I imagine.’

‘Better now I’ve had a sleep,’ Sandy assured her, tearing her eyes from Tom. ‘And thrilled about the Miramax news. I’m wondering if you and Michael have got time for a wedding now, with all that’s going to start coming up?’

Ellen glanced at Michael and, seeing how doubtful he
was
of her answer, she just wanted to put her arms around him and ask him to take her home. ‘It’s our first priority,’ she said, sitting down again as Matty joined them. ‘This is my cousin, Matty Shelby.’

‘It’s nice to meet you, Matty,’ Sandy said. ‘I expect you’re up to your ears in wedding plans too.’

‘Oh, it went past my ears days ago,’ Matty laughed. ‘Hi, and welcome to LA. This isn’t your first time though, is it?’

‘No,’ Sandy answered, as she sat in the chair Michael was holding out for her. She glanced up to thank him, but his eyes were on Ellen and Sandy watched as he sat down next to her and covered her hand with his. When she looked up again it was straight into Tom Chambers’s eyes and she felt herself colour at what he might have deduced from the way she’d watched Michael and Ellen. But there was no way he could detect the envy in her heart, and as she was still smiling there was a chance she’d shown nothing more than a distracted kind of interest.

‘I read the latest rewrites, coming over on the plane,’ she said, glancing at Ellen then back at Tom. ‘It’s really starting to take shape. I’m intrigued to know how you’re going to end it.’

Ellen was frowning. ‘I didn’t know you’d read the script,’ she said, turning to Michael.

Sandy looked at Michael too. Obviously he hadn’t told her, but she’d thought it was just her producership they were keeping under wraps, had no idea she wasn’t supposed to have read the script either. Still, Ellen had to find out some time, and Sandy was pleased to be here to witness the response.

‘I’m keeping Sandy up to date with it,’ Michael said, ‘so that she’s got some idea what she’s talking about when she goes about raising money in Europe.’

‘But you had the publicity package,’ Ellen protested. ‘It gives a full synopsis, biographies of Tom and Rachel, who’s playing the lead …’

‘It’s not the same as seeing the script,’ he told her, obviously annoyed at being put on the defensive, and desperate to get off the subject.

Ellen looked at Tom.

Tom shrugged. ‘Well, since Sandy likes it so much,’ he said, ‘I guess there’s no harm done.’

Sandy smiled and sensed immediately how furious Ellen was that Tom had taken her side. Then she looked at Michael who was clearly still annoyed. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said, ‘I didn’t realize I wasn’t supposed to have read the script.’

‘No, don’t apologize,’ he told her. ‘As one of the executive directors of World Wide, you had every right to. And as one of the movie’s producers it would have been very strange if you hadn’t.’

Sandy’s eyes returned to Ellen who was looking at Michael as though he’d just slapped her. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said, ‘but I didn’t know that Sandy was one of the producers.’

‘Since she’s helping to raise the finance,’ Michael responded, ‘I think a producer’s credit is the very least we can give her.’

It was clear that Ellen was having a hard time controlling her temper. ‘Does that mean Mark Bergin in Sydney, and Chris Ruskin in New York are also getting producer credits?’ she asked.

‘Of course,’ he answered. ‘Why would I give it to Sandy and not to them, when they’re bringing in finance too?’

‘Why would you give it to anyone without discussing it with me?’ she retorted.

Michael looked awkwardly around the table. ‘I don’t think now’s the time for this,’ he said.

‘Where’s the waiter?’ Tom said. ‘Is everyone up for champagne, after all, we’re supposed to be celebrating.’

‘Excuse me,’ Ellen said, and got abruptly to her feet.

Matty watched her walk away, then looking across at
Michael
she felt her heart go out to him, for as angry as he was, she could see how horribly perplexed he was too. And, she had to confess, so was she, for she’d spent the past couple of hours at the wedding arranger’s with Ellen, and it was clear to Matty that Ellen was in a terrible way. There hadn’t really been any opportunity to talk, but after the way she had snapped at the organizer, the emotional state she had worked herself into on the way here, and now seeing how angry she was with Michael, Matty resolved to get to the bottom of what was eating her. Of course, Michael making love to Michelle had to be featuring in there somewhere, so must the way Ellen had hit back with Tom, but if Ellen was having such a hard time holding it in like this, then it seemed they were going to have to find a way of dealing with it, instead of just pretending it hadn’t happened.

As Ellen came back Sandy happened to glance over at Chambers. The tears in Ellen’s eyes hadn’t escaped her when she’d first arrived, and now, unless she was imagining things, Tom’s concern went some way beyond mere politeness. In fact, for a moment there, he seemed genuinely worried, and given how pale and exhausted Ellen looked, Sandy wasn’t having too much trouble coming to a conclusion that was pleasing her immensely. Something was going on between those two, and with any luck it was of a pretty serious nature.

By the time their food was ordered and brought Ellen was feeling much calmer and was actually starting to enjoy herself. The talk now was mainly of the wedding, and finding herself able, if only briefly, to let go of her nerves, she was making them all laugh with the chaos that had taken over her days. As she talked she entwined her fingers through Michael’s, probably drank a little too much wine, and avoided eating any real amount of food. Her appetite had been erratic for a couple of weeks now, which she knew was normal before a wedding, and
she’d
certainly had no objection to her dress being taken in another inch earlier that day. She just knew how much Michael would love the dress, and what she was planning to wear underneath, and the thought of how much pleasure she was going to give him suddenly filled up her heart and pushed tears to her eyes.

‘Oh God, I’ve been like this for days,’ she laughed, using a napkin to dab her cheeks.

‘Weeks,’ Michael corrected.

‘It just suddenly comes over me,’ she said, turning to kiss him. ‘It’s not that I’m depressed, I’m just … emotional, I guess.’ Then lowering her voice she said, ‘I can’t wait till we’re on honeymoon.’

‘Then don’t let’s,’ he murmured.

Smiling, she leaned against him and turned back to the others, listening as Sandy and Matty questioned Tom about his work as a journalist, wanting to know all about the different wars he had covered, the hardships, massacres, tyrannies and famines. She guessed that he was embroidering some of his tales to make for better listening, and then she started to think of how terribly sad it was that he had lost Rachel and never loved again since. But after watching Sandy for a while, she could at least be sure that he wasn’t going to be short of a bed partner for the next couple of weeks.

Though the thought of that didn’t make Ellen jealous exactly, she wasn’t as happy about it as she might have been, for she didn’t like Sandy, and certainly didn’t think she was good enough for Tom. But if it kept her out of Michael’s way, then Ellen guessed that was fine by her. And Tom could look after himself. He’d soon see through Sandy, if he hadn’t already, for she was just a scheming little bitch who would screw anyone in an effort to get what she wanted. And, unless Ellen was greatly mistaken, she was about to make Tom her next target in order to gain more control of the movie. Well, that was going to happen over Ellen’s dead body.

Turning back to Michael she looked up at him, scanning his face and squeezing harder on his hand. There seemed to be so much going round in her head at the moment that she couldn’t cope with all the added stress Sandy was bringing, and suddenly wanting desperately to be alone with Michael she quietly suggested they leave.

They weren’t far from the Four Seasons when Ellen asked him to pull over.

He glanced at her in surprise. ‘Are you OK?’ he asked.

‘I just want you to hold me,’ she answered.

Immediately he steered the car over to the kerb and pulled her into his arms. ‘Are you sure you’re OK?’ he said, holding her tight.

‘Sure.’ Her eyes were closed and once again she could feel her heart flooding with emotion. ‘Do you love me?’ she whispered. ‘I mean really, really love me?’

‘Oh God, you know I do,’ he told her.

‘You won’t let anything come between us?’

‘Never,’ he swore.

She pulled back to look into his eyes. ‘Are you sure you want to marry me?’

‘Sure,’ he smiled, stroking her hair back from her face.

‘You don’t love anyone else?’

‘No. Only you.’

‘Not Michelle?’

‘Not Michelle.’

‘Or Sandy?’

He laughed. ‘Or Sandy.’

She gazed at him anxiously, as though searching for something she was unable to find. In the end he lifted her mouth to his and kissed her deeply.

‘In less than a fortnight this circus’ll be over,’ he said, ‘and then for two whole weeks it’ll be just us.’

Her head went down. ‘I wish it could be over now,’ she whispered.

Putting his fingers under her chin he raised her eyes
back
to his. ‘We can get on a plane and go to Vegas right now,’ he said. ‘Or I guess we should wait until we’ve signed with Miramax tomorrow, but after that we can get married right away, if that’s what you want, and let everyone have a party next Saturday while we’re a thousand miles away.’