Page 14 of One Day and Forever
Calvin hadn’t even put his seatbelt on before his enthusiasm got the better of him. ‘So what do you think? Shall I steal your wallet right now or just hack into your bank account and Venmo the cash over to my offshore account?’
Ollie sighed, picking his words. ‘I love it. I can see potential, and I think we could create something really special.’
‘I sense a “but” coming. Will I need my morning cocktail before I hear it?’
‘Sienna. Give me a few days because I’m going to have to speak to her and try to get her agreement, but it’s going to take some work.’ He didn’t add that she was already pissed off with him, so that might make it a tad more challenging. ‘It’s not even the financial investment. She’s on my case to spend less time here, so I’m really going to have to graft to get her to buy into this.’
Calvin started up the engine. ‘And what about you? How do you see the future mapping out?’
Ollie shrugged. ‘I’m committed to the show for seven years, and it’s mostly filmed in Europe and Vancouver. To be honest, I’d rather move my base back here. LA life is great, but it’s not home.’
Calvin pulled out of the parking space and as they passed the group of youths on the corner, eight teenagers gave them the finger and one threw an Irn-Bru can that bounced off the back window.
Calvin remained totally deadpan. ‘Totally understand. I mean, Malibu is a hovel compared to this little slice of paradise. Home or lunch?’
‘Sorry, mate, raincheck on the lunch. I need to get home and packed. I’ve got a flight out of here later today. Talking of which, just need to make a quick call.’
He pulled his phone out of his pocket and tried Kara again. He’d originally planned to ask her to come here with him today, because she had a brilliant eye for all things theatrical. They were definitely products of their childhood. Kara’s mum, Jacinta, had been an aspiring actress at the same time as his mum was taking as many singing gigs as she could get to pay the bills, so both women had dreams of stardom. When fame didn’t come to them, they’d both turned into rampant stage mums, and put all their kids in drama classes. As they hit their teens, Ollie was the only one who stuck with it. Kara’s older sister, Drea, got a boyfriend and decided watching him play football on a Saturday was a far more enjoyable way to spend the day. Kara kept going but only to keep Ollie company and because she could sew, so she was a brilliant help with the costumes.
Kara’s phone didn’t even ring, just went straight to voicemail. Dammit. It was easier for him to get a hold of Hugh Bloody Jackman than it was to track down his lifelong friend. He tried Drea, who picked up, with, ‘Kara McIntyre’s secretary here. Fielding calls for my sister since 2006.’
‘Hey, it’s me.’
‘Who?’
He shook his head, but couldn’t help laughing. He would never get big-headed or carried away with his own ego as long as he had friends like these. ‘You’re hilarious, you know that?’
‘I do. I also know that you’re probably looking for my sister, because she hasn’t answered her phone for two days.’
‘I am. Is she okay? How bad is it?’
‘Not okay and pretty bad. I’d like to do all kinds of illegal things to Josh Jackson right now. Life would have been much simpler if you’d just married her when she asked you.’
‘I was eight, and she only asked me because she wanted my bike.’
‘Also true,’ Drea chuckled. ‘Look, I’ll let her tell you what’s going on because she’ll want to explain it all in detail and I’ve got a to-do list the length of a toilet roll to get done before we leave for the airport. She’s at the studios for a meeting right now because she told them to stick their job?—’
‘What?’ he exclaimed, making Calvin swerve. She loved her job. This didn’t make any sense at all. What the hell was going on?
‘Another long story. Look, we can spill all the sordid details at the airport. Tell me you’re still coming.’
‘I’m still coming.’
‘Okay, see you there, 4p.m. I need to go now because I’ve got a wedding to pack for and my time is far too important to waste on idle chit-chat with TV stars. Love you and bye.’
Click.
Calvin kept his eyes on the road, but was clearly intrigued. ‘Everything okay?’
‘Yeah, just one of my mates having a hard…’ His words faded away as a ping on his phone interrupted him. Then another. Then another. Then Calvin’s phone, attached to the dashboard by some magnetic device, started popping off too. It was like the scene in so many movies where there’s a press conference andall the journalists’ phones start ringing at the same time to alert them to some unrelated travesty.
Frowning, Ollie scanned his phone screen. Notifications from Instagram. X. Facebook. Texts. WhatsApp messages. Either he’d been nominated for something amazing, or he’d been cancelled, or the press had got hold of some false rumour and it was firing around the cyber-verse.
He opened the first one and got the answer straight away. A salacious headline on a celebrity blog:
Sleepless In Sienna? Actress spotted in mid-flight clinch with co-star.
Yet another false story. Alert over. He felt his shoulders drop down a few inches. These fricking people were just scumballs, making up shit like that for clicks. It was nonsense. Probably some fake photo of a woman who looked remotely like his wife. He’d been doing this long enough to know that it didn’t warrant another moment of his time.
