Page 61 of All That Glitters
She shot him a curious look. “Are you shy?”
“Not usually,” he said, fumbling even more now with his hands.
She studied him for a moment as his cheeks colored in pink. “You’re blushing, too.”
Tony bit his lip, willing himself to be anywhere but there. “I, uhm… I’m trying to make it stop, but my face won’t listen.”
A soft smile lit her eyes, with none of the predatory gleam from a moment ago. “It’s actually really adorable.”
Tony swallowed. “It is?”
“Yeah.” Something about his shy awkwardness around her caught her completely by surprise. He wasn’t at all the player she had expected to find when she came there that night. She turned to him, and something in her expression had changed. There was a softness in it now.
“You’re not from around here, are you?” she said.
He shook his head. “No. San Diego. Did my cluelessness give it away?”
She studied him for another moment then shook her head. “No. It was your blush. Guys in this industry don’t blush. They take.”
This admission caught him by surprise. He looked at her. She averted her eyes for a moment and stared down at her hands. When she looked back at him, the seductive mask was gone, replaced by something almost wounded in her eyes.
“Can I ask you something, Tony?” she said. “And please be honest.”
He looked at her. “Okay.”
She took a small breath. “Do you think this movie is going to be good? Like, watchable good? Not just so-bad-it’s-good, but actually good?”
The question hung in the air for just a moment. Given the vulnerability in her tone, and the genuine curiosity in her eyes, lying wasn’t even an option.
“I have no idea,” he admitted. “I hope so. But honestly? I’m just stoked it’s being made at all. Six months ago, I was standing on a street corner dressed as a cell phone. Now I’m watching myself on TV. It’s pretty surreal.”
She watched him for a moment, as though seeing him for the first time. She had already done the calculations and determined he wasn’t like the predators she usually met. He was just a kid, with his own dreams of making it in Hollywood, like her. “You’re kind of different, Tony. Most people would have just lied and told me what they thought I wanted to hear.”
“You asked me to be honest.”
She nodded. “And you were. So, a cell phone?”
Tony chuckled. “Please don’t ask me to tell you about that one.”
She laughed, and it was a genuine laugh that surprised even herself. “You know what? I think I like you, Tony Harding. You’re definitely different.”
“I’m hoping that’s a good thing.”
“It’s a great thing. Especially in this town,” she said. “Would you ever want to maybe work together on developing some projects?”
Tony did a double-take. Someone actually wanted to work with him on something? Usually, they ran in the opposite direction. Or placed bets on how long till he flaked. “Seriously?”
“Yeah,” she said, adjusting herself around on the bed to face him. “You’re really good at characters and set pieces. That’s something I noticed about your script. Even with all the crazy stuff going on around her, you made Jessica this character we really care about. Do you think maybe you might want to work with me on some story ideas I have? And I can work with you on your story ideas.”
“I think you had me at ‘really good at characters and set pieces’.”
She smiled, a real, genuine smile. “I meant it, too. Want to go hang out at the motel pool and bounce around some ideas?”
Tony looked at the clock next to the TV. Debbie was way late. Of course.
“Yeah,” he said. “Let’s do it.”
Preston Jordan’s executive suite screamed of success. Its walls were lined with bookshelves, awards, framed movie posters from past hits, and autographed photos of him smiling alongside A-list stars. In every photo, he looked powerful, happy, a master of his own universe.
