Not Wanted in Hollywood Read Free Page A

sat at a mirror and started putting on
makeup.
    I sat down next to her. “I wasn’t lying,
Alistair does want me to try to talk you into being in the film
without your mask on.”
    “ It’s not
going to happen,” Amber said quietly.
    “ I know,” I
said, “but I had to ask. It’s my job.”
    “ You’ve got a
jerk for a boss,” she said.
    “ Your
boss isn’t exactly Prince Charming
either,” I replied.
    “ That’s the
truth,” Amber said. “I just need to get enough money together to
get out of here. I just want somewhere that I can be safe. I just
want a home that can’t be taken away.”
    “What’s Hammy pushing you for?” I asked.
    “He wants me to do more for the customers,
give them a bit more of the fantasy.” She turned to me. “I came up
with the dominatrix act so that I could at least keep a bit of
distance between me and them. I hate that I’ve ended up here but I
can’t seem to find my way out. The problem is Hammy tells me that
the way to make more money is to do more, show more.”
    I nodded,
trying to understand. The one thing that I’d realized talking to
these women over the last couple of weeks, most of them were
exactly like me. Sometimes the smallest things can lead you down a
different path. Amber was a smart girl, trying to survive the best
way she knew how. She’d ended up working for Hammy, but so far she
had managed to do it on her own terms. The dominatrix act she had
come up with was pure theater. It appealed to the clients but it
also allowed her a measure of control that some of the other girls
didn’t have.
    Later as I watched Amber on stage I could see
her talent. She was athletic and she had a presence. She was able
to promise much but only seemed to have to deliver a small amount.
I had told Alistair that she was never going to take the mask off
for him. He had reacted with his usual temper. Finally he realized
that yelling at me wasn’t going to work at all. I was then informed
that I needed to put my time into sitting in a back booth of the
bar transcribing some of his riveting thoughts on the stripping
industry and how it could be used as a metaphor for the American
economy. To be perfectly honest I had no idea where he was going
with this, but I would never be paying to watch this movie, so it
really didn’t make much of a difference to me.
    After spending an hour trying to type on my
laptop while there was pounding music going on in the background
and cheering drunk men around me, I soon decided that I needed to
find a new location. Travis, who had continued to lurk around the
bar sat down in the booth next to me.
    “What are you doing?” he asked.
    “ I am about
to try to find somewhere quiet to work. I think I might go out the
back.” I started packing up my laptop.
    “ Can I keep
you company?” Travis asked.
    “Please tell me you are not just wanting to
get a look at naked strippers.”
    “Really,” said Travis. “If that’s what I
wanted I’d just stay out here. No I’m getting a bit tired of all
this in your face and just needed a break.”
    “ Then go
home,” I said. I stopped packing and looked at him seriously. “I
know what you’re doing Travis. I know you’re worried about me
working here and I know the only reason you have spent the last
week sitting in a stripper bar is because you are making sure I’m
okay. The fact you are doing that makes you, despite all previous
evidence to the contrary, a really nice guy. But it’s not your job
to protect me.”
    Travis looked
slightly embarrassed. “This is not a good place for you to be
Trudie,” he said quietly. “If Griffin knew where you were he would
have a fit, you know that. I’m guessing it’s probably the reason
why you haven’t told him about it.”
    It was
definitely the reason I hadn’t told him. Having Travis point it out
to me though had me feeling even guiltier than I already
did.
    “Fine, if I can’t convince you to leave, you
may as well come with me.”
    I had