Relatively Famous Read Free Page B

convince Evan that he was a changed man.
    He couldn’t wait until his agent , Renna Martin , got back from her Buddhist retreat in Santa Barbara. She had been completely out of touch , and Mark had been told she was “unreachable.” He needed her back in L.A. where she belonged. She had been his agent from the beginning , and there was no one he trusted more in this city than Renna Martin.
    After leaving college and arriving in California, broke but determined, Mark spent weeks schlepping from agency to agency, praying someone would give him a chance. No one would take the risk of signing an unknown stage actor. No one, that is, until he met Renna. She had just been promoted from assistant to agent, and she took pity on Mark, agreeing to have dinner with him. At three in the morning, after consuming an obscene number of martinis, she agreed to sign Mark. He was her first client , and she was his first friend. The pair had risen to the top together. Now Mark’s career was taking a dive , and he needed Renna back from her spa retreat.
    Mark shook his head and aimed the car vents at his armpits. For four hundred bucks, you’d think this shirt would come with its own cooling system. He gritted his teeth and pulled off PCH into Starbucks. He handed the young woman a fifty-dollar bill. “Grab me a nonfat soy latte? No sugar, or I can’t drink it.” Mark still hadn’t been to bed. A late dinner with the girl had led to the late night of clubbing.
    “Sure thing!” the woman chirped. She hopped out of the car, pulling her teeny shorts down and hobbled into the store in high heels.
    Mark turned up the air conditioning in the car and leaned back in his leather seat. He pounded the steering wheel a few times in frustration. His professional life had gotten so bad that Mark briefly considered becoming a Scientologist. Those people got all the attention. Or, what was that other popular religion? The one that required you to wear a red string around your wrist? Instead he had started going to Evan Dodd’s health club with the pathetic hope of running into him and striking up a casual conversation. Stupid idea, Mark knew, but he was desperate.
    His cell phone rang , and he pushed his sunglasses on top of his head so he could read the Caller ID. It was his publicist.
    “What’s up?” Mark asked. Maybe this was good news? Maybe early reviews were in on The Clone Faction , and a miracle had occurred?
    He listened intently to the frantic woman on the phone. Mark was confused. “They’re saying I have a what? How old?” Mark demanded. This is just what he needed: another tabloid story! “Tell them it’s completely false.” He stopped to listen to another slew of panicked words. “I said it’s not true. As in, there is no truth to it whatsoever!” he hollered into the phone. “Make this go away!”
    But even as he spoke the words, Mark felt a rising sense of dread. He clapped the phone shut and repositioned the air conditioning onto his face, trying in vain to cool down.
     
     
     
     
     
    Chapter 6
     
    Dani swung her book bag to her shoulder and blew her bangs out of her eyes. Her first year of high school was ending , and Dani could hardly wait for her summer break. Every day, on her walk to school with Sam, she was amazed at the weight she carried. She needed a ridiculously thick textbook for each of her classes, plus three-ring binders, a bag of makeup to stealth-apply between classes, the makeup remover to use before she went home, a water bottle, and a lunch bag. She was surprised she wasn’t permanently hunched over.
    “How was dinner last night?” Sam asked. “Did Alan finally pull out a ring and pop the question?”
    “Nope. No ring. No need to fall prey to any cultural obligation like marriage, I guess . ” Dani tried not to think about how sad her mom had looked last night. “So how did your interview go at the lake?” Dani asked.
    Sam’s eyes sparkled. “I got it! I start work on the Monday after