Two witnesses were pulled in off the street for a few dollars each. The wedding ring was a cheap cigar band. The whole ceremony took no more than ten minutes.
‘We’ll do it properly later,’ Cody promised her in the cab on the way back to the airport.
‘Yes,’ agreed Dallas, wondering why she didn’t feel suddenly secure and happy.
They were back in LA in time to get a few hours’ sleep before Dallas was due at the studio.
‘Shall I stay?’ Cody asked.
‘Of course,’ replied Dallas. What the hell did he think they had got married for if not to be together?
She showered, brushed her teeth, and went to him naked.
He stroked her body, muttered words of love, made love to her in a perfectly adequate way – a vast improvement on the time before.
She hated every minute of it. She hated the feel of his hands, his tongue, his male organ. There was no joy, no waves. He could have been a customer – another trick. He did the same things, went through the same motions.
‘Did you come?’ he asked anxiously when they were finished.
A man who needed to ask would never know.
‘Mmmn,’ Dallas mumbled, turning her back to him so that he wouldn’t see the tears.
She had made a mistake. It wasn’t his fault. He was blameless – only wanting to do what made her happy. But he had been right, they should have waited.
‘Goodnight, Mrs. Hills,’ Cody murmured. ‘Did I remember to tell you that I love you?’
* * *
A week later Bobbie was back.
This time she appeared at the studio, thin and jumpy in studded suede hot pants and a see-through shirt. She was hanging around outside Dallas’s dressing-room, and pounced on her during the lunch break.
‘Hey, sugar sweets,’ she greeted cheerfully, as if they were the best of friends. ‘What’s happenin’?’
Dallas hustled her quickly into the dressing-room. ‘How did you get here?’ she questioned, her voice weary. She had expected Bobbie back, but not this soon.
‘I got influence.’ Bobbie’s facial tic went into sudden uncontrollable action, and she started to rub her red-rimmed eyes. ‘I need some more bread,’ she mumbled. ‘Just a fuckin’ loan ’til I get myself back in action.’
‘No more money,’ Dallas replied. ‘I told you that before.’
‘Dontcha get tight-assed with me.’ Suddenly Bobbie was screaming, ‘You owe me plenty – plenty!’
‘I owe you nothing.’
Bobbie rolled her eyes. ‘Sweetshit! You got no memory on you, girl. I dragged you out of that pisshole you was givin’ it away in. I discovered you. We go back a long way together. We got memories – mutual memories…’
Anger was starting to bubble up inside Dallas. Anger and frustration. The unfairness of it all.
‘Go away, Bobbie,’ she said tightly. ‘Go away and don’t come back if you know what’s good for you.’
‘Just another coupla hundred,’ cajoled Bobbie, her mood becoming pleading. ‘Just two hundred and I’ll leave you alone. I know you don’t want me around. I know I’m an embarrassment – but shit, girl, try and see it my way.’
‘I do see it your way. I see you’ve got your eyes on what you think is a bank.’
‘You’re doin’ pretty good…’ whined Bobbie. ‘What’s a coupla hundred to you? I got a need… I gotta pay the man…’
Dallas stared at the black girl. She was pathetic. But pathetic or not, she had to get her off her back. Lew Margolis was enough to have hanging over her, she didn’t need this too. She dug into her purse, came up with sixty dollars. ‘It’s all I’ve got,’ she said flatly.
Bobbie snatched the money from her. ‘It’ll do,’ she sneered, ‘for now. I’ll be back next week. Get a bundle together for me and I’ll leave you alone. It’s only fair, y’know. You gotta see things my way, sweet stuff – I am responsible for you gettin’ this all together – without me you’d be nowhere.’ She shoved the money up the leg of her hot pants and sighed. ‘We girls gotta stick together. You and me had some good times.’ She ran her hand lightly over Dallas’s arm. ‘Remember, honey? Remember?’
Dallas pulled her arm away. ‘You try remembering the swimming pool, Bobbie. No more money – get it? No more money.’
Bobbie giggled. ‘Yeah – I remember that little scene. But you had nothin’ to lose then. Now you’re riding high. By the way, sugar sweets, how’s Mr. M? Still the same sweet old-fashioned guy? He remember you? He remember that hot juicy box? He remember the good times? Maybe I should pay him a visit, give him a little reminder. What do you say?’ Her eyes glazed over whilst she was talking, and she patted the money reassuringly. ‘Think about it, kid. I’ll pay you a visit in a coupla days and we’ll talk some more, gotta go now – gotta get my head together.’ She teetered off on ridiculous high-heeled wedgies.
Dallas slumped into a chair. Oh God! What was she to do? Lew Margolis hadn’t stumped her, why should a stupid stoned hooker be a problem?
She pressed her fingers into her temples, massaging, thinking. Her mind remained a blank. Nothing. No solution. Somehow she would have to figure something out. In the meantime she would just have to keep on paying.
* * *
Cody patted his stomach. ‘Delicious!’ he exclaimed. ‘The best spaghetti I’ve had all day!’
Dallas smiled. ‘It will get better.’
Cody held out his hand. ‘Come and sit down, I’ll do the dishes.’
‘You mean you’ll load the machine.’
‘I mean I’ll scrub the pans.’
‘You’re so good to me.’
‘Gotta treat a star like a star. I want you to read that script tonight.’
‘I can’t tonight, Cody, I’m really wiped out.’
He was immediately sympathetic. ‘Tough day?’
‘It’s just tiring.’
‘Only four more weeks and they’ll have the first six in the can. We’ll have a honeymoon – go anywhere you like.’
‘I can’t wait. It’s some schedule.’
‘They have to work this way. A segment every six days – that’s the way to make money. When you figure it out over a year, it’s not bad at all. You make twenty-four shows a year – that’s only five months’ work and the rest of the time is yours.’
‘Thanks a lot. With the Mack thing – personal appearances – and hopefully a movie – I’ll have no time left at all.’
‘What do you want time for?’
‘I want to have a baby.’
Cody sat bolt upright, ‘You want to what?’
‘A baby. I want a baby.’
He laughed. ‘Married a week and she wants a baby! We’ve got all the time in the world – next year we’ll cut Man Made Woman down to twelve shows a year. Think you can wait?’ She glared at him. He thought she was joking. Well, to hell with him – she didn’t need his permission. She only needed his cooperation – and she wasn’t short of that. Now that they were married he expected to make love all the time, and each experience made her more withdrawn physically. It was as if he was making up for lost time. Not that he didn’t try to please her. He tried too goddamn hard, forcing his tongue in every possible crevice in his vain attempts at giving her pleasure. ‘Don’t do that’ had become her battlecry, and although she tried to make her tone pleasant, she wanted to scream, ‘Leave me alone – don’t touch me.’ And of course he knew he was doing something wrong, and because of that tried all the harder.
‘I think I’ll go to bed,’ she said.
‘I think I’ll join you.’
‘You don’t have to, it’s early.’
‘I want to.’ Christ, did he want to! And yet what was going wrong between them?
His original instincts had been right. He should have stuck to his guns, given her time. Now they were married – married, for chrissakes! And she didn’t even want him. He knew it. He sensed it. And his gut reaction was never wrong. He should have taken his own advice and left her alone. He
had known it wouldn’t work. But to turn out this bad so soon? Without even another man edging him into obscurity. He just couldn’t figure it.
She had wanted him. There had been no gun at her head. And now with the baby talk…
She lay in bed totally wiped out. Bobbie. Fucking Bobbie. What was she to do?
For a moment she contemplated telling Cody – handing the whole bag over to him. But the things Bobbie would probably tell him… She couldn’t face that. No – the best thing was to just keep paying – and paying and paying.
Her eyes filled with tears, and she turned her back as Cody climbed into bed beside her. His hand tentatively caressed her shoulder and she lay rigidly still. The hell with him – he could whistle for it tonight.
* * *
Doris Andrews – Mrs. Lew Margolis – turned up at the studio the next day. She behaved like a queen visiting her subjects, and they all bowed and scraped in her direction. She smiled graciously, accepting compliments as she picked her way carefully across the set of Man Made Woman, finally stationing herself beside the camera operator.
‘Hello, dear.’ She waved at Dallas, who was just about to do a third take on a difficult scene. ‘I’ve come to take you off for lunch.’
Dallas smiled weakly. Just what she needed. Lew Margolis’s dykey movie-star wife.
She did the scene, Chuck called cut, and there was nothing else to do but be enveloped in clouds of Joy as Doris kissed her firmly on both cheeks.
‘I’ve been meaning to visit you for days,’ Doris said in her girlish voice. ‘I wanted to congratulate you on becoming the Mack girl. Wonderful news. So good for your career. But didn’t I tell you at my party that I knew you were destined to be someone special?’ She chuckled intimately. ‘Some of us have it – some of us don’t. You’ve got it, darling girl. I could tell as soon as I set eyes on you. And I should know – Lord, should I know. Twenty years in this business… God – that sets you up…’ She trailed off, her cornflower-blue eyes misting over momentarily. ‘I’ve arranged lunch in Lew’s private dining room. Just the two of us – Lew’s not here today, he’s at home, a slight chest cold, but I always insist he stays home if there’s the tiniest thing wrong with him. He loves me to baby him.’ Her lips tremored slightly. ‘All men like to be treated as children. Remember that, my dear, and you’ll never have any problem keeping a man. Not that you would, of course – with that fine figure, those lovely breasts… Tell me, do you exercise to keep them so firm?’
Dallas said quickly, ‘I never eat lunch, Mrs. Margolis.’
‘Doris, my dear, call me Doris. All my friends do.’ She linked her arm through Dallas’s. ‘And I’m sure we’re going to be friends. I feel a very warm closeness towards you, as if we had known each other for many years. Today you shall eat lunch. A little salad, a few slivers of smoked salmon. Some fresh pineapple. I ordered it specially for you.’
There was no getting out of it. Dallas made a face behind her back as she followed Doris out to a powder-blue Corniche which whisked them over to Lew’s office. First the husband, now the wife. Why the hell didn’t they both leave her alone?
Lunch was laid out and waiting. A bottle of white wine to go with it. ‘I don’t drink when I’m working,’ Dallas objected.
‘Of course,’ agreed Doris, but she poured her a glass anyway. ‘Now, Dallas dear, tell me all about yourself. Were you born out here?’
Picking at the food Dallas fabricated a suitable background for herself. Doris nodded over every word, her blue eyes misting over at references to parents killed in a car crash and – the truth at last – a fiancé dying of a drug overdose.
‘I’ve never taken any kind of drugs,’ Doris admitted in a breathy whisper. ‘I suppose when I was growing up drugs just weren’t an issue, and of course Lew would never want me to experiment now.’ She gave a self-conscious laugh. ‘Lew’s a very straight-laced man, you know.’
‘Really?’ questioned Dallas, cramming smoked salmon into her mouth and spooning some pineapple onto her plate. The sooner this lunch was over the better.
‘Oh yes,’ continued Doris, giggling like a naughty child. ‘He has ruled over my career with an iron hand. Love scenes confined to an occasional kiss. No naughty words. All my films have appealed to a wide family audience.’ She hesitated, then – ‘He even censors our private life together.’
Dallas really didn’t want to hear about it. She studied her pineapple and wished that Doris would shut up.
‘He’s a very jealous man. Has me followed, watched. I’m never allowed to be alone with another man – never. But I don’t mind.’ She leaned forward intently. ‘You see, Dallas dear, my interest has never been in other men… Do you understand me?’
‘I’ve always enjoyed your movies,’ Dallas replied brightly. ‘I think I must have seen them all on television. Why, even…’
Doris patted her gently on the arm. ‘Am I embarrassing you, dear? I wouldn’t want to do that. But somehow I sense in you a kindred spirit. You see, I feel that you too have been used by men. Before I married Lew… well, I came to Hollywood when I was seventeen – a young innocent farm girl – and between seventeen and Lew Margolis, I sucked more hot cocks to get work than I care to remember. Enough to last me a lifetime.’ She patted at her lips delicately with a lace handkerchief. ‘Perhaps I sound crude to you, but sometimes it is such a relief to find someone with whom you can be totally honest. I feel so close to you, Dallas. You see my husband has never been able to get an erection, and I don’t mind, I don’t mind at all. We have a marriage of the minds. Sex is not important to me. But when I see a girl like you. A beautiful sensual girl with breasts I want to touch…’
‘Mrs. Margolis – Doris,’ Dallas interrupted quickly, ‘please don’t go on. I’m not into that scene, really I’m not.’
Doris smiled softly. ‘Don’t be frightened to admit it.’
‘I’m not frightened.’
Doris’s blue eyes bored into her. ‘I can sense these things, dear, you can’t deceive me. Perhaps you’re not ready for a relationship just yet, but you will be – you will be. Just a little time in this town. The men are vultures, they’ll eat you up and spit you out. I just want you to know that we can be friends and perhaps lovers. I hope lovers.’
Dallas nodded. She wanted to say – don’t call me, I’ll call you – but somehow she didn’t want to make fun of this woman – this world-wide star of family entertainment whose husband could only get it up for hookers.
‘I understand, Doris,’ she said softly, suddenly enormously sorry for her.
Doris smiled. ‘Good.’ She glanced at her neat gold watch.
‘My goodness – I must get you back to the set. I’m glad we’ve had this little lunch.’
‘Yes,’ agreed Dallas.
They drove back to the set in Doris’s powder-blue car, and lounging around outside, carelessly chatting to an electrician, was Bobbie. She was becoming a permanent fixture.
‘Hey, babe!’ She teetered over to Dallas, balancing precariously on outrageously high-heeled boots worn with the perennial hot pants. ‘Bin lookin’ for you all over.’
‘You’re not wasting any time,’ muttered Dallas bitterly, at the same moment waving and smiling at Doris as she drove off.
‘Yeah, man. Well, like how long sixty bucks gonna last me? You’re rollin’ in it, sugar sweets – let’s not get tight-fisted when y’all got soooo much to lose. Lay a thousand on me and I’ll flit outta your life like a fast shit!’
‘I don’t have any money on me. I gave you every last cent yesterday.’
‘So get it.’
‘I can’t get over to the bank. I’ll give you a cheque.’
‘No cheque, sugar sweets. Cash. Today.’
Dallas thought quickly. If a thousand dollars would keep Bobbie off her back for a while it would be worth it. She could always send someone over to her bank to cash a cheque. At least it would give her some thinking space. She needed time to figure out what to do about Bobbie.
‘I’ll get it for you.’
Bobbie blinked nervously. ‘Good girl.’
‘Where shall I send it?’
‘Bring it yourself. No messengers.’ She scribbled down an address. ‘I’ll be waitin’. Oh – an’ chicken – none of your smartass ideas ’bout hittin’ on me. I gotta friend with a letter. Anything happens to me you got yourself up shit creek.’
Dallas nodded grimly. They must have been watching the same television programmes.
Bobbie wobbled happily off.
Kiki, on her way to the set, linked arms with Dallas. ‘Who was that?’ she asked.
Dallas shrugged. ‘Some freak chasing autographs.’
‘I wonder how these people get on the set,’ Kiki complained. ‘Tell me about your lunch – Chuck says you were last seen being spirited off by Doris Andrews. What’s she like?’
* * *
Cody spent two hours on the phone locating the best house he could in Acapulco for their honeymoon. He wanted to surprise Dallas. Wanted her to have something nice to look forward to.
When it was all arranged he got nervous in case she wouldn’t want to go to Acapulco. He had sent off a heavy deposit, but the hell with it… If she didn’t want to go there, he would sacrifice his deposit. True love indeed.
He had been thinking about what she had said. A baby. At first an unthinkable idea. But on second thoughts, if that was what would make her happy. After all she was a girl with no family. She had had a rotten life. If she wanted a baby…
It could be worked out. If only she would be prepared to wait a few months: long enough to get twenty-four of the shows in the can and all the Mack girl photos for the initial six months. It wasn’t such an impossible idea after all. And his mother – maybe it would soften the blow. A baby to look forward to.
He would have to think about it seriously. If that was what would make Dallas happy – well, it was a possibility. It could be planned. He remembered with horror the one and only time he had knocked a girl up. She had been a secretary at one of the studios. It had been she who had insisted on an abortion. In fact she had planned the weekend together in Tijuana and treated the whole thing as one long jaunt. Shocked at her callous attitude, he had dutifully spent the weekend with her, paid all the bills, and never seen her again. At least it proved he was potent.