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“I’ve got three rolls on the emeralds,” the photographer said not long after. “Let’s take a break.”
Fleur stepped around Nancy’s ironing board and changed into her own open-necked gauze shirt. Chris was shifting the backdrop. She poured a cup of coffee and wandered over to Belinda, who was studying a magazine ad.
Her mother had changed so much since they’d come to New York a little over two and a half years ago. The quiet, nervous gestures had disappeared. She was more confident. Prettier, too—tan and healthy from weekends at the Long Island beach house they rented. Today she wore a Gatsby white tank top and matching skirt with mulberry kid sandals and a slim gold ankle bracelet.
“Look at her skin.” Belinda tapped her fingernail against the page. “She doesn’t have pores. Photos like this make me feel forty breathing hard down my neck.”
Fleur gazed more closely at model in the ad for an expensive cosmetics line. “That’s Annie Holman. Remember the Bill Blass layout Annie and I did together a couple of months ago?”
Belinda had trouble remembering anyone who wasn’t already famous, and she shook her head.
“Mother, Annie Holman is thirteen years old!”
Belinda gave a weak laugh. “It’s no wonder every woman in this country over thirty is depressed. We’re competing with children.”
Fleur hoped women didn’t feel that way when they looked at her photographs. She hated the idea that she was earning eight hundred dollars an hour making people feel bad.
Belinda went off to the bathroom. Fleur got up her nerve and approached Chris, who’d just finished hanging the backdrop. “So…How’s school going?” Smile, stupid. And don’t be so big.
“Same old stuff.”
She could tell he was trying to act casual, as if she were just another girl in one of his classes and not the Glitter Baby. She liked that.
“I’m working on a new film, though,” he said.
“Really? Tell me about it.” She eased herself into a folding chair. It creaked as she sat.
He started to talk, and before long, he got so caught up in what he was saying that he forgot to be intimidated by her.
“It’s so interesting,” she said.
He stuck his thumb into the pocket of his jeans, then pulled it back out again. His Adam’s apple bobbed a couple of times. “Do you want to…I mean, I’ll understand if you’ve got other things going on. I know you have a lot of guys asking you out, and—”
“I don’t.” She hopped up from the chair. “I know everybody thinks I do—that everybody’s asking me out. But it’s not true.”
He picked up a light meter and toyed with it. “I see your picture in the paper with movie stars and Kennedys and everybody.”
“Those aren’t real dates. They’re…sort of for publicity.”
“Does that mean you’d like to go out with me? Maybe Saturday night. We could go down to the Village.”
Fleur grinned. “I’d love to.”
He beamed at her.
“You’d love to what, baby?” Belinda came up behind her.
“I asked Fleur to go to the Village with me on Saturday night, Mrs. Savagar,” Chris said, looking nervous again. “There’s this restaurant where they have Middle Eastern food.”
Fleur curled her toe
s in her shower thongs. “I said I’d go.”
“Did you, baby?” Belinda’s forehead puckered. “I’m afraid that won’t work. You already have plans, remember? The premiere of the new Altman picture. You’re going with Shawn Howell.”
Fleur had forgotten about the premiere, and she definitely wanted to forget about Shawn Howell, who was a twenty-two-year-old film star with an IQ that matched his age. On their first date he’d spent the evening complaining that everybody was “out to screw him,” and he’d told her he’d dropped out of high school because all the teachers were creeps and faggots. She’d begged Gretchen not to arrange any more dates with him, but Gretchen said Shawn was hot now, and business was business. When she’d tried to talk to her mother about it, Belinda had been incredulous.
“But, baby, Shawn Howell’s a star. Being seen with him makes you twice as important.” When Fleur complained that he kept trying to put his hand under her skirt, Belinda had pinched her cheek. “Celebrities are different from ordinary people. They don’t follow the same rules. I know you can handle him.”
