Little Known Facts A Novel - By Christine Sneed Page 0,49

to meet his daughter, whose med-school pedigree intimidated her.

“It’s so hot today,” she said, lifting her hair off her sweaty neck. He nodded, then looked away.

“I’d better go,” he said.

“Really? Already?”

“Yes, I’d better,” he said. He didn’t say good-bye but gave her a small wave before he opened the door to her trailer and disappeared. He hadn’t taken his bottle of water, which she noticed was still in her hand.

That night, after a bubble bath and a room-service dinner in Renn’s room, she discovered that the rumor mill was as robust on the Bourbon set as anywhere else. “I told Billy not to bother you,” he said. “Especially when you’re resting.”

“He wasn’t bothering me. I invited him up. I wanted him to tell me all your secrets.”

“I don’t think he knows them.”

She laughed. “Really? He must know a few.”

“Not if I can help it,” said Renn.

She couldn’t tell if he was being ironic. Her amateur powers of psychoanalysis seemed to be eroding under his influence. She said nothing.

“Why did you invite him into your trailer?”

Well, she thought, suppressing a smile. He’s jealous.

“I wanted him to help me go over some lines for my next scene.” She wasn’t sure why she persisted with this lie.

“You shouldn’t have left your assistant back in California, Elise. She might have come in handy here.” He smiled as he said this, but she could tell that he was annoyed.

“I feel more comfortable being on my own than having Gwynn with me all the time. I don’t really like being someone’s boss.”

“All right, but you can always ask one of the production assistants here to help you. Or I’ll do it if I’m not busy.”

She laughed. “You’re always busy.”

“I suppose that’s true.”

She hoped that she hadn’t gotten Billy into trouble. The PR task, at least, had been straightened out to Renn’s satisfaction, and Bourbon was likely to receive as much prerelease buzz as he hoped for, maybe more. The first movie he had directed, The Zoologist, had done very well critically, and although the box office receipts were modest, it had still earned a little more than expected. She had watched it before she auditioned for Bourbon at Dusk; some of it had been over her head, and there wasn’t a lot of dialogue, but she had been able to tell Renn that she had loved how he had progressively softened the light on the female lead, one of only five characters in the film with a speaking role. By the end, she was almost out of focus, something that had reminded Elise of how Laura had been portrayed in a film version of The Glass Menagerie that she had seen in high school. Renn had been impressed, telling her that Tennessee Williams was his favorite playwright. She didn’t know if she had a favorite playwright, but she told Renn that he was hers too.

“Billy was a perfect gentleman,” she said.

“I’m pretty sure that I can trust him,” said Renn, giving her a foxy smile. “But the jury’s still out on you.”

3.

There was a moment a week later when Elise thought that Billy might kiss her. They were alone in the elevator at the Omni, riding up to their rooms, and she was telling him a silly story about how her childhood pets had all been named after flowers, even the males. At the end of the story, the elevator doors about to open, he gave her a look that she recognized as the kind that sometimes accompanied a romantic confession: “I’d really like to make love to you right now,” or “You’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.” It wasn’t that these words had ever been spoken to her in this situation, not exactly, but she had heard them in movies and had always hoped that she would someday find herself in an elevator or on a rainy boardwalk with a handsome man who would reveal that he wanted to kiss her and then he would do it. It would feel right too, and they would somehow make it to the nearest bed without much difficulty, and maybe, a year or two later, she would marry him. (They would also be millionaires but not really have to work, and aside from two perfect children, she would rarely desire anything else.)

After she and Billy had stepped off the elevator and were standing uncertainly in front of the closing doors, he didn’t kiss her, but he touched her arm and said something that she knew she