No matter how hard she wracked her brain, she couldn’t come up with someone she knew who’d want her dead. It was probably someone she didn’t know, a psycho fan maybe, but so far the police didn’t have a lot to go on. No fingerprints, no shell casings, and a person dressed in black. Just fucking dandy.
She paced the living room and glanced at the clock. She wished she’d put her foot down with Ari. She didn’t want him to think that because they’d decided to meet at her house, it gave him permission to make a move.
Why had she even agreed to meet with him? She ran her hands through her hair and took a few calming breaths. Because Ari’s script was one of the best she’d ever read. After the shooting had forced her to back out of the running weeks ago, and after her email to Ari, Cal had actually been on the short list for the job. But the director of photography had pulled out completely, causing Ari to postpone the filming. The new DP’s schedule had fit right in with Julie’s availability to start back to work.
Yes, this town constantly surprised her. She hadn’t thought she’d be in the running again so now she was up against Cal and hated it. Shades of Nowhere to Hide. Except Julie had no problems with this script. She just had problems if Ari thought she was going to sleep with him to get the part. Allowing him to come to her place would only encourage him to believe she was that kind of girl, and she categorically was not. The last thing she wanted to see was a story in a rag magazine that said she was seeing a married man. If getting this role meant putting up with Ari sitting on her sofa for a few minutes, then she’d deal with it. And if she had to toss him out because he wanted more—and lost the role because of it—then so be it.
Someone rapped at the door. Julie checked the peephole. Ari stood bathed in the white light of her front porch.
“Querida,” Ari said in his faint Spanish accent as she opened the door. “How are you?” He stepped in and kissed each cheek. The distinct scent of patchouli had her breathing through her mouth. It seemed a little stronger than usual. Did Ari think it would draw her to him? The man’s cluelessness astounded her.
“Fine. I’m fine.” She pulled away but not before she glanced outside. Ari’s limo sat right across the street, but she saw no sign of Troy. She closed the door and led Ari to her large living room. He sat on the sofa and she kept her distance by sitting in the overstuffed chair across from him.
“Julie,” he crooned. “Why so far away?” He patted the space next to him.
“Ari,” Julie warned. “We’ve talked about this. You’re a married man. You know my feelings on that.” She’d wanted him to believe it was his marital status that kept her at arm’s length. A tiny bud of fear inside her said to hold off on rejecting him for any other reason because it could mean the difference in her getting the role and not getting it. She’d learned to tread very lightly when it came to Hollywood.
He sighed. “I’ve told you my wife and I have an arrangement that is very comfortable for us.”
“It’s not comfortable for me,” she told him with a wry smile.
He grinned and leaned back on the sofa, propping his ankle over his knee. “You know why I’m here, yes?”
“I hope it’s to tell me you’ve decided I should play Elizabeth in Meltdown.”
“You’ve always been my first choice.” His eyebrows lifted. “But how will your friend Carrie Ann take the news if I say I want you to have the lead role?”
Was this a trick question? Was this Ari pretending to care about her friendship with Cal? Good God, what if Cal had slept with him in hopes of securing the role and Ari thought he could play one of them against the other? Could he be that sleazy? Would Cal have kept that sort of news from her since Ari had considered Julie for the role originally? A small part of her felt as if she might be betraying Cal. But things like this happened all the time. Start dates got pushed. Schedules changed. Financing fell through. The whole town was one gigantic crapshoot of luck