I’d decided she wanted to come here because their school colors were orange and blue like Lincoln High. She would already have her wardrobe set.
The only drawback to Pam going here and Tracy to USC was that they wouldn’t be able to live together. It was just too far to drive between the two locations. They would be able to keep in touch, though.
I became a little sad as I finally accepted that not all my friends would be going to college with me. I missed seeing Pam and Tracy, Pam especially, even though Tracy was probably my best friend. Since resolving the issues around her pregnancy, I was used to seeing Pam almost every day, even if it was only to see her smiling face. That had always been enough.
Since I’d come to LA, I’d been on the go continuously. I wondered if I was getting a glimpse of what my life would be like this coming summer and fall. That was when I would be shooting the James Bond movie and the second and third
Despite being called a ‘stupid boy,’ I wasn’t an idiot. There was no way I would turn my back on the opportunity to do the movies. I’d merely underestimated the time commitment that would be required, especially on this trip. I’d agreed to do a photo shoot, work on a second movie, and do a live TV special—where I would sing. And all this was in between all the other stuff I had going on. The big one was, I had a girlfriend who deserved my time. God only knew when I was supposed to fit everything in.
My five minutes of musing were over. Lexi found me and told me they were ready for the next scene.
◊◊◊
Lexi had arranged for me to take Ai to Kristy’s Village Café, which sat on a bluff overlooking Zuma Beach. It had a rustic feel from the outside, as it was covered in weathered vertical wood boards. It gave it a hip old-barn vibe. By Malibu standards, the prices were reasonable. We were seated in the prime location where there was an ocean view.
Ai was from Osaka, the largest component of the Keihanshin Metropolitan Area, where 19 million people lived. That was hard to imagine when you considered that in comparison, New York had eight-and-a-half million residents. Ai said that there were many problems with where she lived, with its high crime rate being the biggest. But there were reasons why people lived there. Ai loved that she could go out her door and find just about everything she wanted within walking distance of her high-rise.
Ai was a city girl through and through. She was tough, worldly, and street smart. She was nothing like the wide-eyed college girl she played in the J-drama. Ai teased me about being a farm boy at heart. She admitted to feeling a little uneasy with the open spaces. Osaka had parks and places to go like the Malibu hillsides, but she was used to people being everywhere.
I admitted that when I traveled to New York, I sometimes felt overwhelmed by the sheer number of people. LA didn’t give me that same feeling because it was much more spread out. LA felt more like many suburbs that had all grown together into one giant ’burb that just went on and on.
By the end of lunch, we agreed we’d had a lovely time, but we would probably never be more than castmates, or better yet, Bill’s friend and girlfriend. I did enjoy working with her, but we had vastly different outlooks.
◊◊◊
During a break, Lexi told me to call Chubby Feldman, the director of my upcoming James Bond movie.
“David, I hear you need a shark of a lawyer,” Chubby said, getting right to the point.
“Did my people fill you in on what I’m looking for?” I asked.
“They did. I just have one question. Your main focus is on the actor who harmed you. You’re not planning on going after the studio, are you?” he asked.
I could read between the lines. Chubby knew the score in Hollywood and didn’t want me to rock the boat. Being a teen, that just fueled my impulse to burn the whole town down. Something inside me demanded that I charge in and fix this entire mess. Zander had to have gotten the idea that what he was doing was okay from someone, or he would never have been so confident in approaching Halle for sex. I’d seen it played out right in front of me when I did my movie in Cuba.
Not for the first time, I wished it was just me involved. It might be worth it to blow this not-so-secret practice sky high. It turned my stomach to think I might play a part in not pushing this hard enough. What stopped me was that it might harm people like Chubby, Halle, and Rita James. I didn’t want to damage their careers, and I knew full well that they would be caught in the blast radius if I did what I really wanted to.
