“Okay. What’s that?”
“Are you my girlfriend?” I asked with a little whine in my voice.
Phil slugged my shoulder.
“You’ve never asked me,” she challenged.
I handed the phone to Phil. He took off so he could talk to her alone. When he came back, he was all smiles. I guess there was hope for him yet.
◊◊◊
Chapter 31 – Capitán Cojones Monday August 8
I finally had to take Phil’s phone away from him at midnight last night. I needed to get some sleep, and he’d yammered on with his new girlfriend for hours on end. When he came down for breakfast, Roc and Yuri tried to torment him about his new status.
“Have you updated your social media to ‘In a Relationship’?” Roc asked.
Phil suddenly looked panicked.
“It’s not real unless she does it too,” Yuri counseled.
I looked up Jill’s account.
“Single,” I announced, to Phil’s annoyance. “Are you sure she’s your girlfriend? I mean, let’s get serious for a moment. She’s way out of your league.”
“He is a Dawson,” Yuri said to defend his friend.
“He’s not horrible-looking, according to my sister,” Roc added.
“Nice save. We wouldn’t want you to be the one saying he’s good-looking,” I told Roc and then turned to my brother. “Dude, she’s taller than you are. She needs to be dating someone who’s at least six-two or six-four.”
They all gave me a funny look.
“For when she wants to wear heels. If she dates Phil, she’ll have to wear flats all the time,” I explained.
“You are such the model-boy sometimes,” Roc said, shaking his head.
I pulled out my phone, put it on speaker and dialed.
“Hey, I need your help,” I told Halle.
“Sure.”
“Hypothetically, would you date a guy shorter than you were?” I asked.
“No. He would have to wear lifts if we went anywhere and I wanted to wear heels. Then there’s the whole issue of small hands and feet,” she said, and became suspicious when we all started laughing. “What’s going on?”
“Phil wants to date Jill Lacier, April’s little sister,” I explained.
“She’s cute. I say go for it, Phil,” Halle reassured him.
“Thanks,” he answered.
“Don’t worry about the small hands and feet issue. I’m sure if she likes you, it won’t matter.”
Everyone forgets that Halle has an older brother who torments her now and then. I would have to reward her for helping me put my little brother through the wringer. The howls of laughter from the three of us caught the attention of some of the other guys, and they wanted to know what we were laughing at. It was one thing to tease him within his group of friends, but another to put him up to ridicule from my teammates. He was my brother, after all.
“Halle James was making fun of some guy she knew with small hands and feet.”
“You’re talking to Halle James, the daughter of Rita James?” Patrick Welch, our catcher, asked.
“David’s done two movies with her, and they date,” Phil said as if Patrick lived on Mars.
Patrick not knowing meant he didn’t follow the gossip rags, and that caused him to go up in my estimation.
“Small hands and feet don’t always equate to a small winkie,” Daz Whitman, our left-handed middle reliever, offered as he held up his hand and wiggled his pinkie.
“I think he’s talking from personal experience,” Patrick said with a straight face.
As much fun as making fun of guys with small dicks was, I would rather talk to Halle. I left them to their discussion and spent a half-hour catching up. Trip was scheduled to go in for more microsurgery on the nerves in his shoulder. Getting shot had been a trying experience for him and his family. He was putting the procedure off so he could join his family when they came out to watch me play in Mexico.
She’d also gotten callbacks on the two movies she was up for.
“Hey, there’s a chance I may get the lead in the one that’s a combination of the Notebook and Crazy Stupid Love. If I do, do you want me to see if I can get you an audition for the male lead?”
It wasn’t lost on me that Ryan Gosling was the leading man in both, and Halle had a huge crush on him. If I was honest with myself, I would love to be Ryan Gosling for Halle.
“Why are they still auditioning if they plan to film in the fall?” I asked.
“Another studio bought the rights, and that studio head has a beef against the leading lady. She was trying to discredit him in some unsavory way and got caught. When they bought the rights, they signed her to a five-movie deal. Word on the street is that he plans to never make those movies, and she can’t make any others until her commitment is complete,” Halle explained.
“Why would you want to work for them?” I asked.
“Saul. He would never let me sign a deal like that. His take is that her agent must have had a brain aneurism and not read the fine print. He also said that her agent has lost most of her clients over the fallout.”
“So, the studio can get away with something like that?” I asked.
“David, grow up. The studios have done worse than that over the years. Unless you want to work for some independent and hope the movie is a success at Sundance or Cannes so it can be released, you have to play their games. You just need to find yourself a shark of an agent and hope for the best. Hollywood is small enough that a few phone calls can make it almost impossible to work in this town. I think that girl made a terrible error in judgment,” Halle said.
“Everyone is just rolling over and letting the studio do something like that?” I asked.
“No. They’ll have to pay me almost double what they were going to pay her if I get the role. Saul is also insisting on guarantees in case they decide not to release it.”
In most contracts, you earned more when certain milestones were reached in the movie’s timeline. They obviously didn’t want to pay your full fee if they never got a chance to recoup their investment.
I didn’t know all the details about what the girl had done, but it would have been smarter to simply fire her. When you took it to a personal level in business, you’d better be willing to face the consequences. In this case, your talent now knew that if they pissed off the boss, he’d be vindictive, even if he was justified. This caused them to have to protect themselves by taking what could be considered hazard pay and guarantees.
“I appreciate you thinking of me, but I’m not sure I would want to get into the middle of that.”
“Mom agrees with you and told me not to take it. She said I didn’t need the negative press that might come from ‘the sideshow,’ as she calls it.”
“I guess it comes down to the role. Is it good enough to move your career forward?”
“Have you and my mom been talking?” she asked.
“No, we haven’t. I take it she asked the same question.”
“Yep. This would be my first film where I was the clear lead. The Secret Circle was more of an ensemble piece. If I don’t get the other movie, I would have to consider this one.”
“No, I agree. I also know Saul isn’t going to sell you out. And I really doubt the studio wants your mom pissed at them,” I said.
I wished her luck and left to get ready for practice.
◊◊◊
After practice, we grabbed a late lunch, and our bus took us to San Jacinto College for our last exhibition game. They’d already beaten us 3–2 last week.
Coach had me take them out and warm up by stretching and running. I could see the difference in the team’s demeanor as soon as they got off the bus. Everyone seemed more focused and confident than they had when I last saw them play Houston.
We had a 3:00 start time, so Coach Kingwood took us back to the locker room to talk to us. This allowed San Jacinto to get warmed up.