I changed into clubbing clothes. When I came out, Kendal gave me a nod of approval.
“You want to go with us?” I asked.
“No, I’m hanging out with Lori. She told me it was better if you were seen with either Elizabeth or Bree. She suggested you be seen with Bree, because Elizabeth has her eyes set on you. That way you two can get to know each other and just tell the press you’re friends.”
“Who will Elizabeth be dating?” I asked.
“Craig, of course,” she said, and I cringed. “You need to get over that. This is the land of lies. I think Craig is more interested in Trip, to be honest.”
“My gaydar must be broken. I never even got a twinge from it. Trip made me nervous as hell, though,” I admitted.
“Yes, he is your type,” Kendal said, trying to hide a smirk.
“Keep it up, Chuckles, and I’ll be letting you sleep on the couch.”
I don’t think she believed me.
IT WAS AMAZING HOW easy it was to get into a club when you’re with three other actors. You didn’t even have to stand in line. What you did have to do was make sure you let the paparazzi and gossip people get their pound of flesh. The club got the publicity from you being there, you got exposure for your career and the movie, and the press got their story for the weekend. All I needed to do was start a fight in the club to make everyone even happier.
What really put me off-kilter was the women in the club. Believe it or not, I saw a cute girl kissing her guy, but when she saw Craig, she pushed her boyfriend away and was all over Craig. These women were hot, too. I was impressed Craig was able to resist some of them. The need for security—private security—was obvious. More than once I had to step in front of an overaggressive guy trying to hit on Elizabeth or Bree. If we did this again, I wanted to make sure we were safe.
We ended up hitting five clubs before I’d had enough. I explained to them that the next ass-hat who spilled their drink on me, or squeezed one of the girls’ butt, would get his head handed to him.
They got worried looks because they could tell I was serious.
Chapter 2 – Leaving LA
Saturday January 3
I woke up to find Kendal lying on me again, but this time she was naked. She hadn’t been home when I’d returned, and I had gone to bed. I took one smell of her breath and knew she’d been drinking last night. It dawned on me that she and I would end up sleeping together if I didn’t find her a hotel room, and soon. I rolled her off me and was able to see what I had been missing. Was I stupid to pass this up? No. She was my agent and friend. I needed her to be only that. I didn’t want sex to change how I felt about her.
I got up and ran again. I ended up in the same diner and ordered the same breakfast. The waitress brought me a clean bar towel and sat down with me. That got my curiosity going. She had the morning’s paper and pointed to a photo of me with Bree.
“Is this you?” she asked.
“Yes,” I admitted.
She handed me her head shot with her info.
“I hear you’re currently working on a movie. Can you give this to their casting director?” she asked hopefully.
I had a funny feeling this wouldn’t be the last request of this type I would receive. I would have to decide how I would handle it in the future when someone approached me. I thought the best approach was to just return the photo to her. But then I worried she would do something to my breakfast, so I decided I’d just give it to Kendal. If she threw it away, I could live with that.
“I’m a complete newbie in this business. I’m not sure who I would need to give this to. Would it be okay if I gave it to my agent?” I asked.
She seemed satisfied. When in doubt, just be honest.
I WENT TO THE FRONT desk and found a room for Kendal. After then taking my supplements and a shower, I got dressed and went down to the lobby. Karen Least, the production assistant, had waited for me with Ben and a couple of the other actors. They had one of the hotel’s minibuses take us to the studio.
We arrived at the studio and they showed us to a large soundstage. It was set up for them to record our movements via a special suit. The sensor suits were basically black spandex which covered your whole body. The suit had sensors at each joint. When I moved, it recorded where I was. From that they could computer-generate a likeness of me. It was helpful for stunts that were considered too dangerous.
At one point in the movie, my character has a confrontation with Ben’s character and some of his buddies. I’m happy I’m not one of Ben’s buddies because if there was a sequel, they wouldn’t be in it. It took the techs about thirty minutes just to get me in the suit and make sure everything was working right.
I was happy to see Tish and Dylan there to supervise the fight scene. When everyone was suited up, we walked through the fight scene at half speed. Ben was graceful in his movements. My guess would be that he had dance training in his background.
One of the extras wasn’t getting his steps down. Basically, a fight scene is an intricate dance. The man having problems must have been six-ten and weighed over 350 pounds. He looked like a giant offensive tackle in the NFL. At one point he was supposed to use this huge ax to try and cleave me in half. Dylan and Tish were working with him while I worked with the other members of the cast to make sure we all knew our steps.
Jessup suddenly showed up.
“Is everybody ready?” he asked.
“No, we’re still working with our barbarian. We may need to delay this,” Dylan suggested.
“Why don’t we just run it and see what we have. David, you can ad-lib some if need be, can’t you?” he asked me.
“Yes, sir,” I said.
“Jessup, I’m worried about safety here. While these practice blades won’t cut anyone, you sure can break some bones. I’m not comfortable moving forward yet,” Dylan told the director.
“This is costing us money. I need to get this done now. Do you think you can give it a try?” he asked the big guy.
Of course, he said he could.
We were all soon in place and they started yelling out status.
“Sensors ready?”
“All sensors are a go!”
“Film rolling!”
“Scene one, take one!”
“Action!” Jessup ordered.
I exploded from my imaginary hiding spot and instantly cut two of the actors down. Ben barely escaped and rolled back behind the barbarian. He was supposed to swing his ax around his head and then come straight down where I was. I was supposed to roll to the right and hamstring him, bringing him to his knees.
Instead, our barbarian made a blood-curdling scream and tried to cut me in half. If I hadn’t been ready, he would have either broken my arm or ribs. As I rolled, I swung my sword to hamstring him. He had on a special guard so I knew I hadn’t hurt him. He didn’t act like I’d touched him as he turned and tried to cut me in half again. I dodged a wild series of swings from him and started to back up. He clipped me pretty good on my left shoulder. I was dazed for a moment and then looked up to see him charge me. He had a weird look in his eyes and I had a déjà vu moment: it reminded me of Tommy Cox when he lost control during football practice.
In a split second I realized I was in serious trouble, and Cassidy’s training kicked in. I did a front kick to his nuts and spun out of the way as he barreled past me. I put my sword tip down and tripped him. By now Dylan and Tish had realized this was no longer a game. They pushed me out of the way and faced him as he came back to get me. It was all over in the blink of an eye. Dylan had him in a bear hug and Tish slapped his face hard to get his attention.
Ben and Jessup ran up to me.
“Are you alright?” Ben asked.
I pointed to my arm and saw the material was ripped. I was still on such an adrenalin rush I didn’t feel it yet. I could tell I would have a hell of a bruise.