‘Is it a man?’ Stevie asked, fumbling before putting the coffee down. She flicked through the pages.
‘No. Like Jerry Hall.’ She grinned. ‘Or like Steve!’
‘Oh …’ Stevie had never done anything like this before. ‘And who’re you?’
Bibi adopted a dreamy expression. ‘I’m Lauren. Secretly I’m in love with your husband, but you can’t ever know because we’re best friends. But even more secretly, you’re in love with me! And you’re like a really prim housewife and you can’t begin to contemplate leaving your marriage for another person, let alone a woman! Shock, horror and all that. Juicy, isn’t it?’
‘Jerry’s part sounds more interesting than Lauren’s.’
Bibi shrugged. ‘But Lauren’s part is bigger. The whole movie’s about her, basically. Which means—’ she struck a pose ‘—that if I get it, the whole movie’s going to be about me! Oh, I really hope I get it!’ She chewed her lip.
‘I thought things were going well with Linus’s projects,’ Stevie said softly. She was determined to tread carefully. ‘You seem awfully keen to try something new.’
Bibi linked arms with her. ‘Come on, or we’ll miss our call.’
The audition went adequately. Stevie managed to speak her lines clearly and not let Bibi down, which was a feat for her because she didn’t like performing and spent the first few minutes fudging the phrasing until she hit her stride. Unhelpfully, the panel—two producers and a casting agent—asked her to remove her glasses halfway through, which made the task of reading a challenge in itself. Bibi herself delivered a melodramatic performance that was more reminiscent of Shakespeare than a Hollywood independent. Stevie thought she had great charisma, but couldn’t help feeling she was running a little over the top: the script required a degree of subtlety, an invitation to viewers to draw their own conclusions about who was feeling what. But what did she know? She wasn’t the actress.
Afterwards, the jury conferred among themselves for a while before dismissing them with a brisk, ‘Thank you, that’s all.’
‘How great was that?’ squealed Bibi when they were back outside.
Stevie smiled encouragingly. ‘You did brilliantly. I don’t know how you memorise all those lines. I don’t think I could.’
‘Ah, don’t be dumb.’ But she blushed at the compliment. ‘You really think I did OK?’
‘Definitely,’ Stevie reassured her. Bibi had been word-perfect and her enthusiasm was second to none. ‘When are you likely to hear?’
‘Carrie will be in touch as soon as they are.’ She hailed a cab. ‘Keep your knickers crossed for me!’
‘My knickers?’
‘Sorry,’ said Bibi, in a much better mood than this morning. ‘On the contrary! I forgot you were with Will.’
‘That’s gross. And anyway, I’m not “with” Will. I’m not with anyone.’
Bibi narrowed her eyes. ‘You’re a commitment-phobe,’ she said. ‘That’s what it is.’
Stevie laughed. ‘I’m not,’ she said. ‘Fine, maybe I am, but just for the time being.’
‘Ah, but love’s the best thing in the world.’ Bibi pressed her palms exaggeratedly to her chest as a cab pulled up. ‘Love richly and love well. Isn’t that a saying?’
‘I don’t think so.’
Bibi pulled open the door. ‘You know what I’m getting at.’
She did. Only she’d been the one loving. He hadn’t said he loved her at all. Not even when she got rid of the baby.
‘Thanks for coming today, Steve.’
‘Any time,’ she replied, with a faint smile. ‘It was kind of fun.’
As she was climbing in, a young woman with a scruffy blonde ponytail emerged from the building, glanced once up and down the avenue then waved in their direction. Stevie recognised her as the casting agent from their audition. She had to nudge Bibi to get her attention.
‘B, that woman’s waving at you—look!’
Bibi followed her gaze. She covered her mouth with her hands. ‘My God, Steve! Do you think she wants to offer me the part? What if she offers me the part? What do I do?’
Stevie giggled. ‘You say yes.’
The woman strode over. ‘Are you able to come back inside?’ she asked, eyebrow arched. ‘We’d like to hear you read again.’
‘Of course.’ Bibi flushed with pleasure.
The woman’s gaze flicked over Bibi, as if she’d only just noticed her. ‘Not you,’ she said dismissively, turning back to Stevie. ‘We’d like to hear you read again, for Lauren this time. We’ve been looking for someone like you for a very, very long time. We think you’re absolutely right for the part.’ She grinned, exposing a row of small neat teeth. ‘What do you say?’
13 Lori
When Tony and Angélica found out about Rico’s involvement in the gang homicide, they resolved to send Lori to Spain without further delay.
‘It’s the only place we can be sure you’ll stay out of trouble,’ her father said.
The last Lori had heard from her boyfriend was a rushed phone call shortly after he was arrested. She had asked him if the reports were true. They were. It broke her heart. She didn’t know him any more. Rico, the gentle Rico with the kind eyes and the tender promises, was gone. He was a killer, capable of taking another person’s life.
Things moved fast. Her flight was tomorrow. When she arrived, she would take a taxi out of Murcia and travel south, to the outskirts of a remote town where her grandmother resided in the same rural house Tony had grown up in. It was falling apart, too sprawling and dilapidated for one person to look after. Ancient, tired out, like its sole occupant.
Tony was dropping her off at Tres Hermanas for the last time.
‘Please don’t send me away,’ she begged. ‘Can’t you see I’ve been punished enough?’
Angrily, Tony changed lanes. ‘I’ve done everything to make things right, Loriana—I’ve tried my best with that business, I’ve tried to secure you the future your mama wanted. I found us another family—’
‘I never said I wanted another family. I had you.’
‘And who did I have?’
Her voice was small. ‘Me.’
‘You were a child. I had to look after you.’
Lori tried to reach him. ‘Mama always said it didn’t matter how small you were, you could always make a difference.’
Tony pulled over amid an explosion of sounding horns. ‘Will you stop?’
‘Stop what?’
‘Accept that she’s dead.’ His voice was bitter. ‘I’ve been trying for ten years to find a different happiness, while you dream only of the past—’
‘Moving on isn’t the same as forgetting.’
‘Do you think I can forget? Do you? How can I, when I look at you and all I see is her?’
‘Is that why you want me gone?’ Lori wept then, proper tears she had been keeping in check for too long. For a second she thought Tony might comfort her, but the embrace she had been hoping for didn’t come. Instead he signalled and rejoined the stream of downtown traffic.
‘You are going to Corazón because it is the right thing,’ Tony said evenly,