Читать книгу Bad Behaviour - Kristin Hardy - Страница 6

Los Angeles 1995

“A SEVEN,” DELANEY Phillips decided. “How I’m ever going to market a play starring a seven is anybody’s guess.” She raked a hand through her pale hair.

“A seven? How can you call him a seven?” Kelly Vander-vere demanded, as they sat in the nearly empty balcony discussing the dark-haired actor emoting on the stage below. “Look at that ass. He gets at least an eight.”

“Yeah, but his shoulders are weak and he’s not much taller than Paige is,” Delaney pointed out.

Set designer Paige Favreau stirred nearby. “Somehow I feel I should take exception to that.”

“To him having weak shoulders?”

Paige frowned. “Never mind. I think.”

Delaney’s lips twitched. “A seven,” she confirmed, taking a drink from her bottle of Coke. “Feel free to talk him up in your article for the school paper, Kelly—in fact, I encourage it—but you’re dreaming.”

“That’s just your opinion.”

Green eyes dancing, Delaney glanced at the handful of women sprawled in the balcony as they took their dinner break together. Work on the drama department’s spring production had come to a halt—temporarily. “Okay. Show of hands. All who agree with me? Sabrina, Cilla, Paige, Thea, that’s four. Oh, and moi.” She grinned. “That’s five in favor, Kelly, and only you and Trish who disagree. You’re overruled.”

“He’s got a pretty face,” Trish Dawson objected, a flush staining her almost impossibly fair redhead’s skin.

“And the Godzilla-sized ego to go with it,” added wardrobe mistress Cilla Danforth, in designer wear even for scrub work, with her Dolce & Gabbana ripped jeans. “Pass me the pizza, Paige.”

Paige handed the box to Cilla, along with napkins, her manners as tidy as her blond bob. “Yeah, the ego thing definitely takes him back to a six.”

“From an eight to a six,” Delaney said. “He’s dropping like a rock. Trish, you’re happy about the face because he looks hot reading your script.”

“He does a good interpretation,” said Trish, always fair. “The Godzilla ego is kind of a problem, though.”

“He moves like Godzilla, too,” choreographer Thea Mitchell observed, helping herself to a slice from the box as it passed. “Not that he’d ever take any input from me. I think he thinks I look down on him.”

Delaney glanced at the dark-eyed Thea, who at six feet had a perfect ectomorph’s body. “That’s because you do.”

“Well, I was ordered to stop it.”

Kelly made a face. “What are you supposed to do, slouch?”

“Be more encouraging about his movement.” Thea looked down her nose in an uncanny imitation of their prima donna. “I have it on high authority that he’s perfect.”

“Whose authority?” Delaney asked.

Thea looked amused. “His.”

“We ought to dock him a couple of points on general principles then,” interjected Cilla, “especially since I’m going to have to put in extra time in wardrobe to make him look good. Where does that leave us?”

“Four,” supplied Trish.

“How am I supposed to market a play with a star who’s only a four?” Delaney demanded.

“Sell the sizzle, not the steak?” Trish ventured.

“A four, in case you aren’t aware of it, is more fizzle than sizzle. Sabrina, is there anything jazzy you can pull from all the footage you’ve been shooting?”

Film major Sabrina Pantolini put her feet up and tipped her watch cap rakishly over one brown eye. “I’m shooting a documentary, not a showcase. Gritty reality. You want beauty, you’ll have to do something else. Get Kelly to drag out one of the photographers from the school paper.” Sabrina’s mouth curved. “I’m trying to film art.”

“With a four? Good luck on that one,” Delaney said.

Sabrina smiled wider. “It’s an indie production. Beauty isn’t a requirement.”

“Why did I ever volunteer for this anyway?” Delaney grumbled.

“I seem to remember you saying it would be more fun than interning at a local ad agency,” Paige reminded her.

“Yeah, well…”

“Of course, the internship would probably have been better for your career.”

“And maybe my social life, now that I think about it. I bet they have some hot guys working there somewhere.”

“You’re aware that sleeping with people isn’t exactly the smart way to rocket to the top, right?” Paige observed drily.

“Who cares about rocketing to the top? I want to have some fun.”

“Earning a paycheck is a way to start.”

“Always in such a hurry to grow up and settle down, Paige,” Delaney teased, dangling her legs over the seat ahead of her. “You can rush all you want to. Me, I intend to take my time. They want me to grow up, they’re going to have to drag me kicking and screaming.”