[Continuing chapter thirteen]
For a moment, they just looked at each other. Then Desiree blinked, slowly, as if willing a spell to break. “I thought you didn’t come to these parties,” Casey said.
“I don’t,” she said. “Obviously I’m at risk of falling into bad habits.” She looked in her handbag, then back up at him. “Don’t go away,” she said. “I’ve brought something for you.” She edged past him, disappearing into the crowd.
Casey was almost afraid to move. He was aware of his heart acting strangely, and a sort of fluttering sensation in his chest. You weren’t supposed to be here, he thought.
“Here.” Desiree emerged, her dress a bit askew, and handed him a manila envelope. “My notes from our little, ah, adventure in Neal’s office. I thought you might want a souvenir.”
He stared at her for a moment. You are quite amazing, he thought. “That’s a remarkable coincidence,” he said. “I drove by your place this evening, hoping to persuade you to let me have this.”
“Great minds think alike,” she said. She looked at him.
Was she expecting something? Of course she was, and he knew it. He fought to get some air into his lungs without making it look as if that was what he was doing. “Listen,” he said. “I just wanted to say that—well, I think that I was probably … Oh, hell. I think I’d rather be flying into the side of a barn.” Desiree’s mouth curled up, slightly, but she said nothing.
“Look, I’m sorry. All right? I was upset about Hal Telford and all, but I had no right to take it out on you.”
“You’re right. You didn’t.” Desiree’s eyes were bright green, suggesting to Casey jewels with fire behind them. They still showed the effects of flying without goggles, but it seemed to Casey that there was more puffiness in the lower lids, more red around the pupils, than that mad flight would have justified. Her mouth still had that slight upward curve to it, but the lips were drawn tight. Not happy, he thought, and mostly because of me. “And I probably owe you an apology too,” she said. “I should have called you to the phone as soon as Hogan put Straebo on.”
Casey stared at her for a moment. It never occurred to me. Why didn’t I think of that? “You phoned Hogan before you phoned Neal.” You didn’t deliberately betray us.
“Of course I did, you ass. It was Straebo who told me to phone Neal. Once he’d done that I was trapped; if I didn’t make the call it would be easy for Straebo to find out. They’d have put me on suspension for that. I didn’t really have a choice.”
“Why didn’t you say something at the time?”
“Casey, why should I have had to justify myself to you? I thought you trusted me.”
“I did.” No, you didn’t. “Oh, God, Desiree. I really am sorry now.”
“And I’m sorry I apologized to you.”
“What?”
“Do you think that I need to take this sort of abuse? I’m a movie star, Casey. Men fall at my feet and die for love of me. They don’t drag me up in airplanes and make a mess of my hair and my face and cause me to get yelled at by the director because I look like a horror on the last day of shooting and make me miserable because they’re so damned stupid and pigheaded and I want you to just go away!”
Tears welled up in her eyes, and Casey stepped back, horror-struck at the thought that he’d made her miserable, that she was going to cry in front of him.
Then the tears and the trauma were gone from her face, almost as if they’d never been there. She winked at him, her mouth curling up again. “See you later, Casey,” she said, and ducked through a doorway.
What the hell did she just do to me? he asked himself.
For a long time he just stood there, not looking at anything. I don’t know exactly what just happened there. If I asked her, would she tell me?
He looked down at the envelope. Think about her later, he told himself. It’s time to see if you guessed right. He opened the envelope and looked inside.
Next Prologue Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five
Chapter Six Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Chapter Nine Chapter Ten Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve Chapter Thirteen
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