He knocked on the door before noticing the doorbell. It was a little after 12 noon, the time when she usually got out of bed. He heard footsteps stumbled to the door before it opened, her head peeked from behind it.
“Brad? What are you doing here?” black circles around her eyes, her voice croaked from too much smoking.
“Hi, Amber … how are you? Can I come in?”
She untangled the chain and let him in. The room was filled with mist of smoke, her first cigarette of the day. Then he saw the ashtray was full of cigarette buds left from the day before. The place was a mess, the carpet stained with spilled drinks, food and cigarette burns.
She was a mess. A sweet beautiful fragile mess in a sheer gold kimono. He looked around the apartment and landed his gaze on her with a sense of grief. She was once vibrant, happy go lucky, full of life kind of person, but the one sitting in front of him was just a shadow of her former self. Exhausted, jaded, drained of the last drop of cheerfulness she ever possessed.
“What do you want, Brad? I heard you were back in the city … never thought you’d showed up here,” she took another cigarette from the coffee table and lit it up.
“You seen Maxine lately?”
She furrowed her brows, “What kind of question is that? We always see Maxine every now and then … you know that … what is it that you really want?”
He exhaled deeply, “Do you know a guy named Tommy?”
She was taken aback by the question, her face stiffed. “What about him?”
He looked into her eyes to get her immediate reaction, “Did Maxine tell you to hook up with him?”
She burst out laughing, “Like Maxine would ever hook me up with a young handsome new comer? The only dick she ever hooked me up with are the ones days away from their deathbed,” she chuckled sarcastically. “Tom was a bonus … we worked together in a movie, half of the crew probably wanted to get in his pants, but he didn’t bite … it was a party, the drugs kinda got outta hand and … why do you want to know about this anyway? What’s he to you?”
“He’s my student’s boyfriend … I think she and Tom are involved with Maxine more than they understand what they’re involved in.”
“So you got a thing for his girlfriend? Mr. Professor Winthrop? Isn’t that the name you go by these days?” she mocked him.
“No, she’s my student … a very bright one, she has a lot of potential, I don’t want it ruined by these games you all play … she’s just a kid, she’s only 18.”
“Hah … when did that ever stop these monsters from playing with people’s lives? As far as I’m concerned, Tom is my ticket out of this mess, Maxine is willing to trade it with my contract … so I’m good.”
“Trade with what?”
“The video I have on him that night … in our little party.”
He closed his eyes and pressed his fingers over them, “Did he voluntarily get involved in it?”
“I told you, the drugs got out of hand …”
“You drugged him? Amber … that’s rape!”
She threw her hands in the air, “Oh wow! Really, Brad? If that’s the case then I have lost count on how many times I was raped in this business … waking up with a total stranger on a bed … not having any memory of what happened the night before, at least dear Tom got to wake up with a young and good looking bunch!”
“Rape is rape, okay, Amber? No matter who you wake up with … God … are you even listening to yourself right now? You’re turning into her … getting what you want in expense of other people’s lives?”
“Well … I gotta take care of myself, don’t I? Who’s gonna look out for me? You?”
Brad grabbed her wrist, “I did look out for you, Amber, I did! Don’t ever act like I never cared … I tried to tell you not to go into this but you wouldn’t listen! You wanted that fame and money so bad, you agreed on her first attempt on you … don’t you remember that?”
She yanked her arm away from him, “Yeah, I remember, so what? Are you here to tell me ‘I told you so’? What about now? Are you looking out for me now? Or your full of potential student is more attractive than me? Is she more important to you than me?”
He shook his head, “What could I possibly do for you now, Amber? You’ve got what you wanted, didn’t you? The money, the fame, the privileges? All of it … all you had to do was ‘spread your legs and pretend that it was good’ … isn’t that what you said to me? You wanted this, you chose this for yourself.”
Amber covered her ears, Brad had repeated her exact words, he hadn’t forgotten it.
“You chose this over me,” his eyes were glassy, “When I loved you so much, I tried to stop you … but you went with that man in that party while I was in the other room! You did that, Amber, you did it all on your own and you crushed my heart.” Drops of tears fell on his cheeks.
“Stop it! Just stop it! Get out! Get out of my house!” she pushed him towards the door. She didn’t want to hear it.
“Don’t do it,” he stopped at the doorway. “Don’t let other people suffer the same fate you went through … if there’s still any decency left in you … don’t do it,” he pleaded.
Her face turned stone cold, “I’m done, Brad, … goodbye.” She closed the door on him.
**********
After a pillow talk conversation, the room was silent. Her skin soft and warm against his, her breath on his chest, her hair smelled of lavender brushed under his chin.
“You don’t remember anything?” she couldn’t imagine what he must’ve gone through.
He shook his head, “I had a dream about it … I think it was a glimpse of what I saw in that brief time I woke up in that room …” he rubbed his face to wipe away the nightmare. “I don’t want something like that to happen to you … we can’t risk it, your teacher is right, we have to get out of this contract.”
Charlie paused for a moment, she too had a confession to make. “About my teacher …”
“He’s her nephew? Oh … God … we can’t trust him, Charlie, you can’t say anything more to him from now on, we don’t know what he’ll say to Maxine,” Tommy said.
“But he seemed genuine … he’s not like Maxine,” she was convinced of Brad’s heroic act to protect her at The Silver Tongue.
Tommy turned to her, he took her hand and kissed it, “You and me, Charlie, we can’t trust anyone else … especially if he’s related to Maxine, you have to believe me … I have no intention to dive into that crazy world, I just want the work … we’ll figure this out together.”
Charlie saw the look in his eyes, he was afraid for the both of them, “Okay.”
His eyes softened, he would do anything for her, the sweet smart beautiful girl who loved him. “If Maxine gets her hands on that tape, it’ll be harder for us to get out … she would use it to get us to do things we don’t want to do … but I will do it so you won’t have to … promise me you won’t play her game … I don’t care if the tape gets out, I just want you to be safe.”
She didn’t want him to do those things either, but they didn’t have any choice, “I love you, Tommy, I’m sorry I got us into this … I’m sorry what happened to you …”
He kissed her, “I love you … we’ll get through this … whatever it takes.”
They fell silent afterwards, they were about to risk everything they came to Goldstone for.