CHAPTER 69 – CAN’T YOU JUST LET ME ?While everyone else had left, as usual, Eric went back to the Firefly Studios headquarters to work with the editor. Because Eric had to attend the Golden Globes tomorrow, they didn’t do any post-editing this time, they only focused on labeling and presorting the shots.
It didn’t require much effort, but it was very time consuming as the two of them had to go through all the material they had acc.u.mulated so far.
In the dimly lit room, Eric looked at his watch and said: “Patrick, that’s enough for today.”
“Alright, director.” Editor Patrick McKinley knew Eric would attend the Golden Globes tomorrow, so he said, his eyes tinged with envy: “I wish you good luck for tomorrow Mr. Williams.”
The Golden Globes weren’t into technicality, there wasn’t any Best Editing, Best Cinematography awards and the like. So although Patrick had worked on Home Alone as an editor, he hadn’t been invited to the ceremony.
When Eric drove back to his home in Beverly Hills, the lights were on. In addition to himself, the only ones with a key were Jenny and Drew, but Jenny was still in New York, filming her TV Show “Mary in Action”[1], and obviously couldn’t leave the crew. Without a doubt, the goblin was back.
He parked his car and went in. Drew, who was curled up on the couch, raised her head at the sound.
“Hey, Eric.” She sleepily said. When Eric sat down next to her, the la.s.s sluggishly laid on his lap.
Eric smiled and squeezed the girl’s baby face: “Alright, so why are you here ? Tomorrow isn’t the weekend if my memory serves me right.”
“But the Golden Globes are tomorrow!” Drew sobered up a bit, and turned her head to face Eric before straightforwardly saying: “It’s not skipping this time, I also received an invitation to the ceremony, so I’ll be your date tomorrow.”
Eric didn’t particularly care for the Golden Globes, their awards were too subjective, so their overall value wasn’t that high.
However, a month ago, the Golden Globes nominations came out, and Eric couldn’t ignore them anymore. His past life’s 17 Again had received neither Oscar nor Golden Globe awards, however this time, thanks to the Fox’s public relations, Eric’s version was now running for two Golden Globes: Best Supporting Actress, and Best Original Score.
Although the Home Alone crew didn’t have any public relations, the Golden Globes committee could hardly turn a blind eye to the movie’s box office, and so it was nominated for Best Musical or Comedy, and for Best Performance in a Musical or Comedy.
“If I remember correctly, 17 Again’s Best Supporting Actress nomination went to Susan Sarandon, not you, right ?” Eric asked, puzzled.
“Who says you can’t attend without a nomination ?” Drew innocently blinked her eyes a few times, but confronted with Eric’s stare, she quickly spilled the beans: “I asked Kapoor to help me, you know I’m his biggest signed female artist right now, and it was only one invitation, so he contacted the Fox and it was quickly arranged.”
Eric snorted: “What I understand is that you’d do about anything to miss out on school.”
“Hey!” Drew knocked Eric’s thigh with the back of her head and giggled, please
d. She added: “Are you hungry ? There’s pizza left in the kitchen.”
“I ate at the studio.” Eric stood up, “Stop watching TV and go to bed early, we need to go shopping tomorrow morning, we can’t attend the ceremony wearing just anything.”
Drew also got up and followed behind Eric: “About that, Kapoor has already arranged it. He contacted Versace and they’ve agreed to sponsor us, I’ve chosen a few sets of clothes, they’ll come in tomorrow morning, we can try them on then.”
Eric remembered that he had indeed had that conversation with the man on the phone. Kapoor had relinquished his hold on every signed artists he had, and was now only responsible for Al Pacino, Julia Roberts, Drew, and Eric himself.
Recently, under Eric suggestion, Kapoor dutifully went to Sweden, intent on signing the Roxette duo. However the artists were already under the EMI Records. Despite Kapoor’s eloquent persuasion, the Roxette duo just wasn’t willing to switch from one of the industry’s giants to the unknown UTA. However, they gladly agreed to sign a song licensing agreement for “It Must Have Been Love”.
He originally thought that, with Drew being in school, and Al, Julia and himself busy on set, that Kapoor would be idle for a while, however it didn’t seem to be the case at all, he realized. Eric patted himself on the back, going against the CAA and getting Kapoor to stay was one of the best decisions he had ever made.
“Good night.” The youth tucked Drew in and kissed her forehead before closing her bedroom door and going to the bathroom.
After showering, Eric went to bed. He read a bit waiting for his hair to dry a little, and turn off the bedside lamp lights to sleep.
After an unknown amount of time, the bedroom’s door opened with a light ‘click’ sound, and a slender figure tiptoed its way towards the bed, before drilling under the sheets and snuggling in Eric’s embrace.
Shuffle –
Eric turned the lights back on, and face-palmed in distress. He had forgotten to lock his door.
Feeling the warmth of the naked body next to him, Eric who hadn’t had any intimate contact with a woman for weeks felt his loins burning. For a second there, he almost lost it.
“Wow, doesn’t look like I need to work on it this time ?” At Eric’s reaction, the girl stuck her small head out and said.
Eric wrapped the goblin up in the sheets and dragged her towards her bedroom.
“Eric, can’t you just let me ? You’ve been so good to me, and I haven’t been able to anything in return, it’s so frustrating!” The girl was wrapped up like a tacos and couldn’t move, so she started talking instead, well at least until Eric’s hand pressed against her mouth.
He put the girl back in bed, and, with a no-bulls.h.i.t att.i.tude, said: “Don’t ever do that again.”
“It’s not fair, you’ve been with Jennifer, and even with that Julia Roberts, but why not me ? It’s unfair!” Drew finally freed herself from the cobweb-like sheets and grabbed Eric’s arm.
“Because they’re adults, and you’re not.” Eric explained, “Do you want me to rot in jail for years ?”
“But….” Drew retorted, “As long as we don’t tell anyone, who will know ?”
Eric covered the girl back and solemnly said: “You need to understand that everyone has bottom line, young lady, and this is mine. You’re cute, that’s for sure, and I’m really fond of you, but I won’t be doing the things you expect me to do. At least not until you’ve reached legal age.”
“I heard it’s legal in some European countries though ?”
“This is Cali, not Europe.”
Drew’s small hands clutched the sheets, and her eyes sparkled as she asked: “Then Eric, once you finish shooting the movie, let’s go to Europe ?”
Eric had barely been able to contain himself earlier, and hearing Drew’s words, he subconsciously swallowed.
“No, you’ll have to wait until you’re eighteen.”
“18 years old ? You know, I’ve read somewhere that a long, long time ago, people’s life expectancy didn’t exceed 20 years old. Life is short, how about we narrow it down to 14 years old ?”
Eric’s forehead creased in black lines, that d.a.m.n goblin, what kind of bargaining was that ? He just wanted to go back and ignore the girl’s insane pleas, but she held tightly onto his arm. The girl’s lower body was hidden under the sheets, however the pair of pink cherries on the upper part of her body were laid in plain sight. The la.s.s pleaded like a spoiled child: “Fifteen, fifteen years old, okay ? Mmm ?”
Eric glimpsed at the goblin’s milky white skin, and unconsciously blurted out: “No, at least sixteen years old.”
“Deal!” The girl hastily let go of his arm and slipped back into the sheets. She looked at him innocently and said: “You can’t take it back.”
Ah… He had fallen into her trap. However, somewhere deep down, he was looking forward to it.
……
The next morning at 9am, the Versace staff came to Eric’s place with outfits for both he and Drew.
The Golden Globes wasn’t exactly a low profile event, and so Kapoor had come as well in order to fill Eric in about its ongoings a bit. He would accompany Eric and Drew to the Golden Globes today, however since he didn’t qualify for an entry, he would have to wait in the hotel’s hall.
You may think of it as weird, but it was a common situation, the presence of the agent was always required so that, in case an emergency occurred, he would be able the first to step in.
Drew was trying on different dresses when Eric asked Kapoor about the Versace sponsorship. Kapoor told him that the clothes were being loaned and that both Eric and Drew would have to give them back afterwards. Of course, they could also buy them if they wanted to, and in that case Versace would certainly give them a discount.
Eric felt he might need one, he was a guy anyway and could probably wear the same suit again and again, so he inquired about the price, as he didn’t know anything about those things.
A designer suit was 100,000 $, something which Eric was actually able to afford, although it really felt surreal. In his past life, the most expensive suit he had owned was something his wife had insisted on, it had only cost him 5000 yuan, but had still managed to make his heart bleed.
They finished choosing their outfits in the morning, and Kapoor called the makeup artist to work on them the afternoon. They were ready by 4pm, and made their way towards the Golden Globes venue; the Hilton.
_ _ _ _
[1] For the life of me I absolutely cannot find any sign of this so-called TV show ever existed. In the raws it says: 《玛丽在行动》