Zombie Unicorns

Ella was up to her ears in work, putting out fires and making sure everything was ready for the Montage art show, which was coming up quickly. While having an alter ego to help her come out of her shell while she was in public was great, Juliet couldn’t do anything to help with the show itself. Great assistants had done a lot to move things along, but there were certain things she could only do herself, like decide where to move a few items that hadn’t fit in their initially planned location for one reason or another or find a priceless painting that had been mishandled by the airlines despite the artist taking all of the precautions necessary when sending it.
When her cell phone rang, she was reading over an email from the shipping company, her eyes narrowed in disdain as she thought about how to fix this. Annoyed, she snatched her phone off of the table next to her laptop and spat, “Yeah?” without looking to see who it was. She just assumed it was work related. If it had been Henry, she might’ve lost her mind. She’d already told him she would be very busy the next few days.
“Hi.”
Rome. Ella took a deep breath and let a wave of happiness wash over her. He was the only person she genuinely wanted to speak to at the moment, and even though she didn’t have time for much of a conversation, just hearing his voice lightened her mood. “Hi. How are you?”
He grumbled, which told her he wasn’t good. “I’ll get into all of that when I get home,” he said dismissively. “But I wanted to tell you who my costar is.”
“The little girl?” she asked. He’d already mentioned some child star.
“Well, there’s been a script change. Now I have a love interest, too.”
Even the use of that phrase left a bad taste in her mouth. “Who?”
“Drew.”
Ella almost dropped the phone. Assuming he didn’t mean Barrymore or Carey, she stammered, “M-my stepsister?”
“One and the same.”
“Shut up!”
“Okay.”
She rolled her eyes. “Really? What the hell? She’s not an actress.” Granted, she had always wanted to be one, but she couldn’t even get a commercial casting where all she’d have to do was chew gum, and that was with their father’s connections.
“Yeah, well, you don’t have to be an actress to run from zombie unicorns, apparently.”
Ella didn’t know what to say. The situation just kept getting worse. “I’m so sorry.”
“Thanks. I just wanted to tell you. She mentioned you. She seems to feel bad. I’ll tell you the rest of what she said later, but I know you’ve been wondering if your dad feels guilty, if he blames himself. She says he does.”
Again, Ella found herself speechless. She did want to hear what Drew had to say on the topic later, once Rome got home and could speak freely. Hearing that her dad was blaming himself for her death gave her mixed emotions. That’s what she’d intended all along, that Lloyd Sinders would take the full blame for what had happened and realize he’d ruined her life so badly, she’d been driven to suicide. On the other hand, she had memories of her dad from when she was little, from before her mom died, and just the thought of him hurting brought tears to her eyes.
All she could think to say to Rome was, “Thank you for letting me know.”
“Sure. I’ve gotta get back to it anyway. This script read through is going great!”
“You’re lying.”
“Damn straight I am. Talk to you later, baby. I love you…”
“I love you, too.” She hung up, feeling even more remorse that Rome was in this situation because of her. If it hadn’t been for Henry’s obsession with her, Rome wouldn’t be in a position where he had to make these horrible movies.
Ella needed to get back on that plan, too, to get Henry to sign over Rome’s contract to her. He hadn’t mentioned it since the other day when she’d brought it up over lunch. But she had a feeling he was thinking about it. That would have to wait, though. She had to get this situation with the missing artwork and the arrangements fixed first.
With a deep breath, she channeled her inner Juliet Montague and dialed the number to the shipping company. Someone was going to wish they’d never taken their eyes off of that painting.

* * *

The read through had gone about as well as Rome had expected from a script about mythical creatures frothing from the mouth. Drew had been terrible, also as he’d thought she would be. The corny lines sounded almost natural coming out of her mouth, her acting was so bad. Flora, on the other hand, was quite talented. It was too bad her movie debut would be in what was sure to be a box office flop. She might never get another chance after this deplorable film hit the big screens. With any luck, it would be so awful, it would go straight to video, and none of them would be embarrassed by it at the same level as he would be Cop with a Side of Robot.
Flora’s mother had stayed for the entire read-through. While the woman had been genuinely supportive of her daughter’s efforts, several times, Rome saw her stifling a laugh at Drew’s acting skills or the script in general. If this mom, who had never been on a movie set before and only had general exposure to scripts the way that most Americans had, thought this movie was so comical that she had to keep from laughing at the first read-through, while clearly proud of her daughter and the fact that she’d been chosen for the part, it told Rome the public would also find it hard not to laugh at this ridiculous movie. Only, unlike Flora’s mom, they wouldn’t bother to try to hide their laughter under a cough or behind their hand the way she had.
After the read-through was over, Guy dismissed them all, his head in his hands as he muttered under his breath in French. Thanks to Ella, Rome knew a few key words and phrases and was able to decipher that Guy thought this movie was, “A horrific pile of dog shit.” Rome waited for Drew and Flora to leave, her mother telling the little actress how wonderful she had been all the way out of the sound stage, and then Rome approached the director.
“Guy, I have to ask, what in the world made you agree to take on a film as horrific as this one? You had to know the moment that you saw the script that there was no saving it.”
The director looked up at him wide-eyed, his hands still entangled in his dark, curly hair. “It seems odd you would ask me such a question, Rome Verona. What the hell are you doing here?” he asked in his thick French accent. “This makes two shitty movies in a row for you, does it not?”
“Oui,” Rome answered, using one of the only French words he was confident he was able to pronounce and use correctly. “I don’t have any choice, though, Guy. Henry Caron owns me for the foreseeable future.”
“What’s that now?” Guy sat up, dropping his hands. “What do you mean he owns you?”
“I mean… when he bought the production company from my parents, he put in a clause that I have to make ten movies for him. I had no idea at the time that the man who was buying the company was the man Lloyd Sinders had hoped would marry my wife, once I was out of the picture.” He shook his head. No matter how many times he told the story, it never got easier. “So… I have no choice but to be here. But you? Well, unless he’s paying you a whole shitload of money, I would run as far from this project as humanly possible.”
Guy studied him for a long moment, not moving, not saying anything, not even blinking. Eventually, he asked, “You are saying that Henry Caron forced you to make this movie? That you did not volunteer or pick this script?”
Unable to hold it back, Rome laughed so loudly, it echoed around the sound stage. “Are you shitting me? Hell, no. I didn’t pick this. I didn’t pick that damn robot movie either. Did he tell you that I did?”
A slight nod indicated that Henry had told some lies to get the director on board. “He said that you saw magic in the script that others could not see, that once I got on set with you, I would see it, too. He said, you will most certainly win an Academy Award this year, which means anything you touch will become gold.”
It was Rome’s turn to stare. “While it would be nice to think he might be right about me winning the Oscar, I don’t think even that can save this. Flora’s great, but Drew…. Well, I’ll be nice and say she clearly hasn’t done any other movies, and it’s quite evident she is a family friend of Mr. Caron’s.”
Again, he looked surprised. “She is?”
“Yes. She’s Lloyd Sinders’s stepdaughter. Boy, Henry didn’t tell you anything, did he?”
Guy shook his head, dropping his eyes to the floor. “No, I guess not.” He cursed in French. “I have known Henry for years, since he was practically in nappies, and this is the thanks I get?” The string of obscenities that poured from between his lips might’ve made a French whore blush. Rome wasn’t exactly sure what they meant, but he got the picture and agreed that Henry deserved to be called all of them and more.
“Listen, Guy, you seem like a decent person, and you are a great director. I might not be able to save myself, but maybe I can save you. If you have any clauses in your contract that will let you get out of this, I’d do it.”
It was evident by his expression that Guy was going back over whatever documentation he’d signed. While Rome hadn’t meant what he’d said about the man being a decent person, since he was clearly almost as much of an asshole as Henry, having the director quit would buy him some time. It also might make them rethink the love interest role. Drew was going to embarrass the hell out of herself not just from being associated with this movie but from her skills. She just wasn’t ready for a movie. Not even a little bit.
“Thank you, Rome. You have been most helpful,” Guy said. He did not offer his hand, but he did give a small nod of thanks.
“Certainly. See you later.” Rome didn’t bother to say he’d see him the next day, when they were scheduled to be back on stage, because he was hopeful Guy would change his mind and not show up.
With a deep breath, Rome headed out to meet The Tank who had headed to get the car when Guy had originally dismissed them. Most of the time, he thought Ella was insane for what she was doing, pretending to be someone else, attempting to get Henry to fall in love with her so that she could get ahold of the production company, or at the very least his contract, but at the moment, realizing that this movie made Cop with a Side of Robot look like Gone with the Wind, he wasn’t above doing just about anything to get out from under Henry’s control. While he’d never ask Ella to do anything she didn’t want to, he wasn’t about to try to talk her out of what she’d already made her mind up to do. Not now. Not anymore.