Behind the Scenes Read online

“It’s probably the food.”

  “Oh, then rub mushrooms on your throat more often.”

  Tanya felt herself blushing, which was absolutely astonishing to her. In a crowd she blushed. She never remembered blushing one on one before. And certainly not with this man. “I guess we should mingle,” she said.

  “Okay.”

  They made their way back to a small crowd that included Sharyn. “I’d introduce you two,” Tanya said, “but I have the feeling introductions aren’t necessary.”

  AJ mock ignored her. “Let me guess. You’re Sharyn, Tanya’s friend from back home.”

  “You must be psychic,” Sharyn said. “And you’re . . .”

  “Full of it,” Tanya said.

  AJ grinned. “Good to see you again.”

  “Back at cha’.”

  Tanya turned to AJ and said for his ears only, “Go drag Denny over here, okay?”

  AJ glanced from Tanya to Sharyn, then back to Tanya. “Ah-h-h, okay, but are you sure he’s ready for this?”

  “Now how would that be fun?”

  Shaking his head, AJ chuckled. “Poor sap. He won’t know what hit him. Be right back.”

  “WHO IS THAT beautiful girl over there?” Denny said when AJ joined him.

  AJ glanced over his shoulder. As far as he was concerned, there was really only one beauty in the room, and Denny better not be talking about her. “Tanya’s roommate from back home. Tanya wants you to come over and meet her.”

  Denny, who’d been sampling the delights of the table, grabbed a napkin, wiped his hands, and picked up his drink. “Wow, they grow them differently outside of L.A. than I remember from back in Branson.”

  “Hold onto your hat, cowboy. You’re in for a wild ride.”

  Denny’s eyes lit up. “Really?”

  “Just remember,” AJ said, trying not to laugh. “She’s Tanya’s best friend, so be gentle with her.”

  “Ah-h-h, a delicate flower. I shall endeavor to handle her with the utmost care.”

  “Uh-huh.” AJ debated warning Denny for about a nanosecond. Then he figured, whatever happened, Denny would recover eventually. Maybe.

  They strolled over to the group. This time AJ made the introductions. Denny opened his mouth to say something, but closed it again. He tried twice more before a “Hi” meekly croaked out.

  AJ had seen Denny escort some of the most beautiful and famous women in Hollywood over the years. He’d never even broken a sweat before, much less been at a loss for words.

  As AJ and Tanya exchanged glances, everyone in the circle suddenly needed to sip from their drink. Several strange gurgling and choking noises rose from behind those glasses, but Denny was completely oblivious.

  “I’ve heard a lot about you, Denny,” Sharyn said.

  It took Denny a moment, but finally he answered, “Whatever Tanya told you, I deny saying it, doing it, or being responsible for it.”

  “Really? Too bad.”

  “On the other hand . . .”

  AJ sort of lost track of the drift after that, because his attention, all of it, was on a smiling Tanya. She actually appeared to have relaxed. She seemed to really be enjoying herself. And a Tanya relaxed and happy was an incredible sight to behold.

  Her posture was tall and proud, but not stiff. Her skin glowed in the ambient light. Her dress had an alluring square-cut bodice—collar bones. Beautiful, sexy, delicate, worship-worthy collar bones.

  Laughter knocked AJ from his thoughts, and away from Tanya’s neck. He blinked a couple of times, trying to return to the conversation and hoping no one had noticed. Apparently the several sips at their drinks had loosened their tongues a bit.

  “So that’s our typical day,” Sharyn was saying. “How about yours?” The question was meant for the entire group, AJ was sure, but she was looking directly at Denny when she posed it.

  But Lori piped in. “Typical? Ha! There hasn’t been anything close to typical since we all started working on Pretty Women.”

  “Really?” Sharyn said. “Do tell.”

  Lori laughed. “Where to start? This is the fourth show I’ve worked on for AJ, and he’s never been so—”

  “Watch it, Lori,” AJ interrupted. He wasn’t sure where she was going with this, which made him uneasy. “We wouldn’t want to give away trade secrets.”

  Lori gave him a funny look, which he ignored by smiling at Sharyn.

  “No,” Tanya said. “Go ahead, Lori. What’s not typical?”

  “AJ runs a pretty tight ship. It isn’t slave labor, but we work our butts off. Basically, he’s a schedule freak.”

  “Lori . . .”

  She grinned at him, apparently not too intimidated by his warning tone. “With Pretty Women his new buzzword has been flexibility.”

  “Is that right?” Tanya said.

  “I have to admit, it’s a lot more fun,” Carl the cameraman piped in.

  “It’s a different kind of show than we’ve done before,” AJ said, but he could feel the tension begin to build in Tanya. She stood a little stiffer, her smile was obviously no longer completely natural.

  “You can say that again,” Lori said. “Every day’s an adventure.”

  “Because of the show host who doesn’t know what she’s doing,” Tanya said.

  Unfortunately, none of the crew recognized that this was a bad thing in Tanya’s mind. Only Sharyn and AJ exchanged nervous glances.

  “Yeah, we got a rookie all right,” said Tim, who did Lord knew what for the show.

  “This, coming from a long time veteran intern of about six months,” Lori retorted, laughing. She gestured at Tanya. “She’s got us all out running every morning.”

  “You do?” AJ said. That was news to him.

  “She does. It started with just about five of us from the set, but we’ve started picking up people as we go around the grounds. It’s now up to about thirty or so. It’s unholy, but I’ve lost five pounds!”

  “Oh, yeah, Tanya gets them running all right,” Denny chimed in. “And hiding for cover half the time when AJ shows up to check on the taping.”

  “Which he does religiously. He’s never done that before either.”

  This was a train wreck in the making and AJ was trying desperately to figure out where the brakes were hidden.

  “Tell Sharyn about the stray cat who had kittens in your sink,” Lori said to Tanya the statue. “I almost peed my pants that day.”

  Tanya’s body went into full rigor mortis. She opened her mouth a couple of times, but nothing came out.

  “Have Denny tell the story,” AJ said, desperate to get her out of the situation before she fainted. “Tanya and I are going to go grab the best seats for the show.”

  Just then a waiter walked by with a tray of champagne. AJ exchanged his and Tanya’s nearly empty flutes for two fresh ones.

  He pressed a flute into her right hand and grabbed her left. “Come on, Ms. Pierce. Let’s go get our seats.”

  She stayed ominously silent as he pulled her up to the very back row of seats, then practically shoved her into one of them.

  He sat down beside her and said, “Best view in the house.”

  Actually, it was the best view, but he’d chosen it for a completely different reason. They were the only two seats in the row. No one could settle down anywhere near them.

  Tanya was eerily silent for a while, her only visible sign of life her sipping on champagne.

  Finally he couldn’t stand it any longer. “You okay, sweetheart?”

  “Why didn’t you tell me I’m doing everything wrong?” she asked quietly.

  “Because you’re not. You’re just doing things differently. Nothing wrong with that.”

  “Is it that there’s nothing wrong with it, or you can’t say
anything because you’re afraid of Uncle Frank?”

  “Okay, that was offensive. If you think I’m a puppet for your uncle, you’re dead wrong. And if you think I put up with your . . . eccentricities because I’m not allowed to fire you, you’re wrong again. This is, first and foremost, my show. It’s not even yours. You are the talent. And if your knack for the show didn’t live up to my expectations for its success, you wouldn’t be here. And if your shenanigans were more trouble than they’re worth to me, you also wouldn’t be here. And there isn’t a damn thing your uncle could do about it. Nor would he.”

  AJ waited for the explosion he knew was coming. He even stiffened his body, in case she staged a full-frontal attack.

  But once again Tanya didn’t do anything expected of her. She turned to him, her eyes huge and bright even in the meager light of the room. “You promise?”

  Right then the lights dimmed even further and the curtain swished open. Still, they stared at each other.

  “Promise me that’s true,” she said again.

  “I promise it’s true.”

  In a surprisingly swift move, she set her flute down in her cup holder and threw her arms around him. “Oh, thank you.”

  AJ got lost in the scent and softness of her skin against his cheek. “I promise, I promise, I promise,” he repeated into her ear.

  Problem was, he wasn’t sure what he was promising any longer.

  “Okay, everyone, refresh your drinks one more time,” the disembodied voice of Denny announced, “and get settled. The show doesn’t begin for another eight minutes, but we want to see the preview promos coming up.”

  “Oh, no,” Tanya said.

  “You look wonderful, Tanya. You have nothing to be worried about.”

  “Promise?”

  “I promise.”

  Chapter Eleven

  BECAUSE TRYING TO get Tanya to sit down in front of a camera and do a promo was tantamount to asking Burger King to stop selling hamburgers, Denny and AJ had come up with a sixty-second teaser spot that included snippets of crew members and subjects offering short phrases to describe the show, its purpose and its star.

  AJ was pretty proud of the end result.

  Tanya had never seen it.

  “Watch it!” he commanded. “You aren’t in a single second of it.”

  That got her attention, and she looked up. Within moments she, like the rest of the folks in the theater, was chuckling.

  When it was over, she turned to AJ with a smile that could light up the whole western hemisphere. “Hey! I’d watch that show.”

  “And we know how picky you are in your viewing habits.”

  “Damn straight,” she said. “That was great. Thank you.”

  “Thank Dan in editing. We gave him a general idea what we were looking for, but he put it together.”

  “He’s getting a big kiss.”

  He is not, AJ wanted to growl, even though Dan was about one hundred and fifty years old.

  He took a breath. “You haven’t seen the introduction that’s coming up, either. I hope you don’t mind. We just wanted the viewer to get an idea what we’re trying to do here, instead of leaving them wondering.”

  “In other words, the introduction you made me do fifty times got tossed.”

  “I take full responsibility. You looked scared, Tanya. I knew you wouldn’t want that to be the first impression you give viewers.”

  “Oh, trust me, I’m glad you trashed it. I knew it was awful by the looks you and Denny repeatedly exchanged.”

  “Well, I hope this is okay. We plan on running it for the first six episodes, after which loyal viewers will understand, new viewers will learn it from word of mouth, or . . .”

  She laughed. “Or it won’t matter because we won’t be around at all.”

  “Yes.”

  “Am I in this introduction?”

  “No.”

  “Good.” She wiggled in her seat as if to settle in and get more comfortable.

  A toothpaste commercial was just winding down when Denny boomed, “This is it, people.” All conversation came to an abrupt halt.

  The screen faded to black for an instant, and the next shot was of AJ on the set, sitting casually on a stool.

  Tanya sucked in a breath.

  “Ooh, I’ll take two of him!” someone said loudly. AJ figured it was Sharyn.

  “GOOD EVENING.

  “My name is AJ Landry, and I’m the proud producer of the show you’re about to have the pleasure of experiencing.” He stood up and eased his hands into his pockets. “When we set out to make Pretty Women, all we really knew was that we wanted to bring viewers an hour of useful information and beauty tips. What we hadn’t expected was discovering just how much fun and fulfilling it would be to watch a real, caring, remarkably gifted artist at work and play. It was a bonus that doesn’t come along that often in this business, and when it does you hope you’re smart enough to hang on for the ride.

  “When we found Tanya Pierce, we didn’t expect her to bring much more to the show than her talent with hair. In the next hour, and in the weeks to come, you’re going to discover that she’s bringing you much more than that. I won’t presume to tell you what personal gifts you’ll take away from this experience. I merely promise that she offers them in abundance.

  “So I’m inviting you to sit back and enjoy watching an hour of some very, very Pretty Women.”

  “OH, AJ,” TANYA whispered.

  But he didn’t have time to ask for an interpretation because the screen faded to black, and the first notes of Roy Orbison’s ‘Pretty Woman’ began to play.

  Next up was a montage of Tanya. At this first sight of herself, she squealed and lowered her head. There was a smattering of clapping and whistling in the theater but it hushed quickly in anticipation of what was next.

  “Come on, Tanya,” AJ said, taking her hand. “You can’t stare at your lap for an entire hour.”

  “What is this?” she asked.

  “A bunch of very quick clips of you at work and play. It’s fun. Watch.”

  Inching her gaze up, she saw on-screen Tanya leaning over to even out a cut. And Tanya goofing off with the guest, using her fist to pull the woman’s hair into a ponytail on top of her head. Tanya boogeying a little to music as she washed a woman’s head. Sweeping up hair clippings with a comical “whoops” expression on her face. Whirling around so her back was to the guest and taking a blind but precise snip of hair as if making a finesse basketball move. Pointing out a look she thought would work well for one woman and best show off her cheekbones. Drawing a line under the woman’s brow as she tossed out a make-up tip. And the longest clip of all: Tanya finishing off the little girl’s French braid, holding up a mirror to show her the back of her head, the girl turning in her chair and grinning, Tanya picking her up and raising her into the air, then setting her down and squatting beside her. As Roy crooned the last notes a final freeze-frame shot of Tanya and the girl face to face, foreheads touching, each smiling in obvious delight.

  The station broke to commercial and the room broke out in loud applause.

  Tanya wasn’t applauding, though. And that was when AJ glanced down to see that she had a near death grip on his hand.

  He looked from their hands to her face. Thankful that the murmur of other’s conversations would let him speak with her quietly, AJ asked, “You okay?”

  “Was that really me?”

  “Not only was that really you, that was the real you. That’s why it was so good. You had no idea the camera was rolling most of the time in those shots.”

  “You’re right; I didn’t.”

  “Maybe now you’ll see what I see. What Denny sees. What your uncle sees. What everyone but you sees! You’re a beautiful woman, if possible more so on the inside, but
it shines from the inside out.”

  She turned to look at him. “Thank you, AJ. I mean it. Thank you.”

  “No need to thank me. I had good material to work with.”

  “I feel so much better about it.”

  “I’m glad.”

  But a niggling dread that AJ had been feeling for a few weeks now began to gnaw in his gut. He loved the woman on that screen. The way she was right now. The thought of losing that tore him up.

  And it wasn’t just for the magic of the show’s sake, unfortunately. He was beginning to love the woman beside him. The idea that he might lose her—even though he didn’t really have her—was giving him ulcers.

  Seeing her turn into a spoiled, self-centered star would just about kill him.

  And unfortunately, even with as much faith as he had in Tanya’s basic goodness, he’d seen it happen many times to people he’d have sworn would be immune.

  Suddenly he realized he was holding onto her hand for all he was worth. He forced himself to loosen his grip so he wouldn’t hurt her. Determined to enjoy the night, to give her a memory she’d never forget, he finished off the champagne in his glass and sat back, trying to relax.

  The show began as it always would, with the profile of the night’s subject. Maria Consuela Gonzalez. Female. Age sixteen. Straight A student at Redwood High. Hair dilemma: forgettable cut.

  Tanya gave his hand a quick squeeze. “Maria! Why’d you start with Maria? She was the third show we did.”

  “It was Denny’s idea. But I agree with him. It just ended up being the most entertaining and enlightening for the young crowd. And we are trying to hook a younger demographic in addition to the usual Saturday night crowd. The girls who are just gearing up for the dating life.”

  “Oh. It’s almost scientific, isn’t it?” Then she went silent for a minute and shrugged. “Well, whatever you say. Anyway, I like the choice. She’s a great kid.”

  AJ worked hard at stifling a grin. “Yes, she sure is. Once you talked her into ‘attitude with class’ instead of ‘attitude with punk,’ she was like a different girl. More confident. More content in her own skin.”

  “Oh, I hope so. She’s really smart. For some reason she just seems starved for attention, and she thought turning her hair neon green might be the ticket.”