Alex Ames - Calendar Moonstone 02 - Brilliant Actors Read Online Free PDF Page A

to steal your soul.’” A tear trickled from her eye, so I pulled out a tissue, and she sneezed.
    “I am sorry. You had been a very … nice pair,” I commented. Jesus, did I really say that?
    “Thank you, Calendar, you are most kind. And your work is so beautiful.”
    I saved the moment by becoming all business again. “Usually you film folks only rent the jewelry for Oscar night and don’t buy it. Any opinion on that? I am new in this field.”
    Nicole looked in the long mirror, turning left and right, bringing up her hands to her face, marveling at the many rows of small, brilliant, white-fired stones. “Can I afford it?” she asked, deadpan, with a small smile playing around her mouth.
    I picked up Mrs. Otis’ Hollybiz Magazine and thumbed through it. “According to informed sources, you got 18.5 million dollars for your last movie. That covers it.”
    “You should hear my financial advisors on what is left after taxes and other costs of stardom living. How much is the set?”
    “To buy?” I had never put a price tag on it yet but decided to go for it. “I can make you a good offer if you take the whole set. It is seven-fifty.”  
    She looked up, surprised. “Seven-hundred-and-fifty-thousand bucks?” She glanced at her reflection in the mirror, confirming whether it could possibly be worth that much. But fire sparked from each of the four-hundred-and-fifty small diamonds and the few big ones of highest quality and melted away every female hesitation like ice in the sunshine. “And rent?”  
    This question took me somehow by surprise, and I had to give a quick guess. G o for it, girl. “For Oscar night, I would charge a one-time fee of three percent of the sales value plus an insurance fee which is around four-thousand dollars. That brings it to about twenty-four-thousand dollars including tax.” Which was likely a better deal for both of us because I would probably be able to sell it after the media exposure for a million bucks. “Plus, you have to provide a guard for the transfers to and from the shop to your home and to the event. Not my idea, but the insurance wants it,” I explained.
    Nicole looked into the mirror again. “All right, deal. I rent with an option to buy within the next two weeks.”
    Done deal. We filled out some forms required by the insurance, she covered the rent with her black Amex, and I prodded and fingered around her precious famous neck and arms to make the jewelry even a better fit.  
      Nicole said, “Say, do you know a good place around here to have lunch? After all that jewelry hunting, I am ravenous.”
    I cocked my head. “If you’re into Italian, I know a place just three minutes from here on PCH. A good dim sum Chinese is just around the block. Your pick.”
    “Let’s do the Chinese. Would you like to join me?”
    And that is how we ended up spending the afternoon together, the actress and the jewelry designer. Two successful women in LA making ends meet. I interrupted Annie Otis’ extended lunch break and told her to mind the shop while I had my lunch break. She followed me over to the shop again, constantly looking over her shoulder, where our common pizza friend was winking at us, blowing kisses and forming new pizza dough.  
    “He is soooo cute. I wonder if he has a girlfriend. She must be so lucky. I wonder how he is in bed….” A constant waterfall coming straight out of her overcharged hypothalamus.  
    “Mrs. Otis, he may be gay,” I interrupted her.
    She looked back for a minute, squinting through her eyelids, and was rewarded with a wave of his hand. “You think so? I don’t think so. He hasn’t made that impression on me. I think he is interested in me….”
    Nicole had been waiting for me outside the store, and Annie Otis was too pizza boy engaged to notice, so she went into the store and reopened it for regular business while Nicole and I went to lunch.

    A couple of dim sum baskets, jasmine teas, and rice wines later, we had