Redemption Read Online Free PDF Page B

forgive himself, though occasionally, usually after a few beers, he still reflected on the whole sad affair.
    The phone on his desk buzzed. It was Pam, his assistant. “I’ve faxed you the latest rewrites, and your press agent called. You’re on Letterman next month—I went ahead and made the travel arrangements. Oh, and the new GQ comes out around then—you’re on the cover, remember? Should I call security and have them send over more bodyguards?” she added, her voice only half-joking.
    Matt sighed. With fans sometimes thick as deep-woods mosquitoes, he had reluctantly begun traveling with a couple of beefed-up “friends.”
    “Just make sure my trip to Philadelphia stays under wraps—at least until the contracts get signed.”
    “You got it. We’ll put out that you’re in Montana at the ranch. One more thing—Laura Hayes called.” Laura was his co-star in Lyin’ Hearts . “She wants to talk to you about living arrangements on location. She’s having trouble finding a place. I told her the house you rented had a couple extra bedrooms—”
    “Sure, if she wants to bunk with me that’s fine. I won’t be around much anyway. Most of our locations are only available during odd hours. Just make sure she knows the press will have a feeding frenzy if they find out.”
    The thought of sharing digs with Laura didn’t concern Matt. An easy friendship had already sprung up between them during their previous meetings. He made a point of not getting involved with his co-stars—nothing like a hard lesson learned.
    After hanging up, Matt took the pages that had fallen from his printer, and started reading. Before he could get through the first page, Marty called from his cell phone. “Matt, you’re not going to believe this.”
    “Try me.”
    “Kaslow’s is balking. Apparently they’ve got some new tight-assed executive who objects to the idea of letting in the likes of us Hollywood degenerates.”
    “Send them the pages of the script that are set in the store. That should set their minds to rest. Just make sure they don’t know who all is associated with this. If they think I’m involved, they’ll have visions of explosions going off in Housewares.”
    “All right. I’ll be meeting with them next week. If they don’t go for it, I don’t know what we’ll do. There’s really no other suitable place.”
    “They’ll go for it. Offer more money if you have to—though with the publicity they’ll get from this, they should be paying us a promo fee. Didn’t you say they were close to declaring bankruptcy?”
    “Actually, they’ve just been bought out. It’s apparently the new owner’s representative on the board who’s throwing the objections at us.”
    “Find out who it is. We’ll woo him if we have to.”
    “Her—it’s a woman. Hey, maybe you should take a shot at it—”
    “I trust you, Marty,” Matt said dryly. “Do whatever you have to; just get it finalized by next Friday. I want to get in there before I leave Philadelphia.”
    “I’ll see what I can do,” Marty promised, then hung up.
    The photos Marty had taken were still scattered on his desk. Matt gathered them up, intending to save them for Karen, who would use them to draw up the storyboards. Her job was crucial to the film’s success. The look and feel—the mise en scene —was as important in this film as the characters. And this place was the perfect location to convey that. Even from the photos, he could see that Kaslow’s exuded the kind of image called for in the screenplay.
    Gleaming woodwork, elegant chandeliers, that huge fireplace in the men’s department—all quietly proclaiming “Establishment,” and all of it painted over with a thin layer of snobbery.
    That attitude was the real villain in this picture and what had originally attracted Matt to the script. A lighthearted comedy on its surface, yet underneath it poked at certain attitudes of society with a subtle viciousness. The plot was simple, a