It wasn’t her idea but, since no one was there, they wanted to make love in Darla’s bed, and they had all afternoon. It was her first real love affair and she was thrilled, adventurous and found it all so adult and exciting.
They had met on the set of “Just In Time”, her first big role in a big motion picture. She knew the moment she got it; it would be a huge stepping-stone in her career. Everyone wanted to be in an HRT project. Everyone wanted to work with David Turner, James Redfield and the elusive Darla Hutton. It was a rarity but they were all three working together again. She was right there working along side them.
Little did she know how much would change in her life before the film even was released. Things happened so fast. One minute she was the naïve young actress working on a major motion picture. The next she was a seasoned pro, a large role under her belt and waking from an afternoon rendezvous in the star’s bed when she wasn’t home.
It served the woman right. She had hoped to learn so much from working with Darla Hutton. What she learned was the kind of star she didn’t want to be. The woman pitched temper tantrums shutting down or delaying the shoot constantly. Then a few minutes later, the same shrew was cowering in a corner bawling her eyes out.
Darla Hutton spoke to only a chosen few, and seemed to enjoy making everyone around her miserable. She treated her co-star and her director with disdain, often picking up a prop and hurling it unprovoked at one of them.
Oh she was beautiful, even more breath taking in person than on the screen, but quite frankly not only was she unprofessional, she wasn’t a very good actress. It surprised her.
Teresa, as she was called back then, had been mesmerized by “Breathe Again”, as everyone who saw it had been. Although Darla’s five other pictures didn’t have that same exact magic, Darla was brilliant and the films excellent.
“Just In Time” would probably be at best good. James Redfield was incredible, as usual, and the script seemed inspired, but Darla Hutton was terrible. The only time she could even stand her in the rushes was in the musical numbers. As terrible as Hutton was in this role, her vocal abilities were unmatched.
David Turner had a reputation for spinning gold. She had her fingers crossed that he’d be able to work his magic in the editing room. There was no way she wanted her first major role to be in Darla Hutton’s first major bomb.
She stirred in the big brass bed. Her lover was gone. Tess sat up looking around the ornate room. Sighing she looked down on the floor and then reached for her clothes. It wouldn’t be the first time she had awakened after a thrilling hour of passion to find herself alone. She guessed that was the way things would always be as long as she was sleeping with someone who was already married.
She dressed lazily and looked at the mussed bed. She thought about making it, but remembered it hadn’t been made when she had been thrown on it and ravaged. Tess smiled. She started to blow out the many candles lit around the bedroom. She’d almost forgotten how they’d taken her breath away when she was led in and she saw them for the first time.
With a quick breath out went to first candle. She loved the perfumed wax smell as that little dash of smoke curled in the air after whiffing the flame out. Tess touched a clear drip from the candle and let the hot goo dry almost instantly on her finger. She was looking at it when she heard her coming.
She couldn’t make out what was said, but she could make out an argument was ensuing and coming straight for her. Panicked she looked around the room, dashing behind the flowing drapes just before the bedroom door was slammed open.
From her hiding place she heard the big bed rock, as a body was either thrown against it or someone threw themselves on it. She didn’t dare look to see who it was, as much as she wanted to. She trembled waiting for a moment when she could slip away unnoticed. She tried to crane her head around to see if she might be able to slip out the window when she became suddenly aware that there was someone else in the room.
“Don’t you ever walk away from me!” The voice growled.
“I’ll do anything I please!” Came the voice from the bed. “I’m free of you now and I don’t take orders from you or anyone else anymore!”
“Free?” The other voice scoffed. “You’re back in this house aren’t you?”
She heard the woman sit up on the bed. “I just came back to get my things.”
“Two questions Darla. How long will it take you to pack your bags and get the hell out and when will we all be free of you?”
Tess turned her head slightly to the left and realized that she could see the mirror on the dresser from her hiding place. Remembering her acting teacher once telling her if you can see the audience, they can see you. She began to slip further behind the drapes, but instead wrapped them discreetly around herself until she could no longer she her own reflection.
From her hiding place she could see Lucille take a step toward the woman on the bed. “I’m waiting for an answer Darla. How long until we’re all rid of you for good?”
She couldn’t see Darla’s face, only that back of her thick black curls. “Soon enough.”
“What you want something more?” Lucille pulled the yellow frock tighter around her chest, trying to cover the lingerie she was wearing. “Blood?”
Tess could hear Darla smile. “Not really, but if I asked for it, you’d have to give it to me. You know you would.”
She saw Lucille pull a large cedar box she’d been hiding behind her back so Darla could see it. Tess noticed Darla’s head move like a cat getting ready to pounce on a mouse. Lucille smiled and tossed it on the bed and out of Tess’s sight.
“Here.” The triumph evident in her voice, “I don’t have any cash on me, but these should do. My jewelry is worth a fortune. Take It, get out and don’t come back. In fact never let us hear from you again.”
Darla’s manic laugh was unmistakable. “You think I need money?”
“Of course, you need money.”
Tess could hear the cedar box open and the sound of fingers dipping through the jewelry. “You aren’t nearly as smart as you think you are Lucille. I have money, lots and lots of money.”
“But all in a joint account with your husband. Remember him?”
“David? Of course, I remember him.” Tess could she her cock her head from the reflection in the mirror. “Is he dead yet?”
“No.” Lucille smirked. “He’ll be fine. So will James. Sorry to disappoint you.”
“There.” Tess started to panic again when she realized Darla was getting up from the bed and walking toward the mirror. She had to stifle a laugh, no a guffaw, when she got a look at Darla getting a look at herself.
Darla leaned into the mirror, and then turned to Lucille covered in every piece of jewelry she had space for. “Do I look like a cheap whore yet?”
Lucille crossed her arms. “You don’t need to be slathered in too much jewelry to look like a cheap whore.”
In a flash the cedar box was hurled at Lucille who ducked and laughed. “Almost got me. You move pretty well for a woman who just had a baby. You did just have a baby or were you just messing with us all again?”
“Yes, I had a baby.” Darla got defensive, rubbing her belly slightly.
“What’d you do with it? Drop it by the road and high tail it home to whine until one of us goes and finds it for you like a lost earring?”
Tess watched Darla whip around to face the mirror, hurt flashing across her face and then just a quickly smirked. “Wouldn’t you like to know where my baby is?”
“Couldn’t care less, Darla.”
“That’s what you want. That’s what you all want. You want me to hand over my baby and then you’ll take it and get rid of me.”
“Actually, Sweetheart, my personal choice is just to wash my hands of you and the little pooping brat.” Lucille took a step toward Darla. “So what was it, a boy poop or a girl poop?”
Darla whipped around to face the mirror again, her eyes darting around in dismay. “A little boy…David has a son.”
“David?” Lucile scoffed. “Are you sure it’s David’s?”
“Of course, it’s David’s.”
“I don’t know, Darla. You got awful chummy with Mike Kincaid. You guys got friendly and all of a sudden all you could talk about was blowing whistles and getting out. You been blowin’ Mike Kincaid’s whistle Darla?”
Her voice became cold and deadly. “I’ll have you know the only man who’s ever touched me is my husband.”
Lucille laughed out loud. “Not surprised. Who’d wanna touch a crazy bitch? That’s exactly what you are Darla, one crazy bitch.”
Darla turned slowly and deliberately until she was facing Lucille. “I bet you wish you could say the same.”
“I got one up on ya, Darla.” Lucile put her hands on her hips and let the peignoir fall open, giving Darla a flash of cleavage. “I’ve never been touched by…a man.”
“Perverts!” Darla gasped. “You all are perverts!”
Lucille threw back her head and laughed. Then like a tiger waiting for the perfect moment, she pounced on her prey. “Is that what’ll take to get you off everyone’s back? Me?”
Lucille yanked Darla to her and kissed her deeply. Darla struggled, finally pushing her off and wiping her lips disgustedly with the back of her hand. “You ever touch me again and I’ll kill you!”
“Like I haven’t heard that before.” Lucille pushed herself up off the floor.
Darla put out her hand. “I mean it. Don’t come one step closer!”
Lucille took a daring step toward Darla, who threw herself against the dressing table, rattling the mirror and the contents on top of the dresser.
“Ouch!” Darla grabbed her hand, and cradled it where a candle hand fallen over and burned her.
“Aw, darling.” Lucille smirked, advancing toward her. “Let Mama kiss it and make it all better.
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