Reality Boulevard by Melissa Jo Peltier

Author:Melissa Jo Peltier [Peltier, Melissa Jo]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781908556547
Publisher: Apostrophe Books
Published: 2013-03-12T00:00:00+00:00

January 1995

Their first kiss was on New Year’s Eve, at a swing party at the Derby. A small group of the gang from Young Genius Productions – now settled into a more upscale office suite in a faux Victorian building at Moorpark and Coldwater in Studio City - had bought a booth large enough for six. The group consisted of Hunter; Ian and his girlfriend Kelli, an ambitious young development executive from Paramount; Ian’s new business partner, Nat Bulgher; Joey Choo, their humorless company accountant, and Leslie Charo, the 50-something chain-smoking editor who was working with Hunter on editing her Philippines story.

The Derby deal included unlimited champagne, and Hunter was glad of it, trying to drown her wounded heart into silent, superficial submission. It was agony, sitting next to Nat Bulgher’s bulbous gin-blossom nose, while Ian held Kelli’s delicate hand and cooed in her ear. When Ian had suggested the Derby for a company New Year’s Eve party, she’d asked him who was coming and he’d never mentioned Kelli. She’d known he’d been seeing her for at least a few weeks because she’d heard the receptionist announce her name and watched Ian shut the door to his office before taking the call. Yet, at all other times, he acted the way he had since that day they’d first connected so strongly in his Hollywood Way offices. He touched Hunter gently when he addressed her, laughed with abandon at her jokes, and always found a way for their bodies to be in contact whenever they sat next to one another. He called her at odd hours of the day and night just to run ideas by her, and to reassure her that her dreams of completing her powerful documentary would one day come true. He had a way of convincing her that everything was going to turn out perfectly.

When he related to her in that way, her ego soared and she felt almost drugged with happiness. There is nothing so seductive as a person who sees you the way you wish you could see yourself. Then, just as quickly, he’d retreat into his off-limit world with his private phone calls. Now she was just another one of the boys, or sometimes, as invisible to him if she weren’t there at all. She’d toss and turn at night, trying to assess the reality. On the days that she determined, no, he was just a friend and colleague, he seemed to respond by coming just to the edge of romantic intimacy with her. The moment that she surrendered to the fact that she had deep feelings for him, he’d pull away and be his friendly but coolly professional self. Intermittent reinforcement – she’d learned all about that in college psychology. A great behavioral training tool, but hell on the trainee.

This New Year’s Eve, they were celebrating something monumental. When she had first met with him back in September, she’d shown him Crimes of Passion and the raw footage from the Philippines sweatshops.

“I never thought of myself as a documentary kind of guy,” he’d said to her.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.