Feast of Saints Page 5

  “The back is a piece of cake,” she said, and effortlessly peeled it up and carried it over to the counter.

  “That’s it. We’re all done.” Looking at her watch, she said, “I’m afraid I’ve run over my time. Please don’t feel like you need to stay while I pack up.”

  They had been going at it for nearly three hours. Still, he was reluctant to let her go. He wasn’t likely to see her again for a month.

  “I’ve got a few minutes,” he said, standing and pulling on his T-shirt. He had about an hour before he had to drive up to Malibu to meet with his southern California marketing team. If he could have, he would have cancelled it, talked her into a leisurely lunch and driven her home himself. But, by now, his team was already halfway there from San Diego.

  “Would you like some lunch?” he asked casually, as if he hadn’t already instructed Kwanga to prepare her lunch. “I saw how you can pack away food on Friday.”

  Lilly narrowed her eyes at him. Smooth, he thought. That’s how you score points with a girl – make a comment about how much she eats. Not surprisingly, she turned him down, but she was professional about it.

  “No. Thank you. I’d better get going,” she said. “The alginate breaks down quickly. If I don’t start making the molds in the next hour, I’ll lose a lot of detail, and I need accurate molds to make sure the appliances fit you properly.”

  “Appliances?” he asked, feeling like this was a term he ought to know. She clearly wasn’t using the word for its normal meaning. Stoves, refrigerators.

  “They’re prosthetic skin applications. Special effects appliances can be anything from a full face mask, to a simple mole or scar and can be made from gelatin, silicone or foam latex. The ripped and sloughing skin of a zombie is an appliance adhered to an actor’s skin and painted and made-up to blend in.

  “I don’t know yet what we’ll be using for Allegrezza, but I’ll make them myself using your casts to be sure I get a perfect fit.”

  She stepped toward him and peeked under the sleeve of his shirt at the grid she’d drawn earlier.

  “The materials we tested today included the raw materials, adhesives and removers you’re likely to be exposed to on a daily basis.”

  Walking over to her allergy kit, she pulled out a small bottle and squirted some minty smelling liquid on to a cotton ball.

  “I use only medical grade plastics and stay away from solvents, which aren’t good for you if absorbed in the skin.” She used the minty smelling cotton ball to wipe off the grid, and said, “There are naturally occurring oils that will take off what I put on.” When she finished, she inspected his skin closely before tugging down his sleeve.

  “Looks good,” she said, patting his arm. She had such an easy way of touching him. In just three hours he’d grown to like it. Very much.

  He lingered as Lilly started packing up. When she pulled a roll of bubble wrap out of her supplies, he helped her gently wrap the casts and place them in the extra empty tub she’d brought.

  While they packed, he asked her, “How did you come to be in this business, Lilly?”

  “It was a fluke, really. I interned in college with Dow Chemical’s medical prosthetics department in Kansas and received an offer for a fulltime position after graduation. I have a brother who is less than a year older than me. We went through the same engineering program, although he’s now a geneticist. When we graduated, he had an offer with Tarrant Labs in La Jolla. Dow’s got a big medical prosthetics division out here, so it made sense to move out together.

  “I’d been working about a year when my department was asked to present a segment on artificial limbs and medical implants for a children’s science show on public television. I got talking with the artistic director for the program about the similarities between my medical prosthetics work and special effects work.

  “I guess you could say I caught the Hollywood bug. I quit my job, moved in with my brother and his wife for a year, and went back to school to study special effects makeup.

  “The same director who introduced me to the idea gave me my first job in children’s television. I think you know the rest.”

  Jake did know. In fact, he knew a lot of what she had just said, although not the details of how she became interested in Hollywood special effects.

  He knew a lot of other things about Lilly, too. Like her 4.0 GPA and the fact that she didn’t have any speeding tickets or a criminal record. Last year, when Ty started talking incessantly about Lilly, Jake had run a background check on her as a precaution. His celebrity status, and his wealth, introduced a level of risk into the lives of his loved ones that he dealt with by fiercely protecting them.

  Lilly’s background check came back squeaky clean. Although, glancing down at the high-heeled hiking boots, he wondered if she didn’t have a wild side that she kept well hidden.

  As she bent over right in front of him to put the lids on her tubs, Jake rolled his eyes to the ceiling, turned away and texted Wil to bring the Bentley around front and to come down and carry Lilly’s goods. He also instructed Wil to have Kwanga box up Lilly’s lunch and put it in the car.

  “I’ll have Wil take you home,” he said.

  When Jake and Wil had put the last item in the back of the vehicle, Lilly turned to him in the driveway and stuck out her hand.

  “I didn’t properly express my thanks for this opportunity on Friday, Mr. Durant,” she said rather formally, considering the last few hours. She flushed when he took her hand and just held it.

  Tugging it out of his grasp, she said, “I’ll make sure to keep Phillip posted on my progress.”

  The responsibility for managing a small contract like Lilly’s normally would have fallen to one of Phillip’s staff of talented agents. However, Jake had asked Phillip to personally handle her contract. Standing here now, thinking that he probably wouldn’t have a reason to talk to her or see her again for a month, he found himself wishing he was personally managing Lilly Rose.

  Reluctant to let her go, he stalled. “I take it this means you’ve decided to take this on?”

  “Yes. That is, if you still want me to?” she asked. She had been so bold on Friday and so confident and professional this afternoon, he was surprised she let slip the insecurity her question implied.

  Jake was developing a lot of wants when it came to her. He was going to have to get control of them, or their professional relationship could be an embarrassing disaster. Maybe a few weeks and a half a world apart from her was a good thing right now.

  Closing the trunk of the packed Bentley and beating Wil to the punch to open her door, he said, “I’d hate to have all of our hard work today go to waste. I’ll see you in September.”

  Lilly didn’t waste a moment when Wil dropped her off at her bungalow. She began to unpack the tubs containing the molds of Jake’s body parts in her kitchen as Wil brought items in from the SUV.

  “Can I help you with those bags outside, too?” Wil asked. Several heavy, dusty bags of dry plaster purchased this morning were sitting on her front porch.

  “That would be wonderful. Thank you, Wil.” She grabbed an old sheet from her hall closet and spread it out on her kitchen floor. “Set them here, please.”

  When Wil left, Lilly began mixing the plaster that she would use to fill the casts of Jake. She mixed the dry plaster with warm water by hand, her experienced eye knowing just when she’d gotten the right mix of ingredients. When she was satisfied with the texture, she poured the first cast. She reached into Jake’s head to make sure the plaster filled his nose, ears and chin and that there were no air bubbles. Alternating between mixing more plaster when needed and pouring, she completed the rest of the casts.

  The waiting was the hardest part. Jake’s parting words about not letting their hard work go to waste kept ringing in her head. The process of removing the alginate molds from the plaster casts would destroy the molds. If the casts turned out well, she could make as many more molds as she wanted from the plaster casts. But if she�
��d made a major mistake on these first molds, she would have no choice but to reschedule another casting session.

  Her stomach turned at the thought. Jake had surprised her today by being much more approachable than the aloof man who sat silently through lunch on Friday. And thoughtful. The turkey, avocado and cranberry relish wrap he sent home with her was delicious.

  Although, bending to untie her Dsquared2 Roxy hiking boots, she wasn’t sure how she felt about a man who made fun of her shoes. When you are only 5’1”, selecting shoes can be complicated. Sneakers and Mary Janes made her look like a child. Pumps in combination with her petite size made her look like a kindergarten teacher.

  Kyle, her personal style maven, told her long ago that if she wanted to be noticed as a woman, her shoes needed to be tall and dramatic, although he hadn’t said it so nicely.

  Sitting at The Mellow Mushroom in Lawrence one night in her junior year at KU, Kyle had rudely interrupted Lilly’s grumbling about her nonexistent love life.

  “Lilly, honey, look at you,” he said, casting a mournful eye over her shapeless campus bookstore Jayhawks sweatshirt, blue jeans and Converse sneakers.

  “You dress like you’re still in high school, and you look even younger. Drew, there,” he pointed at the guy who worked the cash register, “didn’t charge you for your sub because it’s ‘kids eat free’ night.”

  “Yeah, well, he’s stoned,” she’d said. But she took Kyle’s words to heart and, with his guidance, gradually adjusted her style. Fitted tops and belted dresses emphasized her trim waist. V-necks and A-lines elongated her frame. Low rise jeans, snug T-shirts, slim skirts. Nothing baggy. But most of all, the right shoes. Shoes that would bring her closer to eye level with the men she wanted to attract. Luckily, with her tiny feet, she could almost always find must-have designer footwear in her size on final-final markdown.

  Stashing the Roxies in her shoe rack, Lilly headed back into the kitchen to peel back the first mold of Jake’s face and head. Revealing the chin first, she was heartened to see the slightly off-center dimple. That level of detail signaled that the rest of the cast was going to be good.

  Indeed, all were excellent. An hour later, she’d completely reconstructed Jake’s upper body, having cut, sanded, plastered and sculpted until his head and torso fit together seamlessly. Tomorrow she would call Greg and see about ordering an industrial steel stand to mount plaster Jake in her studio. She needed it steady and immobile so that she could make additional casts over the next few days. She would use the plaster Jakes to start toying with designs for his character’s special effects makeup.

  It was one thing to draw concepts on a piece of paper. It was altogether different seeing them on the actor. Having the plaster casts to work with was the next best thing to having the actor try on the makeup. Better, even. The statues didn’t complain, or need to take bathroom breaks.

  Chapter 5

  Lilly worked in fits and starts over the following days. On Tuesday, Phillip couriered over Chris Nolan’s Feast screenplay on the promise that she would exchange packages with the courier and send back the signed confidentiality agreement and contract for the job. Since then, it seemed like every time she started getting into the script her phone would ring. She was still officially on call for post-production work on Catillac Cats, so she couldn’t just turn it off.

  One of the calls, though, was a welcome interruption. Kyle called from Busan, South Korea, to tell her he had been offered a job in LA starting in the fall at FIDM, the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising.

  “It’s just for a semester. Is that too long to crash with you?”

  “Of course not!” she said immediately. Kyle had visited so often that he’d taken over her attic. Slowly, over the last couple of years, the exposed rafters had been beautifully transformed with paint and fabric interspersed with acrylic light-backed art pieces. Any time he stayed for over a week, he would buy something for the room, until he had created a magical space.

  “What will you be teaching?” she asked, truly curious. Kyle had tremendous fashion knowledge, but it was mostly self-taught. He had played around a lot in college. A liberal arts degree from Kansas University with a dubious grade point average didn’t seem like something that would have much cache at the prestigious fashion school.

  “Don’t sound so shocked, ye of little faith,” scoffed Kyle. “Actually, those foolish people told me to write my own curriculum. I’m doing a soup to nuts on runway fashion, starting with what it takes to get designs to the runway and ending with their ultimate marketing impact. I’ve already got some guest speakers lined up, but now I’m not telling you who, Miss Poo-Poo.”

  “Then I’ll just have to audit the class. It sounds fascinating,” Lilly enthused.

  “Now you’re just blowing smoke up my skirt,” chided Kyle.

  “I’m not. Your international fashion week escapades will have the whole class enthralled.” Lilly was serious, although the stories would have to be heavily edited before they would be suitable to tell in mixed company.

  “When will you get here?”

  “Mid-September, if that’s okay? I told them I just couldn’t miss Mercedes.” Mercedes referred to Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in New York. The semi-annual event was one of the major fashion weeks held around the world along with those in Paris, London and Milan.

  “That’s perfect.” She was thrilled to have him but relieved that she’d have a stretch of quiet around the house to work on Feast before he arrived.

  “The semester starts earlier, but Brad Goreski has agreed to fill in for me the first week and Bill Kaulitz the second. They only loosely fit the curriculum but I don’t think the class will mind,” Kyle cooed demurely.

  Undoubtedly not. Brad shot to fame a few years ago as the flamboyant assistant on The Rachel Zoe Project, a fashion-centric reality series on Bravo, before spinning off his own show, “It’s a Brad Brad World.” He and Kyle had met two years ago in LA, and ever since, Brad had been trying to get Kyle to make an appearance on the show.

  Brad was a coup, but Bill Kaulitz. Wow. Just wow. Lilly was seriously considering figuring out a way to audit Kaulitz’ class. Kyle must have selected him for his modeling background, but Lilly knew him better as the lead singer of the techno-pop band Tokio Hotel. His style was striking: ultra-dark eyeliner, long hair dramatically styled. His face was more beautiful than most female fashion models.

  “Holy cow, Kyle. FIDM’s never going to let you go.”

  “Yeah, well, they’ve already offered me an open-ended contract, but I don’t know. You know it’s hard for me to stay in one place.”

  Lilly did know. It took all of her cajoling and persuasive powers to get him to stay in Kansas and finish his degree after she left. He’d gotten into a graduate program at NYU, but he only stayed a semester before heading to Europe and beyond.

  “Well, I’ve got some good career news, too.” She went on to tell him about Feast of Saints and working with Jake Durant.

  “Oh. My. God. Way to bury the lead! When did this happen?”

  “Last Friday. I tried to call you but I kept getting an automated message that your line was unavailable.”

  “That’s Busan for you. Everything that can go wrong has gone wrong this week. Soo Joo fell off the runway and bled all over the Christophe Guillarme Rorschach I had my eye on for you. But wait until you see the Suecomma Bonnies I scored.” Lilly’s mouth watered. Korean shoe designer, Bonnie Lee, was her all-time favorite.

  “But tell me more about the film. And Jake Durant.”

  She bit her lip in the effort to choose just a few words to capture how she felt. Her thoughts were all over the place and this call had to be costing Kyle a fortune. “It’s overwhelming, and so is he,” she finally said.

  “I’ll bet. The man’s a walking aphrodisiac. Does he have a girlfriend? Or boyfriend?” Kyle asked hopefully. Several of Jake’s roles had raised speculation regarding his sexual preferences.

  Lilly didn’t like to
stereotype, but she was pretty sure Jake wasn’t gay. He was just so… masculine. She quickly put a brake on the direction of her thoughts. He was out of her league. Stratospherically.

  “I think he might have a girlfriend,” she said. In her Internet search a few nights ago, she’d come across plenty of gossip items about Jake and other women, mostly actors, and a few models. If the tabloids held any truth, his most enduring love interest was Canadian actress Sierra Nighly.

  Before Kyle made any outrageous suggestions about how Jake might improve her nonexistent love life, she changed the topic, bringing Kyle up to date on her brother’s life and the antics of his six year old, Anna.

  When they’d caught each other up on the highlights of their lives apart, Kyle, always in tune with her insecurities, so like his own, said, “Don’t sweat the new job. You’re going to knock him dead. By the time I get there, you’ll have Jake Durant wrapped around your pinky.”

  She snorted. “I don’t think so. But I’m going to try.” As intimidating as she found him, she did feel like she was doing a fair job of establishing a professional rapport.

  “I’ll see you in a few weeks, Tink.”

  “I’ll keep the porch light on.” It was something her father used to say.

  Talking with Kyle always helped her find her inner strength. If it hadn’t been for him, she probably would have stayed on the farm, where she would have eventually snapped and buried her father on the back forty. Moving away from the farm, and not moving back after college, had been the right decision for her and her father. Whether out of necessity or love, he had remarried and it had mellowed him. Their once rocky relationship had found a relatively easy rhythm. She called him to report in every few weeks and made the trip home at least once a year, at Thanksgiving or Christmas. They were warm holidays, the anger and resentment long gone, on both sides.

  Sighing, she went to stand in her studio amidst the growing grove of Jake statues and disembodied limbs on metal stands. She’d covered her desk with thick plastic and on it sat a large block of clay. Using a wire cutter that looked like an oversized cheese knife, she carved a hunk off of the clay and kneaded it in her hand. Standing facing Jake’s white plaster face, she began adding features. Just toying with effects, she used the clay to fill in his broken nose, straightening and sharpening it. She also filled in the dimple in his chin and built out his cheekbones, making his face more triangular than square. On a whim, she sculpted pointy elf ears.