Chapter 2
Adam
As I’ve already mentioned, my mother has been a great influence in my life. She, no doubt, made it easy for me to progress in the very early days of my career. My first role, at the age of eight, made me a bit of a child prodigy. After many other parts and commercials, it made it easier for me to get into the best acting school.
That’s where Tessa and I became best of friends, at the Juilliard acting school in New York. When we left, we both followed the route of stage acting. Those were memorable times when Tessa and I first fell in love. For a while, I believed we’d be together forever. That’s because, to me, she is the most beautiful in all the world. Her African-American heritage lends her a silky, soft coffee skin. She has the most amazing long shapely legs and I wasn’t surprised when she took up dancing too. She’s outgoing, gregarious, and very generous, though she can be moody. Tessa is a woman who can never make up her mind about anything. Hell, whenever I see her, her hair is a different color. For a very short while, we lived together and did everything together. Although my mother had given me space to grow, she came to a point when she insisted it was time to move on in my career.
After a year, my mother decided it was time for me to audition for movies for Columbia Pictures. It made sense and I agreed to it. As soon as I put myself out there, I was getting the parts. I’m sure my mother was the reason I gained such headline roles even back then. It was harder for Tessa as she had to rely on her talent alone, whereas I had my mother’s sway. I don’t mind admitting this because it was all so long ago.
It was inevitable that Tessa and I ended up separate for a while. I needed to be on my own to work hard at progressing my career. Equally, Tessa’s career progressed too, but we were going very different ways. We seemed to do better when we weren’t together and that was how our relationship developed. Every now and then we’d arrange to meet up and spend time together as lovers. At other times, we’d part ways and find other lovers. That’s still how we are today. We’re still intimate lovers but we don’t live in each other’s pockets. Most of the time we’re both too busy, with our fast-paced life, to be considering any long-term relationships. Hence, our little intimate liaisons with other people work out well.
I’m ambitious to play adventurous roles, usually the main protagonist. It’s the same for my mother when she’s in movies, she always plays the role of a wicked woman. She likes to refer to herself as the “killer queen.” Although not so much these days as she’s in her sixties. Now, she prefers smaller supporting roles that aren’t quite so taxing. Tessa, though, tends to do romances. She’s very elegant and beautiful so fits such roles well. The public loves her and she has a pinup image.
My mother tends to travel with either Tessa or me on the odd occasion and when she’s between jobs herself. We both adore her so it works out well. Mother likes to live her life embroiled within the movie world, even if she doesn’t have a role to play. Everyone knows and respects her, so it works out well. She’s good company to have around when we’re filming. Plus, being an old hand in the trade, she helps us stick to the strict life of being busy actors.
Tessa and I have played roles in the same movies but it never works out. We end up clashing most of the time, each one trying to outplay the other. We’re both so full of our own self-importance when we’re together. Though it’s a bit of a sore point of the moment.
When Tessa finished filming in Italy recently, we were offered parts in a TV show together. I flat-out refused, I don’t do comedy, ever. Tessa was very upset with me and we haven’t spoken to one another since.
Right now, I’m staying in New York, close to my agent. I’m going over a script for the leading role in a three-movie contract. As it happens, my cousin, Brett, is also in New York, living with his new fiancée, Sarah. They were meant to return to Denver but stayed on in New York instead. Tonight, we’re meeting up for dinner.
Not that I don’t have friends to spend time with, but family members are always my preferred kind of company. Family members are so much more genuine than any acquaintances I’ve ever made in the movie business. Celebrities can tend to be explosive toward one another and so I keep to my own company most of the time. Mind you, I do like to throw the occasional party.
I’m also expecting my mother’s company for a while, so she can look through the movie script with me. She gives solid advice when it comes to the signing of new contracts. I need that right now as I’ll be making years of commitment.
I’m now sitting in the bar at JFK airport, awaiting her arrival and keeping a low profile. She should be here soon as her plane landed twenty minutes ago.
Tessa
I’m currently in New Jersey, and I happen to know that Adam’s in New York, so he’s not far from me. When this happens, we usually get together for a few nights of lustful passion, but he doesn’t know I’m so close by. When he refused the TV show and wouldn’t even discuss it, it sort of changed things between us. Sure, at first I was upset, then I was furious, and now, I’m really fed up.
I’m known to be a bit of a wild child, or an avid party-goer, but I don’t even want to do that anymore. Friends have stopped asking me to go with them because I’ve refused so many times. So, what’s wrong with me? Well, it seems my change started about a year and a half ago, when I was shooting a movie in Egypt. I had to miss Rosie’s sixteenth birthday party. She’s Adam’s cousin’s daughter, but we’re very close to her. For both of us, she’s more like our little niece. Anyway, it upset me to miss her sixteenth because it’s a special birthday, in my view.
After the family get-together, Adam went on to England to do his own movie shoot. His mother didn’t like the cold weather in that country so she decided to come and spend a few days with me in sunny Egypt. She often joins either one of us at the movie sets, if she’s got a quiet period herself. That’s when she informed me that Adam had intervened on Rosie’s behalf because her drunken mother had brought along some boy-toy to the party. Poor Adam, he doesn’t have the time of day for Rosie’s mom, Dianna. The girl deserved a better mother but that’s family for you, you can’t choose them can you?
Anyway, after I missed that incident, I started to yearn to be with my family more and more. It had never even occurred to me before then, that I don’t even have a permanent home, other than my parents who live in Europe now. Not at any point had I even thought about buying an apartment. I’m never in any place long enough. So, after Egypt, my next movie was in Italy. That’s where I finally got to visit my niece and do some family catching up. The thing is, by then I was getting more and more down. It was a sad day when I had to leave, so I kind of snuck away without any goodbyes.
Spending time with Adam was, and still is, impossible. The only thing we have in common is our shares in a small TV production company. That gave me an idea and I approached them to find a script for a syndicated TV show about family life. It was my intention that Adam and I would play the main roles, forcing us to spend time together.
The script was great. It was funny and emotional and even now it will make a great new TV sitcom for someone. Sadly, not for Adam and me. He wouldn’t even look at the script.