Chapter 35 – Ballet, Fashion, Sex, and Drinking
Helstof asked about the film, and Anna had started talking, when Gale’s phone vibrated. It was another email, this time from Selgey and Bart:
Galey: Have you met up with Anna and Richard yet? Hope so. If you are thinking of drinking, STOP. Save that for later. We just got off the phone with people in Paris, who want to meet you later at the fashion show. The guy is a producer with the Paris Opera Ballet, and his wife is a musician. We told them Anna and Richard have an original score for a ballet, and we told them about our project here. They can’t believe we have a lost ballet, by Stravinsky, and tons of money to produce it. Anyway, they say they must meet you tonight. GALE, YOU CAN’T MEET THEM DRUNK! UNDERSTAND? They will save you seats on the runway at the Valentino production. You get it? Four seats at Valentino. Tonight. That’s like, $20K. Gale, Gale, don’t show up drunk, ok? Tell them what we’re doing with the Stravinsky and Townshend. Have fun. We wish we were there, you lucky dogs. Selgey and Bart. PS. No champagne till after the show. We mean it!
The waiter arrived at the table with the bottle of 2002 Krug. Helstof was about to approve opening it when Gale said, “God damn it, we can’t. We can’t open the bottle.” She was pissed, because she had grand visions of a grand romp in the hay, with her three grand friends, in the grand town of Paris. God damn ballet, always screwing up the fun times. Gale’s not a dancer. She’s not a composer, or a producer, or a musician. Why should she suffer for art? She wanted champagne and sex, and now this. And the hell with fashion too. She handed the phone to Helstof, who read the email, and then handed it to Anna. Gale sat in her chair, looking like a five year old who'd had her lollipop taken away from her.
Helstof said, “Well, there goes the champagne, but looks like fun this evening.” She told the waiter to take the bottle away and bring a pot of coffee. Gale wasn’t the only one disappointed. The waiter realized his tip on a pot of coffee was going to be a lot less than with the $200 bottle of Krug, and food. Helstof opened her fashion show program and saw that Valentino was scheduled for the Seine River Ballroom at 11pm. They had about six hours to kill before they had to dress for the show. They killed one of the hours drinking coffee, with Anna and Richard describing the movie, and Helstof describing the Charleston scene. She talked about working with The Whosey on the music, and about the four ex-dancers working on the choreography, and the woman working on getting all the primetime, best in the world dancers lined up, on short notice. Anna pretty much knew how Gwen and Helstof were doing, because they were best friends and exchanged emails a lot. Still, it was great to hear about the ballet production, first hand.
Gale had been quiet since the bottle had disappeared back to the cellar, from whence it had come, perfectly chilled at 54 degrees Fahrenheit. Richard looked at her, said, “What have you been up to? Are you working on the production?”
Gale summoned up a quasi-smile and said, “You know what I’ve been up to for the last few months? Being a good girl, that’s what. Not doing what I want to be doing. Doing a lot of what I don’t want to be doing. I’m not a good girl in that department, so being a good girl is a bad thing. Not fun, and fun is what I like. I usually have a lot of fun when I hang out with the Junes, but not lately. Everyone at home is very serious. Working, all the time. The great artists at work. All that boring creativity. No time for Gale. No time for what Gale wants, what Gale needs. Ballet, ballet, ballet. Music and dancing. How boring.”
Anna and Richard looked at Helstof for an interpretation of the rant.
“She’s horny. Gwen’s been driving us, night and day, seven days a week, on the production. Everyone’s into it, so we don’t mind. Gale and I have an easier job than the others, with our costumes task. But I also work with The Whosey on the music. I share computer recording duties with the Ps. I learned the basics with you when you were working on your score. Now we’re doing it again, but The Whosey knows everything about recording, and he’s teaching us lots of sophisticated stuff. So I have two things to work on, and Gale only has one. And she hasn’t been getting any. She’s driving us nuts; wants to party all the time, invite guys over. She actually hit on the Ps at one point and they threatened to complain to Gwen, so she knocked it off. Gwen keeps her close to The Hall. On the flight over here she said her goal was to sleep with five male models during our four days here. I reminded her that most of them are gay. She said she’s going to hunt down all the ones who aren’t.”
Anna looked at Richard. Richard looked at Gale. Helstof looked at Anna. Everyone looked at their watch. Six hours to kill before the show. What to do? What to do? Anna said, “You guys feeling any jetlag?”
Helstof said, “A little.”
“What have you done since you got here?”
“We just showered and then went to the Carrousel to see what the place is like. We’re trying the stay up when you get to your destination system of anti-jetlag. Then we got the emails about you being here.”
“You going to tough it out, then go to the late show tonight? Or, maybe, maybe, take it easy? Or something?”
Richard sipped his coffee, and looked at the three women at the table. Helstof had clocked the message, but Gale was dense about it. Helstof said, “Where are you guys staying?”
“We came here straight from the train station, wanted to find you right away.”
Helstof said, “Oh. Well. Maybe we should take it easy for a while. Rest up for tonight.” She looked at Gale. “Maybe we should go up to the rooms. Relax a little. So we’re ready to meet these ballet people tonight at the Valentino. What do you think?”
Gale, the dawn finally arriving, said, “Yes, we probably should do that. We have a responsibility to the team to be fresh for the fashions and to meet these people Gwen wants us to talk to. We should go upstairs.”
Helstof said, “We have a suite. If you want to join us, take it easy till the show, we have room.”
Anna looked at Richard, who looked at the three women and, with a dead straight face said, “I wouldn’t want to intrude. You’re jetlagged, need some down time. We can find a room somewhere, leave you two to rest.”
Anna, the bomb, said, “You’re the one who’s going to need down time, in a while.”
They paid the check, with Gale saying to the waiter, “Keep that bottle on ice. We’re coming back for it, later.”