I laughed. “I will not think about that. If I think about that, we’ll both be sunk.”
“Think of the way we’d move together. The way we’d be slow at first and then lose control.”
“Does this work with other women?”
“I’ve never had to work this hard with other women,” he said, kissing my neck.
I could have walked away from him. I could have slapped him right across the face, and he would have taken it with a stiff upper lip and left me alone. But I wasn’t ready for this part to be over. I liked being tempted. I liked knowing I might make the wrong decision.
And it would absolutely have been the wrong decision. Because as soon as I got out of that bed, Rex would forget how badly he’d worked to get me. He’d remember only that he’d had me.
And this wasn’t a typical marriage. There was too much money on the line.
I let him flick one side of my slip off. I let him run his hand underneath the neckline of it.
“Oh, what it would be to lose myself in you,” he said. “To lie underneath you and watch you writhe on top of me.”
I almost did it. I almost ripped my own slip off and threw him onto the bed.
But then he said, “C’mon, baby, you know you want to.”
And it became perfectly clear just how many times Rex had tried this before with countless other women.
Never let anyone make you feel ordinary.
“Get out of here,” I said, though not unkindly.
“But—”
“No buts. Go on to bed.”
“Evelyn—”
“Rex, you’re drunk, and you’re confusing me for one of your many girls, but I’m your wife,” I said, with all obvious irony.
“Not even once?” he said. He seemed to sober up quickly, as if his hooded eyes had been part of the act. I was never really sure with him. You never knew exactly where you stood with Rex North.
“Don’t try it again, Rex. It’s not going to happen.”
He rolled his eyes and then kissed me on the cheek. “G’night, Evelyn,” he said, and then he slipped out my door just as smoothly as he’d come in.
THE NEXT DAY, I woke up to a ringing phone, deeply hungover and mildly confused about where I was.
“Hello?”
“Rise and shine, little bird.”
“Harry, what on earth?” The sun in my eyes felt like a burn.
“After you left the Fox party last night, I had a very interesting conversation with Sam Pool.”
“What was a Paramount exec doing at a Fox party?”
“Trying to find you and me,” Harry said. “Well, and Rex.”
“To do what?”
“To suggest that Paramount sign you and Rex to a three-picture deal.”
“What?”
“They want three movies, produced by us, starring you and Rex. Sam said to name a price.”
“Name a price?” Whenever I had too much to drink, I always woke up the next morning feeling as if I were underwater. Everything looked muted, sounded blurry. I needed to make sure I was following. “What do you mean, name a price?”
“Do you want a million bucks for a picture? I heard that’s what Don’s getting for The Time Before. We could get that for you, too.”
Did I want to make as much money as Don? Of course I did. I wanted to get the paycheck and mail a copy of it to him with a photo of my middle finger. But mostly I wanted the freedom to do whatever I wanted.
“No,” I said. “Nope. I’m not signing some contract where they tell me what movies to be in. You and I decide what movies I do. That’s it.”
“You aren’t listening.”
“I’m listening just fine,” I said, shifting my weight onto my shoulder and changing the arm that was holding the phone. I thought to myself, I’m going to go for a swim today. I should tell Luisa to heat the pool.
“We choose the movies,” Harry said. “It’s a blind deal. Whatever films you and Rex like Paramount wants to buy. Whatever salary we want.”
“All because of Anna Karenina?”
“We’ve proven your name brings people into the theater. And if I’m being entirely clear-eyed about this, I think Sam Pool wants to screw over Ari Sullivan. I think he wants to take what Ari Sullivan threw away and make gold out of it.”
“So I’m a pawn.”
“Everyone’s a pawn. Don’t go around taking things personally now when you never have before.”
“Any movies we want?”
“Anything we want.”
“Have you told Rex?”
“Do you honestly think I would run a single thing by that cad before running it by you?”
“Oh, he is not a cad.”
“If you had been there to talk to Joy Nathan after he broke her heart, you’d disagree.”
“Harry, he’s my husband.”
“Evelyn, no, he’s not.”
“Can’t you find something to like about him?”
“Oh, there’s plenty to like about him. I love how much money he’s made us, how much he will make us.”
“Well, he’s always done good by me.” I told him no, and he walked out my door. Not every man would do that. Not every man had.
“That’s because you both want the same thing. You, of all people, should know that you can’t tell a single thing about a person’s true character if you both want the same thing. That’s like a dog and a cat getting along because they both want to kill the mouse.”
“Well, I like him. And I want you to like him. Especially because if we sign this deal, Rex and I will have to stay married quite a bit longer than we originally thought. Which makes him my family. And you’re my family. So you’re both family.”
“Plenty of people don’t like their families.”
“Oh, shut up,” I said.
“Let’s get Rex on board and sign this thing, OK? Get your agents together to hammer out the deal. Let’s ask for the moon.”
“OK,” I said.
“Evelyn?” Harry said, before getting off the phone.
“Yes?”
“You know what’s happening, right?”
“What?”
“You’re about to become the highest-paid actress in Hollywood.”
FOR THE NEXT TWO AND a half years, Rex and I stayed married, living in a house in the hills, developing and shooting movies at Paramount.
We were staffed up with an entire team of people by that point. A pair of agents, a publicist, lawyers, and a business manager for each of us, as well as two on-set assistants and our staff at the house, including Luisa.
We woke up every day in our separate beds, got ready on opposite sides of the house, and then got into the same car and drove to the set together, holding hands the moment we drove onto the lot. We worked all day and then drove home together. At which point, we’d split up again for our own evening plans.
Mine were often with Harry or a few Paramount stars I had taken a liking to. Or I went out on a date with someone I trusted to keep a secret.
During my marriage to Rex, I never met anyone I felt desperate to see again. Sure, I had a few flings. Some with other stars, one with a rock singer, a few with married men—the group most likely to keep the fact that they’d bedded a movie star a secret. But it was all meaningless.
I assumed Rex was having meaningless dalliances, too. And for the most part, he was. Until suddenly, he wasn’t.
One Saturday, he came into the kitchen as Luisa was making me some toast. I was drinking a cup of coffee and having a cigarette, waiting for Harry to come pick me up for a round of tennis.
Rex went to the fridge and poured himself a glass of orange juice. He sat down beside me at the table.
Luisa put the toast in front of me and then set the butter dish in the center of the table.
“Anything for you, Mr. North?” she asked.
Rex shook his head. “Thank you, Luisa.”
And then all three of us could sense it; she needed to excuse herself. Something was about to happen.
“I’ll be starting the laundry,” she said, and slipped away.
“I’m in love,” Rex said when we were finally alone.
It was perhaps the very last thing I ever thought he’d say.
“In love?” I asked.
He laughed at my shock. “It doesn’t make any sense. Trust me, I know that.”
“With whom?”
“Joy.”
“Joy Nathan?”
“Yes. We’ve seen each other on and off through the years. You know how it is.”
“I know how it is with you, sure. But last I heard, you broke her heart.”
“Yes, well, it will come as no surprise to you that I have, in the past, been a little . . . let’s say, heartless.”
“Sure, we can say that.”
Rex laughed. “But I started feeling like it might be nice to have a woman in my bed when I woke up in the morning.”
“How novel.”
“And when I thought of what woman I might like that to be, I thought of Joy. So we’ve been seeing each other. Quietly, mind you. And, well, now I find that I can’t stop thinking about her. That I want to be around her all the time.”
“Rex, that’s wonderful,” I said.
“I hoped you’d think so.”
“So what should we do?” I asked.
“Well,” he said, breathing deeply, “Joy and I would like to marry.”
“OK,” I said, my brain already kicking into high gear, calculating the perfect time to announce our divorce. We’d already had two movies come out, one a modest hit, one a smash. The third, Carolina Sunset, about a young couple who have lost a child and move to a farm in North Carolina to try to heal, ultimately having affairs with people in their small town, was premiering in a few months.