Daniel Price - Slick

I turned. The driver kept going. I pulled up to a not-so-legal spot of curb (permit parking only, fuck it), shut off the car, and began a late-evening walk through residential Westwood. It was just me and my thoughts, but they weren’t good thoughts. Two hours ago, Alonso had pronounced the death of quid pro quo. That didn’t faze me until Maxina confirmed his diagnosis. Once she had smuggled herself out of the Miramar, she called me for an update. I told her Simba wasn’t going to be a problem anymore. She told me Harmony was just getting started.

“Scott, I think it’s time we began discussing Plan B.”

“Not yet. Let me talk to her.”

“Don’t call her tonight,” she warned. “Give her time to wind down. Trust me.”

Sound advice, but what kind of friend would I be if I didn’t at least try to check on her? How could I pass up the chance to play good cop? After three blocks, I took the cellular brick out of my pocket and dialed Harmony yet again.

At long last, she answered. I could hear her own voice blaring in the background. Even she was watching CNN.

“Hey baby!”

Her odd pep threw me. “Harmony.”

“Took you long enough.”

“Your phone was off.”

“I know. I thought that would get you to come over here. Instead I got Maxina.”

“Sorry. She told me to stay behind.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know,” I replied with dark levity. “Maybe she was afraid we’d run off together.”

“You know, she said that whole thing with Simba was your idea.”

That smacked the grin right off my face. I froze in my tracks. It didn’t even occur to me that Harmony was joking until she broke out in harsh giggles.

“I’m just messing with you, Slick! Come on! Lighten up!”

“That’s not funny.”

“Listen to you, all freaked out and shit. How the hell do you expect me to trust you guys when you don’t even trust each other?”

“Harmony, look—”

“Ooh! Wait! This is the part where I talk about abstinence. Hold on.”

I had missed that segment. I tried to listen in but I couldn’t make out the words. Instead I resumed walking, waiting for her to come back to me. My stomach hurt.

“Damn,” she said with a laugh. “My motherfucking grammar was all over the place. I didn’t even notice. I wish Alonso had told me. Or you could have called me during the commercial.”

“Look, you know I had nothing to do with what Simba did.”

“Yeah, that’s what everyone’s saying to me. You, Maxina, Alonso, Larry.”

“Right now I’m just talking about me. I want you to believe me.”

“Oh, I believe you,” she responded sharply. “But that just means you didn’t see it coming. So every time you tell me now that things are under control, that things are gonna be okay, I’m less inclined to believe that. The name of the game is credibility, Scott. And you just lost some.”

I slowed down my pace, sighing. “You are indeed in a foul mood.”

“Actually, I’m not. That’s the weird thing. This was still the best night of my life. You were right. When those camera lights came on, something snapped into place inside me. I felt like I was moving faster than everyone else. Nothing could hit me. Nothing could hurt me.”

“I thought you were absolutely—”

“Except the phone calls,” she interjected deliberately. “That little thing they put in my ear really messed me up. I could only hear half the words the callers were saying, and the other half gave me a headache.”

“That’s normal. I had—”

“I guess it worked out okay, though. If I had heard everything that motherfucking bitch was telling me, I probably would have given it all up.”

I closed my eyes. “Harmony…”

“I would have given you up, too.”

Shit. Shit. Shit. I spun around and started back for the car. “Okay. That’s it. If you’re not dressed, get dressed.”

“Why?”

“Because I’m picking you up,” I said. “You and I are going out for a drive.”

She thought about it. “No.”

“I thought you wanted me to come over.”

“Not anymore,” she said. “You’re just gonna tell me the same shit Maxina told me. Except I know you. Once you get me alone, you gonna lay all your words on me. You’re gonna talk me into doing something I don’t want to do. And I don’t want you doing that.”

“Harmony, you knew this part was coming—”

“You never said it’d be so hard! You never told me it’d be so hard! You tease me with all this fame, all this respect, all these money offers, and then you just pull it all away from me right when I’m starting to like it! Like it was all some fucking joke!”

“None of that stuff has to end.”

“Oh, no, I’ll still be famous,” she fired back. “I’ll be famous for being the bitch who let everybody down. The bitch who lied!”

“You’ll win them back.”

She laughed. “Yeah. In other words, things are gonna be okay. Sure, Scott. Sounds good to me.”

I walked faster. “Look, let me come pick you up. We’ll go for a drive and we’ll—”

“No!”

“I won’t even talk! I won’t even open my mouth! You can sit there and yell at me the whole time! You can yell at me all night! I don’t care! I just want to be with you, okay?”

“Why?”

“Because tonight you were the most magnificent goddamn thing I have ever seen in my goddamn life! And I only caught half the show.”

That stumped her. “You didn’t watch the whole thing?”

“No. I had people over.”

She paused in amazement. “You’re shitting me.”

“It’s all right. I taped it.”

“Is this another one of your tricks?”

Grimacing, I swung a tight fist through the air. “Goddamn it! This is not a trick! I am not lying! Tomorrow morning, you and I are going to have that conversation. That conversation. But tonight I just want to see you, live and in person. Can I? Please?”

I was so flustered, I forgot where I parked my car. I couldn’t even remember what kind of car I’d rented. I twirled around, scanning the street. Shit. Now what the hell do I do?

“No.”

“Harmony—”

“No, Scott. You go home. You watch the rest of that show. And you save your strength for tomorrow. I already know what you’re gonna ask. And you already know my answer.”

“Harmony, wait!”

With a click, the line went dead. I stopped looking for the car. It was a lost cause. And to think that three and a half hours ago, I was Superman. Now I was just helpless. Three and a half hours ago, I was the benevolent author of other people’s fates. Now I was just another hopeless, hapless character, getting swept along with the plot.

All I could do was pray for a decent ending, but it wasn’t so easy to stay sunny when I could hear those dark whispers out there in the cineplex. This was the part they’d all been waiting for. This was the part where things got ugly.

The strife got off to an early start on Tuesday. As dawn crawled over the west, a sheet of paper dribbled out of the fax machine in the management office of the L’Ermitage hotel. The text was hand-drawn and sloppy, but it didn’t take a scholar to interpret the message. bitch fiend: ka-boom!