and so luminous. The light of the candles lit the shadows under her cheekbones and made her hazel eyes almost seem yellow in the light. He felt a chill run down his spine.
Calypso smiled and took a sip from her glass and remained silent. When she was nervous she said too much, and right now, she was really, really nervous. Any minute he’ll find out I’m an imposter, she thought.
‘How’s things, Cal?’ asked Kelly. ‘How’re you settling into bella Italia?’
‘Great. I slept for nearly eighteen hours, I think, then woke up and went to dinner and ate the most amazing pastry and met a boy.’ Calypso stopped, aware she had just run on and then swore in front of her director again, just like in the audition. I must look like a kid to them, she thought as she felt them staring at her.
There was no judgement from her audience though. Chris was thinking: I can’t wait to shoot her. She is gorgeous.
Kelly was thinking several things: She met a boy? Already? Well played, Calypso. And then looking at Calypso’s slender figure, she thought incredulously, she ate carbs!
TG didn’t hear a word Calypso said. He just watched her mouth move and the way the light flickered over her face and shoulders. He felt himself mesmerized and tried to pull himself together.
A boy? he wondered. Man, she was fast. Lucky bastard, he thought. Shit, TG, you just broke up with an actress. You know what they’re like! The last thing you need is a distraction. Get your head in the game, boy, he admonished himself. Smiling thinly at Calypso, he turned his back on her and walked towards the bar.
Calypso felt her cheeks flush with shame. He thinks I’m an idiot, a silly little girl, she thought as she watched him walk away.
The inadequacies she felt always came back, leaving her feeling stupid and uneducated. She watched TG as he chatted to someone by the bar. He was probably one of those uptight intellectual New Yorkers, she thought and immediately decided to hate him. Partly because this was her normal reaction to someone when she felt less than them, but also because it protected her. Leeza had drummed into her: ‘If they don’t like you, then fuck them, you didn’t like them first.’
For all the self-help and self-improvement books she had read over the years, when Calypso felt threatened, everything she thought she had learned went out the window and she returned to being Leeza’s daughter again, defensive when doubted or questioned.
Kelly watched TG’s reaction and Calypso’s response to him carefully. Knowing TG as she did, he was clearly attracted to her. Yet this is what he always did, she thought. He runs away, afraid of his feelings, and the woman always has to chase him. Looking at the young girl in front of her, she reached out and touched her arm, her skin soft beneath her hand. ‘He’s a little wound up, always like this before a shoot. He really is a great guy, you’ll see.’
‘Whatever, it’s cool,’ Calypso said to Kelly but inside she was fuming.
Looking around for any other faces she knew, she saw Rose Nightingale had arrived. She hadn’t seen her come in but couldn’t miss her now. Tall and slender in a peach georgette chiffon, halter-neck Chloé gown, Rose was beautiful. Her shoulders and arms were lily white, and she wore a gold Etruscan cuff on one arm and matching gold hoop earrings, which showed off her long neck.
Her brunette hair was swept up into a ponytail and she had applied her make-up in such a way that it looked as if she had barely any on but her features were perfect. Calypso knew this kind of make-up took over an hour to apply and she was a little star-struck. Rose was an icon and had the power and respect in the industry that Calypso hoped to one day have herself.
Seeing the girl in the gold dress staring at her, Rose made a beeline to her. ‘Hello, I’m Rose,’ she said with a smile. ‘I’m thrilled to be working with you. I saw your film on the plane on the way over. You