Influence

Chapter 6 - pt. 1

Tam stirred as the plane hit turbulence, her body jostling like pool water during an earthquake. She pressed herself up from where she lay stretched over several padded seats. It wasn't an uncomfortable place to rest compared to being crammed in coach on a commercial flight, but Tam found herself missing the normalcy that came from riding with a bunch of germy strangers who didn't have hundreds of thousands of dollars to throw away in order to show the world how rich they were.

She searched the darkened cabin, but no one else seemed to have woken. After Goldie's return and the proposition of Johnny the chef, paradise had gone from uncomfortable to unbearable. She closed her eyes, hoping doing so would close off her memories, but they were there, waiting for her.

More scenes with Jasper, who seemed to exude repulsion through tense muscles and repressed sneers every time she was forced to touch him. And then a night with Johnny, cameras from two angles as Paul and Jasper recorded her getting increasingly drunk on the margaritas he mixed for her. She didn't have to act that part. Drinking made it feel natural. Johnny made it easy too. He laughed and joked with her and most importantly, didn't loath her for merely existing near him. Four drinks down, she confessed that things with Jasper weren't as picture perfect as they appeared, and she couldn't figure out what to do.

"I'm lost here," she told him, her eyes moistening. "I don't know how to do this."

Johnny played the gallant hero, bringing his lips to hers to comfort her with the amnesia of seduction.

"We got enough. You can stop," Jasper told them when their kiss lingered.

She didn't stop. She pulled on the collar of Johnny's shirt, nearly dragging him over the kitchen island. He made no effort to stop her.

"We aren't making a damn porno, but you do you," Jasper scoffed. "Or each other. Fuck if I care." He stepped over the kitchen's threshold, that last part spoken as he made a hasty exit.

She wondered now if she'd upset his fragile ego, freely kissing Johnny while she'd actively avoiding doing so with him. She could only expend so much energy on that damaged man, though.

After recruiting Johnny, Goldie retreated into her room and into herself. She avoided all of them, especially her mother. Her interest in finishing the EpiGold she'd so carefully crafted nosedived. Tam tried coaxing her out to join them on the beach. They'd have fun. No pressure, no cameras.

"No, Tamara, you're all better off without me. I'm not in the mood to have fun or be fun. This ending isn't what I saw. It isn't right, so I can't be a part of it."

Assuming she meant the EpiGold, Tam tried to booster her self-esteem. "You're the only one who can fix it, Goldie. It's your vision. It's your show."

"Oh that?" She draped a towel over her shoulder and headed towards her bathroom, leaving Tam standing in the middle of her bedroom. "Paul and Jasper will figure out something in editing. I'm done."

The rest of their vacation in paradise went much the same: Goldie in her darkened room, Jasper in his darkened mood. The hell if she was going to allow either of them ruin paradise for her. She lay on the beach, took walks along the sandy shore, the waves lapping at her ankles. A couple of times, Johnny came with, naming shorebirds and seashells for her. She let him kiss her like she let the waves hit against her legs, with a gentle force that she accepted now as part of this whole experience. Everyone was here for a reason Goldie had concocted. If Tam wanted to turn that concoction upside down and let it pore over her like a steam bath, she considered that her bonus for having to put up with the shit that came with it.

She left Johnny on the island along with the part of herself still resistant to what was happening. Let it happen. Let Goldie spin and shine and fall hard and stay down for as long as she needed to stay down. While she wallowed, Tam would grab that bit of the spotlight Goldie had claimed was her due, but she wouldn't grab it for Goldie or for the cameras or the Goldie Girls and Guys.

She'd take it for herself.

She'd been alone and awake through the turbulent darkness for less than twenty minutes when the scent of strawberries hit her nose. It wasn't an unpleasant smell, aside from the fact that Goldie accompanied it.

Tam turned to the side as Goldie took a seat next to her.

"I'm better now," she told Tam as though this ended a book without the story having any sort of resolution.

"What happened to you, Goldie?"

Goldie let out her trademark exhale, just as she had before their trip when it had seemed obvious to her that this jaunt across the planet would cure all ills. "I took the sweetest pictures of Bailey Boo sleeping with his fluffy head against the window. It's a little dark but with the right filter, everyone is going to adore it!"

"I mean, back at Morinda," Tam said. "When you showed up late and fought with your mom and then, it's like you had one more burst of energy left before you went into hibernation."

"I'm not a bear, Tamara."

"But you understand what I mean. Are you going to tell me anything? You were late getting back, probably by intention, and you won't say who you were with."

"That's private."

"So you say, but something happened and it wasn't good."

"Aren't you sweet for caring enough to pry?" She lay her head on Tam's shoulder. "I do lots of things for people and they'll never know it. You don't get to judge if it's good or not."

"I'm not trying to be judgmental."

"Well, that's good because judgmental people don't last long around me. Unless they're relatives I'm not allowed to fire." She pressed on her phone. "Here are the pictures of Bailey. Tell me which one to post."

#

Goldie's breathing became regular. Tam sat like a human pillow, letting her boss sleep against her shoulder. Resistance would prove pointless. Let her boss sleep, let her boss dress her, make her a tiny baby starlet, thrust her against an angry man and then a silly one, let Goldie threaten to take away her job, her lifeline to an existence beyond the one she'd thought she'd be trapped in for the rest of her sad, desperate life.

The plane hit another patch of turbulence and she used the momentum to shift Goldie to the opposite side, sliding a pillow in next to her to keep her from toppling over. She didn't wake.

"Fuck," she said to the window. "Fuck everything. Fuck paradise. Fuck it hard."

A chuckling, but not from Goldie. She craned her neck over the back of her seat. Jasper sat two rows behind them. "I see you're finally coming around."

"Not to your way of thinking."

"To your own then."

"To my own."

She turned back around, not wanting to deal with his smirk, but she couldn't tune out his voice as it carried forward to her.

"If you believe the Maldives was bad, wait until she drags you to Glamour Days. Believe me, you're going to want to fuck everything there hard by day three."

She kept her jaw clenched, breathing in through her nose Goldie's strawberry scented hair. In her nervousness over this trip, she'd forgotten the next big event on Goldie's calendar. Surely, Goldie would want to be the one under the spotlight for that. Tam could stand in the corners, an insignificant background member of her entourage.

"She bought you a dress for the Glamour Banquet." Jasper didn't seem to have taken a clue from her lack of responses. "She's got big plans for you."

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I'm dividing Chapter 6 into two parts, but don't worry... I won't make you wait long for part 2. I'll post that tomorrow. And Chapter 7 will go up on Wednesday. So, get your fancy dresses and designer bags ready because we're headed to Glamour Days!

Also, I know Tam is processing a lot, but it must be asked: How adorable is Bailey Boo?

Thanks for sticking with the story so far. We are just getting started. There is... SO much more to come. I'm already feeling guilty for what I'm about to do to my characters...