“I will take a shot of tequila please.”
Dana eyed Rachel in wonder but Rachel was beyond all sensible sensibilities to care. The bar was crowded and filled with drunken day laborers and street workers in heavy makeup and a fake smile hanging around the tables, no doubt hoping they would make enough cash for their next rent. Rachel scrunched her nose in disdain, no wonder Dana’s date hadn’t shown up but she kept her mouth shut on that matter. It was nothing like the exclusive bar with the exclusive booth she and Jacob frequented. But where was Jacob now? He was probably bending Gabby backward like a pretzel and eating her ass out. SHE could bend like a pretzel. Jacob had just never asked. What was wrong with a good missionary sex where she could rest her back on the bed and let Jacob do the work of thrusting in and out of her?
She said as much to Dana who guffawed and ordered another bottle of beer.
“Bring the whole tequila bottle please.” when the bartender raised a concerned brow looking toward Dana for affirmation, Rachel raised her voice. “Hey, don’t you know me? Rachel Rivers from the bloody celebrity tv show on ABN! I could buy the whole damn bar if I wanted to.”
Beside her, Dana giggled. For a brief moment, she thought she caught the glimpse of a flash from Dana but she couldn’t tell when her gaze was blurring and her head was beginning to hurt. Maybe she should cry, she thought to herself, maybe crying would ease the pain in her head. So she tried. Rachel tried to squeeze tears out of her eyes as the bartender dropped the transparent bottle of tequila in front of her. Nothing. Dry eyes like the desert ground of Death Island.
“How do you feel?” Dana inquired.
Sucking down almost half of the bottle without coming up for air, Rachel shrugged. “Like a woman who just caught her husband fucking a 17-year-old even though they have had 4 years of blissful marriage?” Dana laughed. “But you know what? Even I can fuck an under-aged child! Get me a teenager who hasn’t even been weaned and watch me fuck the man out of him!”
Half the bar paid her no attention. She was drunk and so were the other patrons.
“Shh,” said Dana, “You have a public image remember? Allen Brothers would not be pleased to hear their star reporter spewing bullshit in a bar.”
“Well then fuck them!” Rachel leaned closer to Dana, her vision now very much distorted. She was swaying on the unsteady bar stool. “And fuck my public image, to hell with family values. Someone should choke morals and values morals right in the balls and give them a good tug because, morals? Values? Bullshit! Besides at this point in my life, what’s the worst thing that could happen?”
But the worse thing did happen the morning after the drinking charade. Somehow Rachel had been able to drive to the little remodeled cottage getaway she and Jacob used for vacations when she couldn’t be away from work without mishaps even though she did manage to take 2 wrong exits on the drive.
She was just waking up with the biggest hangover she had ever experienced in her life with her head heavy and begging for some painkillers. After downing a bottle of water and some orange juice she had sat down to respond to calls when her agent began to blow up her phone with numerous calls and messages. Finally, she picked.
“Where the hell have you been? Everyone has been trying to reach you!”
“Long story. I’m in the cottage.”
“Have you seen today’s episode of your show?”
“Celebrities, Lifestyle and Everything In-between? Larry, I’m at home, the show can’t go on without me.”
“Oh honey," his voice sounded pitiful. "Please stay away from your TV until I get there. I’ll be there in 10.”
Rachel stared at the phone while waiting tempted beyond anything to reach for the remote on the coffee table and turn the TV on. But somehow she resisted that temptation, falling only for the temptation of more wine.
Larry arrived in 9 minutes – Rachel counted – and after giving her a once over with a critical eye that told her exactly what he thought of her disheveled appearance, he went into the cottage living room and turned the TV on.
The first thing on the screen on the ABN channel was Dana’s million-watt smile as she spoke to two guests seated on the sofa opposite her while they discussed the hottest news of the day: The Fall Of Rachel Rivers.
Dana was saying, “Let’s roll that clip one more time.”
The scene on the screen was a murky memory in her head. The bar, the bottle of tequila in her hand, and some tequila dribbling from her lips to the loose white blouse.
“Even I can fuck an under-aged child! Get me a teenager who hasn’t even been weaned and watch me fuck the man out of him!”
Rachel’s eyes widened suddenly as understanding dawned. The flash she had seen from Dana the night before was a camera flash as the backstabbing bitch recorded her drunken outburst. Dana who had laughed with her at the bar was secretly plotting her downfall.
“Jesus, Vivian,” Dana was saying as soon as the clip ended. “Words from the mouth of Gem Hills' most successful TV personality. And that’s not even the worst.”
Vivian, an old has-been TV presenter now known for frequent engagement in every scandalous news ever was giggling behind her ugly old clawed hands. “It seems Miss Prim-Stockings is just as bad if not worse than the rest of us.”
“Roll the next to clip, Gary.”
“And fuck my public image, to hell with family values. Someone needs to choke morals and values morals right in the balls and give them a good tug because, morals? Values? Bullshit! Besides at this point in my life, what’s the worst thing that could happen?”
Rachel gasped. It was getting worse. Even worse than the banging headache behind her eyes. She reached for the remote to mute the TV.
“Well?” Larry queried.
“Well what? Do you think I meant all that?! How was I supposed to know that slimy snake was recording me when I was wailing because my husband was fucking my fucking babysitter?!”
“Jacob?”
“Yes, Jacob! He was drilling Gabby’s hole when I walked in on them yesterday! And you know what? He didn’t even regret it. I was heartbroken okay? I just wanted to forget it happened and I went to drink with someone I thought was a friend who ended up backstabbing me. When did this happen anyway? Why didn’t no one tell me before they put it on air?”
“According to Jim, Dana crashed the midnight news rerun to give them this juicy piece of gossip.”
“And he let it go on air?”
“He wouldn’t until he found out Dana had been given powers by the Allens to let it go on air, so here we are. Rachel,” Larry spoke as if he was reprimanding a 2-year-old, “Why would you lose control of yourself this way.”
“Because I was mad okay? I was in denial about what I just witnessed in the room I shared with my husband for 4 years. I didn’t think Dana was going to leave me out to dry like this.”
Still, her eyes were dry. Her head hurt and she was thirsty for more alcohol.
“I didn’t know about the whole Jacob thing but from the looks of it, Dana must have had a clue and was plotting, waiting for this moment."
Of course, how else does one explain how she was replaced in her own show so soon? She should have seen through the bitch’s happy-go-lucky charade that she was a rotten chameleon. Now that she thought about it Dana always made comments about how lucky she was to have her show and how she loved the way the audience adored her. She was smiling her million watts smile in her face while plotting behind her back. But this was Rachel Rivers, she had built her way from the ground up. She was dauntless. And she was going to get her job back. And some more wine.
As he was reading her mind, Larry said, “If you are thinking about what I think you are thinking, stop it. There are rumors in the office that Jacob is going to appear on today’s segment in about 20 minutes to discuss this new side of Rachel Rivers that is sending shock waves through all of Gem Hills.”
Rachel ignored the warning in his eyes. “ 20 minutes yeah? That’s enough for me.”
The newspaper and magazine headlines were creative, Rachel would give them that much. With titles like: Rachel Rivers Runs Her Rivers Through Teen Valley, to Rivers Run Deep In Rachel Rivers Lies. Rachel couldn’t ignore the newsstands as Larry’s car crawled through the morning traffic. People were talking about it, it was the biggest news – well it would be because everyone knew Rachel Rivers, the young sexy, and intelligent TV presenter who covered hot celebrity topics other journalists were too spineless to talk about in both papers and on set, asking difficult questions to trap immoral politicians and so-called self-made billionaires. If they were into illegal trades, Rachel knew how to trap them. She was a force to be reckoned with but that force was currently watching her face on popular magazines flash by as she drank soulfully from the bottle of wine in her hands. To her utter horror, the parking lot and every other available space in front of the high-rise ABN channel buildin
Another bottle of wine, she thought and reached her hand out. But when she raised the bottle to her lips it was dry and devoid of even a single drop of wine. Rachel frowned in the dark. Oh well, there should be more wine in the cottage bar. But walking on one bare foot and one socked foot, she realized there was no redemption for her. She had cleared out the bar in just two days. She looked around the bar shelves and cupboards until she found a small bottle of something. Oh well might be something lethal but who cares if she lived anymore? Who? No one, that’s who! The newspaper had scrambled for the hot news, every magazine had her on the front covers in the unflattering images taken when she had crashed the studio the other day. And as always, everyone believed Jacob and the stories he wound about her history of craziness. Her phone was blowing off the hook. People wanted to feature her on their shows, and magazines and not because they wanted to make her a star, oh no! They wanted
“If Madden wins it will be a malicious attempt to prove that he can buy out any woman with his money and yes it does tramp on women’s rights.” Nate watched the clip again and again watching the pink glossed lips enunciate every word. A corner of his mouth lifted. He knew her by name only and by the reputation she built over the years as the epitome of virtue spewing words about family, morals, and all the nonsense he didn’t believe in. Morals were relative and susceptible to personal bias. Yet he was intrigued by her. Not because she had a beautiful face to look at. She was a nobody now – no worse than a nobody. She was a has-been. A pariah. An object for mockery. But even he could see that the public who were now strongly behind her husband, the man named Jacob Henderson who was rumored to be seeing another woman, was on the wrong side. Ten to one, he knew Rachel Rivers was innocent of the allegations. Which was why he had called for the meeting today. Today should be fun. Rachel
“Nathaniel Madden is a lying, cheating, sexist son of a bitch who has gotten away with many corrupt business deals, robbed the nation off its wealth and enslaves many children in Gabore” – the equivalent of Botswana – “mining diamonds to swell his already bursting bank accounts.” Rachel could almost faint as she listened to herself drone on and on about Nate Madden, the man who was standing in front of the glass windows overlooking the skyline of Gem Hills with arms crossed as he watched her dig herself into a deep hole on his huge television. The same man who was willing – although now she was beginning to have doubts – to help her revive her career. He stood with his arms crossed watching the screen without paying attention to her but she could tell he was aware of her presence in his office because she could just detect that hint of smugness. Should I say something? She thought. But what could she say when the taped interview of Celebrity, Lifestyle and Everything In-between was
Rachel gulped. That was a threat, right? The Vera Chang and Nate Madden public divorce had been years ago, two - or was it one - years ago. Between then and now there had been worse news for the media to strip apart. But the Chang-Madden divorce had really taken the Hills by storm. Nate Madden, billionaire playboy had finally settled down with one woman. No one had expected the fragile, sweet-spoken Vera to be his kind of woman given his dating history and they had been the talk of the town. Everyone said she made Nate Madden look almost human for the first time. So when the divorce news got out every news outlet had latched onto it like vampires on virgins. The rumor that Nate neither confirmed nor denied was that he was a wife-beater. Even though Nate never went out of his way to make any official statements Vera had evidence to prove it. There were images of bite marks, whip marks…everything that would make Ted Bundy proud. Still, Nate’s lawyers fought hard. Eventually, they lost
On the 3rd floor of ABN the crew of Celebrity Lifestyle and Everything In-between were setting up the final moments before going on air. In the gallery Ben was talking to the camera crew and the technical men in charge of the teleprompters, getting them ready for the show. Ben was in a foul mood. Dana was late. He hated Dana. As much as he hated people who thought Taco was a sandwich because it had meat. He preferred Rachel. She was smart, and tough, asked the right questions and she was funny. She was a natural in show biz. But Dana…no Dana was a dumb street rat trying to be crème de la crème. She lacked the charisma that Rachel had. All she had going for her were her crude jokes and her hatred towards anyone she viewed as better than her which was why she hated him. At least Ben thought that was why she hated him. How she had gotten the position as Rachel’s replacement just within 12 hours he didn’t know but what he knew was while Dana was going down on the Allen Brothers- like t
Rachel wanted the ground to open and swallow her up. The red velvet carpet of Sheldon’s looked like a good place to hide from the glares and gloating looks she was getting from the patrons – was that the Joan Rivers lookalike Susan Mists looking at her? Rachel had ordered chicken, salad, and wine. It was all nice and delicious but all she found herself reaching out for was wine and more wine. Nate was generous enough to order two bottles of red for her alone. She could just see the tabloids: Rachel Rivers drowning in a river of red. She didn’t care. Actually, she did which was why she was trying to forget by drowning herself in the bottles of wine. Across her Nate ate slowly, chewing every bite and watching her intently. Between the glare directed at her by the same people she made enmity with on her climb to stardom and the direct look Nate was giving her, she didn’t know which she preferred. But she guessed she should be grateful that Nate’s presence with her put the enemies at
He didn’t let her go as they drove to his home a mere 5 minutes away from the Hermes bridge. To Rachel, it felt like forever. Her body was awash with a new fire she never felt before. Sex with Jacob was routine. She got undressed with the lights turned off, he kissed her, took off his clothes, and climbed over her. He entered her slowly, sometimes fast if he was feeling wild. Her mother had told her that sometimes men were so caught up in their own pleasures that they forgot about a woman’s satisfaction. Patricia Rivers had told her that she was supposed to endure it. Marriage was about endurance. Yet here she was in Nate’s car feeling her mother must have been wrong. He held her firmly against him, his fingers toying with her nipples. He nuzzled her neck and ears but didn’t go any further until his driver pulled into the drive and he led her under the cover of darkness into his house. Rachel could barely see. She vaguely made out the huge silhouette of his house. She could barely w