Broken Chains, Broken Dreams

That meant

Meghan was looking at the picture of the girl on Mia's phone at about the same time that the male

star was told by Henry that his secret was out. Hawke called his publicist.

"I'm sorry," said Mia, as she showed Meghan the picture of the new girl in Hawke's life and

repeated what Jake had learned. They were on another break in filming while the director and male

lead argued.

Meghan looked briefly at the picture and handed the phone back. She thought for a moment.

The news was a blow but not such a bad thing when she thought about it.

"It hurts," she said, after a moment, "and will for a while, but it's also a relief. Robin was

fun for a time, but he was never around and when he was he was trying to get me into those weird

investments of his. Then he'd get mad if I didn't invest. He'd also get mad if other men so much as

looked at me. Why get mad at me over that? I can't help guys looking at me. The fun's over. Good

riddance!"

"Good girl," said Mia. "Lots of guys out there."

The pair were silent for a time.

"Post-relationship cleaning up to be done," said Mia, finally. "Are we doing the exit

interview?"

Meghan eyed her assistant. "Are there office procedures for breakups these days?"

"Now that I'm in one, I've been reading up about them," said Mia. "Procedures help.

There's the five steps in a relationship. Dating, then meeting each other's co-workers…"

"I don't want to hear about the steps of being in a relationship," said Meghan, firmly. "I

want to hear about the steps involved in getting out of one."

"Oh right. Well, Robin still has stuff in your suite."

"Good point," said Meghan. "Does Jake mind clearing Robin's things out? Leave them all at

hotel reception, and make sure Robin can't get into the suite. We'd better pay Jake for the work he's

doing too."

"Okay," said Mia, putting her phone to her ear.

"And tell the producers they don't need to pay for that room any longer."

"Will do. Is there going to be an announcement?"

"Humph!" said Meghan. That would be the most painful part of all, but it could be put off.

"We'll at least wait until after this exit interview you're talking about."

Meghan did another scene before exterior shooting was wound up for the day then agent

Stella Bullingham called her.

"Is this a good time to talk?" Stella asked cautiously. "Are you sore about this breakup?"

"How did you know that Robin and I had gone our separate ways?" asked Meghan. "I only

just found out myself."

"It's on the Sidewalk Stars website. I thought Will would be on his millionth call about it by

now."

"Will's off doing his own work, and I hate him for it."

"Okay," said Stella. The agent thought it was a good idea not to say anything more about

Will.

"Just a moment." Meghan took the phone away from her ear. "Mia, can you look at the

Sidewalk Stars site?" She went back to speaking to Stella. "We'll get to it. but I was just telling Mia

before that sure breakups hurt but this was also a relief. There were problems."

"That's good," said Stella. "I mean breakups are bad but if there are problems then it's better

in the long run. Fortune cookie slogans aside, and I hate to bother you at this time, but can you do a

Vogue cover? The model they had lined up has fallen though and they're trying to keep to

schedule. It's in New York in about a week, and it's good money."

"I wouldn't mind doing it," said Meghan. "The trouble is that filming here is proving such a

pain. The director and my co-star are at each's throats, and I think the crew are just about to mutiny.

If they can fit in with breaks in the filming as I'm here anyway, then maybe. I'd prefer to keep

working. Give them Mia's number and we can try to co-ordinate."

"Can do," said Stella, "and sorry again about the whole break-up thing."

Mia handed Meghan her laptop with the Sidewalk Stars website, featuring breaking news

concerning her love life.

You read it here first. The talk on the sidewalk is that glamour couple Robin Hawke and

Clarise Chalmers are on the rocks. Heart throb Robin decided that the relationship was no long

working. Sources in his camp say that incompatible work schedules meant that the two were seldom

together and when they were it was for a paid appearance for Clarise, or for her charity work.

Robin has not remained single for long, being seen around town with brunette starlet Peggy

Blossom.

There is no word yet from the Siren of the Shower…

"That arsehole!" exclaimed Meghan.

Mia, who rarely heard her boss use bad language, was impressed.

"He's always on film sets, then takes up with this girl on the side and lays all the blame on

me," said Meghan. "And what charity appearances? We've only organised the one and it hasn't

happened yet. And what sort of name is Peggy Blossom? Makes Clarise Chalmers sound almost

classy."

Mia let Meghan fume for a couple more seconds. "There is one way you might be able to

get out ahead of this?"

"Really, what?"

Chris, Danny and Hope discovered what was left of the bodies of the two party goers two

levels below Party Town, the music of the main dance floor a muted doof, doof, doof.

"We told 'em the Crazies were still around," said Chris, bending to look at the bodies.

"Might be two of those things."

"We've gotta go back and warn them," said Danny.

"They didn't listen to us before," said Hope. "Even with two bodies they might not listen."

They heard a soft giggle somewhere in the darkness, then a patter of many feet.

"Shit they're still here," said Chris. "Guns out everyone."

"Are we going to show the monsters now?" asked Hope.

"Let the tension build," said Chris. "Let the audience look for the monsters."

"I agree," said Danny, "be sparing with the monsters, like the classics Alien and Jaws, but

start the music - that pulse of a drum beat followed by a mechanical rasp were talking about, like in

that Tomb Raider game sequence."

A mobile phone rang.

"That's yours, Will," said Hope who was actually Hap. "I thought we agreed that

everyone's phone was to be turned off."

"Sorry guys, I turned it back on," said Danny who was actually Will, taking out his phone

and looking at it. "I gotta take this."

Will got up from the dining/kitchen table where he, Hap and Evan and been hashing out the

film Party Town scene by scene with laptops connected by workgroup software. A rough sketch of

the agreed scenes had been printed out and taped to the shack's wall in sequence.

"Just a moment," he said, and walked out to the deck overlooking the shack's 'water views'.

"How is the CGI going for this?" he heard Evan ask.

"Can show you something later," said Hap, who had become absorbed in the project.

Making a slasher film was way more entertaining than devising software development tools, he had

decided. "Needs more work but for the scene you'll just need someone with a laser tag on his

chest."

"Meg, what's up," said Will once he was out on the deck. Even if he didn't admit it to

himself, he had missed the star and hoped that he wasn't really fired.

"I hate you, Will Moreland!"

"Oh, okay, was there any reason to call me to tell me that? A text with a bad emoji might

have done it."

"I need a statement. A response." Meghan told him what had happened and read out the web

site item.

"Oh wow, and he's blaming you? The bastard."

"Humph! Tell me about it," said Meghan, glad that Will could not see her smile at his

response.

"And this is why I've got a heap of voice mails. But you can easily return fire on this and

blow your ex out of the water if that's what you want?"

"I'm listening," said Meg.

"You acknowledge that there were strains in the relationship including incompatible work

schedules, but you note that Robin Hawke didn't tell you any of this face to face. Instead, the first

you heard of the break up and of another person in his life was when you read about it online. He

hasn't tried to call you since the news broke?"

"No – I haven't heard from him."

"Then you say also he's made no attempt to contact you since the story broke. All that will

instantly get the female half of the population on your side. It's like a school kid sending a girl a

text message saying, 'You're dropped'."

"This sounds good," said Meg, "is that it?"

"Then you drop the real bomb. You say Hawke did not mention other strains in the

relationship such as his attempts to get you to invest in a string of crazy investment schemes You

list the schemes including the last one he wanted you to drop half a million on."

"He upped the amount. Try two million," said Meg.

"What? Is he crazy?"

"That's what I told him," said Meghan, amused and comforted. "Now that I think of it, the

last time I spoke to him was when I refused to put up that money."

"Then that's what you want to say," said Will quickly, "and in those terms. Don't attack

him. Just keep to the facts. Can I send on those ridiculous investment flyers he was handing out?"

"Doesn't bother me," said Meghan. "Do we still have them?"

"I stuck them in a box in one of the closets – unless they've been thrown out as part of the

firing process."

"Not yet," said Meghan. "Emma is in the house with not enough to do."

"Then a short statement setting out all of that, Emma gets busy scanning and emailing and

you'll find that the whole debate will shift towards partners who try to get money from their better

halves, and how mean they can be when they don't get what they want and so on. I'll draft

something for your approval. It won't take long."

"I still want you in New York."

"From where I am that's going to be impossible inside two days and I haven't finished this

workshop thing. I'm being paid to be here."

It was on the tip of Meghan's tongue to offer Will double what he was getting to come to

New York, but she did not. She knew that Will did not operate like that. Instead, she said: "where is

this workshop thing?"

"It's in an unscenic part of the Sierra Nevadas."

"How can you have an unscenic part of those mountains."

"That's what we said, but Hap, you remember the publisher, sold it to us as close to Lake

Tahoe and with water views."

"Sounds better."

"Except Lake Tahoe is still two hours away, and the water views are of a tiny creek on one

side of the property."

Meghan laughed. "You never seem to get ab good deal, do you."

"Nope," said Will. "Do I get any sympathy?"

"Ha!" said Meghan.

"I'll come to New York just as soon as I can."

"Ha! First do the statement, Will." She hung up.

"Do I start paying Will when he turns up again," said Mia.

"Ha!" Meghan said, but without any heat.

"We were discussing a deal where he would get paid half the daily rate if he had to do any

work while away. Do I do that?"

"Ha!" said Meghan again.

Mia took that as a yes to both questions