26
It was the most tremendous role in Jill’s life.
She had no idea why Toby wanted her so much when he could have any girl in Hollywood, nor did the reason matter. The fact was that he did. For days Jill had been able to think of nothing but the dinner party and how everyone there—all those important people—had catered to Toby. They would do anything for him. Somehow, Jill had to find a way to make Toby do anything for her. She knew she had to be very clever. Toby’s reputation was that once he took a girl to bed, he lost interest in her. It was the pursuit he enjoyed, the challenge. Jill spent a great deal of time thinking about Toby and about how she was going to handle him.
Toby telephoned her every day and she let a week go by before she agreed to have dinner with him again. He was in such a euphoric state that everyone in the cast and crew commented on it.
“If there were such an animal,” Toby told Clifton, “I’d say I was in love. Every time I think about Jill, I get an erection.” He grinned and added, “And when I get an erection, pal, it’s like putting up a billboard on Hollywood Boulevard.”
The night of their first date, Toby picked Jill up at her apartment and said, “We have a table at Chasen’s.” He was sure it would be a treat for her.
“Oh?” There was a note of disappointment in Jill’s voice.
He blinked. “Is there someplace else you’d rather go?” It was Saturday night, but Toby knew he could get a table anywhere: Perino’s, the Ambassador, the Derby. “Name it.”
Jill hesitated, then said, “You’ll laugh.”
“No, I won’t.”
“Tommy’s.”
Toby was getting a poolside massage from one of the Macs, while Clifton Lawrence looked on. “You wouldn’t believe it,” Toby marveled. “We stood in line at that hamburger joint for twenty minutes. Do you know where the hell Tommy’s is? Downtown Los Angeles. The only people who go to downtown Los Angeles are wetbacks. She’s crazy. I’m ready to blow a hundred bucks on her with French champagne and the whole bit, and the evening costs me two dollars and forty cents. I wanted to take her to Pip’s afterward. Do you know what we did instead? We walked along the beach at Santa Monica. I got sand in my Guccis. No one walks along the beach at night. You get mugged by scuba divers.” He shook his head in admiration. “Jill Castle. Do you believe her?”
“No,” Clifton said dryly.
“She wouldn’t come back to my place for a little nightcap, so I figured I’d get in the kip at her place, right?”
“Right.”
“Wrong. She doesn’t even let me in the door. I get a kiss on my cheek and I’m on my way home, alone. Now what the hell kind of night out on the town is that for Charlie-superstar?”
“Are you gonna see her again?”
“Are you demented? You bet your sweet ass I am!”
After that, Toby and Jill were together almost every night. When Jill would tell Toby she could not see him because she was busy or had an early morning call, Toby would be in despair. He telephoned Jill a dozen times a day.
He took her to the most glamorous restaurants and the most exclusive private clubs in town. In return, Jill took him to the old boardwalk in Santa Monica and the Trancas Inn and the little French family restaurant called Taix and to Papa DeCarlos and all the other out-of-the-way places a struggling actress with no money learns about. Toby did not care where he went, as long as Jill was with him.
She was the first person he had ever known who made his feeling of loneliness vanish.
Toby was almost afraid to go to bed with Jill now, for fear the magic might disappear. And yet he wanted her more than he had ever desired any woman in his life. Once, at the end of an evening, when Jill was giving him a light good night kiss, Toby reached between her legs and said, “God, Jill, I’ll go crazy if I can’t have you.” She pulled back and said coldly, “If that’s all you want, you can buy it anywhere in town for twenty dollars.” She slammed the door in his face. Afterward, she leaned against the door, trembling, afraid that she had gone too far. She lay awake all night, worrying.