“Well, the picture window will be nice.” Victor snickered. “What happened with your screenwriting project?”
“My friend Tanith, the one who wrote the movie we did last year, she took a look at the script for us and said it didn’t suck. So as soon as we get some feedback on the rough cut for number three, we’ll probably toss ours at the producer. The earliest we could start work on it would be a year from now.”
“You two are never going to run out of things to do, are you.” Now she sounded amused.
“Not for a while, anyway. And if we do, we can sit by the pool until something comes along.”
Chapter 13
October 2019
Ten days before Halloween, it was another quiet evening after another low-demand day. Consuelo had left hours ago, before Andy and Victor went back in the house from their afternoon practice in the home studio. Vicky and Sharon came over for dinner, and to make the men laugh with stories about the rehearsals happening at Shall We Dance for the upcoming Cabaret show.
“Well, you know Tomás never stops having ideas,” Vicky said. “Our thing for ‘Milonga’ was fun but with this theme being ‘Trick or Treat’ it could have gone a couple different ways.”
“A whole lot of ways,” Andy agreed. “Any idea what the balance is?
Rory wouldn’t cough it up. Some years it’s like a freak show, some years you think, okay, if this wasn’t a bar we could totally have kids in here.”
“What did you do with all that candy, anyway?” Sharon was referring to the photo shoot for the Halloween poster. Andy had put the four scantily-clad Underground Cabaret principals in a plastic kiddie pool and covered them with candy. “And thank you for not giving any of it to us, by the way.”
Victor said, “He filled up a few piñatas and gave them to Tasha to take over to Theo’s school. They had to do the whole disclaimer thing about peanuts and tree nuts and whatever.”
“So then I felt bad and put together one with zero allergenic candy contents,” Andy said. “The four sensitive kids can bash away at that one.”
“Anyway, it seems like the lineup is mostly freaky with a little bit of cute. Anya and Ricky are doing a thing. Dmitri and Hiro are doing their
‘Toxic’ thing again, everybody begged them to. Sam and Mateo are doing
‘Dragula.’ Mike and Paula are working on something I haven’t seen because they’re keeping it over in their local studio. Oh, and Stacey’s back, which will definitely be a treat.”
“No kidding! That’s great!” Andy was sincerely pleased to hear that.
Stacey had been with the Cabaret for nine years, but had taken a long break from performance after having a child. “Is she doing aerial silk again?”
“That’s what I hear. Some kind of blues song about being tied up.”
Vicky rolled her neck, well aware that she hadn’t yet answered the unspoken question of what she was doing. “You’re dying to know, aren’t you.” Both
men laughed. “We’re doing ‘Devil Inside.’ It’s fast as heck. And a lot less tango than I’m used to with him.”
“I’m guessing it’s closer to the freaky end of the spectrum. Can’t wait to see it.”
“There’s something else you’re going to want to see. The girls from
‘Diamond Dogs’ came in with a group cabaret routine that’s really something. I only even know because Rory let me see the submission tape.
It’s one of Tanith’s songs, ‘Speak No Evil.’ I hear she re-wrote the lyrics, she wants to use it when she does the movie.”
Victor was a little hurt. “She didn’t ask me to record it.”
“I thought she was going to. She said something about it last month.
Maybe it got away from her?” Vicky felt guilty. “Annette said they’ve been using a backing track, no vocal. Look, hold on.” She stood up, went over to the B side, and quickly returned with phone in hand, texting: Tanith WTF
Victor never heard from you about that song and we’re talking about Halloween and DON’T KICK MY PUPPY
A reply came quickly: FUCK that totally got away from me SHIT it’s next week groveling in 3 2 1
Victor’s phone pinged a minute later, over at the control center. Vicky was still standing, so she went over there to fetch it. He read the text out loud.
“Sorry Victor I’m teaching again and forgot all about asking you if you could record a song for me. It’s super short notice but I’ll pay for the studio time and Valerie etc if you’re available. Rewrite of Speak No Evil. Can do?” He looked over at Andy, who appeared to be fairly pissed-off. “You know what all she’s got going on.”
“There are these magical tools called calendars, Victor.” Sharon and Vicky gave each other an ‘oops’ face, because Andy didn’t get mad very often. He caught them doing it. “Don’t worry, I won’t bitch at her. I am keeping score, though.”
“You always do, honey.” Victor took a look at their calendar, then wrote back to Tanith: I have unbreakable appointment Westside Thursday 15:00
otherwise can be where you need me when you need me I’ll get on to the studio and Val in the morning and let you know ASAP.
Session will be ASAP. IOU and truly sorry for being an airhead, I never wanted anyone but you for it. Victor didn’t read that one out loud, but he showed it to Andy. “It’ll probably happen. I’m flexible.”
“Getting more so all the time,” Andy murmured.
“And on that note,” Sharon said, “we’ll clear out of here. Nina Simone’s been with Paige and Maya for hours and they’re probably coming up with some rationale for a goat.”
“No goats,” Andy said with alarm. “Absolutely no goats. I draw the line at chickens, that is the livestock limit.”
“Yeah, you tell Paige where I come from, we eat goats.” Victor watched Vicky and Sharon laugh. They headed out through the kitchen door to go collect their
