Go was both relieved and dismayed to find Lara waiting for him on set the next morning. This was perhaps only the second occasion that she had turned up on time, let alone early, and Go had a profound distrust of changes in actresses' behavior, particularly if they were this actress.
"Paulie," Lara cooed. She undulated upward and wound her hands around Go's neck. "How sweet of you to speak to Beni. You're both darling."
"Lara, my dear, you're worth it," Go said, with a heroic effort at sincerity. "We both know that. I think sometimes we don't really appreciate you." He tried to look contrite. It wasn't a great performance, but Lara was clearly in the mood to be receptive. She dimpled (How did she do that? It was really quite weird.) and gave a small, shy smile. The old cliché about giving one's best performance off set came to Go's mind.
"I've been reading the script," Lara said. "I thought we could revise quite a lot of it, actually."
"Did you?" There's a surprise.
"There's much more room for Ranee, you know. I thought she could appear in the scene with the terrorists."
"But Lara—that takes place in Laos, and your character is supposed to be in Delhi in the nick at that point."
There was the faintest suggestion of thunder in Lara's eyes, the hint of stormclouds gathering. "It could be a flashback. Or a dream."
"Perhaps a hallucination?" Go said quickly. "These guys are supposed to be drug dealers, after all."
Just give her what she wants, he thought, as Lara's smothering jasmine perfume once again enveloped him. It was easiest in the long run, no matter how much it took out of you at the time.
Filming proceeded fairly swiftly once the revised script—hashed together over a long and liquid lunch by Beni, Go, and one of the freelance writers—had been submitted.
"There's one good thing about having worked in porn," Beni said to Go. "It gives you a good background in quick filmmaking. Quick and dirty." He tried not to look smug at the joke.
"There's lots of good things about porn," Go replied, gloomily. "Apart from the obvious. Have you noticed how much nicer everyone is? No airs and graces, no tantrums."
Beni shrugged. "They know they're whores."
Go snorted. "Yeah. But do we?"
"We do. Unfortunately, Lara doesn't."
Go cast a nervous glance over his shoulder.
"She can't hear us, man," Beni said. "She's back at the studio."
"Lara seems to know all kinds of shit," Go said. "Don't underestimate her. Sometimes I think she bugs my clothes."
Beni looked at him. "Don't get paranoid. She's not a superhero."
"She thinks she is. Look . . ." Beni might be right but Go found himself lowering his voice all the same. "You and I were young when we found her, right? We were assholes."
"It was only four years ago," Beni objected.
Go refrained from saying that he felt as though he'd aged several decades since then. "We were young," he repeated. "We thought we knew what we were doing."
Beni was silent and Go knew he'd struck home. "We've got to consider the future," he added. At Beni's anguished expression, Go knew that he'd been understood.
"She's a goldmine, man," Beni said.
"Yeah. But the mine's flooding up fast. We have to make money, and get out."
"What are you saying? We should send her back where she came from?" Once again, Beni spoke too loudly for Go's liking and Go hushed him.
"Let's talk about it another time, Beni. Not right now. We'll go out for a drink, how about that?" Preferably in a lead-lined room. On a different continent.