WHENEVER LARRY WOULD go out of town, I’d get scared at night. You never know what kind of people there might be hanging around that could break into your condo. And of course, I was right to be concerned, because in the end that’s exactly what happened.
So I suggested to the kids in my video project that we could all get together at my house, have a pizza and work on tying up the loose ends of my video. I was very pleased with my work on this project. I felt sure that once I got the whole thing edited and my station manager saw my work he’d put it on the air. Mostly all that was left at this point were things like reaction shots and rerecording a couple of voiceovers.
But for some reason, James was the only one who showed up. I mean it didn’t surprise me that Russell would skip our meeting. He was a total loser. But as for why Lydia didn’t come, I don’t know. Except that I think she was coming to resent the interest James showed in me. Which was all one-sided of course. But anyone could see that Lydia had developed a crush on James. And I think that made her very jealous of me.
Of course if I’d known that it would end up being just me and James I would have made other plans for the evening, maybe invited my sister over. But there I was, thinking we’d be getting some work done, and then nobody shows up besides him.
So I tried to make the best of the situation. I invited him to have some pizza with me. I tried to get him to do a little work on the video, but it was obvious he had his mind on other things, if you know what I mean. I mean, he’d say things like how my hair smelled pretty, and did I wear a one-piece bathing suit or a bikini? He said he hoped bikini, because he could tell I had the figure for it. You could see the way he was headed.
There was a Barbara Walters special on. She’s an idol of mine. I mean, she may be getting up there, but she really knows her craft. So I suggested that we watch it. See how a real pro handles herself in an interview situation.
I sat in Larry’s chair, on purpose, so James wouldn’t even have the option of sitting next to me. He sat sprawled out on the couch.
Barbara was interviewing Sylvester Stallone as I recall. Stallone was talking about his history of relationships. James made some kind of inappropriate remark about what kind of a relationship he’d like to have with me. Tom Selleck was coming on next, and James said he really wanted to see that interview, but at this point I’d had enough, so I told him it was time to go home. He made up some story about how he couldn’t go back there tonight, his mother’s boyfriend was drunk and he knew if he went home now he’d get beat up.
Knowing his family background, I was prepared to believe this was true. So I said, “All right, you may stay over in my guest room, but I have to be up and out of here by seven, so don’t sleep late.” I said something like, “Sweet dreams.” He said something silly like, “Of course they’ll be sweet. I’ll dream about you.”