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  ARRIVAL IN LOS ANGELES

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  California Dreaming

  A Los Angeles Series

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  Title | Arrival in Los Angeles (#1 of the California Dreaming series)

  Author | Andrew J. Smith

  Publisher: Independently Published

  ISBN: 9788827844373

  Cover image by California Dreaming Prod.

  © All rights reserved to the Author

  No part of this book may be reproduced without the prior consent of the Author.

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  1

  ARRIVAL IN LOS ANGELES

  James Alliston was sitting on the scheduled direct flight to Los Angeles.

  Second-class flights had never had a good reputation, but always had the ability to depress it. Nonetheless , his agent ‒ and best friend for fifteen years ‒ Andy Jackson, had promised him that the breakthrough could not but help them: a long road to the unknown, with a cheap bag with a pair of dark jeans and a pair of pretty tight black T-shirts, shaving foam, razor blades, and a dress for elegant occasions. That at least was all he had time to grab before his ex-wife slammed him out of the house, accompanied by a barman mastiff lawyer with whom he had had the pleasure of many meetings for the duration of the divorce process.

  Fortunately , he had managed to get the joint custody of Elizabeth, and twice a month she could see her three-year-old girl.

  A bad break, so he had called Andy, his agent, even if the consideration received to date for the whole thing he had failed to take it in a manner properly serious. Perhaps , it was because everything had happened too quickly, but he had never been able to understand how much Karen and him had broken off. When had this happened? When he had to go to Los Angeles, to start working on the shooting of his novel? Karen had openly communicated his disagreement and the reasons were quite clear:«You can’t decide to leave so suddenly leaving me and your daughter here,» she had said. Still, what else could he do? He did not like the idea either, but what choice had he had at the time? Surely , that was not the triggering reason, but there were a thousand others, and to be exact, their names were Clarisse, Vanessa, Maggie, Barbara and many others to add to the list. In fact , he had never betrayed Karen with any of these, after all the advances by beautiful women like them, had not been enough for him to renounce Karen and his daughter. The fact was that after he had finished his book, he had not been able to write anything that would thrill him like a long time, and this for James had been the beginning of a long "literary depression", so Karen had called her.

  Once the film was finished, he had returned to New York, thinking that everything from then on would be fantastic. In short, he had written a book that The New York Times had called "the new relational approach in the 21st century", and if many people read that magazine ‒ and many did ‒, the game was done: here, your novel started to sell one hundred thousand copies in just over two months.

  Thanks also to the fact that his agent, Andy Jackson, had made this happen. From there, here is the arrival of a film proposal and the first real money as a writer.

  Everything went beautifully, smoothly, and Karen was thrilled that her efforts were finally rewarded. Although, many people liked to praise his innate talent in writing, unfortunately he had never been able to see this with the same eyes. At least, this was his current state of mind, towards anything and not just writing.

  When it happened, he wondered , as the stewardess passed through the narrow corridor of the plane with the food cart and offered each passenger with a smile that was more than dazzling. When had he lost Karen? This was a question that had been raised very often in recent weeks. Was it really impossible that he would come back as it once did and the two of them would rejoin again? The divorce papers were a more than eloquent answer, but he had always been a kind of happy ending, although he could not find such a dazzling idea that he could make sure he had a happy ending as it should be.

  Suddenly, his thoughts were interrupted by the woman sitting next to him.

  She was a charming woman, about forty perhaps, a pair of dark glasses covering her face and a slight sketch of wrinkles on either side of her mouth, because of her age.

  The woman had not paid any attention to him until then. Probably , the flights had to put her in awe because, now, James, he noticed the continuous movement and agitation on the part of the woman, which, in fact, had not been stopped for a moment.

  Next to her, there was a chubby man, who hardly could sit mixture over the narrow seats of the second class. It was all competed to see out the window exactly nothing, because even the plane was too high to be able to see a hint of earth, but now there were only white clouds surround them about ten thousand meters of altitude.

  «Nervous for the flight?» He asked, turning to the woman with an open smile.

  «Actually, yes.» She spoke, with a tight smile that showed her nervousness more clearly.

  «Even my ex-wife was always agitated when it came to taking a plane.» He said, to make her understand that she should not be embarrassed about it.

  Putting the fairer sex at ease, it was something that had always succeeded well; not only for his wisdom in speaking, but in his own self-confident ways he tended to attract women. This, evidently, pleased the woman, because she gave him a smile and held out her hand.

  «My name is Caitlin Thomas."

  «James Alliston.» He did. «Business trip?» He continued, noticing his elegant suit and tight skirt up to his gray knees.

  «Good guess. This is an important interview with a law firm in Los Angeles.» She replied, confirming her suppositions.

  «Ah, a career lawyer.»

  «Well, not really in a career. I decided to move to Los Angeles to be closer to my mother, who is not in very good condition at the moment.» She confessed.

  «Are you also specialized in medicine?» He said, winking at her.

  «Let's just say a volunteer, and a daughter trying to make up for lost time with her mother.»

  «Excellent opportunity, I would say.»

  «I would say yes. But the city change is stressful, and I'm still not sure how the interview will go. We hope so well.» She said the woman, crossing her fingers.

  «You will see that it will be all right, you have everything a lawyer should have.» He said, turning his gaze to the hostesses at the end of the corridor for a second, laughing at something he did not know existed.

  «Oh yes. And what?» Caitlin asked, finally taking off his sunglasses and showing a pair of blue eyes framed by a veil of purple makeup.

  «Charm, tenacity and a good heart.» He said.

  «How can you say that? You do not even know me.» She asked, suspiciously.

  «Well, the charm is obvious. Your tenacity and your cold blood I have noticed since the moment you got on the plane, but as much as you are scared, you did not want to be overwhelmed by your fears and kept cool for the duration of the flight, and for the good heart... » He paused, giving her a smile and looking her straight in the eye. «Who, if not a good-hearted woman, with a secure job in New York, without the slightest remorse would give up everything to be with the poor sick mother?»

  She smiled at
him amused. «You got it right, congratulations.»

  «Nothing.» He said, «just have a little attention to detail.»

  She glanced at him cautiously, putting the spectacle rod in her mouth to one side, while it was obvious that she was thinking about something.

  «I bet you're a writer or something similar.» She said, suddenly.

  «You see, it's not that difficult. Just know how to observe. What did you infer?» He asked.

  «Uhm, let's see... » the woman began, «nothing, simply by the fact that I saw you on the latest New York Post magazine and on The New Yorker.» He paused. «I was not sure it was you at first, but looking at you better, I'm almost certain now.» The woman concluded, with an increasingly mischievous smile.

  «Before you bought your book, I was a little skeptical, actually.» She confessed. «Reading it, however, I have in common we people is precisely the prejudice and the difficulties with which we struggle to relate to it, especially with the other sex.»

  «A look, we do not need more to know a person.» He said, looking at the woman with her blue eyes and barely moving one of her blonde hair away from her face.

  She smiled, and barely looked at him embarrassed . Specially, because he now was looking straight in the eye. Then she approached his ear and whispered, «I'll wait for you in the bathroom in five minutes.» Then he stood up and smoothed his dress, passing him in front of him and heading down the narrow corridor of the plane.

  Once he got off the plane, James walked through the long corridor that would take him to the terminal.

  Beside him there was the beautiful woman known on the plane, and although it was unthinkable, she had told him in practice all of her life in New York until this day.

  They both set off in the airport terminal, and as she continued to insist that they should see each other again, he did not think he wanted to. It was nothing personal, but after the whole process with his divorce he did not have the slightest desire to throw himself headlong into another relationship ‒ probably complicated ‒ with a lawyer from Los Angeles; surely he would not have won it if there were any problems in terms of loyalty.

  The two stopped right in front of the airport waiting room seats, where they would have to greet each other and go their own way. After all, he had been quite honest with Caitlin, and he had mentioned a marriage that was not quite in the best ways, but evidently the affair on the plane and its profound appeal must have struck her, because she was not giving up.

  «We should, I do not know... do something one of these days. After all, we're both new here, and having some more friendship will not hurt either of us.» The woman said, emphatically.

  The problem was just that, and having new friends like Caitlin did not seem like a good idea at all. How could he have said it without hurting the good heart of a sweet Samaritan woman who had come to Los Angeles to take care of her mother.

  Fortunately , his agent solved the question, appearing behind them and calling him out loud.

  «Hey, James!»

  He and Caitlin, turned in the direction from which the voice came, and saw his agent coming in their direction. He wore sunglasses in his hand and a cell phone in the other, with his usual bluetooth ear-cuff, as a real self-respecting agent. Probably, people didn’t know that the only customer who had remained at the time, it was him, and not just for sexual vicissitudes that many times saw him as a protagonist, despite his agent had never cheated on his wife, and until by then he had been more than an excellent husband: loyal and affectionate towards, Michela. At least, it had been more than him.

  However, being catched in a film with a greedy secretary of your seat as Agent, while "care" about you in a way that not befitting a good agent and husband, she was not good publicity, and this could easily ruin business. Michela, fortunately, had believed that what had happened in that video was just a long plan designed to make it possible for her to blackmail her agent, so as to make him have a promotion, and even if he had not initially taken it in an optimal way, so as to make Andy sleep out of his house for a whole week, after calming down and forgiving him, she had welcomed him back, repentant and ill-placed; after a long week in a fourth-class motel.

  Andy was really a great agent, and if it wasn’t for him, James would never have achieved success with his novel. And besides, the fact of being close friends for fifteen years, he had to count for something.

  «I was looking forward to you.» Andy said, with a smile on his face.

  The two men embraced fraternally, forgetting for a moment about Caitlin, who was watching them.

  «What a horrible man, let me introduce you to Caitlin.» He did, after the long hug, looking at the woman.

  The woman, he reached out and presented himself with a friendly smile.

  «The pleasure is all mine.» Andy did, kissing elegantly Caitlin's hand, who blushed a little for the gallant gesture.

  «I was just about wondering how long it would take James to break into another woman's heart.» His agent said, with a mischievous smile.

  The woman started to answer, but Andy preceded her.

  «Unfortunately, you must know that we don’t have time for this, and above all he is too much involved in matters that are decidedly complicated at the moment.» He made a fake smile and continued. «Come on, James. What are you waiting for? Take your suitcase and let's run to the studio. I have tons of cards to sign you, organize presentations and interviews that can’t wait.»

  The man turned to him with a stern look, moving busily as he picked up his bag and didn’t even look at Caitlin, at the moment puzzled and open-mouthed. So, he literally dragged him away, while the poor woman stood there with a furious look while she watched the two men go towards the exit of the airport.

  Once outside, the hot air of Los Angeles hit him in the face.

  He had almost forgotten about the dry weather in the city, and the memory of the last time he had been there came into his mind.

  «This is the last time I've saved you from a sexy horny lawyer, is that clear?»

  The words of his agent brought him back to reality. He returned to himself, and turned to Andy with a sly smile.

  «Oh, come on. Does this consist of your work, or not?» He said, «defending me from the attackers who want to compromise my creativity, and make sure my attention is not diverted from my literary self.» He concluded.

  «I admit it would have been a nice distraction. This does not mean that you could at least repent to make her hope.» Andy replied, serious.

  «What are you talking about? I have done absolutely nothing. Just a little talk on the flight until here.»

  The agent looked at him skeptically.

  «Yes, but as you crumpled your shirt and your open flap, I can imagine how it ended.»

  He looked down on the jeans zipper. Then, still with his usual little smile, he looked at his agent.

  «I had no idea, I swear! I thought she was only interested in my book, and in fact most of the time we talked about it.» He said, and in part it was also true.

  «Yes, of course.» He did his friend. «Listen, what we have to do here is serious stuff. You have to get back into the game, okay? My cell phone does not ring for a month now. Not even a small interview from some university student ... do you know what that means?» The man asked reproachfully.

  «Come on, calm down. I'm here on purpose, isn’t it?» He said, while looking from behind the dark glasses two young girls who passed by, while they were seems interested in him.

  Andy ran a hand over his face. «Hey, I'm here if you didn’t notice.» He sighed, and said, «you see, that's what I was talking about. In my opinion, you don’t take the thing too seriously.»

  «Sure, of course I take it seriously.» He said.

  «You know, that's why your wife left you.» The agent said. «You didn’t take her and your daughter too seriously.»

  «I did it, instead.» He replied, coming back suddenly. «I made a mistake, that's tr
ue, but I still love her and above all I love Elisabeth."

  «I know, my friend. I know.» The agent said, sighing and looking up at the tall skyscrapers in Los Angeles, past the airport.

  «If she's not as good as she is, it's a problem with her.» He concluded. «I will show to everybody that I am a changed man and definitely more mature and responsible. When I finish here, I'll convince everyone, you'll see!» He exclaimed, self-assured.

  «I don’t know how many chances you have, but this is the right spirit.»

  «Now, though, let's go eat something.»

  «By the way, how do we move? I don’t see your Grand Cabrio anywhere.» He said, looking left and right to recognize the agent's Maserati.

  «Oh, did not I tell you? I wanted to give you a little thought to welcome you to Los Angeles, my friend. A bit to recover even from the ugly blow double.» That said, pointed with the finger the new vanguard Mustang v8 with the convertible top in front of them.

  «Fantastic, this is a gift.» He said, bending to look at the circles that reflected beautifully his image, as they were shining.

  «Well, your wife took the car, and actually , she took everything, including the house. The fact that he allowed you to see Elizabeth twice a month surprised me.»

  «Yes, I like it.» He confirmed.

  «Obviously , the price will be deducted from your next check, which will come to you through your new book contract.»

  «What would it be, was not it a present?»

  «No, I said it was a little thought, not a present.»

  «It seemed too good.»

  «Don’t worry, if my predictions are right, your next contract will make us earn even more money than your old novel.»

  «Hey, try to be respectful, I considered it history, not old.» He accused him.

  «Forget it, I have some people to let you know and then you'll understand why I'm talking like that.» He closed his friend with a smirk, sure of himself.