"Bennett, Cherie - Sunset Island 005 - Sunset Reunion (b)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Bennett Cherie)

"Now what did you do that for?" Emma demanded. "I didn't want to leave!"
"Did you see how perfectly that worked?" Sam shrieked, falling against the wall. "Am I a genius or what?"
"Sam!" Emma called impatiently, her hands on her hips.
Sam whirled around and grabbed Emma's wrists with excitement. "He's crazy for me now! Everything went absolutely perfectly! Yes!"
Emma shook Sam loose. "Look, I admit it was masterful manipulation, if you're into such things, butЧ"
"He is the hottest guy I have ever seen in my life!" Sam rhapsodized, ignoring Emma. "This could be it, Em. This could be the guy I've been waiting for my whole life."
"Oh, sometimes you make me so mad I could just smack you!" Emma screamed.
Sam looked at her innocently. "What? What did I do?"
Emma sighed and shook her head. "With the possible exception of my mother, you are the most egocentric person I've ever met.
Did it ever occur to you to think that I might not have wanted to leave? What am I, just an extra to add background color to your life?"
Sam looked stricken. "You're right. Oh, I'm sorry, Em. I wasn't thinking. It's just ... I was on a roll. I knew that if I seemed so totally disinterested that I'd leave the party rather than stay and talk with him, he'd really believe that I was hard to get!"
"Well, just terrific. Now we're stuck out here in the hall," Emma fumed.
"I guess you could go back in if you wanted to," Sam said in a small voice.
"Forget it," Emma snapped.
"How about if we go up to our room and order room service then?" Sam suggested brightly. "I'm starved! And we can hang out until it's time to go to the concert."
"Fine," Emma said, marching toward the bank of elevators.
"You're really mad at me," Sam said tentatively.
Emma didn't answer her, and they rode in silence up to their room.
"I'll pay for the room service," Sam offered meekly.
"You don't have to do that," Emma said.
"Then what can I do to make you not be mad at me anymore?" Sam pleaded.
At first Emma didn't say anything. Then she started thinking about the performance Sam had just put on. "'I usually wait in Graham's dressing room during the opening act,'" Emma repeated. She burst out laughing. "Where do you get the nerve?"
"I don't know! I think I was just born with it," Sam said with a huge grin on her face. She plopped down on the bed and grabbed the room service menu. "Whoa, check out these prices." She winced. "A grilled cheese sandwich is six dollars!"
The door opened and Carrie came bursting into the room. She sat down heavily on the opposite bed. "What am I going to do?" she moaned.
"What happened?" Emma asked, sitting down next to her.
"Faith thinks Graham is doing coke," Carrie said. "I have to admit, it looks like she's right. She wants me to follow him around to try and get some damning photos. It's like all of a sudden I'm working for the National Enquirer!"
"Maybe you should just ask Graham about it yourself," Emma suggested tentatively.
"How can I?" Carrie asked. "I'm here working for Rock On. They're the ones who are paying me. But if it hadn't been for Graham, I wouldn't even have the job! God, this is a complete mess!"
"Well, it seems to me it's your job to take the shots," Sam said. "If Graham is doing coke, it's his own responsibility. He could have canceled the interview. It's his problem, not yours."
Emma raised her eyebrows at Sam. "Are things really so simple for you, so cut and dried?"
Sam shrugged. "Why not? What's the big deal?"
"The big deal," Emma began evenly, "is that if Graham is addicted to coke, he can't help himself any more than an active alcoholic can. The big deal is that he -needs people who will try to help, not people who will exploit the situation."
"I just don't know what to do," Carrie moaned, fiddling with her camera strap. "I told Faith I had to run up here and get some more film, but I've got to go back and face her."
"If taking that kind of picture goes against your ethics, then don't do it," Emma recommended.
"Emma, no offense, but rich people always seems to find it easy to have this holier-than-thou kind of attitude," Sam said.
"I am not 'rich people' any more than you are 'poor people,'" Emma pronounced icily.
"Okay, sorry," Sam conceded. "But think about Carrie for a minute here. She doesn't have a trust fund to fall back on. Her career is just beginning. This is the work she really wants to do. But she'd probably never get hired again by Rock On, or any other magazine, if she doesn't take the shots Faith tells her to take. I'm sure Faith would ruin Carrie's reputation in nothing flat."
"You think she'd do that?" Carrie asked, a horrified look crossing her face.
"Yep," Sam answered matter-of-factly. "She'll say you're uncooperative, unreliable . . ."
"Oh, God," Carrie groaned. "I'm completely screwed on this."
^"Look, how about if you keep snapping shots, but you just keep missing the exploitative ones that Faith wants?" Emma suggested.
"I guess that's what I have to try to do," Carrie said. She rose reluctantly from the bed. "This is going to be a very long evening."
"Hang in there," Emma coaxed her.
"Yeah," Sam said. "We'll help any way we can. Just don't jeopardize your career because Graham Perry doesn't have the willpower to stay away from drugs," she added.
"Okay, wish me luck," Carrie said as she walked out the door.
"Good luck!" Sam and Emma called to her.
"Now, where were we?" Sam said, picking up the menu again.
Emma eyed Sam curiously. "Everything is very simple to you, isn't it? Very black and white."
"Sometimes," Sam agreed. "This time it is. No way should Carrie risk her career for Graham. Graham is responsible for himself."
Sam turned back to the menu, but Emma had lost her appetite. What if Carrie really had to choose between her friend and her career?