Chapter 9

Los Angeles seemed big and confusing at first. Allegra wasn't sure where to go or where to stay, and decided not to look for an apartment until she found a job. She realized from how spread out the city was that she would need a car. She rented one at the airport from one of the places that offered low-priced deals, and headed for the hotel she had found an ad for before she left New York, which rented rooms by the week in Santa Monica, near the beach. She liked the idea of living on the ocean, at least for now. The day after she got there, she sat on the beach, in jeans and bare feet, soaking up the sun. It felt more like a vacation than a search for a new home.

She spent the weekend exploring various parts of Los Angeles, like West Hollywood and Beverly Hills, which would be too expensive to live in. She drove to Malibu on Sunday and saw the enormous beach homes there. Santa Monica had a cozy feeling to it, but might be too far from work. She was surprised by how much driving she did, but she liked it. She had a feeling of freedom, and it was totally different from New York. New York had still been chilly when she left, and the weather was warm and balmy in L.A. She was pleased with her choice so far.

Her mind kept wandering back to Shep as she looked around. She kept seeing things she wanted to tell him about and show him, and she kept having to remind herself that he was gone. He was no longer part of her life and didn't want to be. She had to get used to the idea that she was totally alone in the world again. She knew that she could call Pippa if she ran totally aground, but she wasn't going to let that happen. She was determined to make her new life work and make it a success. She wasn't going to write to Pippa until she found a job and a place to live. For now, she had options, and only had to please herself.

Allegra had been on her own before, but never quite as completely as this. She'd always had a tie to someone, her father in some distant place, and her grandparents, although they weren't affectionate or attentive, but they were there. Her mother had never been an option. For the past eight years, she could reach out to Shep, but now she had no one, not a soul on the planet who cared about her, except Pippa, and she was three thousand miles away and had been her boss, not a friend. It was terrifying and liberating, all at the same time. She had never been this totally free before. She didn't have to please anyone but herself. All the decisions were hers.

Allegra had looked up the employment agencies and had no idea which ones were best. She noticed one that had the most appealing ad. It seemed like a big agency, and offered lots of options. They claimed to handle jobs in tech, startups, entertainment, advertising, and various creative fields. There was no mention of publishing, as all the big publishing houses were in New York, but the entertainment industry appealed to her, as did "creative fields," which seemed like a catchall phrase that could mean anything. She decided to call that agency first, and said she was looking for a job. A very professional-sounding receptionist told her to fill out the questionnaire on the website, and then call back for an appointment with one of the agents.

It took Allegra an hour to answer all the questions about her education, job experience, family background, criminal check, and wish list for what kind of job she was looking for, and salary range. She based it on what she'd earned as a junior editor in New York, which didn't sound like a lot.

She went for a walk on the beach after she sent it, and then called the agency back two hours later. She wasn't sure an agent would have seen it yet, but she thought she should check. The same receptionist answered, and asked her to hold for a minute. She called around to see if anyone had processed the application, and one of their senior agents had, and told the receptionist to give her an appointment for ten a.m. the next day. There were several things about Allegra's answers that intrigued the agent, and she wanted to get a look at her, and see if she was for real, and how she presented herself, before she matched her up with any of the jobs they had listed. By sheer luck, Allegra had reached out to one of the best and busiest agencies in L.A. The receptionist came back on the line and gave her the appointment time for the next day. Allegra was pleased by the fast response.

"And who am I meeting with?" Allegra asked.

"Carly Forrest. She's one of the owners," the woman said. The firm was Forrest, Duvall, and Stein. Allegra thanked her and they hung up, and she went back to her hotel room feeling pleased. Things were moving, or at least starting to. She looked through her suitcases to figure out what to wear the next day, and opted for a navy linen suit, with a simple white blouse and high heels, though not too high. There was an iron and ironing board in her room, and she pressed the blouse and suit. She was surprised that she wasn't scared. She was excited to be going to the interview, and wondered what kind of jobs Carly Forrest would send her out for. She wasn't sure where her experience as an editor would apply. She'd have to wait and see.

She had trouble sleeping that night, and watched TV until she fell asleep. She had to keep pulling her mind away from Shep. She couldn't tell him about the interview or ask his advice afterward, as she had when she was job-hunting in New York. This time she was here because of him. If he hadn't destroyed her life in New York, pulled the rug out from under her and filed for divorce, she would never have been in Los Angeles, trying to build a new life, so there was nothing more to say to him. It was hard to get used to, after eight years of looking up to him. Now that all had to change. She was entirely on her own.

—

Carly Forrest was a tall, slim, blond woman with a good haircut, in a beige pantsuit and high heels. Allegra could feel the agent looking her over thoroughly, and hoped she approved. The navy suit she'd worn looked more like New York than L.A., but it was businesslike and subdued.

Carly asked her a long list of very specific questions that hadn't been on the form, and then sat back and looked at Allegra. She found her intriguing.

"May I ask you, Allegra, what brought you to L.A.?" Carly was interested and paid close attention. "Was it a man?" It was, but in reverse. When Shep abandoned Allegra, she gave up her New York life and came west, but she didn't say it.

"No, it wasn't," she said simply.

"Do you have friends here, or family?"

Allegra shook her head. "No, I don't. I wanted a change, and this seemed like the right place."

"Do you think you'll stay?"

"I hope so. I like what I've seen so far. I've never been here before."

"Were there things you didn't like about your job in New York?"

"No, I loved it. I liked working in publishing, and I know there is no significant publishing industry here."

"We have some magazines, if something comes up from that quarter. You have a lot to offer someone, Allegra, an excellent education at a great private boarding school, a degree from Columbia, and a glowing reference from your first job. We have a number of clients who would be interested in you, if you'd be interested in the jobs. Unfortunately, nothing that would use your editing skills at the moment. We get a lot of calls from celebrities for assistants. Those can be very demanding jobs that would infringe on your personal time. In L.A. a lot of people in the entertainment industry take advantage of their assistants' personal time and call them at all hours. Are you flexible about time?"

"I think so. I don't mind working long hours, unless they call me at four a.m. ," Allegra said, joking.

"Some do," Carly Forrest said. "We discourage it, of course, but it does happen, depending on the employer. I have some job descriptions for you to check out." Carly printed out four sheets of paper and handed them to Allegra for her to read. One was as the manager of a trendy restaurant, which Allegra didn't want to do. It required long nighttime hours, and she had no experience for the job. Another was as a personal assistant to a well-known movie star. Carly added the caveat that the actress required flexible hours, she wanted her assistant on call at all hours, and the job required travel. Carly said that the job was very well paid, but very demanding, and there was a clothing allowance that Allegra didn't care about. Her needs weren't extravagant.

There was an older famous Hollywood couple looking for an assistant to share. They were in their eighties and led a very quiet life. Carly was concerned that she might be bored, but the husband was writing his autobiography, so there might be editing involved, which Allegra liked.

And there was a secretarial position for a bank president, which was strictly nine to five, with no additional time involved.

"They all sound interesting except for the restaurant," Allegra said.

"Would you be interested in interviewing for the other three?" Carly asked her.

"I would," Allegra said. She had heard of all three movie stars. She had the computer skills the bank president required so she was qualified for the job.

"I'll call them and set it up, and get back to you as soon as I hear," Carly said. She had been very favorably impressed by Allegra, although she was still puzzled by why she had come to Los Angeles with no connection to the city whatsoever. Allegra had said she had no acting ambitions, so she wasn't drawn to it for that. She was a little bit of a mystery to Carly, but she liked everything she saw in the interview. Allegra was polite, well mannered, intelligent, and seemed very professional and mature for her age.

Carly called Allegra at the end of the day. All three clients wanted to meet her. Carly had the acting clients set up for the next day, and the bank president the day after.

"And we'll see what else comes in." She emailed Allegra the addresses, and Allegra left her hotel early the next morning so she'd get to the first interview on time. The actress was the first one, and she lived in Bel Air. Allegra used the GPS to find her house. It was very impressive, and a maid led her upstairs to what turned out to be the star's bedroom. She was in a round bathtub in a pink marble bathroom Allegra could see from the bedroom, and she told Allegra to come in. She walked into the bathroom hesitantly, and the star was naked in the bath. She was a beautiful woman, and very pleasant to Allegra, who was embarrassed to be meeting her naked and tried not to show it, while the star asked her about her previous job and if she was willing to work on weekends. Allegra was trying not to look at her while she answered her questions. Then the star stood up in the round bathtub and asked Allegra to hand her a towel, which she did, trying to look unaffected by it.

"Sorry, I have a meeting with a director this morning and I'm running late. I always do meetings when I'm in the tub. I hate wasting time. Do you have a husband, children, or a boyfriend?" she asked, as she wrapped the towel around her. She had a spectacular body, which Allegra was uncomfortable having seen so much of.

"None of the above," Allegra answered.

"Good. I call at crazy hours sometimes. The agency said you don't mind working late. And you'd travel with me of course. Can you do hair?"

"Hair?" Allegra looked blank.

"You know, hair!" she said, piling her blond mane on her head. "I take a hairdresser with me for press events and red carpet. For personal events, you can do it for me. Your hair is a great color, by the way. I've always wanted to be a redhead."

"Oh, thank you," Allegra said, still startled to discover she'd have to double as a hairdresser on occasion. The job seemed to be more personal than assistant, and Allegra could easily imagine two a.m. calls. The star seemed to expect Allegra to have no life of her own whatsoever. It sounded way more invasive than what she wanted to deal with, particularly the meetings while she was in the bathtub.

She extricated herself from the interview politely while the star wandered around her bedroom naked with her underwear in her hand, but she still hadn't put it on when Allegra left. She heaved a sigh of relief and called Carly from her car. The agent was annoyed that the client had paraded around naked and apologized to Allegra.

"I'm sorry. She does that all the time. She's very proud of her body. She never uses body doubles in her movies."

"She has a great body. I was just startled. But she also wants me to do her hair. I don't think I'm the right person for the job. I can barely do my own hair." Allegra laughed, and Carly did too.

"I'm sorry, Allegra. This is Hollywood, and you get a bit of everything here. Her last personal assistant was her yoga teacher and her masseuse. She has very broad ideas of what personal assistants do. I think you'll like the Johnsons a lot, and I promise they'll have their clothes on."

Ed and Betty Johnson were both famous actors. He was well into his eighties and looked frail. He was an Oscar-winning actor and director, and she had been a famous beauty in her day and was in her seventies and still beautiful. He was retired and working on his memoirs, and she still took parts in films from time to time. They were a charming couple, attentive and respectful. It was like visiting someone's grandparents, except that they were both big stars. But they acted like normal people. They wanted her to handle their correspondence, make their social and medical appointments, and help him with his book. She wondered if they really needed a full-time person, it didn't sound like the job would fill her day, although they were lovely and she really liked them. She hated to sound picky to Carly, but the work seemed boring. He had said he spent two hours working on his book every morning, and it looked like it would take him another twenty years to finish it. He had only done thirty pages of it so far. He wanted her to retype whatever he worked on that day. It sounded like she'd be finished by eleven o'clock every morning, and sitting idle, waiting for the phone to ring for the rest of the day.

They loved her and wanted to offer her the job. They said she reminded them of one of their granddaughters. It was an incredibly impressive moment, meeting two such famous people in their home environment, but it didn't sound like much of a job. At least she wouldn't have to do their hair and they weren't naked. In one day, she'd had an amazing introduction to three of Hollywood's biggest stars.

The bank job she interviewed for the next day was exactly as described: proper hours, standard work, and after the first two interviews, it sounded very boring. The bank president was extremely professional, very polite, and not particularly friendly. She didn't think she'd like the job or working for him. So, with three strikes, she was out by Wednesday afternoon, and she was discouraged, when Carly called her back after she turned down the bank job.

"I didn't think it was for you, but it shows you a range of what's available right now," Carly said. They were very different jobs and employers. None of them were right for her. Carly could sense that Allegra was discreet and somewhat shy. But there was also a certain gutsiness to her, if she'd come to L.A. knowing not a soul. She was an interesting combination of strong and vulnerable, and Carly wanted to help her find a good job. She was a bright girl, and Carly sensed that she'd be a star herself in the right job. She sounded cautiously excited when she called Allegra back.

"I just got a call from one of my favorite and most difficult clients. He's what I call a recidivist. He's a wonderful employer, a huge talent, and a kind man, but he works incredibly long hours and very hard, and he expects his assistants to work as hard as he does, which isn't possible. He has a bit of a temper but he always apologizes, and he's a gentleman. He expects his assistant to do both business and personal aspects of the job, which means calling his tailor in London and getting his hair cut at home between meetings and setting up meetings with his attorney and The New York Times . He's a very successful music composer for films. He's won several Oscars. He's sixty-two years old and runs around like he's thirty. He's tireless. His assistants usually quit in six months. He wears them out, and they never last more than a year, so it won't be a long-term job," although Allegra was young enough that she thought she might last, a little longer at least. "He's a human tornado, and he's probably a genius. You'll either love him or hate him, and he knows how demanding he is, and pays his employees extremely well. His name is Henry Platt." Allegra had heard of him, and was intrigued. He had done the soundtracks of some of the most famous movies in Hollywood. "He can see you at six forty-five tonight. He has to be in his studio at seven-thirty, so he won't keep you long. Are you free then?" She was, and it sounded daunting but fascinating.

"Is there anything else I should know?" Allegra asked her.

"He's extremely punctual, and I have a crazy feeling this might work. For a while anyway. See what you think after you meet him. You can call me on my cellphone to let me know. I'll be on my way home, stuck in traffic." Carly gave Allegra the address and wished her luck.

Allegra left her hotel an hour early to be there on time and arrived five minutes early. Henry Platt had a large, imposing house in Bel Air, with a shiny black door and a large brass knocker. A woman in a black uniform with a white apron opened the door and let Allegra in. The house was very formal and reminded her a little of a smaller version of the cottage in Newport, but the atmosphere was friendlier. She could see a large living room, a book-lined library, and a beautifully tended garden outside. Allegra gave her name and was led into the library, where a tall man with a mane of gray hair was putting books away. He was wearing an impeccable light blue shirt and gray slacks, and he had headphones around his neck. There was a grand piano in the room, and stacks of sheet music piled on top of it. He was handsome, with a weathered, lined face, and looked his age, and he smiled warmly when he saw her.

"Ah, you must be the young woman come to save me. Your predecessor left yesterday. She's getting married and moving to Australia. You're not engaged, are you?"

"No, sir."

"I received eighty emails today, and I don't have time to answer them." He sounded like he expected her to take her jacket off and get to work immediately. He seemed like a busy man who would juggle ten projects at once and expect her to do twice as many. "Carly tells me you just moved here from New York. Do you know your way around L.A.?"

"Not yet. I got lost twice on my way here." She smiled shyly.

"You'll learn. I moved here from New York too, thirty years ago. It grows on you. I like the weather." He was friendly, and he had lively eyes that were observing her intently. He looked like a nice man, although she'd been warned about his temper.

"I like the weather too." She smiled at him again. He invited her to sit down, and he asked her all the expected questions about her previous job.

"Why did you want to be an editor?"

"I love books," she said simply.

"Maybe you'll write one."

"I don't think I have the talent. Editing is easier."

"You never know what you can do until you try," he said, challenging her. "I used to think I couldn't compose, and now that's all I do. I trained to be a concert pianist. What I do now is much more fun. Come, I'll show you." He led her through a door to a fully equipped, space-age sound studio. It was amazingly impressive. "I spend most of my time here. I work a twenty-hour day. Your day will be shorter than mine, but I often keep my assistants past their normal hours. Do you mind staying late if I'm busy?"

"No, I don't mind," she said, somewhat intimidated by him. He was such a big persona. He was a big man with a larger-than-life personality. She was impressed by who he was, but he seemed straightforward and open and wasn't trying to frighten her.

"I do most of my work here at the house. Occasionally, I work in the sound studios of the film studios I work for. You would come with me."

"It sounds very interesting."

"Sometimes it is, and a lot of work," he said, and led her back to the library. "Carly says you have excellent references. I believe her. I need someone right away. There are all those emails to answer. How soon can you start?"

"I'm free now. I just got here five days ago."

"Where are you living?"

"At a hotel in Santa Monica, until I find an apartment." And first, a job, she didn't say.

"That's too far away, you'll be stuck in traffic for an hour getting here. You should try West Hollywood or Beverly Hills."

"I wanted to wait to get an apartment until I found a job," she admitted, when pressed.

"That's sensible. Can you start tomorrow morning? Eight-thirty?"

"Yes, I can," she said. She liked him, and wanted the job. He didn't give her time to think about it, but it felt like the right one, even though she could see that he might be a handful at times, he seemed like the kind of person who wanted everything done yesterday.

"That's settled then. I have a recording session next week. You can sit in on part of it to see what I do. And I have a meeting with a screenwriter tomorrow. We have a busy day, and you have those eighty emails waiting for you. They multiply exponentially at night, so there will be more tomorrow. I hope you're fast, Allegra. You'll have to be to keep up."

"Yes, sir." He didn't try to hide that it would be a lot of work, which she didn't mind.

"That's a little formal, you can call me Henry," although that seemed too informal to her. He was a man of great stature both physically and professionally, and she was somewhat daunted by him, as he walked her to the door. There were delicious smells coming from the kitchen. "Louise is a wonderful cook, she'll feed you on the nights you work late." He reminded her of a good version of her father, the way she would have liked him to be, a benevolent dictator. There was a four-star-general quality to Henry Platt, like her grandfather. She felt as though she had been swept up by a tidal wave, but there was a warm atmosphere in his home, and she felt at ease there. All she had to do was get used to him, and the pace he expected of her. She had a feeling there wouldn't be much downtime in the job, but it sounded fun and exciting and busy. It was just what she wanted, and Carly had told her the salary. It was going to be very easy to live on. He paid as well as Carly said he did. But Allegra could tell that she would have to work hard to earn it. It seemed like a fair exchange. Hard work for good money. She wasn't afraid of working hard, and when he closed the door behind her, she smiled all the way to her car parked outside. She had a job! Her new life in L.A. was off and running. Her only regret was that she couldn't tell Shep about it.

She called Carly from her car on the way back to Santa Monica. She'd have to find an apartment on the weekend.

"He loved you," Carly said, as soon as she answered her phone. "I don't know what you said to him, but he thought you were terrific. He wants you to start tomorrow morning." Carly sounded victorious. She got a big fee from it, but she also liked putting the right people together. It was like matchmaking.

"I know, he told me."

"Don't let him overwhelm you. He moves fast, just follow your instincts with him. He works on a million things at once, and his directions can be confusing. If you don't understand something, ask him. He's actually very human and reasonable. I'm very happy this worked out, Allegra. I think this will be a very good match. You're bright and on the ball, and you'll catch on fast. The first week may be challenging, but you'll settle in quickly."

"I'm not afraid of hard work," Allegra said bravely.

"Neither is he. He'll want you to sign a confidentiality agreement tomorrow, it's just a formality. He's a very private person."

"So am I." It felt like a good match to her too. She hoped he'd be satisfied with her work.

"Good luck," Carly said. "I'm glad we found you something so quickly. And good luck in L.A. Call me if you have any problems, and I'll whip him into shape," she said, and they both laughed, Allegra because she thought she could handle him, and Carly because she knew Henry Platt would keep her running. But if Allegra was willing to, Carly thought they'd be perfect for each other. She drove home the rest of the way, smiling, and so did Allegra. She had a job in Los Angeles! Her new life was taking off!