The Silver Screen Wars

9 - Understanding

Figured. People like Bishop Cassius had no interest in respecting the law because they could get away with breaking it so effortlessly. There were people like Bishop Cassius flouting the law every day, but there were no consequences, so what would he care? And if he had no qualms about that, how much easier was it for him to step on people who couldn't even fight back?

There was nothing fair about it. Money bought privileges. Money bought exemptions. Kodi knew her face had twisted into a disgusted frown every time she saw a police cruiser discreetly falling back just a few seconds after they began tailing the speeding vehicle. If it had been her driving thirty miles over the speed limit, she would have been unquestionably slapped with a reckless driving charge and the sizable fine to go with it.

Ironic that the person next to her who could probably pay the twenty five hundred dollar fine with his pocket change would never be so inconvenienced.

How was it that some people could coast through life so effortlessly, so easily, without having to struggle for a single second of it? Nice cars, big houses, fancy clothes, never worrying about their next paycheck. That was another thing she decided to hate him for: making her come out here without even the guarantee of compensation for her time, her energy. It was clear that neither of those things mattered at all to him, because otherwise he would never have made her come out here and follow him around for several hours as he ranted and raved about the work they were setting out to do. Not without setting a contract first.

It was obvious that he was taking her for granted just like he did everyone else. Demanding her time at no cost? Of course he had done that. Why wouldn't he? He was Bishop Cassius, and he always got everything he wanted handed to him on a silver platter.

Well, not this time. She didn't care if she had to go pick up a dozen of the shittiest gigs in the city to make up for the money, but she wasn't going to work under this man who thought that the world owed him everything when he already had everything.

Kodi pushed open her door before the car stopped rolling, ignoring Bishop's growl of "you need to stop doing that" and swinging her legs out to jump out onto the circular asphalt driveway in front of Monlavia's mansion. Over an hour of being stuck with Bishop inside an overpriced shoe box of a car on the return trip to the city, and he thought she was going to suffer him a single second longer than necessary? No, thank you. She would happily take the scraped knees instead if it came to that.

Asshole.

But in other news...this was a big damn house Jason Monlavia lived in. It made her hesitate for a second, wondering how he could be so different from Bishop. He was rich too, wasn't he? Born into a family of well-known actors, good school, comfortable life. One of the country's sweethearts and constantly present on the list of the nation's most eligible bachelors, even though he had been adamantly single for a long time now.

And yet Bishop acted like an anal sphincter while Jason was so down to earth and modest about his achievements. The difference was as clear as night and day...even if Jason's house was on the lavishly large size.

He even had an elegant set of stone fountains installed on the plot of lush grass encircled by the driveway. How...uh, one-percenter. Kodi wrestled with herself in a moment of great inner struggle, caught between instinctively disliking how gratuitous it all was and wanting to think the best of Jason Monlavia. On the one hand, there were a lot pettier things to waste money on than lawn embellishments, but on the other hand, that money would have fed a lot of starving orphans.

In the end, she concluded that for the sake of sticking it to Bishop, she would overlook Jason's extravagances this one time and maintain her high opinion of him. In any case, he was far superior a person compared to their director anyway, wealth notwithstanding.

"Close your mouth. You're gonna catch flies."

Kodi's head swiveled around. "They'll go to you first. Flies love s**t -"

She didn't get to finish her sentence, interrupted by Jason's car pulling up next to them with a rev of the engine. Maybe it had drowned out her last few words, maybe it hadn't - but it was clear from Bishop's narrowed eyes that he had known she was saying something less than cooperative. Aw, too bad. If he asked, she was only too happy to repeat herself.

She was spared the effort when their lanky companion climbed out of his car, some black vintage convertible top she couldn't put a name to. Definitely classier than a Bugatti, more dignified. She could respect that.

"Jason!"

"I'm surprised Bishop remembered the way here," he said with a smile as he pushed his door closed behind him. "It's been a while since he's had time to pay a visit, but I ended up following you guys."

"Well, he was going eighty on that stretch just outside the city, I would hope he would make it here first -"

"And yet Jason shows up a few seconds after me, so obviously he was doing the same," Bishop pointed out as he rounded the front of the car and moved toward the house without them. "Get that stick out of your ass, Kodiak Clyde."

Alright, she'd give him that one. But when she weighed the power of logic against her personal opinion of him...

She blatantly ignored him and kept her eyes fixed on Jason, who was glancing between the two of them as if uncertain whether he should interrupt or not. Oh, but he was always welcome to interrupt, Kodi thought privately. Especially where Bishop was concerned. Jason's conversation was far more preferable at any given time, location, or circumstances.

"Your house is nice," she told him, all unruffled calm and polite pleasantries. "I think it's bigger than my whole apartment complex."

He smiled. "It's a little much, but schmoozing is mandatory around here. If I don't have a place big enough to throw a party in every few days and house drunken guests 'til the morning, I'm the asshole, apparently. One of those problems that are a lot more serious than it should be."

Ah, right, Kodi thought with relief. Of course someone as unassuming as him wouldn't live in so grandiose a place just for the sake of his own vanities. Just a casualty of the necessities of his career, that was all. A sprawling brick mansion with pristine white columns lining the front, flanked by trimmed trees and neat lines of hedges, a big bay window on the right wing that exposed the lovely den inside, a dozen windows and a balcony on this side of the house alone.

That is, she was sure Bishop's house was far gaudier and more deserving of her resentment. Jason's justifications made sense, and the director certainly couldn't make the same claim - who would ever want to go to a party hosted by Bishop?

"Well, welcome anyway," Jason said after a brief moment of silence lapsed between them. "We'd better catch up before he finds something fragile to knock off my counters. Shall we?"

Kodi grinned and took the proffered arm, linking elbows.

---------

"Boyd will be here with the papers in ten," Bishop called over his shoulder from where he sat in the living room just across the breakfast bar. "Left the door unlocked, right?"

"Sure," Jason called back as he poured a glass of cold water from a pitcher for both Kodi and himself. "But you know he can't make it here that soon, right? It's lunchtime rush, and you're the only one who's crazy enough to drive up onto the sidewalk to get past a traffic jam."

"He'll be here if he knows what's good for him."

Jason and Kodi shared a look at the flippant yet vaguely menacing reply, and it was only with the greatest of efforts that she kept her mouth closed and a rising insult restrained. For the sake of domestic peace, she told herself, because she was in someone else's house and she respected other people's boundaries unlike a certain someone.

(The half-smile of approval Jason gave her was also a nice consolation prize. She'd put it in her pocket to take home with her later.)

"Liz said she'll have everything ready in a few minutes, so Boyd can join us at least. Surprised he isn't with you, though. I thought he was supposed to check out the site with us?" Jason passed a cup over to Kodi, who had taken a seat on one of the stools and was currently slouched over the breakfast bar. "Everything okay with him?"

"He had a spill this morning," Bishop answered, and he flipped another page of whatever magazine he was reading in his lap. One arm was draped over the back of the plush leather sofa, fingers tap-tapping on the fabric. "Sent himself home to get a new change of clothes, maybe. I don't know. Don't care."

Kodi turned on her stool with her water in hand, intent on observing the local invasive wildlife that was the director. How was it, she mused, that her day had turned out like this? Meeting the most unrepentant, self-important, used Kleenex of a man, and then reuniting with one of the men she most admired through him. There wasn't a chance that she would thank him for it, though. The last thing she wanted to do after she had invested so much energy in antagonizing him was to blow his head up even more.

"A spill?" she asked. She took a sip of her water, watching the back of Bishop's head with a hawk's gaze.

"Yeah, you deaf?"

"Is Boyd the guy who told us to go inside the auditorium? Skinny guy, glasses, gelled hair, suit and tie?"

She heard him flip over another rustling page. "What's it to you."

"Just wondering, because he was shaking ice cubes out of his sleeves and his collar when he came out into the hallway. Didn't look like a spill to me, more like someone went and poured something all over him."

Bishop twisted around to look at her over his draped arm. "And?"

'And?' And? This guy... Kodi gestured at him with her glass before placing to her lips again, but she spoke over the rim of the cup instead of taking a drink.

"You were the only one in there when we went in," she said pointedly. "So, you dunked him, he has to go home to change, and then you're planning on throwing a hissy fit if he gets here late...because of you. Is that what it's going to be like? Working with you?"

Surprisingly, Jason didn't try to stop her this time. Maybe it was because for once, it was a serious question and not simply an attempt to rile him up...even though that desire admittedly did factor in somewhat.

There must have been a look in her eye or something else that gave it away, because for once, Bishop didn't immediately lob a cutting reply in her direction. He continued to stare at her for a few more seconds, stretching the silence on until he opened his mouth partway. She saw him run the tip of his tongue along his upper teeth, evidently contemplating his response.

Wow, she thought. She didn't realize he knew how to think before he spoke. So he wasn't completely incapable of acting like an adult, then?

"Treat the job with the respect it deserves," he said finally, "and the job will respect you back. I don't play around, Kodiak Clyde, and I expect you to do me the same courtesy."

...Interesting. That was far more eloquent a reply than she would have ever expected, and she found herself at a curious loss for words as they stared at each other across the room. She didn't know how to define this slow, strange moment of begrudging understanding that passed between them, or the way his eyes briefly flickered down to her toes and then back up again to her face.

"Everyone come," a woman's voice suddenly sounded from the next room over, heavily accented and carrying a maternal timbre. "Eating!"

Behind her, Kodi heard Jason stirring.

"You heard the boss," he said quickly. "Let's get some food in our stomachs."