Behind Closed Doors

Chapter Thirty-seven

Henry touched his tie to make sure that the knots were in perfect position as they should be, and he felt Fiona doing the last touches to her looks with a small compact mirror which she had pulled out from her Kate Spade bag. But he felt that it was not necessary as a hair and makeup person had come to the house to do her looks and get her picture-perfect for their night out. Anyhow, she as a woman and women loved touching up their looks, no matter how expensive the makeup artist was, or the surgeon that did the last “job”.

‘Oh dear, I forgot to kiss the kids good night,’ she said as one bejeweled hand flew up to pat her high-piled expensive mass of Brazilian red hair into place to make sure that not a strand was out of place.

Her fashionably thin body was poured into a shimmering Givenchy creation that left her shoulders bare and clung to her body like a second skin. A cloud of Chloe perfume exuded from her in suffocating waves that almost had Henry coughing, though he refrained from saying anything so as not to offend her vanity. He wanted to comment that her Givenchy was so ridiculously expensive, she should not take it off the next three weeks. Get value for the money.  But he could not say all that—that would hurt her feelings, given the time and money she’d poured into looking like for this event.

‘So did I, honey,’ he said instead, his body inching close to hers for reassurance because of the apprehension he was feeling. He knew that Phoenix was coming to the Actors Guild of Nigeria Award Night since he was the one they all were there to honor because of his dazzling performance in the latest movie he’d made: Fatal Attraction. He was terrified of what he’d feel when he saw the other guy, for he was sure he would see him. You couldn’t attend such events and not be seen.

The thought of the guy had his lips curling in amusement as he remembered that his mother had almost expired from apoplexy when the actor had named the hefty salary he’d wanted to be paid. There she was, wailing like a Banshee about how ungrateful and greedy Phoenix was, and he’d merely told her that since she was the one that had wanted to get the guy involved in what she was trying to do, she had to pay his price. She had hemmed and hawed, but in the end, she had given in; and boy, was she glad! Henry hadn’t remarked further, but he was glad too that she’d paid Phoenix his dues.

After the ten-week extensive shooting of the movie to the ridiculous expectations of T. O. Phoenix, Henry had gone for the screening, right before it would go to the Censors Board for final cutting and then it would find its way into the cinemas. And he had to say that Phoenix was a real breath of fresh air, and he knew that the world was waiting with bated breath for the release since it was to coincide with the recent proposal by the National Assembly for the criminalization of all homosexual acts in the country. It had been timed perfectly; the release of the movie to coincide with the heated debates on the floors of the National Assembly. The international community were already up in arms against the proposed Bill to criminalize all same-sex affairs in Nigeria, and Fatal Attraction would be a fascinating piece to be added to the debate. Which meant more publicity, more viewership at the Cinema houses spread across Nigeria, more interviews for the actors, and more money for the Studio. It was a perfect arrangement.

The chauffeur-driven car purred to a stop before the red carpet. Photographers, press secretaries, journalists, and gossip bloggers from the major popular lifestyle blogs in Nigeria waited for each entrant, pens and notepads ready, cameras poised at the ready to capture each titillating moment.

Henry and his wife alighted from the car but not before Fiona had taken ten seconds to get out from the car, flashing the view of her fair, toned legs for the cameras to flash at when she was still inside the sleek car. It was a gesture Henry knew she’d been practicing for ages, and he found it amusing that she was trying to play the sexy starlet of the screens when she was not. She was trying so hard to fit in, and in all fairness to her she was now being noticed by the bloggers and the gossip columns. She now got her face in blog posts, her attire and fashion sense becoming narratives for discourse by Lagos’s Fashion editors and bloggers.