Chapter 3: "So,… Cate Blanchett…"
"So,… Cate Blanchett…", Joe McGovern smiled his charming, almost shy smile. Rooney's heart missed a beat and to her dismay she heard herself giggle. What to say ? Rooney smiled and held tight to the microphone in her hand. Joe made it easier for her by referring to Elizabeth and seeing Cate for the first time when she was thirteen. A question she had answered a thousand times before. Still, she couldn't help herself: "She lived up to everything I imagined and she was also much more."
How much more wasn't something she was willing to share with Joe or the New York audience. It had become clear at Cannes, after that sudden kiss in the corridor of the Palais des Festivals. At that moment their mutual admiration and affection for each other had turned into something else.
Seeing the love between Carol and Therese unfold on the big screen and experiencing how the Cannes audience was deeply touched by their story, had made Cate and Rooney realize that together they had created something extraordinary and beautiful. Of course, the genius of Todd and Phyllis' wonderful script had a great share in it. But it was more than that.
Somehow, by their willingness to bring together their contrasting personalities and their different qualities as actresses and individuals, they had achieved something unique. Together Cate and Rooney had made the love between Carol and Therese visible and tangible, turning it into something that transcended a conventional cinematic lovestory.
It filled them with pride, but it also made them look at each other in a new and different way. How was it possible that they had created this together ? What was it that they had awakened in each other, that, combined, brought this sheer joy ? Cate had called them kindred spirits. And Rooney knew there was physical attraction too. Something she had been well aware of during the month they were filming in Cincinnatti.
As a professional actor she was used to playing sometimes very intimate scenes with other actors. But what looked like spontaneous, romantic lovemaking was a well rehearsed choreography that left no room for improvisation, let alone emotions. The scene at the Waterloo hotelroom was as much Todds work as it was Cate's and Rooneys. It was their trust in each other that had made the intensely emotional and tender scene possible. And also, Rooney knew, the physical compatability between Cate and her.
But in that dark corridor at Cannes their kindred spirits and physical attraction had combined, not because they were Carol and Therese, but because they were Cate and Rooney. It was an explosive encounter, that Rooney had run away from. Afterwards, alone in her hotel room, Rooney regretted her flight. Why had she panicked ? Cate at least had been honest in her admission that she wanted to find out what was happening between them. Rooney had not been ready for that.
She knew Cate was leaving tomorrow and that it would take months before they would meet again on the tour surrounding the release of Carol in the autumn. Rooney obviously had to speak with her. But calling her at what had now become a very late hour was hopeless. A text message would have to do. She looked at her phone and after some thought typed: "We need to talk."
The next morning Rooney woke up to the bleep of a text message. Cate. Her answer was short: "Yes. But when ?" Their hectic schedules of a promotional breakfast, last minute interviews and fotoshoots made a private meeting nearly impossible. In the end they could safe five minutes, by locking themselves in the packed office of the manager of the restaurant where their last interview had taken place.
Cate leaned against the small desk and held out her hand.
"Come here."
And now it was so easy for Rooney to give in to Cate's embrace, to kiss that broad, smiling mouth, to look into those clear blue eyes again, to feel her slender body pressed against her breasts. Their kisses were slow and soft, without the urgency of that first kiss in the corridor.
"Darling", Rooney savored the word, wondering about the strangeness of saying this to the woman in her arms. Only now she thought about Charlie, her partner. And what about Andrew, Cate's husband, her boys and the little girl ? She leaned her head against Cate's shoulder.
"Look at us", Cate laughed, resting her chin on Rooneys hair. "What on earth should we do now ?"
Instead of answering, Rooney tightened her embrace and once again sought Cate's lips, almost agressively taking posession of her mouth. Cate trembled, bewildered by this growing passion between them.
"Miss Mara ? Your car is waiting." Who was this idiot that knocked on the door ? "Miss Mara ?"
Reluctantly, they broke away from each other.
"Cate, I want this", Rooney said, taking her hand.
Cate sighed.
"So do I, sweetheart."
Once again there was a knock on the door.
"I'll … I'll call you", Rooney said.
"Please," Cate whispered, only now letting go of her hand.
Rooney opened the door.
