Dames qui déjeunent

Author's note : I am so glad to see people reading these stories. I hope some other Call My Agent fans will also take the plunge and publish some fan fiction of their own.

Once a month...six weeks at the outside; that is how often Andrea and Arlette met for lunch after ASK imploded. Usually a late lunch, where they discussed many things over wine; from the state of film...poor...to the state of their lives and careers...erratic… along with some just plain gossip.

Arlette proved, as ever, an invaluable sounding board to Andrea when it came to a number of topics, but most importantly her campaign to woo and win back Collette; when to pursue and when to back off, how to make small gestures into large statements and, perhaps, most importantly, patience and the power of listening.

Today, they had assessed the current state of Andrea's campaign, (bit of a holding pattern), and as they waited for the waiter to clear the salad plates, Arlette was recounting Guy's latest bicycling adventure near their Basque country home.

"He goes for these endless rides through the countryside and he always brings something home with him. Usually it is some wildflowers, or sometimes he stops at a shop and brings back a bread or cheese that catches his eye...or nose," she added with a wrinkle of her own nose. "But last weekend he brought home… you won't believe... a cat!"

Andrea nearly spit out her wine. "NO!"

But Arlette just nodded. "Well, actually a kitten. But definitely feline." Arlette sighed, lit a cigarette and blew a disdainful puff.

"But what did you do with it?!"

Another drag, another sigh. "He claimed that he had asked at the two farms near where he found it...by the side of the road...he had stopped to tighten something or other on the bike. He thinks one of them had just dumped it and didn't want to admit it."

"So?"

"So we put up pictures and contacted vets and...nothing." There was a long pause. "And now we have a cat."

"NO!" Andre's amazement was expressed even more loudly then before.

Looking slightly abashed, Arlette opened her phone and showed Andrea a picture. A picture of, in the manner of cats and even kittens, a haughty feline staring back out. The animal clearly had some Siamese in it's cream and black coat and arresting mix of blue and green eyes.

Before Andrea could ask, Arlette said, "Simone Signoret."

Andrea peered more closely at the phone. "I see it. The intense yet languid disregard. And just a touch of danger." But then asked, "But are you all right with having a cat?"

"At first, no! Not at all. But what could we do? Throw it back out on the road? And Guy got a special basket for his bike so she could go out for rides with him. No, really." She showed Andrea another picture on her phone, of Guy astride his bike with Simone on alert and tethered in a front riding basket. They both laughed. "And after that, well..." she shrugged, indicating that the die had been firmly cast. "After a while, I got to like her too. She doesn't care a fuck for anything beyond her next meal...and maybe to ride with Guy... and I can respect that."

The two laughed some more and chatted some more as the waiter cleared the last of luncheon plates.

"Let's order dessert." Andrea requested. "I don't have a single thing to do for the rest of the day and I know you set your own hours at CAM."

"And speaking of CAM," Andrea continued after they gave the waiter their orders, "I can't believe this about Mathias leaving! Poor Camille...betrayed by him yet again."

Arelette looked balefully across the table at Andrea. "I explained about that," she said firmly.

"And you really believe him? This 'whole leopard not being able to change his spots' business"

"I do. This time." Arlette said, with just a trace of disapproval.

There was silence for a bit as the waited for the waiter to come back with their orders. Andrea shifted uncomfortably in her seat as he put their deserts in front of them.

Arlette said, "You really should call Camille sometime. She misses you."

Andrea squirmed a bit more. "I will." she said. They both knew she would not. Not yet anyway, though neither could have said why.

Andrea carefully cracked the top of her crème brule' and started to take a small bite.

"Simone Signoret!" she suddenly blurted out, putting the spoon down.

"What? The cat?"

"No look," a quick search on her phone brought up several images of the French star. She selected one and showed it to Arlette."

"Now, who does that remind you of?"

Arlette squinted hard at the phone. "I don't know ...its just her.. oh, now...oh, mon dieu! Its Mathias!...he looks like her nephew or younger brother. Why didn't I ever see it before?!"

"I know...that lower lip and those eyes...they always made me think of an animal...something feral and untrustworthy….she didn't have that of course. But the slant and the wariness."

She laughed and shook her head, going back to her desert. "Maybe he IS related...maybe that is why Samuel hired him. I never got that."

She paused again and looked across to Arlette. "Why DID he hire him anyway? You were there. You must know."

"Why do you want to know? It's ancient history."

Andrea shrugged. "Oh...I don't know…I was just always curious about it. And, talking about ASK makes me feel just a little….attached to that part of my life. Which I do miss. Sometimes more and sometimes less. I don't regret walking away when I did," she added hurriedly. "And especially for who I did. But..."

She took a bite of the crème brule'. "And Mathias...I mean he was successful...but he just never seemed like he fit at ASK. I thought that even when I first was hired. I asked Samuel once but he cut me off."

"Hmmm. What makes you think I know?"

Andrea just rolled her eyes at that.

"Samuel kept his secrets...as we found out," Arlette reminded her drily.

"He didn't even consult you?"

Now it was Arlette's turn to look a little uncomfortable.

"Well, it was a difficult time for the agency...there was a lot going on." She sighed, resigned to telling what she knew. Or thought she new.

She continued. "We were on the verge of going under. We had to let all but one of the assistants go and two of the lawyers. And then, out of the blue, Samuel hired this new lawyer. Mathias. When I asked why he would let two experienced lawyers go and then hire one with no experience in the business, he said that Mathias had come highly recommended and would do the work of the two we had to let go...and more."

"So, wait, he first came as a lawyer, not an agent?"

Nodding, Arlette lit another cigarette. "And I have to admit Samuel was right. Mathias learned really fast and his contract work was, well honestly it was impressive. It seemed like he found every detail that could possible benefit us and every detail that other agents were trying to wrest from us and our clients."

"He always did have an eye for weakness," Andre admitted with a strange mixture of admiration and derision.

"And he wore those bespoke clothes so well, it seemed to impress certain clients."

"Hah! I always thought his rich wife picked those out."

Arlette nodded, "Anyway, we were sinking. It was almost as bad ...worse...than before we finally did go under."

Now she began to warm to her subject. "Samuel and I went out for dinner one night and after more than one bottle of wine, we tried to see a way out. In the end, the only thing that we could see that could possibly save us was to find..or steal...a really important client. Our Treasure of the Sierra Madre."

"Excuse me? Oh...the movie." Andrea smiled.

"Yes, But actually maybe more like our Moby Dick. We became obsessed with finding this one client who was big enough to save the whole ship."

"I thought Moby Dick sank the ship? But never mind…. I see what you mean."

"We had a young actor...never did amount to much...eventually went into the dry cleaning business...but we landed him a part in …" and here Arlette actually glanced around...as if afraid of prying ears, "well in A Seminal Movie of the Era."

(Arlette said the name of the movie out loud. But alas, dear reader, I cannot name it.)

Andrea's eyebrows went up. "I didn't know ASK had any connection to that. You mean the one starring A VERY Famous Actor?"

(Andrea said the name out loud. But, ditto...ditto...ditto and hereafter referred to as 'AVFA'.)

Arlette nodded and smiled at the memory. "Samuel pulled out all the stops...using any excuse to visit our actor on the set and always managing to have a friendly word with AVFA while he was there. He would casually invite him out to lunch, or invite him to drop by the office. AVFA didn't bite. Until..."

"Until?" Andrea prodded.

"Well, word was an assistant at his agency was overheard in a bar dishing the dirt on AVFA and his wife." She laughed. "Even less discrete than Herve'. Anyway, I always thought it was just a fit of pique and a way to make his own agent nervous, but one day he called Samuel and said he would take him up on coming to see the office. So he did."

Arlette paused for so long Andrea was worried that she had lost the thread.

But finally she continued. "It was sort of like when you had Jean Reno come into ASK. Samuel had what little staff we had running around like crazy trying to look busy. I think he even recruited a couple of people from the building's mail room." She smiled at the memory.

"Finally, AVFA arrived, all smiles and courtesy. We went into the conference room and our one assistant brought some coffee and patisserie. And Samuel started to talk...and talk. Poor AVFA, his eyes started to glaze over. But then, there was a knock at the door and Mathias came in. Apologizing for the interruption, saying an important contract needed Samuel's immediate attention. And AVFA's whole demeanor changed. He suddenly sat up straight. I don't think he noticed me noticing, he was so fixated. He never took his eyes off Mathias. And Samuel kept flipping through pages and asking Mathias questions, keeping him there. And AVFA kept looking.

Andrea's eyes had been getting wider and wider as she listened. And now her mouth was agape as well. She almost literally sputtered as she demanded. "Are you telling me that AVFA is...was... gay!?"

Arlette shrugged. "Maybe...or maybe his interests were just more...flexible ….shall we say."

Andrea covered her mouth were her hand in amazement… and perhaps disbelief. When she finally spoke again it was to ask, "But what happened? I mean with ASK...with Mathias."

Again that maddening shrug. "What happened with ASK, was the AVFA came back two...maybe three more times. And Mathias was always at the meetings. Samuel had him draw up sample contracts to show AVFA. He paid avid attention."

"And Mathias? I mean did he..react?"

Arlette laughed. "Cool as a cucumber. Polite, respectful, correct in every thing he did."

"But what about outside of the office?" Andrea demanded.

"Do you think I was detective? Trailing them around?"

"No but there must have been rumors...and I know you have an opinion."

"I tend to think there was no there there...first, just because there we no rumors...I mean AVFA had avoided them so far and in fact I never heard any rumors about him with Mathias or anyone else. Either he was more discreet than the DGSE or perhaps because was just into looking...he wouldn't be the only one.

"And second?"

"Mathias He was so ambitious but so shrewd...so careful at the same time. There was no way he was going to expose himself like that. Even if he had been interested….which I very much doubt...no..." she shook her head, "he may play his cards close to his vest, but not THAT card." she said with what in Arlette, passed for a twinkle in the eye.

Andrea took a deep breath. "So, you are telling me that Samuel sort of pimped Mathias out to try and save ASK? Do you think Mathias knew? And for that matter, if there were no rumors, how did Samuel know to dangle Mathias in front of AVFA? Good grief, is that why Samuel hired Mathias in the first place?! You said he was hired when ASK was already in trouble. And if AVFA never signed, why didn't ASK go under back then?" Andrea ran out of breath but was hardly out of questions.

"It didn't go under because Samuel made sure that another rumor about AVFA DID get out...that he was going to sign with ASK. Was in 'talks' with us." Arlette laughed a little. Suddenly people who had been ignoring us for months...actors, writers, directors...the whole lot...were knocking on our door. Really, Samuel was shameless in more ways than one."

"As for the others questions, I don't know the answer. And it was all so long ago." Arlette paused for a minute and then said, "I never asked Samuel about any of it directly, but I do think, from something he half said once, that he had at least a hint about AVFA's ...'interests.' And he just took a chance."

"What...what did he half say?"

But Arlette was done now, scooping up her cigarettes and signaling the waiter for the check. "I only half remember half of the half and it isn't worth repeating. Do you want to go to a movie?"

Andrea was about to protest, but a glance at Arlette's expression convinced her to move on...for now at least. "Alright, what shall we see? Domestic of Foreign?

"Domestic."

"Modern or a Classic?"

"Classic...but..."

"Nothing with AVFA," finished Andrea.

"And nothing with Simone Signoret either." Arlette added firmly. And then laughed.

"Bon," agreed Andrea, and the two friends made their way off to their mutual true love….cinema.

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