Episode 20, originally published 05-Feb-97

Head over Heels

Neil picks up the phone and dials a 555 number in Tahiti. Cut to Sid, the high-powered agent, who is with Malcolm in a hut. Sid's cell phone rings. "Hello?" "This is Neil Winters. When is my wife coming home?" "Easy, Mr. Winters. It's going to be a few days yet. There's been dangerously bad weather in these parts for days and we haven't finished shooting." Neil is unaffected. "I don't care about bad weather, Sid. Tell her she comes back tomorrow or there won't be a marriage to return to." Dru enters. It's pouring rain outside, and she's drenched. "You tell her, Neil--she just came in." Neil repeats his ultimatum to Dru, who doesn't respond. She just hangs up the phone and shouts "Damn that man!" and runs out...

Keith looks up from his desk as Jill enters. "Ah, now we can get started," he says. Jill starts to raise her eyebrows suggestively at him, but from the corner of her now-widened eyes she sees someone else in the room. "Jill, this is Jim Huxley, president and founder of Huxley Enterprises." Jill smiles cordially at an aging, rounded man wearing a silver bolo tie and a large white cowboy hat. "Mr. Huxley, I've heard of you of course. Are you ready to sign up to be one of our distributors?" She extends her hand to be shaken. "Wellp," he says, taking the hand and kissing it instead, "That's what ah'm here to find out." "Well, let's put it another way--we've got the product, the quantity, and the quality ... no company on earth can serve you better than Dennison, Vanguard and Anonymous." "Well, if you can deliver all you've claimed, I think it's going to work out just fine. Right now, I've got to run." He turns to Keith, "You'll set up that appointment?" Keith nods, "Count on it." Then he bows his head slightly toward Jill, eying her up and down as she says, "Nice to meet you, Mr. Huxley." "Mah pleasure, ma'am," he replies as he turns crisply and heads out the door.

Malcolm enters Dru's cabana and starts talking out loud immediately as if expecting her to be there. "Dru? Dru? ..." But there is no one present. He sees the obligatory note on the table and picks it up. With a voiceover of Dru's own voice, it reads: "Malcolm, Neil's being a jerk, but I can't risk losing Lily. Please tell Sid I'm sorry. Tell him I'll make it up to him somehow. Dru." Malcolm drops the letter and runs out the door.

Jill turns to Keith and says with mix of excitement and confidence, "Well, it looks like that account is in the bag." Keith bursts her bubble with the shaking of his head, "Not really, Jill." Then, almost under his breath he adds, "But funny you should use that metaphor." Though spoken softly, she has heard the remark and stops to look at him quizzically. He mutters "bag... sack..." then quickly shifts his focus, "Look Jill, this guy is from the old school. He doesn't believe in just closing a deal with a handshake. He wants to really celebrate a little. And, well,--he'd like to meet you later for dinner. I promised I'd arrange it." "But I thought you and I had some `business' planned for tonight," Jill pleads with a lusty edge to her voice. "Oh--don't worry about me, I've got a date and I'll be fine. No, as far as business goes, Mr. Huxley is our focus. And if you're not in until late tomorrow--I'll understand. In fact, if you're in early I'm worried." Jill is looking serious now. "Just how did this guy decide he wanted a date with me?" Jill asks. "Oh, I told him you come highly recommended. I hope you won't let me--us--down. We're expecting big things of you here at Dennison, Vanguard, and Anonymous." Jill has an irritated edge to her voice but mostly contains it. "I'll just bet you are," she says, as she marches coolly out the door.

The airport. Malcolm runs in and rushes to an information counter. There is a huge line of people in front of the desk, all chattering away. He tries to yell over them, "Hey, I need some information about today's flight to Genoa City International Airport." A man in front of him turns back and says, "We're all in the same boat, bub. They're not talking." Malcolm looks confused. "Isn't this an information counter? What do you mean they're not talking?" "You're trying to find out about the accident, right? They've lost radio contact and they think it's gone down, but that's all they'll tell us so far." Malcolm look stunned. "Damn! I told her not to fly in this weather!" he curses.

"I can't believe what he's asking of me," Jill tells Jack. "Wait a minute, let's go back a step. What would give him the idea that you might be willing to sleep with someone to close a deal unless... Jill, you didn't..." "Oh, spare me, Jack. It's true, that deal was dead in the water without me, but that's not why I slept with him. I thought he appreciated me for--" "Your incredible business savvy? From that 30 second meeting we had?" "Well, he could have heard about me from other sources," Jill says. "Like Dad, or John Silva, or Jed Sanders, or ..." "Put a muzzle in it, Jack... and how did you know about Jed Sanders?" Jack grins, "I didn't. But MY business savvy told me a bluff might work. So, ex-step-mommy dearest, your wicked ways have finally caught up with you." "Oh! I don't even know why I raised this with you!" Jill fumes. "Easy, easy... You've come to the right place. I'll talk to Keith."

Neil's apartment. Neil and Olivia are in bed, naked and plenty sweaty. The phone rings. "Hello?" Neil says. "It's Malcolm, man." "Malcolm? It's the middle of the night here. And where's Dru, let me talk to Dru," he says. "That's going to be a little difficult, Neil." "Is she on her way back? When is she due back?" Neil inquires. "She ain't due back, Neil." Neil switches to sarcasm: "Well, that's just great. Why am I not surprised?" Neil lets the phone drop but it doesn't go onto the hook, so Malcolm keeps talking as Neil and Olivia resume kissing. "I had to wait at the airport for hours to find out for sure--her plane went into the ocean. It was bad weather, man--very bad--but you didn't care. I just hope you're satisfied that she took your advice and was coming back like you asked. If it weren't for you-- Neil?" He hears their rustling in the background. "Hey, this connection don't sound so good. Neil?" Neil, who hasn't been listening, picks up the phone and speaks into it: "Look, I gotta go, Malcolm. Thanks for calling, but next time--don't bother. It may seem callous, but you know, I just don't have it in me to care any more... just let it be, ok?" He hangs up.

"Jack! Just the man I wanted to see." "Keith." Jack says, as if it were some sort of abbreviation for a greeting. "What can I do for you?" "I just came from talking with Jill--she told me you had plans for her tonight. I'm a bit concerned about this. I don't want our new company open to claims that we don't treat women as equals." "Jack, I like a man who comes straight to the point, and I've been worried about that, too. I--" There is a knock at the door, and a beautiful woman enters. "Jack, this is Vivica Standers." Jack is entranced. "Well, hello..." he says excitedly. "You're bidding for our west coast distributorship, is that right?" She nods. "I can only stay a moment," she explains. "I just checked in to see if everything was shaping up ok for this evening," she says to Keith. Then she turns to Jack. "Yes, I'm bidding for the distributorship. I'll be looking forward to receiving your goods," she says, "If you'll have me." "Absolutely," he says. "Excellent. Well, I must run. Good to finally meet you in the flesh, Jack. I hope we meet again soon, and come to some resolution." She leaves. Jack turns back to Keith, dazzled. Keith smiles happily, "So you'll see to it that Jill hasn't a leg to to stand on in claiming that women around here receive assignments that men don't?" Jack nods. "You can count it, Keith," he says, as he walks out of the office.

A moment later, Jill catches Jack in the hall on his way to the elevator. "Jack, did you talk to him?" Jack nods. "I did." "Well, what did he say?" Jack steps into the elevator, and gets in one last remark before the doors close: "Look Jill, I think this is all going to shake out in the end. Just ride with it for now, ok?"

Dru walks in and sees Malcolm putting down the phone. Malcolm loses his balance and falls over. He says nothing, but looks dumbfounded. "You look like you've seen a ghost." Malcolm says, "Haven't I?" "Oh, you mean 'cuz I disappeared on you before--" Since he doesn't respond, she continues to ramble, "Well, I had planned to vanish. I changed my ticket even. But then at the last minute I got this kind of weird feeling about the weather so when they called us to board I decided not to. I guess it sounds like Lily doesn't matter to me when I said I was gonna go back and then I didn't, and I know an accident is a million-to-one thing, but I just didn't wanna risk it, ya know what I mean? Malcolm? Malcolm?" He says nothing but walks slowly toward her, obviously elated that she wasn't on the crashed plane. She is perplexed by the look on his face, but just continues chattering. "Hey, was that Neil on the phone? I hope you didn't talk to him 'cuz he'd be real confused by now if you had..." Malcolm is now face to face with her. "Forget Neil," he says, "he ain't never gonna care 'bout you the way I do, girl." And he kisses her with passion designed to drive the point home.

That's all for this episode. Hope you learned something. Don't miss Episode 21!
If you missed any older episodes, see the index.

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