Chapter 3
Never in her life had Lisa seen anything like Beverly Hills. Street after street of enormous mansions in every style of architecture imaginable. A touch of Spain, a little bit of old Cape Cod, Victorian England. The Jaguar wound its way up into the hills, where the huge houses became estates, surrounded by acres of parkland, locking the public out with massive imposing gates.
But nothing... nothing in the world was like the mansion that Ace Carbone owned.
It was a castle... complete with turrets, moat and drawbridge. Lisa was surprised that there weren't beefeaters guarding the gate.
"Wow!" was all she managed to say. Cal just smiled.
"Not a bad little cottage, huh?"
An exquisite dark-haired woman in a bikini opened the door for them.
"Hey, Carlotta. How's it going." Cal gave her a friendly little slap on the backside.
"Oh, come on in Cal. Carbone's not here. He's in New York until tonight. But he'll be back for the party tonight ... say, who's your friend?"
Carlotta regarded Lisa with a mixture of curiosity and jealousy.
Cal introduced them. "I'm gonna do some tests on her tomorrow, Carlotta. Can you get a room fixed up for her?"
Lisa looked questioning at Cal. Maybe she hadn't made herself clear. She was certainly not going to model for Top Floor magazine.
But Cal winked and put a finger to his lips as if to say, don't take it seriously. Just leave everything to me.
Carlotta went to see about a room and Cal explained: "Don't worry about a thing honey. You've got no place to stay and the Carbone mansion is full of empty rooms. Just leave everything to me!"
"I'm not going to model!"
"Don't worry about a thing."
Carlotta returned. "Come on, honey. Let me show you your room."
They passed several other beautiful girls as they walked through the castle but no men.
"This is Carbone's little kingdom," Carlotta quipped.
Lisa gaped in astonishment when Carlotta opened the door to the room that was to be hers. Never in her life had she seen anything so beautiful.
First there was the view ... there were windows on three sides of the room, each with a different aerial view of Los Angeles below. It made her feel heady, almost as if she were flying.
And the windows were covered with a yellow chiffon pulled to the side. It was like walking into sunshine. There was a yellow satin bedspread with little cornflowers on it, and an antique pine dresser with a china basin on it full of fresh flowers ...
"Here's your bathroom," said Carlotta, opening the door to a mirror covered room, walls and ceilings and a thick plush white rug on the floor. "Say, are you coming to the party tonight?"
"Gee ... I don't know."
"Sure you will." She looked at Lisa, taking in her faded jeans and T-shirt. "Do you have something to wear?"
"Well ... I... not really...."
"Don't worry. We'll find you something." Carlotta smiled at her for the first time. "Welcome to L.A. kid."