*

Lena is at the foot of the free-climbing wall at an hour when the gym is empty. Still dressed in her elegant evening gown, she is studying the height of the imitation rock wall.

The mountaineer must have followed her there, because he is standing behind her, wary and shy, but desperate to make contact. He is a bundle of nerves and embarrassment. He straightens his shirt, runs a hand through his hair, and then comes to stand by her side. Lena ignores him, as if he does not exist. He attempts a clumsy invitation. “Would you like to try a climb?”

Only at this point does Lena suddenly turn to him. She pierces him with a look that could not be more sensual, and says to him, seriously, darkly, “You know, if I want, I can drive a man crazy in bed?”

As if it were the most natural thing to do, the mountaineer raises his eyes to heaven, turns white as a mozzarella and falls with a thud to the ground.

Lena immediately stops acting the femme fatale and takes on the role of the concerned friend, cursing to herself, “Oh, hell’s bells!”

She leans down close to the mountaineer lying on the floor and starts patting his cheeks in an effort to revive him. She is frightened. “Mr Moroder, Mr Moroder! Wake up, damn you!”

The mountaineer slowly opens his eyes again. He finds Lena’s worried face a few centimetres from his own.

In a faint voice he says, “It is not necessary for you to sleep with a man to drive him crazy.”

She smiles, reassured.

*

The homely escort girl is sitting sad and alone on a couch. The lobby is deserted. Mick appears behind her and without further ado says to her, “O.K., I’ve made up my mind and have some money from the cash machine.”

The girl turns and looks at him. “And what would you like to do?”

Mick is serious. “Take a walk.”

*

Down the garden dotted with age-old trees, Mick Boyle and the graceless escort girl walk hand in hand like two sweethearts in the first flush of love.

And that is all they do, walk slowly along without looking at one another, their hands joined, alone.

On the other hand, the two scriptwriters Mick Boyle predicted would fall in love have actually done so. They are kissing each other on a secluded bench with that intensity of first love. Endless and exhausting. Suddenly, out of the corner of her eye, but without stopping her kissing, the young woman glimpses Mick and the young escort walking by.

62

On a bench on the platform of the small local train station, the five scriptwriters and Mick Boyle sit glumly, waiting for a train. The two lovers are hand in hand.

After a silence, Mick breaks the ice. “Come on, kids, what are all these long faces for? Glitches and hang-ups are par for the course in our business. Get used to it. I’ve already spoken to the producer – we need time to get a new actress and then we start shooting. We’ll only have to wait a few more months.”