Chapter
2
Jaime Ortega is a player and a poseur. There's no other way
to describe him. Every word that left his mouth was a lie. He lied to TransCon
and Fatima so he could dance on our '98 Tour. He lied about his heritage to
anyone who ever asked him about it. And he lied to my sister, leading her to
think he was worthy of her.
He's not a dancer; he's a hack with a padded résumé. His
heritage changes with the days of the week. On Monday, he's Puerto Rican, on
Tuesday, he's Cuban, On Wednesday, he's Mexican and so on. His ethnicity
changes with his mood. And last, but certainly not least, he's so not worthy of
breathing the same air as my sister.
I must admit, the dude's a charmer when you first meet him.
I wasn't surprised when I invited Pollyanna on tour and she and Jaime hit it
off. But sooner or later, you learn he's just a snake. I saw him for what he
really was when I caught him in a compromising position with a female dancer.
Little did I know, Pollyanna found out he was a cheater before I did.
That's what I love about Pollyanna. She doesn't take crap
from anyone. She saw it coming before I did. I regret now that I didn't believe
her when she told me Jaime's not all he seems. I thought he was okay.
I was too wrapped up in the tour and my budding romance
with Maggie, that I really hadn't noticed at first that Jaime wasn't all that.
Maggie knew, of course, because she saw him every day in rehearsal.
I'll never forget the day that Pollyanna, Maggie and Stacy
stole Jaime's laptop and sure enough, they found what they were looking for:
Jaime's résumé!
Maggie and her friend, Stacy, kept telling Pollyanna and me
that Jaime wasn’t as great a dancer as he claimed to be.
"He's got a sense of rhythm, I'll give him that,"
said Stacy.
"But he's got no grace, or style," added Maggie.
"Don't forget, I've danced with him in the
clubs," my sister said, "he almost put my eye out!" The three of
them bust out laughing.
So that was why he was always stuck in the back row.
When they showed me the file his résumé was saved under, I
couldn't believe my eyes. He had claimed to have been in some of the most well
known videos. "Hip Hop Hooray" by Naughty by Nature, "Are You
Gonna Go My Way" by Lenny Kravitz and "Cold Hearted" by Paula
Abdul just to name a few. All videos featuring such a large number of dancers
that it was impossible to pick out just one.
Listed as references were three production companies and a
dance company. Stacy and Maggie each took turns calling each of the production
companies. None of the phone numbers were in service. None of us had ever heard
of the dance company, but we decided to call the number anyway. It was the
number to a Fax machine. We didn’t even bother checking the last few
references; an ad agency for which he supposedly shot two commercials and a
modeling agency that was so well known that we doubted they’d even heard of
him.
Pollyanna found out about Jaime's infidelity before
"Operation Fake Résumé". For four days, they were inseparable; he
bought her a necklace and some perfume. He took her out to dinner and dancing.
She later told me that she caught a bad vibe from him.
During their second date, he called her by a different
name. She decided to shrug that one off. During their third date, he walked out
of a club by himself as if he'd forgotten she was with him. She had to run
after him across the parking lot before he even noticed her. Then, he
conveniently forgot to unlock the door. Finally, after knocking on the window a
few times, he opened her car door. However, he had put the car in reverse just
as she was trying to climb in. She's lucky she didn't get run over.
"And you just took this from him?" I asked when
she told me.
"Of course not! I let him have it right then and
there. He just laughed and said he was playing. I demanded he let me out of the
car and I took a cab back to the hotel."
"But you went out with him one more time. Why?"
"A small part of me didn’t want to believe that I
could be treated like that," she began. This made sense, because never
before had anyone been able treat Pollyanna that way and gotten away with it.
"But a huge part of me just wanted revenge," she
added, winking at me. The last date was spent at a nightclub. Pollyanna had
arranged for Stacy and Maggie to meet her there and made it seem as though she
had just run into them. Then, she spent the whole evening ignoring Jaime and
hanging out with them. She left without telling him and three women took a cab
back to the hotel.
This was two days before I found Jaime in a liplock with
Tatiana. The discussion took place the day after. I expected Pollyanna to be
furious when I told her what I saw. But she wasn’t fazed and I had found out
why.
Fatima, our choreographer wasn’t stupid and she wasn’t
crazy. I couldn’t resist asking her why she hired Jaime in the first place. Her
answer was complex, but it explained a lot.
"First of all, I wasn’t the only one deciding. Lou,
Johnny and Donna had a hand in it, too. We all agreed that Jaime had the look.
I was the only one not impressed with his dancing. But his personality, the one
he wanted to show us, was engaging."
"But didn’t you check his references?" I asked.
"Yes, I did. The last two checked out," she said.
Those were the two we hadn’t tried.
"I really didn’t want him, but the other three did, so
I was outnumbered. Besides, we really needed men." I suggested she fire
him, but she said she didn’t want to do that just yet.
"Give it some time. He’s bound to screw up big time, I
just know it," she said, giving me her biggest smile. She was right. About
half way through the North American leg of the tour, Jaime started missing
rehearsals. When he bothered to show up, he was so hung over he couldn’t
concentrate on anything. Fatima finally fired him after the show in Dallas.
However, what was supposed to be a small victory for
Pollyanna turned out to be a painful memory for me. The day before Jaime was
fired, Maggie dropped out of the tour without a word to anyone, even me.
***
