With Leonardo DiCaprio's looks and his skyrocketing fame, picking up women should have been effortless.
But there are always exceptions. Even the biggest stars run into women they can't charm.
What one woman sees as a handsome Jack, another sees as a pretty boy who isn't worth her time.
Ryan watched the woman and could tell fairly quickly from her manner that she wasn't playing hard to get. She genuinely didn't like Leonardo's persistence. The annoyance on her face was getting heavier by the minute.
Leonardo, for his part, clearly lacked the self-awareness to notice. As the lead actor of a film that had grossed a billion and a half dollars, he was like a peacock eager to spread his tail. The Leonardo standing in this room tonight was a completely different creature from the warmer, more grounded man he would eventually become over a decade later.
Ryan had no interest in provoking him. The woman was beautiful, but he wasn't looking to play the hero.
Then, as these things tend to go, the situation arranged itself without his help.
Leonardo spotted Ryan and immediately remembered the last time this particular person had publicly contradicted him. A year earlier or a year later, it might have only registered as a mild irritation. But right now, with the whole world apparently lining up to praise him, Leonardo had lost whatever perspective he'd once had. Even men in their forties and fifties lost their heads in that kind of atmosphere.
"Ryan Anderson!" Leonardo actually abandoned the woman he'd been working on, eyes wide. "You're here too!"
Ryan glanced at Leonardo's expression and, for some reason, the phrase "Chief Black Cat" surfaced in his mind.
"Good evening, Leo," Ryan said, as though they were old friends.
The slender woman looked from Leonardo to Ryan, visibly surprised. Leonardo had just dropped her mid-conversation to go confront someone else. Her agent had once told her that men who could command that kind of reaction from Leonardo were genuinely formidable, on the level of James Cameron. She caught herself and let the thought go.
Leonardo stepped forward and stood in front of Ryan. "I heard your new film is putting out casting notices?"
Ryan smiled and nodded. "Yes, we're looking for a director and actors."
Leonardo shook his head with exaggerated patience. "You won't stop until you've burned through everything Old Anderson left behind, will you?"
"That's not really your concern," Ryan said, keeping his tone flat.
"Spendthrift," Leonardo said, warming to it. He hadn't forgotten the Arabs incident either. "If you don't have the ability, be content with what you have. Overreaching only leads to a faster fall."
In his previous life, Ryan had genuinely liked Leonardo's work. Right now he was furious and couldn't do a single thing about it. He wasn't going to start a fight at a formal industry banquet and deal with the fallout for months.
He swallowed it down and turned to look at the slender woman. She was watching him with what looked like genuine interest.
Several people nearby had drifted closer, and the low murmur of conversation carried over. Ryan couldn't make out the exact words, but he had a reasonable idea of what was being said.
Old Anderson had been a known figure in Hollywood. A lot of people in this room had heard the story.
Seeing Ryan go quiet, Leonardo's already inflated ego inflated further. "Not just anyone can make movies."
Ryan stopped acknowledging him entirely. He took two steps to his left and toward the woman, and said, "Good evening. May I have the honor of knowing your name?"
The woman's eyes curved slightly, and a small, knowing smile appeared at the corner of her lips. She had already worked out what was happening.
Ryan saw it. She'd guessed his intention, and she didn't seem to mind.
"Ryan Anderson!"
Leonardo saw Ryan making his move right in front of him and went red.
"Carmen. Carmen Kass." The woman ignored Leonardo entirely. "You're Ryan Anderson?"
Ryan acted as though Leonardo wasn't there. "Just Ryan."
"Good evening, Ryan." Carmen Kass treated Leonardo with the same degree of attention she would give an empty chair.
"Carmen, shall we find somewhere quieter to talk?" Ryan asked.
Carmen had already moved spots twice to shake Leonardo off, and he had followed her each time like a persistent fly. She was in the fashion world, not the film world. She didn't need to manage Leonardo's feelings.
"Sure," she said, and took his arm.
Ryan gestured for her to lead the way. They walked together toward the lounge area at the far end of the ballroom, Carmen's arm through his.
Carmen was still under twenty, and she hadn't quite thought through what she was doing. She saw it as a clean way out of an annoying situation. What she didn't see was Leonardo's face turning the color of a stop sign behind them.
His eyes were as wide as they could go, and for a moment he couldn't produce a single word.
The woman he'd been pursuing for the past twenty minutes had just walked off on the arm of the very person he'd been publicly mocking, and everyone in the vicinity had watched it happen. He could feel the eyes on him. He could feel what was behind them.
He lowered his head and walked quickly toward the terrace side of the hall, staring at the couple as he moved past them.
No blonde woman, but there was still Rose.
Ryan watched Leonardo make his way toward Kate Winslet, who had just finished a conversation, and asked Carmen, "Leonardo is probably the most popular man in Hollywood right now. Why don't you like him?"
Carmen smiled. "How would you feel if you watched a man passionately kissing a woman, and then three minutes later he came over to you and started suggesting you find somewhere more private to go?"
Ryan stroked his chin. "Any man who tried that with me would end up at the bottom of the Pacific."
It also registered as a useful reminder: in social settings like this, never approach two women in the same evening. Women, especially younger ones who were still developing their social instincts, could be unpredictable about that kind of thing.
Carmen laughed. "You're funny."
Ryan was about to say something when he noticed Leonardo pulling Kate Winslet aside not far away, gesturing dramatically as he spoke.
"Jack is going to complain to Rose," Ryan said.
Carmen looked over at the two of them on the terrace, Jack with his arm around Rose, putting on a wounded expression. "The press has him right. He's an overgrown child."
"A child who's been hurt goes to find their mother," Ryan said, glancing over. "Though Rose isn't Jack's mother."
He lowered his voice slightly. "Want to walk that way?"
Given their shared adversary, Carmen nodded. "Let's."
They adjusted their path and walked slowly along the side of the ballroom closest to the terrace. As they passed the spot where Leonardo and Kate were standing, Carmen glanced over. Leonardo was leaning against the railing, clearly still worked up, while Kate had her arm linked through his and was speaking to him quietly.
Ryan kept them moving. Carmen held his arm and came with him, asking under her breath, "Do you think Jack and Rose are actually involved?"
Ryan found a spot in the lounge area, which was quieter, and sat down. "Probably not," he said.
In his previous life there had been no shortage of analysis on that particular dynamic. Jack and Rose's closeness went beyond ordinary friendship. It was more like family.
"You seem to know a lot about these things," Carmen said curiously. "What do you do?"
Ryan answered honestly. "I run a small production company. The kind that makes direct-to-video films."
He shifted the subject. "What about you?"
"Model," Carmen said simply.
"Your accent isn't American," Ryan noted.
"Estonian," she said. "I'm in Los Angeles for a brand event. I do a lot of shows in the UK and the US, so my English has had to keep up."
They moved through the scattered small round tables toward a quieter corner. Ryan was about to find a spot to sit and actually have a proper conversation with Carmen Kass.
He hadn't placed her immediately when they met, but the name had settled something in his memory. In the modeling world at the turn of the millennium, there were a handful of names that everyone in the industry knew. The so-called K God was one of them.
That was Carmen Kass.
He was still looking for a good spot when he noticed a familiar figure seated to his left and slightly ahead. A large, broad-shouldered man with a full beard.
Kate Winslet's boyfriend. Jim, if he remembered correctly.