10
1129 Words
“Will filming be all day, seven days a week?” I took a breath. “I’m trying to figure out if there’s any way I can still help my sister—I know she needs me—and continue volunteering a few days a week.” I looked at Dominick. “I found a super-cute retirement home by my apartment, and the little ladies love my watercolor class.”
Dominick turned to glance at Brett and said, “What did I tell you?”
Brett nodded. “You’re right. She’s f*****g perfect.”
Charlize: Good thing you budged. I could have birthed a man-baby for how long I stood in that line. Hope your meeting went fabulously and you weren’t too late. Awesome to meet you today, girlfriend.
Charlize’s private message through i********: was the first thing I saw when I got in my car and opened my purse. I needed a few minutes to cool down before I called my parents to tell them the good news and attempted to drive home. My phone was the perfect distraction. But even as I scanned his words again, the aftershock of my meeting with Brett and Dominick wasn’t just sending waves through me; it was churning a tsunami.
Me: I was sooo late, but something buck wild and completely unexpected happened while I was in there. I was offered a TV role, and now, I need to decide if I’m going to accept it. Who would have thought? Because I seriously wouldn’t have.
I hit Send and continued to stare at the screen, wondering why I was confessing this to a total stranger. But I had no one’s house to drive to right now, no one to talk to about this. Aside from my sister, I had no friends in LA, and Daisy wanted to disassemble my body at the moment and drop my limbs in the Pacific. My friends back in Boston would think I’d lost my mind—and maybe I had—but something told me Charlize would understand in a way they wouldn’t, and he’d give me some sound advice.
Charlize: WHAT? Oh, hell yes. Not that I’m surprised. You’re gorg, and you’re in LA. It was only a matter of time before you got scooped up. When are we celebrating? And it’d better be with something stronger than a latte.
Me: Tonight?
Charlize: Yes, girl. Yesss!
Six
Dominick
“Y
ou know she’s scared shitless, don’t you?” Brett said the second Kendall walked out of his office. “The whole time she was in here, she looked like a goddamn deer caught in headlights.”
“She’s humble.” I leaned back in the chair, using my palms as a pillow, fanning my arms to each side. “And her sister wants to f*****g kill her, so there’s that too.” I smiled as I thought of the glimmer in Kendall’s eyes when I’d offered her the show. The way her lips had turned upward, her brows rising, the heat that had moved into her cheeks. “Man, she’s going to be perfect.”
He lifted his coffee and moved back in his chair, kicking his feet onto the top of his desk. “You know, when I first met James, I didn’t tell her I was an agent. I didn’t hide the fact; I just didn’t mention it. Jesus, I couldn’t keep my goddamn hands off her that night.” He shook his head, grinning. “Once we parted that next morning, we texted a few times, and then the opportunity to be her agent fell right in my f*****g lap.” A serious expression took over his face. “Except there was one problem. I’d already slept with her.”
My arms dropped, my foot bouncing in the air after I crossed my legs. “Why are you telling me this?”
“When I sat at that conference table, the chance of being James’s agent dangling right in front of me, I had the same goddamn look on my face as you did when Kendall was sitting next to you.”
“What are you trying to say?”
“Brother, it takes one to know one, and I saw that s**t coming from a mile away.” He took a drink of his coffee. “Kendall was the girl in the green dress, the one I assume you took to your hotel room last night?”
When we were on this side of the industry, we all played by the same rules. Brett was the first in our group to break one, and it had worked out for him, but most didn’t, and he was trying to warn me.
I sighed. “I didn’t know she was Daisy’s sister until our meeting this morning.”
His feet dropped to the floor, and he leaned his arms over his desk. “It’s too late to tell you not to do it, but I can tell you, this could end badly if it continues.”
“Continues? You know me better than that.” I laughed. “Hit it, quit it—or in this case, work for it. But nothing more besides business will ever happen between Kendall and me—I assure you of that.”
His hand went to his face, like he was going to cough, but a long, deep chuckle came out instead. “Fool, who do you think you’re talking to? Do you really think I f*****g believe that?”
“Why wouldn’t you?”
His eyes narrowed. “I saw the way you were looking at her. You were doing everything in your power not to throw her across my desk.”
He wasn’t wrong.
I couldn’t stop thinking about that f*****g body. I could practically feel her under my fingertips, taste her skin on my tongue.
But things had changed.
She was soon going to be a client, and that was something I wouldn’t mess with.
“Not going to happen, man.” I shook my head to emphasize the point. “Trust me.”
He tapped his fist on the wood. “What do you want to put on it?”
“Your plane.”
He laughed again. “It’s a bet I’m not going to lose, so why don’t you tell me what I’ll get if I win?”
“Name your prize—one of my cars, a trip to f*****g Fiji, a hundred grand, whatever you want.”
He stretched his hand in my direction. “You’ve got yourself a deal.” Once we shook, he added, “Now, get your ass out of here and go read her contract. We’ve got a new f*****g client to sign.”
- Writer
