“It will, little one.” He smiled back, his dark brown eyes holding my gaze. The day after, I would obsess about how long he had looked into my eyes, but at that moment…I chose not to question every unexpected little glance, every extra second of eye contact.
“Thank you so much, Jason. For everything, thank you so much.”
“I didn’t do anything, sweetheart. This is all you.”
“The book, yes, but this.” I gestured to the copy of the contract I would be signing if the studio accepted the changes we wanted. “This I would’ve screwed up if I had to do it all by myself.”
“We both know that you’d have been perfectly fine, Olive.”
There was a slight hesitation on his part, but when he pressed another precious kiss on my forehead, I closed my eyes and held on to him tighter, certain I would have trouble letting him go this time around.
Chapter Eleven Jason
“Okay guys, we need to make this quick. I’m going straight to the airport after this is done,” I said as soon as I entered my publicist’s office. Alvin was right behind me, typing away at his phone at an inhuman pace. I assumed he was making sure everything was ready for our arrival in Canada.
“Alvin,” Megan said as she got up from her seat across from Tom. “You are waiting outside. Close the door behind you.”
After getting a quick confirmation from me, he was out of the room.
“Okay. Lay it on me. What’s the damage?” I took my seat in the middle of the leather couch, draped my arms over the back, and forced my body to relax. This part of my job, talking about my image, my fuck-ups…this was the part I hated deep in my bones.
Megan gathered some papers from her desk drawer then took her seat again. They both had equally grim faces.
“What?” I asked when they glanced at each other, obviously trying to decide who should go first.
A few seconds passed and Tom sighed; any man would wilt under Megan McDowell’s hard stare. She was the best publicist out there, the toughest of them all, but that didn’t change the fact that she was the only woman Tom had a soft spot for.
“Megan got an email this morning and it changes everything.”
“Explain.”
“Last week, did you have sex with Jennifer Widner…in that alley, before the paps swarmed you?”
There was no use denying it. If I did, they couldn’t do the job I paid them to do. So, I didn’t. “Yes. They couldn’t have gotten any shots though. It was a close call, I’ll give you that.” I checked my watch. “Anyway, you both saw the pictures from that night. It was implied that we were having sex, but they didn’t get the shots. You already gave me a lecture on it, Megan.” I stood up. “If this was just to remind me to behave in Canada, there’s no need.”
“Sit down, Jason,” Megan ordered in a curt tone.
Tom was rubbing his forehead; something serious must have happened for him to show his discomfort so openly. Not much stressed him any more after working for me from the very start of my career.
“What’s going on here?”
She handed me a piece of paper. It was a copy of a single email sent to Megan’s email account.
I read the contents of it. Then I read it again.
“Is this a joke?” I asked, raising my eyebrows.
“Unfortunately, it isn’t,” Megan replied. “You’re being blackmailed.”
I looked down at the paper in my hands again. “For two million dollars?” I balled up the paper and tossed it away. Leaning forward, I looked straight into Tom’s eyes. “If you’re playing me, if this is something you two concocted together so I’ll get scared and clean up my act, you tell me right now, Tom. If I find out later, you won’t be happy. Neither one of you will.”
Tom’s jaw hardened and I saw his hands form into tight fists. “You think I would do this to you? On top of everything else, are you out of your mind too?”
“I’m not stupid, Tom. That alley was empty. If someone was filming me having sex with Gemma, or whatever the hell her name is—”
“You don’t even remember her fucking name?”
“I would’ve seen it,” I continued over his rising tone. “Those paps came out of fucking nowhere after we were done. By the time they got to us, it only looked like we were making out or something.”
“Obviously someone was there, Jason,” Megan countered and drew my attention from Tom’s angry face. “What good would it do us to make it look like someone is blackmailing you? Stop acting like you know nothing about this industry. Whether it was a pap or some stranger just walking by, they have you on tape.”
“I’m not paying anyone anything,” I spit out. “We don’t even know if they have what they say they have.”
“I replied to his email, asking for proof,” Megan countered. “I’m hoping we’ll hear back today. As you’ve already read yourself, if you decide not to pay, he’ll sell it to whoever pays the big bucks. I’m sure they’ll be more than happy to take it off his hands. We will send cease and desist letters, but once it’s online, you know that whatever you do it will always be out there, and that will screw your career in a matter of seconds. At this point, we’re beyond damage control.”
“Is this a new kink?” Tom piped up. “You have to fuck them out in the open, where anyone can get a free show?”
“Watch it,” I warned him wearily, all the fight seeping out of me.
Clearly not done with me, he got up from his seat and started to pace in the expansive room.
“This is the fifth incident this year,” he said, rubbing the bridge of his nose. “Only this year, Jason. The first few, we managed to squash, but if there is a video and you refuse to buy it before it goes to a tabloid or a news outlet, there is nothing, absolutely nothing we can do to sweep it under the rug this time. Do you understand what I’m telling you?”
Stopping next to me, he continued on his tirade. “Do you even grasp the fact that you’ve lost two projects? Two very important projects with some big names, and you lost them because of the constant negativity in the press. They aren’t talking about the movies you’re making. And now this? You’re not a useless reality star, Jason. Stop acting like it. If you were forty, I’d say you were going through a midlife crisis, but you have no excuse for your recent behavior. None.” He waited for an answer, but I wasn’t giving one. “What do you think will happen? None of the studio executives are happy with you. The press junkets you were supposed to do? The whole European tour for The Witness? You are kicked out. They don’t want you to be the center of attention when you are supposed to be there to promote their fucking movie. You’ll only go to the opening in London. You’re fucking up your entire career.”
I said nothing. Up to a point, he was right. Of course I knew that. I was literally fucking my career away for nothing and I had no compelling explanation. I wasn’t damaged because my mom had committed suicide, or because my dad had died from a heart attack while he was in bed with a highly priced call girl. They didn’t have that kind of a hold on me. They had been my biological parents and that was the end of it.
“I get it, and you are right, which is why I gave you my word that I would cool it down.”
“Cool it down?” He laughed. “You’re not getting it, my friend. Your little Olive’s movie? The one you are surprisingly excited to be a part of? Forget about it. The second the public sees this video, the studio will cut you out. I told you they had restrictions. They don’t even want you to have a relationship while you’re filming and promoting their movie. Do you think they’ll be okay with having your video out there while they are getting ready to announce your involvement with the adaptation?”
I sat up straighter. “You told me yourself they don’t want anyone else. They want me to play Isaac.”
“Yes, Jason.” He nodded and let out a sarcastic laugh. “That’s exactly what I told you. I’m surprised you were actually listening to me.”
He lost his smile and gave me a hard look, waiting for something.