by Doug Cooper
On the twenty-ninth floor, Eva and Levi sit at a rectangular walnut meeting table across from Emily and her agent in a conference room. The other eight high-backed leather chairs, tucked underneath the long conference table, sit empty. Eva says, “We’ve, all seen the pictures, and I think we can agree that while they’re not completely damning, they’re pretty bad. The only wiggle room we have is that compromising does not mean incriminating. Just because you can infer what is happening, doesn’t mean anything actually did.”
Emily says, “I still don’t understand how this photographer just so happened to end up there.”
“Really? It’s a public place,” Eva says.
“Out in the middle of nowhere,” Emily’s agent, a thirty-year Hollywood veteran, says. “Pretty big coincidence.” There are many tiers of success in Hollywood, and Emily’s agent is definitely on the upper one. He has the awards, financial trappings, and longevity that elevate him above most, but what really sets him apart is that in a town obsessed with physical appearance, he let his go years ago and doesn’t seem bothered by what anyone thinks. Regardless of the occasion, he wears only velour tracksuits, donning a blue one today, to accommodate his expanding frame. His only remaining hair grows freely on the sides and in the back, especially flourishing above his eyes and from his ears. He has seen every scheme and manipulation in his career, and knows that for an industry built from on-screen coincidences, there are very few offscreen. Everything happens for a purpose, or more specifically, for someone’s gain.
“Not really,” Eva says. “He’s a landscape photographer doing a series on waterfalls. That one’s on all the maps.”
Levi says, “But it’s on private property and not the easiest to get to.”
“Who else knew you two were going there?” Emily’s agent says.
“I didn’t even know where the place was, so I couldn’t have told anyone,” Emily responds in a high-pitched defensive tone.
Levi looks at Eva then stands and walks over to the windows gazing out at the panoramic view of Century City. As much as she gets credit for building his career, it was he who really launched hers. Without him, she never would have been able to leave her publicity job at USC and break off on her own thirteen years ago.
The first time Eva saw Levi she was standing at the thirty-yard line watching the opening football game between USC and Virginia Tech at FedEx Field in Landover, Maryland. Publicity staff didn’t usually travel to the games, but the 2004 USC team wasn’t an ordinary team. Experts had ranked them number one in the country to start the season, making them the favorite to win the national championship, which meant way more than bragging rights to the university. It brought recognition, notoriety, and money—a lot of money. From spring football to the last of the bowl games, the administration wanted all conversations of college football to include USC. That meant wherever the football team went, the publicity team went with them.
Eva had worked in the PR department since her junior year and stayed on after graduation. The pay wasn’t much, but the job gave her access and exposure, the two most important things in publicity. Both of which she needed to achieve her five-year plan. With the talented athletes and high expectations for the team, she knew the agents and national media would follow. She planned to either stay on with one of the stars as they went to the pros or sign with a sports agency or media company. At that point the money would come. Before the season even started, she had already received offers from several agencies that a job was waiting. All Eva had to do was bring a star.
Eva believed quarterback Matt Leinart was going to be that star. During the opening game versus Virginia Tech, USC was behind 14–10 in the third quarter. She knew a loss in the opening game would derail all their plans. But that changed quickly with 1:55 left in the third when running back Reggie Bush moved from the backfield and lined up as wide receiver. At the snap of the ball, he blew by Jimmy Williams, Virginia Tech’s best defensive back, and Leinart lofted a perfect over-the-shoulder throw for a fifty-three-yard touchdown and the lead, which they never relinquished. USC went on to win the national championship that year and Leinart received the Heisman, but that wasn’t what changed things for Eva. It was what happened at the end of the long touchdown play. As Bush caught the pass and raced across the goal line, the stadium video operator flashed the camera to the Virginia Tech student section. A shirtless student with the angled VT logo painted in maroon on his chest filled the screen. The heartbreak that the score brought to all the Hokie fans hung on his chiseled face. Maroon lines of sweat streamed like tears from the bottom of the letters on his smooth, sculpted chest along the protruding ridges of his abs. The camera stayed on him. The weight of the moment froze him. His hands were interlocked behind his head with his elbows pulled back. Eva couldn’t take her eyes off him. It was more than his sadness. He was vulnerable yet strong at the same time.
Eva scanned the stadium to locate the Virginia Tech section to see where she could find the student on the screen. In between the third and fourth quarters she left the sidelines to seek him out. Her cardinal polo shirt with gold USC lettering on the left breast elicited jeers from the hostile crowd. The field pass dangling around her neck encouraged them more.
“Go back where you came from!”
“Trojans suck!”
“University of Stupid Cunts!”
Ignoring them all, Eva located Levi in the fourth row, about a third of the way in. She worked her way down the row and filled the open seat next to him. Leaning over, she said, “I saw you on the video screen.” Levi was as captivating up close as on the screen. She admired the curve of his carved calves and narrow waist fanning out into a wide back up to his broad shoulders. The furrows and ridges formed by his protruding stomach muscles undulated as he reacted to each twist and turn in the game. She shouted at him again. Still no response. Despite being right next to her, with the score 14–13 and USC in the lead and over ninety thousand in attendance, he either didn’t care or really couldn’t hear her. But when Bush got loose again in the secondary and Leinart connected with him for another touchdown with 5:35 in the game, making the lead 21–13, Levi, disappointed and dejected, flopped down onto the bench. She repeated her line one more time, drawing an indifferent stare from Levi, making her think he had heard her before but just chose to ignore her.
Levi’s words oozed a Southern twang. “You fixin’ for a fight comin’ in these parts, ain’t ya?”
His accent made her cringe. She knew that would be the first thing she’d have to fix. Reaching into her pocket, she fished out one of the plain white business cards, which she had developed with just her name, the title “Talent Scout and Publicist,” and contact details, and handed it to Levi. “I represent an agency in LA. Ever thought about doing any modeling or acting?”
Levi took the card, looked at it then at the people around him. “All right,” he said. “Which one of you jokers put her up to this?” Everyone glared back with the same blank stare that he had given Eva when she first sat down. “Why would USC want to help me get a job?” he asked her.
“No, this is not for USC. I work part-time for another Hollywood-based firm. I think you have a look they would be interested in. Do you currently have representation?” Levi shook his head, twisting the card in his fingers. His sincerity and authenticity, even in such a chaotic environment, connected with something deep inside her. She continued her pitch. “I’m assuming you don’t have any headshots then either?” Levi responded with another side-to-side answer with his head. She said, “That’s no problem. We can do all that when you come visit. You ever been to LA?”
Levi said, “Farthest west I’ve been is Oklahoma.”
“How would you like a free trip?” Eva asked.
“I don’t know,” Levi said, shaking his head at the idea. “My mama in Knoxville is pretty sick. I don’t like to be too far away from her in case she needs something.”
Eva said, “It’ll only be for two days, three tops. You could leave on Monday or Tuesday and be back by Thursday. If anything happens, we’ll fly you back right away.”
Levi was still skeptical. “What about classes?”
Eva tilted her head, her face filling with disbelief. “You mean to tell me you never skip class? At least this time it will be for a legitimate reason. What do you say? I’m offering you the opportunity of a lifetime. No obligations. If you don’t like it, you come back and return to whatever you’re doing.”
Levi looked at the card again, which was crumpled and bent from him wringing it in his hands. “Let me ponder on it, and I’ll give you a call.”
Eva took out a fresh card and pen from her pocket, writing down two more phone numbers on the card. “That works for me. I leave tonight, but here’s my home and office number. The one on the front is my cell. Call me if you have any questions or when you’re ready for a visit.”
Once Eva had returned to LA, she had just about given up on Levi when her house phone rang at 6:30 in the morning the following week while she was still in bed. “Ms. Florez?” he said. “This is Levi Combs, from the football game. I hope it’s okay I called you at home. I tried the other numbers, but I got your voice mail.”
“It’s fine,” Eva said. “That’s why I gave them to you. You just caught me getting up.”
Levi mumbled through his words. “Oh, I’m sorry. I thought it would be okay if I waited until after nine. You want me to call back later?”
“No, let’s talk now,” Eva said pushing off the covers and sitting up in bed. She didn’t want to know if he had just forgotten about the time change or if he really wasn’t aware there was one.
Levi said, “I thought about your offer and talked it over with my mama. She wants me to do it. But there’s just one condition.”
Eva pumped the arm not holding the phone into the air and extended her legs, kicking her feet in silent celebration. “Sure. What is it?”
“My mama doesn’t want me to miss any school. I’ll have to leave after class on Friday and come back Sunday night. Can we do that?”
Eva not only did that, she had Levi booked for three modeling jobs by the time he left. Despite his tepid interest, firms were hot for him. He returned to LA two weeks later, mostly at his mother’s insistence, for four days and continued that pattern every month until the end of the school year. By that time, opportunities for casting calls and screen tests were rolling in. Eva told him that the only option to see if it could really become a career was to leave school and move west.
Again it was Levi’s mother that encouraged him to go. She said, “School will always be waiting, but opportunities rarely will.” What she didn’t tell him was that she couldn’t wait either. Her cancer had worsened. The doctors told her she had six months at the most. She knew if she told Levi, he would never go, and his life would become nothing more than watching her suffer and fade away.
As fast as the cancer moved, his career accelerated even quicker. The modeling led to working as an extra on several TV series to a reoccurring role on the number one rated Thursday night show, which is how he met Marcus’ sister Tamara. It was during the taping of the season finale that he got the call that his mother had passed. Actually Eva got the call. She had convinced Levi’s mother that it was best if all news funneled through her. That way Levi could stay focused and not be distracted with all the ups and downs of the cancer. As her health had worsened, Levi had no idea because Eva had stopped telling him anything. Levi would ask, and Eva would just say, “She’s tired of the treatment but still fighting. The doctors are encouraged by her progress.”
When that final call came, Levi hadn’t talked to his mother in over a week. The last time, all she had said was that everything was fine, and she was looking forward to seeing him. He was planning to take some vacation and go see her for the first time since he had gotten to LA five months earlier, just as soon as the filming for the season was over. That’s also when Eva was going to tell him how bad things had really become. Since nothing could be done about it anyway, she didn’t see any reason to burden him at such a crucial time in his career, which had really become their career.
What Eva didn’t account for was that it would be too late. Levi still went back as planned, but it wasn’t to visit, it was to put his mother to rest. He never even had to change his flight from the one she booked for him a month earlier. He was never comfortable with that. Eva kept reminding him there was nothing he could’ve done, that it was in God’s hands. But to Levi, it seemed like there was plenty he could’ve done if only he had known. That was the last trip he took back to Tennessee.
When Levi returned to Los Angeles after the funeral, Eva sensed he blamed her, his work, the city for keeping him from his mother, but he never said anything. All he did was work more—nonstop as a matter of fact. He went from the recurring role to a series regular to starring in a drama the network created for him. The same vulnerability and strength that Eva saw on the screen at the football game resonated with viewers. Movie offers followed, and Eva was there to receive and benefit from them all, riding the opportunities from that end zone seat in the student section to this twenty-ninth floor conference room where they are meeting with Emily and her agent.
Levi turns his stare from out the window back to the room. “I don’t understand how a photographer ended up there either. I’ve been there countless times and have never even seen anyone anywhere close to there. Eva, you’re the only one that even knows I own that place.”
“How he got the pictures is irrelevant,” Emily’s agent says, exchanging a look with Eva. He knows there’s more to the story but also that she probably had good reasons for whatever she had done. He had watched her too over the years and grown to respect her as a shrewd and unyielding operator, which is as gracious of a compliment as he could give to a colleague. “More important is what do we do now that they are out?”
“We do nothing,” Eva says, ignoring Levi’s insinuation that she had anything to do with the predicament. “As long as there are no witnesses coming forward and neither of you say anything, we just take our lumps until this all blows over.”
Levi sits down on the window ledge that runs the entire length of the glass-enclosed corner room. Positioned directly behind Eva, he speaks over the back of her head, facing the others. “What about the photographer? What if there are more photos? What if he talks?”
Eva turns in her chair to face Levi. “He won’t do anything. I’ll make sure of it.”
“How well do you even know this guy?” Levi asks. “You didn’t think he would sell the ones that are out now.”
“We can’t take any risks,” Emily’s agent says. He looks at Emily then at Levi. “You two, under no circumstances, can see each other. If advertisers get spooked, we’ll lose all our endorsements.”
Levi says, “Advertising? That’s what you’re worried about? I’m facing potential jail time and all you can think about is losing some endorsements?”
“What I mean,” Emily’s agent says, “is that we need to contain the damage.”
Levi springs from the windowsill to the table, leaning across and pointing at Emily’s agent. “You don’t give a fuck about us. It’s just about the money, isn’t it?”
Emily’s agent fires back. “Grow the fuck up. Like you were thinking about Emily’s best interest taking her there in the first place?”
“It was your fucking client who came on to me. Tell him, Em.”
She looks down at the table, tracing her finger in a circle. “He’s right. I was the one who started it. He tried stopping me. I made it happen.”
“I’m sure he put up quite the fight,” her agent says. “All hundred and five pounds of you just overpowered him.”
“Fuck you.” Levi bangs his fist on the table. “Like it even matters to you. All you blood-sucking pimps care about is protecti
ng your fifteen percent.”
Eva pulls a chair out, suggesting he sit down. “And your eighty-five.”
Emily looks up at Levi. “They’re right though. We can’t take any chances with this. There’s too much at stake.”
“Wait, you’re siding with them?” Levi asks. “If we do nothing and hide, we look guilty as fuck. You were the one who initiated it. How can you want to walk away now?”
Emily says, “It’s not personal, Levi. It’s just business.”
“Unbelievable.” Levi forces the chair back under the table and walks around toward the door. “I risk everything to spend time with you, you seduce me, and now you’re telling me it’s not personal.”
Emily stands to intercept him. “Levi, wait.”
He stops in front of her. “Don’t make the same mistakes I did and let these maggots turn you into a product.” He steps around her and stomps off. She follows after him.
Eva shakes her head, emptying her lungs. “Don’t worry, I’ll handle this.”
Emily’s agent gathers the papers from the table and slips them into his leather attaché. “You better. If we lose one endorsement deal, I’m holding your client responsible. I’ll go to the police myself.”
Chapter 10
Abbie lies on her stomach, propped up by her elbows, on the pink comforter covering her bed. Headphones buried in her ears, she scissors her legs, bent at the knee, to the beat. A calculus book is spread open in front of her as she scratches through a problem in a spiral notebook. Clothes litter the floor and assorted makeup covers the top of the desk positioned against the wall to the right. The whiteboard on the wall above her bed displays a quote attributed to Jennifer Lawrence: “Teenagers only have to focus on themselves—it’s not until we get older that we realize that other people exist.”
