Managed 4 (Managed #4)

by Clarissa Carlyle

  “We have a huge problem.”

  “Please, Jasper, come in,” Hailey made a sweeping gesture and closed her door.

  “I’m sorry, Hailey, but this is an emergency, I promise.”

  Hailey just knew it had to do with Tara, but she was having a hard time figuring out what could have transpired between leaving him and after she’d gotten home.

  “Let me make some coffee.” Hailey sighed and shuffled to the kitchen. She didn’t even care about her grandma pajamas; he should have called first.

  “So, there’s no great way to tell you this, so I’m just going to tell you. Tara wanted me to film us in our alone time.” He widened his eyes and nodded over-exaggeratingly to show what alone time meant.

  “Oh God.” Hailey put her head in her hands. She was too tired for this.

  “I know, but you have to remember. I thought Tara really cared about me. I thought it was just for fun. How was I supposed to know she would blackmail me with it?”

  “Probably because that’s what always happens.” How could he have been so stupid?

  “Well I thought she loved me.” He was defensive but there was a sadness in his voice causing her to soften a bit.

  “Okay.” She grabbed the coffee pot and stopped the stream long enough to pour a cup, gesturing he could get his own if he wanted. “How bad, um, how graphic is it?”

  He shook his head but reconsidered pouring a cup before taking a flask out to spice it up a bit. Jasper didn’t say anything, simply took a large drink of his coffee.

  “Alright, that bad.” Hailey was a little shocked Jasper would make such a video. This would definitely ruin his sponsorships and his management could drop him. This was a PR nightmare, and it was what Hailey used to live for. Now that it was Jasper, she wasn’t as thrilled. She made a mental note to ask Kaira if there were any tapes of her out there she should get under control and moved toward her laptop.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Checking Tara’s social media. We need to see if she’s posted it yet.”

  “Oh, good idea.” Jasper sat right next to her where she’d planted herself on the couch.

  He smelled like the breakfast they’d had and cologne all mixed in a delicious scent. She moved away from him just a little.

  “Oh no,” Hailey said, as she looked over her laptop screen. She couldn’t believe what she was seeing. It hadn’t been that long and already everything was imploding online.

  “What, what is it?” Jasper moved back right beside her.

  The warmth of his body moved through her. She ignored the feeling in the pit of her stomach that made her want to jump into his lap and pointed to the screen.

  The tweets coming in were saying things like gross I can’t believe you have a sex tape and this is completely classless. “Tara must have threatened to release it already. They are tweeting you with screenshots of her Instagram.”

  Some of the boys had different things to say. You need to get back at her for this. Jasper, why would you let this chick film you? That’s the breaks, bro. Hailey wasn’t sure what that last one meant.

  “No, this is not happening.” Jasper put his head in his hands and shook it. His hair brushed against her shoulder and his leg touched hers.

  She closed her eyes and then once again moved away from him. “This is above my paygrade, Jasper, I don’t know what I need to do. Let me consult with Bill, see if he’s dealt with something this major before. In the meantime, try and lie low for me, okay?”

  Over the next hour, Hailey was able to determine there was a countdown to the sex tape’s release on Tara’s website. They had forty-eight hours. Jasper had finished his coffee and was simply drinking from the flask and lying back with his arm over his forehead.

  “Man, she really is looking for attention,” Hailey said to herself, as she scrolled through the website. “We can’t do anything else tonight. Tomorrow we’ll hit it hard in the morning.”

  Jasper was asleep. The flask in his hand threatened to tip over and spill all over him. She reached over and took it away from him, putting it on the floor. He needed to leave. There was already enough heat on him and leaving her apartment in the morning would have the tabloids going crazy. He looked too peaceful to wake though. She carefully put a pillow beneath his head and covered him with a blanket.

  She went to her room and fell face first in the bed, letting exhaustion consume her.

  ***

  When Hailey woke up, she knew he was already gone. She hoped he’d figured out a discreet way to get out of the apartment. Almost scared, she opened her laptop and checked out social media. There were links to a video of the fight and comments about both Jasper and Tara all over his Twitter. The countdown was still on and she was going to have to get Bill’s help fast to keep it from escalating. When she got to work, Bill wasn’t in the office.

  There was a post it on his door. Sick and taking some time off. Don’t bother me. Matthew is in charge. Don’t bother me was underlined three times in thick sharpie. Of course, Matthew was in charge. Hailey rolled her eyes.

  As she moved toward her office, a girl was sitting behind a desk they never used out front.

  “Can I help you?”

  “Oh, hi, you must be Hailey Finch. I love the name, I’m Bernadette. Bill hired me to answer phones for him while he’s off.”

  “Do you know what’s wrong with him?” Hailey asked.

  “Just out of the office,” she said with a smile.

  They’d never had a receptionist. She thought it might be nice. Her hair was French braided and wrapped up on her head. The skirt and jacket she wore matched with a white blouse underneath showing off an impressive set. She was pretty and a little provocative. Bill probably had not even looked at her resume.

  “She wouldn’t get in trouble for her clothes,” Hailey muttered, as she headed toward her office.

  “I’m sorry?” Bernadette said.

  “Nothing, just talking to myself,” Hailey walked into her office and shut the door. She wasn’t sure how to handle the problem. She’d been banking on Bill to have some experience.

  She busied herself with emails and phone calls until it was time to eat with Kaira. They had lunch plans and Kaira had been offered something else she wasn’t sure about and needed to talk to Hailey. She met her at a small restaurant that had gourmet grilled cheese and only outside dining. It was the perfect place to go with a client and the sandwiches were to die for.

  They hadn’t been sitting long when Kaira’s phone rang.

  “I have to take this Hailey, it’s my latest squeeze.” Kaira winked at her and excused herself from the table to go talk to her secret lover.

  Hailey wondered if it was someone famous or a guy she met at the grocery store. Her phone rang while she waited for Kaira to come back. It was Sam. Without thinking about it, she sent it to voicemail. Samantha hadn’t thought to call her the whole time she’d been dealing with crisis after crisis. There was no reason she couldn’t be too busy for her now.

  She looked over and saw Kaira twirling her hair and tilting her head cutely as if whoever it was could see her. The waitress came by and she ordered a Dr. Pepper. Why torture herself with diet, she was going to get the full sugary caffeine experience.

  When Kaira came back she must have worn a frown because she immediately said, “Hailey, what did he do now?”

  “No, it’s nothing, tell me about this offer.”

  Hailey’s phone rang again and she sent Sam to voicemail. She didn’t need to hear about her boy drama.

  “Ok dish, girl who are you hanging up on?” Kaira leaned forward and put both hands on the table, like she was really invested in knowing what was happening

  “My best friend, Sam, really only has time for me when she’s not with someone. There are different someone’s and they come and go, but I feel like she never puts me first when there’s a guy in her life. She’s one that always has to have a boyfriend, but she chooses all these ass-hats and ends up wanting to cr
y on my shoulder. I’m just sick of it.”

  “Then you need to tell her that.”

  “What do you mean?” She started to scratch at her arm. Hailey knew what she meant, but the thought gave her imaginary hives.

  “You need to tell her she’s a shit friend. It’s going to make you feel better, I’ll help you.” Kaira smiled, as if she hadn’t just asked her to do something terrifying. She reached a gold, glitter-covered fingernail over and hit call on the missed call from Sam.

  Hailey widened her eyes. She couldn’t believe Kaira would do that to her.

  “Why weren’t you answering your phone, I have the best news!” Sam exclaimed.

  Kaira nodded, and Hailey decided to get it out before she lost her nerve.

  “You never put me first, so I wasn’t going to do that for you anymore. Anytime you have a boyfriend I don’t hear from you or we make plans and then they don’t happen.” She was on a roll now and she did feel a little better. “It’s been this way for our whole friendship and I’m tired of it. I’m not making the effort anymore.”

  “I didn’t know you felt that way.”

  “Well that’s because I was too big of a pussy to tell you,” Hailey said. She was angrier with herself than Sam, but it was all out there now. “I have to go.” Without waiting for a response, she hung up on her. Putting the phone down on the table, like it was too hot to touch, she looked to Kaira.

  “Don’t you feel better? Never let people take advantage of you Hailey.” Kaira said.

  A great weight lifted from her chest. She didn’t need fair weather friends and now she’d told one about it. Who cared if she had good news, it wasn’t as if she ever called to hear Hailey’s good news.

  “So, what did we need to talk about?”

  “I’ve been offered a movie. It’s a good one too, going to be a blockbuster. The only thing is they want me naked.”

  “When you say naked you mean?”

  “Full frontal naked, you’d see everything I was born with. Well I suppose these knockers I wasn’t born with, but you get the idea.”

  “Do you really think that’s a good move for your career?” Hailey had suspected but hadn’t known for sure that her client had implants.

  “This is a renowned director, there are rumors Leo is going to be in it. This is a good opportunity if I can just get onboard with my body being out there.”

  “Leo from Titanic?” Hailey exclaimed.

  “No, Leo Saltz, he’s famous in Britain or somewhere.” Kaira waved her hand in the air dismissively.

  Hailey nodded pretending to know who that was when she had no clue. “I know I wouldn’t be able to do it, but I guess you just have to look at it in terms of the future. If you do this, how will you feel about it in a few years?”

  “That’s good advice. Thanks for not being prudish about it. My mother screamed at me for twenty minutes so I finally just put the phone on mute.”

  “So, she’s against it then, maybe you should make a list of pros and cons.”

  “No, my mother was yelling at me for thinking about turning it down. Once a stage mom, always a stage mom.” Kaira’s face fell a bit as she said the words, but seemed to shake it off quickly. “Let’s change the subject, tell me about the event I dropped you at, how’d it go?”

  Hailey debated on whether she should confide in Kaira. She finally decided to say screw it and go for it. It wasn’t like she had anyone else to talk to, and she’d just told her best friend off.

  “Something strange happened at the event. More than one strange thing happened. Jasper sang a song he wrote about me, Tara and Autumn almost killed each other, and Tara threatened to release a sex tape.”

  “Okay, I need every detail of everything. Start from where I dropped you off.”

  Hailey was shocked to see Kaira put her phone face down on the table, dialed into what she was telling her. It was nice to have someone listen. Once she’d gone through all the events, she told her about what happened later. “So now she has this countdown to releasing the tape and Jasper is going to go back to being the rock star people hate to represent them and his management will drop him.”

  Kaira looked thoughtful for a minute. “I hate to say it, but you need Matthew’s help.”

  “What, why?” He was the last person Hailey wanted to ask to help her.

  “I know he was an ass to you, and for that he deserves bad karma, but he knows the industry. He knows people too, several of my friends suggested him before I hired you. I think he can help with this.” She turned her phone back over signaling the conversation was over.

  “Let me know if you decide to get naked,” Hailey said, “we’ll work on some talking points.”

  Hailey hugged Kaira and left her to a group of tweens who finally gathered up the courage to come over for an autograph. The girls with their mouths full of braces and arms full of brightly colored bangles grinned from ear to ear as she took selfies with them.

  Kaira was a good person and Hailey thought she was lucky to have her as a client. Now it was time to do the unthinkable and ask someone she didn’t want to talk to for help.

  Chapter Five

  After lunch, Hailey stood outside of Matthew’s door for about five minutes before knocking. She didn’t want to ask for help. Kaira had given her a lot of encouragement, and she was grateful for that, but still hated to ask the jerk for anything.

  She could picture him doing the I told you so dance, but with Bill not in he was really her only option.

  “Come in.” he yelled from inside his office.

  “Well look who it is,” Matthew said, as she walked through the door. He leaned back in his chair and propped his feet up on his desk.

  She inwardly shuddered as she thought of how she’d kissed him. How she’d almost gone further than that. It was disgusting now.

  “Yep. I knew this was a mistake. Never mind.” Hailey turned and started to close the door.

  “Wait, wait, what’s going on?” Matthew dropped his feet to the ground and leaned forward on his desk.

  Hailey swallowed her pride. She knew handling most things was easy for her, but this was a big deal. “Fine, I need your help,” she said it so quietly she was sure he didn’t hear her.

  “My help, with what?”

  He’d heard her; she wondered how good his hearing was. Probably perfect like his stupid perfect office and perfect teeth. She was letting her anger take over. She took a deep breath.

  “With a client’s problem.”

  “Come sit. What’s going on?”

  “Well you remember Tara, Jaspers ex-girlfriend, right?”

  “Yeah, the really crazy one.”

  “Exactly, she’s up to her old habits again. First the fundraiser fight and now she is threatening to release a video of her and Jasper being intimate. I need your help.” Hailey couldn’t help but scrunch up her face at her words.

  “How much did it hurt to ask that?”

  “A bit. I have a bone to pick with you too.”

  “About what?” Matthew looked confused.

  “What did I do now?”

  “You’re letting Autumn run around looking stupid. I get that she came to you because she wanted to get rid of her good girl image but she is really showing her ass. Or her boobs rather.”

  “What are you talking about?” Matthew was sitting straighter now they were talking about his client.

  “You haven’t seen the pictures?”

  “No,” Matthew said, even though Hailey suspected he had.

  Hailey grabbed her phone to show him the most recent pictures of Autumn. “Look. Her boobs are flying out and Jasper is picking her up off the floor because she can’t handle her liquor. I really think there is something seriously going on with her. This is the third time this week that she was falling over drunk.”

  “Stop being dramatic. She is just having a little fun.”

  “Matthew be serious. You and I both know that she is going to ruin her career at this rate. You’re go
od at your job, but no matter how you spin this, she is throwing everything she worked for away.”

  “I will talk to her. Now let’s figure out what we are going to do with this Tara situation.” He walked over and fired up his laptop. “I’m starving. Do you mind if I order us some lunch as we brainstorm?”

  Hailey wanted to decline because she didn’t want anything distracting them as they came up with a plan, but she figured pizza never hurt anything.

  Matthew had ordered a large pepperoni pizza and a two-liter Coke for them to share. He took out two plates and cups from the bottom drawer.

  “You keep a dining set in your desk?”

  “Don’t judge me. I eat here more than I do at my own place.” He reached down again and pulled out a bottle of hot sauce and garlic powder.

  Hailey never thought about how much Matthew had always worked. Now that she was thinking about it there were plenty of times she left the office late and his light was still on. She always thought he left early and left his light on.

  “You must know all the good spots to order food from then.” Hailey was starting to let her guard down. He was actually helping her, which she appreciated.

  “You name it and I can tell you the best place to go. It’s pretty sad. They probably know all my orders by heart.”

  Hailey laughed and sat down across from him. This Matthew she could stand being around.

  ***

  Jasper paced the floor. Where the hell was Autumn? She was supposed to meet him so they could go to practice and was an hour late. She was always a little late, but this was dumb. He wished he’d left when she’d not shown up in the first five minutes.

  She hadn’t texted, so it worried him a little something might be wrong. Her Twitter account didn’t help any because her last tweet said, headed to band practice with babe to watch him do it right.

  Where could she have gone between that tweet and now? He finally called Carl knowing he was going to be late. He was the one always yelling at Liam for being late and now he was going to be a hypocrite because of her. On the way, he started to cool off. She was young and dumb; there was no getting around it.