by J. Sterling
“Hi, Madison.” Her voice was pleasant and even with no makeup on, she looked beautiful. Paige was one of those naturally pretty girls. I guess you had to be in this business.
“Hi, Paige. He’s waiting for you.”
“What’s he all wound up about? Do you know?”
I shook my head and smiled. “I have no idea. Good luck.”
She took two steps away from me before stopping and turning back. “I almost forgot.” A wide grin spread across her face. “Walker called me this morning. He asked me about you.”
My eyes got big. “How did he know that we knew each other?”
“Well, he didn’t. He called me at first to ask if I saw the part of the show last night where he brought you onstage.” She angled closer to me before looking around for prying ears, and lowered her voice. “That was really hot, by the way. You two were electric up there.”
My cheeks heated at the mention of our interaction. “And?” I asked, pushing her to continue.
“I told him that I saw it and asked him how he could embarrass you like that in front of all those people. He freaked out when he realized that I knew you. He wouldn’t get off the phone with me until I gave him your number.”
“Is that how he got it?” I asked as my jaw fell open.
“I only gave him your office number. That was okay, wasn’t it? I’m sure he’ll be calling you.” She tightened her lips and scrunched her shoulders in an apology. “Honestly, I didn’t think you’d mind.”
I sighed audibly. “He’s already called.”
“Can’t say I’m surprised. He was really determined to find you. What’d you do to him anyway?” Her face softened as she let out a sweet laugh.
“I have no idea. But you can tell him I’m not interested.”
She opened her mouth to respond when Jayson yelled, interrupting our hushed whispers. “Paige? Get in here! Leave her alone, Madison, we have business to discuss. And shut the door!”
I should be used to getting blamed for everything, but it still rubbed me the wrong way. Paige mouthed “I’m sorry” as she turned away and closed the office door behind her.
• • •
I managed to leave the office before seven p.m., but not before Paige informed me that she wasn’t the only person Walker had called trying to find me. By now a lot of people knew that he was looking for me, and it was only a matter of time before he showed up at the office if I kept ignoring him.
Unsure of what to do with that information, I begged Paige to tell him I wasn’t interested. She tried to tell me that Walker was a good guy, but I had actually laughed in her face upon hearing those words. Paige swore it was true, but I just shook my head. With all the accounts and photos in the tabloids and on the gossip websites, there was just too much smoke for there to be no fire.
By the time I arrived home that evening, Keri was just getting out of the shower. With her long hair wrapped up in a towel, she shouted at me, “I’m dying to talk to you. Don’t you dare leave the living room until I come back.”
Chuckling to myself, I walked into our kitchen and grabbed a diet soda from the fridge before plopping down on our black leather couch. My stomach rumbled as I waited for Keri to come back and hound me with a million questions about Walker that I wouldn’t have the answers to. But I was anxious to hear her thoughts.
“Okay, I’m here.” She panted, out of breath as she sat next to me. “Ooh, give me a sip of that,” she said, reaching for my soda as I reluctantly handed her the can, knowing from experience that telling her to get her own never worked. “I only want a sip, not the whole thing,” she would say every time.
After swallowing a giant gulp of my soda, she folded her legs underneath her and angled her body toward me. “Did he call any more today? And are you really not going to call him back?” She cocked her head to the side, giving me a disapproving glare.
“He didn’t call me again. And no, I’m not going to call him back. Why are you looking at me like you think I should? Last night before the concert you hated him too, you know?”
“But that was BOSH,” she said matter-of-factly, as if I had any idea what BOSH meant. When she saw my confused expression, she said slowly, “Before. On. Stage. Happened.”
I huffed out a deep breath, torn between half wanting to strangle my best friend, or end this conversation entirely by going into my bedroom and locking my door. “How does that change anything?”
“It changes everything, Madison! You didn’t see what you two looked like up there. It was fucking nuts, and I’m not the only one who noticed it. Half the lot was talking about it today.”
Heat spread over my face at the mere mention of people on a studio lot talking about my encounter with Walker. “They were not,” I said, my voice coming out more defensive than I had intended. Finishing off the last of the soda, I placed the empty can on the coffee table at my feet.
“They were. Anyway, I think you should call him. It’s not like you’re dating anyone. In fact, it’s been a while since you’ve been on any dates at all. What do you have to lose?”
“My pride? My dignity? My sterling reputation,” I said with a laugh as she swatted my shoulder. Why was I so hell-bent against this anyway? Part of me couldn’t remember anymore. Oh right, because Walker was the kind of guy who went out with a different girl every night. And those were not merely rumors. I’d seen the pictures. Plus, guys like him were on my Do Not Date list. At the very top.
She reached across her body for the soda and grimaced as she realized it was already empty. With an oomph, she pushed off the couch and walked into the kitchen, her voice raised an octave. “Listen, Mads. I know this goes against our personal rules and stuff. You know, we don’t date musicians, singers, actors, professional athletes, news anchors, yada yada, but I don’t think it can hurt anything if you call this guy.”
Part of the reason why Keri and I got along so well when we first met in college was that we possessed a similar work ethic. Call it occupational hazard, but both of us had insisted it wasn’t in our best interest to date any potential future clientele. We both knew what we wanted to be when we grew up, unlike our other friends in college who appeared to only want to major in drinking and the inevitable post-drinking puke fest. One night in our dorm room, we made a list of everyone we refused to date based on their occupations alone. It might have been childish at the time, but we had both stuck with it and it had worked for us.
So far.
I’d seen quite a few of my coworkers fall hard for our clients, even though it went against the rules of the agency. It still happened and it never seemed to end well for my associates when the relationship eventually ended. And it always did.
I pressed my head against the back of the couch and covered my eyes with my hands. It dipped slightly as Keri sat back down with her own soda in hand. If there was a God, I was convinced in this moment that he or she existed.
“Anyway, listen to this,” I began, and she leaned her body closer to mine, her eyes widening with interest as her lips puckered against the heaven-sent can. “Paige came in the office today and she told me that she’s the one who gave Walker my number.”
Keri fought to keep the liquid in her mouth as she choked down a swallow. “Shut the hell up! How? Why?”
“I guess he called her asking questions and she let it slip that we knew each other. He asked her for my number. She said he was really determined.”
Keri tapped against her lips with one finger, obviously lost in thought. “I think you should call him. See what he wants. Maybe he’ll stop calling then?”
My heart rate picked up speed. The idea of calling him made me nervous and I searched for the true reasons when it hit me. “This guy could throw me all off course. I’ve worked really hard at the agency and I don’t want to do anything to jeopardize my career. Least of all get involved with someone like Walker and become gossip fodder. My boss would never stand for it,” I admitted.
Keri’s face lit up with acknowledgme
nt and understanding. “It would be really easy to get lost in his lifestyle. But I think you’re way stronger than you give yourself credit for. I’ve said my piece. Call him. Don’t call him. I’ll still love you the same.”
“Thanks.” I smiled, feeling slightly better about the whole bizarre situation.
The red light flashed on my office phone and I was half tempted to pretend it didn’t exist as memories of yesterday’s voice mails replayed in my mind. Reluctantly, I pressed the button and allowed the messages to filter through the air on speakerphone while I filed some of last night’s paperwork into the appropriate client files at the other side of the room.
“Madison, it’s Walker again. I need you to call me back. Please don’t make me beg on your voice mail every night.”
I raced over to the phone to pick it up and stop it from playing out loud, but it was too late.
“I mean, I will. But it’s sort of embarrassing, don’t you think?”
The message ended and I wished I could reach into the stupid air and grab his voice from it and stuff it back inside the phone where no one else would hear. How could I be so stupid?
Jayson’s voice boomed from behind his office door. “Madison, get in here.”
Shit.
He had to have heard that. Sucking in a deep breath, I opened the door and entered his lair. He motioned for me to sit down, something he rarely did, and I willed my tense body to relax.
“Why does Walker Rhodes keep calling here?” Jayson asked, his tone tinged with equal parts annoyance and intrigue.
“I’m not sure exactly,” I lied.
“Do you think I’m stupid, Madison? I know he’s been asking you out, asking our clients about you. Why the hell do you keep avoiding him?” He shook his head like I was a fool.
“How did you even know that?” I asked incredulously, before realizing that Paige must have said something to him.
“He’s been asking around about you. Word travels quickly in this town. You, of all people, should know that.” He pointed and wagged a finger in my direction.
I shook my head at his interference in my personal life, as well as the rudeness of his pointing at me, my annoyance abundantly clear. “I’m sorry. Am I in trouble? Are you mad?”
He slammed his hands against his oak desk, making yesterday’s cold coffee swirl around inside his mug. “Hell yes, I’m mad. I’m mad that you keep telling him you aren’t interested and that you aren’t calling him back.”
“Excuse me?” I choked out, clearing my throat to stop from coughing on my words, my fingers digging into the chair’s spongy armrest.
“Go out with him. Go out with him and see if you can get him to sign with us. I heard he’s looking for representation.”
I shook my head firmly and swallowed hard before finding my voice. “No! He already has an agent. And I’m not doing that. That’s ridiculous!”
Jayson grabbed a pen and began irritably clicking it against the wood, the button pressing and depressing again and again. “He has a manager, Madison, not an agent. It would be huge for us if we signed him. You will go out with him and that’s final.”
Excuse me?
Without thinking, I spat back, “No, I will not.”
He couldn’t force me to go out with him.
Could he?
This was ridiculous.
Jayson’s face was devoid of emotion as his features hardened into stone, and I felt all the color drain from my own. “You will too. If you want to keep this job.”
“Are you threatening me?” I asked, my voice shaking.
“Call it workplace advancement. You go out with him, get him to sign with us, and I’ll promote you to junior agent a year before your time.”
“I don’t want the promotion that way.” My stomach churned at the nasty deal that was being presented to me. I’d never dealt with this sort of harassment in the workplace before. Yes, I’d seen people do horrible things to other people, but I’d never been a part of it.
Drawing in a gulp of air, I searched my mind frantically for an out, then leaped upon one last chance. “I thought we weren’t allowed to date our clients. That it’s frowned upon, maybe a conflict of interest? I could get fired for dating him.”
“I thought you liked this job,” Jayson sputtered as he threw the pen to his desk.
“I love this job,” I admitted honestly.
His eyes narrowed. “Then I’d suggest you do whatever it takes to keep it. I could make it very difficult for you to get another one in this industry.”
My eyes started to fill and I forced the tears not to fall, refusing to cry in front of my asshole boss. I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of knowing he beat me. He had me by the lady balls, and he knew it.
“Fine. I’ll call him.”
“I knew you’d come to your senses. Now go.” He waved me away with a flick of his wrist and looked back down at his laptop.
My legs felt like shaky rods of lead as I walked out of Jayson’s office. Part of me was incredibly pissed off by the threat he’d made, while the other part was just plain defeated. I felt cornered and I panicked, so I gave in when I should have fought back. Silently, I berated myself for being so weak.
I almost turned around and marched right back into Jayson’s office, but suddenly realized that if I didn’t call Walker, I could lose it all. Jayson wasn’t bluffing, and I had worked too damn hard to walk away from this job willingly. Plus, guys like my boss were a dime a dozen in this screwed-up industry. I needed to learn how to deal with personalities like his, not run away from them.
Listening to my voice mails, I typed Walker’s number into my cell phone and sent Jayson an instant message saying that I would be right back. I couldn’t make this call in the office where there were so many people around. The conversation about to happen was too juicy for even the best-intentioned people to resist listening in on. The only way to eliminate the curiosity was to make sure they never knew it even happened.
As I walked out the building’s glass doors into the sunshine, a gust of wind sent my hair flying all around me and I struggled to push it back into place with my free hand. Dropping my oversized sunglasses in front of my eyes, I carefully walked down the steps toward the busy sidewalk. Cars whizzed and swooshed past me, creating way too much background noise, and I imagined myself plugging my ear with one finger while yelling “Huh? What did you say?” over and over again into my cell phone. Glancing in both directions, I made up my mind and headed down the side street, away from the congestion.
When the passing traffic lessened and I could actually hear myself think, I punched SEND and started chewing nervously on my thumb as the phone rang. With shaky legs, I hopped up to sit on the decorative concrete wall that circled my office building.
“Hello?” Walker’s groggy voice filtered into my ears and I instantly flashed back to being onstage with him. And his incredible eyes.
Good Lord.
“Hello?” he asked again.
I cleared my throat before responding. “Walker? It’s Madison.”
What the hell was I supposed to say to him? What if he hadn’t even planned on asking me out? This had been a stupid idea.
“Madison!” His voice instantly cleared and he suddenly sounded chipper. “I’m so glad you called. Paige said she didn’t think you would. What changed your mind?”
“Uh, I don’t know?” I smacked my head with the palm of my hand.
He laughed, and it made me smile. “Okay, Sparkles. I’ll cut to the chase. Will you please let me take you to dinner tonight?”
“Tonight?” I almost choked, the balmy Southern California air suddenly feeling thick and suffocating.
“Yeah. Tonight. Why waste time? I want to see you.”
Still unable to wrap my head around the fact that Walker Rhodes was interested in me, I stuttered, “Why? You don’t even know me.”
The line was silent and I actually pulled the phone away from my ear to make sure our call hadn’t disconnected. W
hen I realized it hadn’t, I pressed it back against my head and waited for his response.
“I’d really like to,” he finally said. “Get to know you, that is. Let me take you to dinner. I can pick you up, or meet you there. Whatever makes you the most comfortable.”
Frustrated that I was being forced to do this to keep my job, I said tightly, “I’ll meet you there. I’d rather take my own car. What time and where?”
“Eight o’clock at Vine’s.”
I clenched my teeth, knowing how fancy a restaurant Vine’s was. It catered to the celebrities and always made their clientele comfortable, but it was ridiculously expensive. Dealing with the rich and famous all day long definitely helped fuel my need for normalcy at night. A place like Vine’s was somewhere I’d never normally frequent, not that I hadn’t eaten there before. I had. Many times. But truth be told, I always hated it. I wasn’t into the whole “see and be seen” lifestyle, and it made me uncomfortable.
Glancing down at my work attire, I was thankful I hadn’t worn jeans that day. My knee-length leopard print skirt that I’d paired with a long-sleeved black silk blouse would definitely work for dinner. Not to mention the killer black heels I sported. I wouldn’t have to go home and change if I needed to work late; I could just head straight there from the office.
“Madison? You know where it is, right? The one in the city, not the one in Santa Monica.”
I resigned myself to a night of uncomfortable opulence. “I know where it is. I’ll see you there.” Ending the call before he could say anything more, I immediately regretted that I hadn’t called him from my work phone. Now Walker Rhodes had my cell phone number.
Damn it.
I’d have to deal with that later.
Carefully, I hopped off the wall and thought about looking up the Vine’s website when I got back to my desk. It had been over a year since I’d last been there and I liked to be prepared, so I would check out their dinner menu online and have my order carefully picked out before I arrived. At least the fake dinner date would go quicker that way. No pesky details to hem and haw over.
