CON
Icouldn’t give Halley’s friend an entry level job, big sister or not. We got almost as many applicants for those as we got headshots. Hundreds of people fighting for the opportunity to grasp the bottom rung of the tallest, shiniest ladder. I wasn’t above a little nepotism, but since Lily was going to law school in a year, it didn’t make sense to give her a job in the mailroom. Instead, I had HR set up an internship that paid just as much as an entry level position, but it had a hard end date. Then I had my house manager prep her condo and asked Maureen to pick the girl up at the airport.
And then I forgot about it.
I had a lot on my plate. The industry was coming back to life after a lean couple of years that had seen productions delayed and projects stopped altogether. I’d finally found Julian’s actress for Stasia, but that didn’t make a dent in my to do list. Some guys at the top of an agency figured they’d earned the right to coast. They let other people do the pitching and following up and negotiating. I couldn’t do it though. Maybe it was because I was younger than some of the other industry vets, but I still wanted to get my teeth in. Leave my mark. Earn my millions. Right now, I was fighting to get one of my actors top billing in a movie he was clearly the star of, but he was playing opposite an established star who felt entitled to it.
There was nothing I hated more than entitlement. I was going to tear into his box office returns and spotlight his latest bad behavior, and if that didn’t work, I’d really get my hands dirty. But first, I had to deal with Halley’s mother.
Leaving a mountain of work piling up on my desk, I headed across town to Landon’s office. He worked strange hours, but I’d made sure he knew I was coming. Everything about his downtown building was designed to create a feeling of discrete security. Heavy, elegant doors that locked automatically behind you. Wide hallways that didn’t have any shadowy recesses a stalker could hide in. Soundproof offices so your secrets couldn’t escape.
His EA waved me in. “He’s been waiting for you.”
I nodded tersely and saw her eyebrows elevate slightly as I walked past without a word. Normally I’d stop for pleasantries, but I was on edge today. I didn’t like dealing with Kim when I wasn’t up to my eyeballs in more important shit to do. I couldn’t believe I still had to, considering the only thing we had in common besides a distant past was an adult daughter.
“Kim’s stirring shit up again,” I announced when the heavy door closed behind me with a heavy sigh.
Landon’s face stayed neutral. “What does she want?”
“More money.”
Only someone who knew Landon as well as I did would have seen the flicker of derision on his face. “Of course she does. She knows the piggy bank is running out of quarters, so she’s shaking it one last time.”
I nodded, wishing for the hundredth time that I’d insisted on a lump sum payout when my lawyer was negotiating with hers for full custody of Halley. Instead, I’d gotten hooked into paying child support to a woman who hadn’t supported our child a day in her life. And worse, I was paying it until Halley graduated from college, so Kim still had another year to shake me down.
“What do you need from me?” Landon asked, steepling his fingers.
“Dirt.” I dug my thumb and forefinger into the crevices around the bridge of my nose. “Anything I can use to fend her off. I want proof she’s using again. Proof she’s charging for blowjobs.”
When I looked back at Landon, he was nodding, his face blank.
“I’d just give her a final payment if I thought that would end it,” I said.
“I know.”
I knew Landon of all people wasn’t judging me, but it was a shitty situation overall. Kim had been a pain in my ass for the last two decades, but I still didn’t relish what I was asking Landon to do. Not because I had ever really cared about her, but because I loved Halley more than anything.
“I’ll see what I can do,” Landon said after a minute. His light green eyes squinted at me over his hawk-like nose. His eyebrows came down like storm clouds. “If I can’t find anything, what do you want me to do?”
I understood what he was asking immediately. If he didn’t find anything, did I want him to plant something? It wasn’t in Landon’s standard repertoire, but he’d arrange it for me. I considered it for half a second. “No need,” I said finally. “If I know Kim, there’s something to be found.”
Landon nodded, expressionless. My friends knew Kim well. We’d tried to make it work a couple of times when Halley was young. They never liked her, but they didn’t say so until we split up for the fourth and final time, right before Halley’s fifth birthday. For the past sixteen years, they’d had a front row seat to her bullshit. We all did our best to keep Halley in the dark. She and Kim weren’t that close, but they did an annual mother-daughter trip for Halley’s birthday every year. I never told her how Kim started pushing for more and more extravagant trips while barely remembering how old Halley was turning.
“She’ll be doing this to you too,” Landon said as he walked me out. “Keep your nose clean and your ass covered for the next year.”
I snorted. Thanks to the twin demands of my career and being a single father, I hadn’t had much time to leave a sordid trail for Kim to dig up. “Sure, I’ll drop out of the erotic asphyxiation members-only club.”
“It’s only for a year, pal.” Landon clapped me on the back, and we laughed. For a minute, the tension eased in my temples. If I had to have a batshit crazy ex, at least I had a group of friends that had my back no matter what.
After I left his office, I headed uptown for a late lunch with a client. I wasn’t looking forward to it. Preston White wanted me to convince Julian to cast him in an upcoming World War 2 epic. I’d told him half a dozen times that Julian wasn’t going to take that decision out of the director’s hands. Still, I was going to tell him again–this time over a thirty-dollar martini, and I was going to make sure he fucking heard me this time.
“I just think this is my role,” Preston said for what must have been the thousandth time.
I tipped my own martini back impatiently. I wasn’t normally a day drinker, but I needed to take the edge off before I punched Preston in the face or told him what the director really thought of him. The list of adjectives that came back when I put his name forward had been long and unflattering. Pompous, obnoxious, overblown, arrogant. And worst of all, untalented.
“I’m telling you, it’s not,” I said, putting a note of finality in my voice. “Baz wants an unknown. I can’t change his mind. Julian can’t change his mind. And you sure as fuck can’t change his mind. And if you keep making an ass of yourself, you’re going to miss out on the next great role that really is yours.”
It had occurred to me more than once during this late lunch that I should just drop Preston and save myself some trouble. It was hard to drop someone whose ask was twenty million and rising though.