1
TINSLEY
The trill screech of her cell phone broke through the silence of what had otherwise been a peaceful morning. I made it a point to always assign specific ringtones to my various PR clients so that I could be sure to distinguish between them at a moment’s notice.
Each ringtone was based on my client’s specific personality, neediness and attitude. I could tell instantly by the annoyingly loud ringtone that the person calling me at 6:02am was Lee Wynn.
Lee was brilliant and boorish at the same time. He had a reputation around Los Angeles for both his beautiful filmmaking and horrific outbursts. My PR firm had been hired to represent Lee while filming concluded on the latest instalment of the Falconi series, a non-stop, action-packed, thrill ride filled with super heroes of varying abilities.
I was assigned the role of promoting the movie. But anyone in the know was aware that what I was really being tasked with was babysitting Lee who was known around town as a misogynistic asshole.
The production company had already had a couple close calls with him in the last film that could have derailed their top franchise and cost them a fortune. And I was given the dubious honor of keeping him from self-destructing and costing them millions.
“This is Tinsley, how may I be of assistance Mr. Wynn?”
“I’m not paying you to be late,” responded an agitated Lee.
I mused at the fact that Lee was in fact not paying me at all. He had been shocked by the production company’s insistence that I was hired at all Let alone that I was required to attend any activity involving Lee and his cast. He had pitched a world-class fit and demanded that my compensation come directly from the studio and not impact his salary.
“I have the table read on my schedule for 11:15 this morning, has something changed Mr. Wynn?” I asked in the most polite tone I could muster for this creep.
“Hell yes, it’s changed. Do you not bother to read your emails?” Lee growled at me.
I quickly opened my inbox and smirked seeing that an email marked 5:59am from that morning that readTable Read Moved to 9am Sharp!I once again smiled to myself. Men like Lee were all the same. He probably had a dick the size of a toothpick. I knew his type all too well not only from the PR industry but years of shitty dates.
There’s only one way to handle a jerk like Lee: bogus flattery and boundaries. My eyes darted to the kitchen entry wherehehad just emerged from the back bedroom. The cell phone ring must have awoken him. I gave him the 100 megawatt smile that always made him happy.
“Mr. Wynn I’m currently meeting with a VIP, but I should be finished by 8am and will head to the studio at that time so I can be sure to arrive ahead of schedule for the table read. Thank you so much for the courtesy of calling to let me know about the last-minute schedule change.”
“The courtesy, I, uh, of course. See you at nine sharp and for goodness sake, call me Lee!” he said, now flustered and slightly softening at my lack of concern for his annoyance, “Mr. Wynn was my asshole father.” And then the line went dead.
I looked up to see Lucas, my precious seven-year-old son, still rubbing the sleep from his ice blue eyes. His father’s eyes.
“Mommy, what’s a VIP and what is our meeting about?” he asked sleepily.
“Well, it means a very important person and I can think of no one in my life more important than you.” That got him grinning like a Cheshire cat.
“And even if you aren’t a client, my office knows to block my day to not start until 8am because taking you to school is one of my favourite parts of the day,” I pulled him in for a long hug. The scent of his shampoo lingered in my nose as he pulled away.
“In that case, can you stop and get this VIP a smoothie on the way to school this morning?” Lucas asked with a grin.
“You got it bud! But we’ll have to hustle if we want to make it to school on time, so hurry up and get ready.
We swung by our favorite smoothie place and made our way toward the car. As we started to drive, I saw Lucas had a faraway look in his eyes.
“Earth to Lucas,” I said jokingly. “Everything okay back there, you seem a million miles away.”
“Do you know Ernie from my class?” he asked.
“Well not personally,” I said with a laugh. “But I’ve heard you mention him a time or two.”
“Did you know he has two dads?”
“Oh no bud, I didn’t know that.” I wasn’t quite sure where this conversation was leading.
“It just got me thinking when we saw that girl in the smoothie shop. She was there with her dad.”
“Uh-huh,” I said, not wanting to lead the conversation in a direction he wasn’t trying to take it.