“It’s my boss. I better take this in the other room,” I said. Katie shooed me away, grabbing the laptop from me and continuing to scan the web for updates.
“Tinsley, we’re on with the studio,” he said as soon as I picked up.
I listened for the next fifteen minutes as I was berated. How could I let this happen? Who was keeping an eye on Lee? What had I been doing?
I tried to get a word in but any time I tried to speak, I was shut down. They were having none of it.
And then I was fired. They said it was a breach of contract, not delivering, but I knew better. They were using me as a scapegoat. I was the low person on the totem pole to them and if they could cast blame on me, they might just be able to salvage some of Lee before he got completely cancelled.
I walked back out to Katie in a daze.
“What’s our first move?” Katie asked when I made my way to the living room. You’ve got me the rest of the day. I already called Stephen and let him know he’s got preschool pick up.”
“There’s no move Katie. They just fired me.”
“What?” she cried out in shock. “What the fuck are they thinking? They can't do that!”
“They can,” I said quietly. “They just did.”
“This shit with Lee has been building for ages. Everyone who’s anyone in the industry knows that. Lee’s always been a loose cannon,” she cried.
“They don’t care. They are citing me for breach of contract,” I said meekly. “It’s over.”
“No flippin’ way!” Katie remarked. “It’s not over until we say it’s over.” She pulled back open my laptop and started typing.
“I can’t do this. Being fired in this way. I won’t find another job here. My career is over. Everything I’ve worked for. Katie, I’m going to have to move back to Chicago.”
Katie was effectively ignoring me and my complaints. She continued tapping away at my laptop.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“We’re getting you your job back,” she said. “Hand me my cell, we need reinforcements.”
—
By the time my mom got home from her hair appointment, Katie had turned my home into a full-blown command center. She’d called several of her own contacts, somehow managed to get my assistant Alex, or now old assistant, to take the day from work, her husband Stephen, and had the guys heading our way as soon as they were back in Los Angeles.
We quickly got my mom caught up on the situation and she agreed to pick up Lucas after school. She would take him on a surprise trip. A night in a hotel and passes to Disney tomorrow. Lucas would be thrilled.
She would tell Lucas I was doing this as a special treat for not getting to come home as planned. She’d say I got delayed and had to stay an extra day in Utah, otherwise my empath of a son would be way too worried and know something was wrong the second he saw me.
When everyone finally arrived, I made quick introductions. The guys were fawning all over me. We hadn’t told them exactly what had happened yet, but they knew enough to be concerned. Hel l,they could probably read it all over my face.
Katie beamed as she saw me surrounded by such a strong support system. And I was on and off the brink of tears. All I’d wanted since I’d moved to LA was to have a family of sorts here. Now, here I was surrounded by one and I might lose it all if we couldn’t pull off Katie’s plan.
I didn’t want to lose my guys, lose Ryan just as he was learning about Lucas, lose my career and everything I’d worked so hard for. But now I may not have a choice.
Katie quickly caught everyone up starting by showing them the video from TMZ and reading over the comments. She told them about the threat of lawsuits from the women.
“Short story is that Lee lost his shit and now the studio and Tinsley’s PR company is taking it out on her. They’ve fired her for breach of contract and failing to deliver,” she said.
“What the fuck?” Kai asked in disbelief.
“This is nuts, they can’t do this to her,” Michael chimed in.
The room dissolved into dozens of side conversations about how wrong the actions of the studio and PR company were. Katie let it go on for a few minutes before hushing everyone.
“We need to do something. This type of treatment isn’t right. We all know Lee’s a problem, hell even the studio knows. So, what are we going to do about it?” Katie finally asked.