I gasped. If Lee wasn’t allowed to be drinking per his contract with the studio, they had really been the ones to screw up. Here I thought I had been dealing with a new problem that I was trying to keep under wraps for the sake of his job, but Grant had known all along that Lee was like this and hadn’t bothered to tell me or my former company. This was big.
“I am clean, I’ve been clean,” Lee claimed.
“You just admitted otherwise,” Grant countered. “Go to your office and wait for me there.”
Lee got up and sulked out of the room. Adam, the assistant director, started to follow.
“Nope, I need you here. From what I’ve heard from the cast and crew you’ve done most of the heavy lifting already. You’ll be sharing the director credit with Lee for this film, and I’ll need you to stay on solo for the next project. I also need you here while we sort this out.” Grant said.
“Of course, thank you sir,” Adam smiled.
Ryan cleared his throat. “Now that you’ve had just a tiny glimpse at what the rest of us have been dealing with for the entire franchise, perhaps we can get back to the matter at hand.”
“Right, Tinsley. I have to admit, I had hoped things weren't that out of hand. It sounds like you did your best to handle them, but you still are in breach of contract for Lee’s actions. There are no two ways around that.”
“Sir, sounds to me like you hired a known addict to serve as director over the studio’s biggest project. You hired Tinsley’s PR company to put a bandaid on a bullet hole and now you’re canceling her for letting things get out of control? That doesn’t fly,” Ryan remarked.
Now it was my turn. “Grant, I hold my job in high esteem. Lee’s actions have been and continued to be harassing toward not only me but the entire cast and crew.”
“And then to learn in this meeting that you knew of his drinking problems. If they were so bad that you had a stipulation in his contract about them my firm and I should have been aware.
“How can I be in breach of contract when you aren’t disclosing the whole story? PR works both ways. If I don’t get the full story from the clients I’m trying to protect, I can’t control the story that gets out. You’ve been in the industry long enough to know that. The one who messed this up was you,” I finished.
Kai stood now, his large frame intimidating and amplified by his bad mood, he was close to terrifying. “She goes. We all go,” he said, and he started to walk out of the room.
Michael was next, “If she’s gone, I’m gone.”
Then Thiago, “There are right ways and wrong ways to handle things. Your way is the wrong way. If she goes, we all go.”
Finally, Ryan got up. “We’ll give you twenty minutes to discuss your options. I don’t expect it should take that long.”
I joined Ryan and the guys and we walked out. We all talked excitedly about the meeting as soon as we got off the elevator. We weren’t halfway to Ryan’s trailer when Adam came running out after us.
“They want you back. All of you. You didn’t hear this from me, but they are going to try and lowball. Don't take the first offer. They're shaking in their damn boots up there right now,” he said, leading us back toward the office.
We made our way back into the conference room and sat back around the table.
“Tinsley, we were wrong to fire you. I can offer you a direct role with the studio, but it will be at a reduced pay rate. After all, it’s not us that technically fired you. It was your PR firm. I can hire you back but since I am just getting you and not the backing of your company, I just can’t pay you as much,” Grant said.
I had expected this to be his response. I smoothed down the power suit I’d put on that morning and pulled a contract out of my bag.
“If you want the guys back, you’ll hire my firm at my rates. I’ve started my own company and I expect to be paid as laid out in this contract,” I said in a cordial but somewhat demanding tone.
I pushed the sheet across to Grant. Thank goodness for Katie and Stephen. They knew it would come to this and had encouraged me to write up a contract last night before they left. It made me look powerful and professional, but I didn’t just look that way, I felt that way. The world was mine for the taking.
Grant looked it over along with his second in command. “It looks okay to me, but you know I’ll have to run it past HR first.”
“Grant, we all sat here and saw you make a hiring decision with Adam, not five minutes ago. Sign the damn contract,” I said firmly. Then I pushed my pen his way.
He looked at me reluctantly and then he picked the pen up and signed. “You drive a hard bargain, but I know you’re a hard worker. I look forward to working with you.”
—
I called Lucas as soon as we got out of the office. All I wanted to do was hug my beautiful boy and tell him what his mom had just done, but he and my mom were spending the night near Disney before heading back.
“Guess what baby?” I asked as soon as he picked up.
“What’s up mom?” He asked.