Rock Hard Love(24)

“Whoa, I’m not his girlfriend. We slept together,” I said not wanting to move too fast and make assumptions. OK, I wanted to make assumptions but I forced myself not to. I suppose that wasn’t necessary after everything that had happened, but James hadn’t said it and so I refused to think it.

“Oh, girl. C’mon! You’re his girlfriend. I can’t wait to tell everybo…,” Josie began to say but I stopped her in her tracks.

“No! Don’t you dare. I don’t want Entertainment Tonight parked out in front of the apartment. This doesn’t leave the room. Not yet, OK?” I scolded Josie.

“All right,” she replied.

“Promise me,” I added.

“Promise,” Josie answered obviously disappointed by my demand. She was an unabashed gossip and I wondered if telling her was a good idea. She was my best friend in L.A. but I wondered if she could really keep quiet. I didn’t want James to have to deal with the paparazzi and I didn’t want to deal with that either. I’d been in the talent agency long enough to learn how vicious those people could be. I felt like things were going well and I didn’t want anything to ruin it.





~11~



Telling Josie everything weighed on me all evening and before we went to bed, I made her promise to keep quiet again. She seemed sincere, but she gossiped like most people breathed. It was too late to take it back so I had no choice but to trust her. But as I’d discover, the paparazzi were the least of my concerns. I went into work the next day as usual, except to my new squatter’s office. My name was still on the door and I took that as a good sign.

Peter stopped in and said good morning but with Victoria’s warning to him not to help me, he couldn’t risk staying long. I understood. I unpacked my briefcase and found the contract. I’d totally forgotten to show it to James and the band. I was so caught up in the excitement of the show and being with James it slipped my mind. I contemplated emailing it to James but I never got a chance. Before I could even figure out how to break what I hoped would be good news to the band, Victoria found me in my new office.

“Nice! I see you’ve given yourself a promotion,” she said coldly. I suddenly felt like a child that had been caught doing something bad. She had that effect on people.

“I just thought since it was empty...,” I replied weakly. I hated how she made me feel.

“Well, since you’ve got a fancy office now, we can talk here,” she said as she closed my door and took a seat. She grabbed the draft contract before I could put it away and looked it over, the good parts highlighted for James’ convenience. “Well, look at you. Looks like you’ve done well for your boyfriend,” Victoria said and I tried hard to keep a straight face but I know I reacted to her words.

“I just did what Mr. Turner asked,” I lied. The contract was all my doing and James knew nothing about it. I called him Mr. Turner in an attempt to deflect any thought of us being intimate.

“I see. Well I know you’re aware of company policy on such matters. I had my assistant pull your signed copy of those policies. They clearly state that sexual relations between company employees and clients if strictly forbidden,” Victoria said. I felt my face flush and I was suddenly hot.

“I…I’ll keep that in mind,” I said hoping this was all just Victoria’s way of screwing with me. I doubted she was going to apply the policies strictly but instead use them to keep me under her thumb. I was wrong.

“I know about your little trip to San Francisco and your little tryst with Mr. Turner. Never mind how I know. What’s important is the fact you’ve violated company policy. Pack your personal belongings and be out of the building in no more than an hour or I’ll have security remove you. Understood?” Victoria said coldly and then grinned smugly at me.

“But James wants me to be his agent. He’ll leave the agency,” I said desperately but I already knew Victoria wasn’t going to back down.

“I’ve spoken with Mr. Turner. He won’t be going anywhere. This contract you’ve so naively negotiated for me will help insure that. He’ll be grateful that I’ve negotiated so well on his behalf,” Victoria said and then added just to be mean, “Money is far more important to Mr. Turner than some halfwit floozy stupid enough to believe he really gives a damn about her.” I tried to ignore her mean-spirited words.

“I negotiated that, not you. You can’t do that. I’ve got copies on my hard drive and I’ll take them with me. I’ll tell him the truth,” I countered but in my haste to try to gain the upper hand, I gave away too much. Victoria picked up my phone and pushed a few numbers.