Part 6 (1/2)

Audrey has finally shown up and the way she is acting should be laughable. But everyone is lapping it up. I left the table because I couldn't sit still with all the bulls.h.i.+t flying around.

”These are some serious allegations, Mr. Eversea. Would you like to comment?” Reasonable Andrew asks.

What I'd like is to shower, shave, sleep for forty-eight hours, and wake up in a parallel universe. A universe where I was supposed to wake up and see Keri Ann Butler lying next to me and Spanish moss swaying outside the window.

”Well, obviously, none of it's true.” Sheila jumps in. ”Ms. Lane is a little confused by the sequence of events. Those pictures were taken after Ms. Lane's affair. But, as we all know, that's probably neither here nor there as far as the public is concerned. As for the a.s.sault, Mr. Eversea did, in fact, hit someone in Savannah, Georgia. But he is not, nor would he ever be, a physical threat to Ms. Lane.”

It's a good thing the California coast is beautiful because there is nothing redeeming about the ugliness of the city I'm existing in right now. I turn around and put my back to the window.

”Mr. Eversea, your statement says you punched someone two months ago, and yet you have a bandaged hand. We will need a release from that individual in Savannah stating he waives the right to press future charges. But Ms. Lane's statement says that during a disagreement eight days ago, you expressed rage and punched a wall so hard that you, obviously, required medical attention.” He looks meaningfully at my hand. ”This doesn't sound like Ms. Lane can be a.s.sured you pose no physical threat to her, and frankly, this is worrisome for your future dealings with Peak Entertainment in general.”

My shoulders are so tense, I'm in danger of going into a spasm. ”Well, Andrew ...” I face the window again and address the group behind me whose reflection is super-imposed on the grey city haze. ”In the ten minutes preceding the point where I punched my wall in my house, I'd been informed that Ms. Lane, with guidance from my ex-agent, had fabricated a pregnancy. I'd just spent two months believing I was going to be a father.”

”I appreciate the surprise of that, Mr. Eversea, if it was indeed the case, but Ms. Lane claims it was not a fabrication and that she lost the baby.”

”I know what she's claiming. We all do. You all have both our statements written out in front of you. And you're clearly of the impression that she's telling the truth and I'm lying. And frankly? I don't give a s.h.i.+t. What I would like to know is what you'd like me to do to get past this point. How do we get to a point where I don't have to interact with Ms. Lane in any further capacity, personally or professionally? Ever.” I hear a shocked gasp from Audrey's direction but refuse to look at her.

”Well, obviously, we have a duty to protect the brand we have created with the Warriors of Erath franchise. As per your contract and our normal procedure, the relations.h.i.+ps created as part of the brand should continue at least six months beyond the last project. As it stands, the brand took a rather large hit with the actions of Ms. Lane. In order to overcome that, we either need you all to continue being seen together-”

”No.” It's out my mouth before I notice.

”Unacceptable,” Sheila says at the same time.

”Let me finish,” Reasonable Andrew says calmly. ”The alternative is, since that seems likely to cause more harm than good at this point,” he looks pointedly at Audrey and then at me. G.o.d, I feel like I'm eleven. ”We let the relations.h.i.+p end naturally, but to protect the public perception of both parties, neither can be seen to have a relations.h.i.+p for a period of time.”

For a moment, I regret not having my agent, a legal representative, in the room with me. But Sheila has danced enough of these proms to steer me right. I see her thinking hard.

”No. That still leaves everyone remembering what I did. That's not fair!” Audrey pouts.

”Well, the fact remains, Ms. Lane, you did violate the contract first.” Reasonable Andrew is not such a bad guy after all. He obviously doesn't believe Audrey's claim that my relations.h.i.+p with ”the girl in the picture” drove Audrey to do the same.

I fold my arms and look over at Audrey in detail for the first time since she walked in. I honestly feel like the last three years have been a dream. A different Audrey. This Audrey's a stranger.

Dropping her eyes from me, nervously, she confers quietly with her agent and her publicist by means of some scribbled notes back and forth. Then she vehemently shakes her head. ”I'm scared of him!” she bursts out, and her agent almost rolls his eyes before he catches himself.

Now I really do feel like smiling. I don't, of course. There's nothing funny about what's going on here.

”Okay,” says Andrew. ”I understand if you have a legitimate safety concern, we can address that issue in a moment. But first, the contract between you two is easily amended. As of today your relations.h.i.+p, as encouraged and endorsed by Peak Entertainment, is done. We had an earlier meeting to address some of our available options. Moving forward, as long as you both are under the time line from the original contract, we can amend the relations.h.i.+p portion, and Peak will adopt the position that we have no position on whether you are romantically involved or not.”

A small drop of tension slowly seeps from my shoulders.

Audrey looks spitting mad.

Andrew looks to Duane, who nods. ”So given that we'd like to protect both of your reputations, and by extension the brand of the Warriors of Erath franchise, Ms. Lane will not make any accusations of infidelity toward Mr. Eversea. And in return, Mr. Eversea will not enter into any other relations.h.i.+p for the remainder of the contract term.”

s.h.i.+t.

My mind is churning. No relations.h.i.+ps for the rest of the contract. That's at least four or five months.

f.u.c.k.

Unreasonable Andrew looks at both of us, in turn, for a reaction to his proclamation that neither of us can date. At all.

I can see Audrey is bristling, but she's also quietly smug at winning that round.

No relations.h.i.+ps, means no relations.h.i.+ps. It means, really and truly, any idea of going back to Butler Cove and figuring things out with Keri Ann may be impossible in the near-term. But surely I can at least go there. Briefly. It doesn't need to be common knowledge. I'll have to do a better job at hiding it.

Audrey is clearly on my wavelength. ”Wait,” she says, her eyes glinting. I tense further. ”If Jack is photographed with any girl on more than one occasion, then I will consider, and Peak should too, that he hasn't held up his end of this deal.”

And I'm sure she'll make sure there are photographs.

”That sounds tricky. That could easily occur incidentally, too much room for error for us to add that into a contract.”

Thank you, Andrew.

”Fine.” Audrey sticks her chin up. ”Then he has to stay away from Keri Ann Butler, specifically.”

G.o.d, she's a b.i.t.c.h. I try to stop my jaw dropping. ”Wow, Audrey, I never knew you to be so threatened.” I pause and swallow. ”Don't worry, she's more of a person than you or I put together. You should congratulate yourself, I'm not sure she'd have me anyway after the stunt you engineered.” My chest tightens with rage, and I'm curling and uncurling my fingers under the table.

”That shouldn't be a problem,” Sheila interjects, shooting me a warning look and then looking at Andrew. ”But Mr. Eversea would like any and all copies of the photographs that Ms. Lane ordered taken without Mr. Eversea's permission that include both himself and Keri Ann Butler. I'm sure you'll agree that in accordance with this amended contract and to protect the brand, the new terms should specify that they should be removed from potential circulation?”

Andrew is nodding, I think, but I barely notice. It's sinking in that Keri Ann and I are probably done. Done before we got a second chance. Wow. There's nothing like being told you can't have something, to really bring the loss home. I release a long breath from my crushed chest, and I'm almost surprised when I don't hear it whistling through the cracks. Getting to my feet again, I pace back to the window. This room is as suffocating as the dense smog outside.

”I think that would be fair,” Andrew says.

”How is that fair?” Audrey gasps. ”That's my leverage. What about ... my safety?” she corrects herself, quickly.

I glance back at her with narrowed eyes. She really is a piece of work.

Seriously? No one in the room believes her, but she's still beating this horse.

”Audrey-” Her agent admonishes her.

”Yes,” Andrew cuts back in, ”we can address your safety issue. We'd like to offer to move Mr. Eversea out of the country for the remainder of the time on the contract. We have a project we could use his help on, in England actually, which we will discuss with him offline after the close of this meeting.”

I turn my head to look at him, gritting my teeth, trying hard to remain impa.s.sive. Every d.a.m.n time someone opens his or her mouth, the hole I'm in gets deeper. I vow to myself then and there that I will never get into a situation where someone can control me like this ever again. It's a promise that burns through my gut like a red-hot cattle poker. Never.

Audrey casts her eyes about. I guess she's trying to work out if I'm being given an advantage. Another project. If she's being pa.s.sed over? G.o.d knows.

”Do we have an agreement?” Andrew asks.

I turn around and see Sheila give me an almost imperceptible nod. ”Yes, fine with me,” I say to Andrew, and then nod at Duane and look at everyone. ”Whatever we need to do to move past this quickly and efficiently is fine by me.”

”Well, it's not fine with me!” Audrey bursts out, childishly. She's gotten what she wanted, me not to have anything to do with Keri Ann for as long as it'll probably take Keri Ann to never want anything to do with me anyway. What more can Audrey possibly want?

”Why do I have to look like the evil one in all of this? If we break up now, people will still remember that terrible mistake I made. If Jack is all goodie-two-shoes for the next few months, I'll still look bad. How can that be good for the Erath brand?” She points at me then. ”And does no one care that I lost a baby because of him?”

My mind churns. What the h.e.l.l? ”Audrey.”

She looks at me, stonily.