Total pages in book: 100
Estimated words: 95609 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 478(@200wpm)___ 382(@250wpm)___ 319(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 95609 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 478(@200wpm)___ 382(@250wpm)___ 319(@300wpm)
She sighs, a weary sound. “Yes. I believe you saw what you saw, and I heard it in his voice when he called me. He told me the same thing. He told me he’s bisexual. I explained that I didn’t care. I do care that he hurt people in my employ. But there’s so much money riding on this.”
“He’ll do it again. If you hand him the reins that will put him back on top, there will be no stopping him. You’re making a monster worse. He’ll understand that there are no real repercussions to his actions, and he’ll behave accordingly.” I have a few questions to ask. “Would it be different if I’d found him molesting a young woman? If the PA had been Lily or me instead of Patrick, would you still be asking me to stand down?”
She sits back. “I don’t know. I think it’s far harder to prove that a man is harassing another man.”
“Why?”
“Because they tend to be sexual creatures, and Patrick is gay,” Jessica offers. “There will be people who say he likely wanted it and when he didn’t get everything he thought he should, he cried foul.”
“Like they don’t say that about women all the time? Jessica, you have been my mentor for years and I’ve respected you, but if you can’t see that this is the same, I’m disappointed.” Not words I ever thought I would say to this woman.
Her eyes are steady on me. “I have to be realistic.”
I give her back some steel of my own. “He has every right to a safe work environment.”
Her head shakes as though she’s already negating that argument in her head. “There won’t be a work environment if this all goes to hell. I doubt Kent Osbourne will come down on the side of a PA when the man who gave him his big break is already whispering in his ear that this is all a big misunderstanding and a production assistant is trying to blackmail him for cash. He’s good at this.”
I wasn’t playing games. “Then he can deal with the press when the lawsuit gets filed because Patrick doesn’t intend to blackmail him. He intends to have his day in court so Joe doesn’t do this to anyone else. He’s the hero here, Jess. He’s in the right, and you’re making decisions that put you in the same group you claim is everything that is wrong with our industry. That’s what I don’t understand.”
Her eyes narrow, anger obvious in her stare. “Don’t vilify me. You have no idea how hard it is to sit behind this desk. It’s easy for you. You don’t have to choose between a company you’ve spent your whole life building and your moral center.”
“I assure you none of this was easy for me,” I argue. “Did you know they would bug my room?” Again, I’m curious.
She bites her bottom lip. “Ah, so that’s how they knew you were seeing the king off set. I was rather surprised to find out you of all people would cheat like that.”
“Cheat? You need to decide which it is. Either the show is pure fantasy and then my relationship with the king is meaningless as long as we play by the rules on camera, or it’s a real thing and then maybe you shouldn’t have producers try to influence his every decision,” I shoot back. Now that I’m sitting here, I’m surprised at how easy it is to spar with her. I would have been afraid before, afraid to disappoint her, afraid to rock the boat.
Sometimes the boat needs to capsize.
“Joe means to use that footage of you if you don’t back down,” she warns. “I’m having to deal with that as well. If that footage gets out, I don’t know if we’ll be able to air the show. The reality show isn’t as important as the film franchise, but it’s got surprising buzz behind it. If he puts out the story that you and the king had a deal before filming ever started, it’s going to be bad for you both.”
“So this is the part where you blackmail me.” I’ve already thought about this possibility. It’s kind of hard not to when you discover you’ve made something of a sex tape. “Luca’s a big boy and the network needs this show. I don’t think you’re going to throw me under this particular bus, and if you do, the resulting scandal will likely bring Luca the press he wanted anyway. Instead of the king looking for a bride, he can become the bad boy of European royalty. He’s a smart man. He’ll figure out how to get what he needs.”
“And what about what you need?” Jessica counters. “I know you seem to think I’ve fired you, but no decisions have been made yet. I’ll take care of Patrick financially and you can come back to work. I’ll even give you whatever project you want.”