“Yeah, billboards, commercials. This would be a little bit ofeverything.”
“Who isthis?”
“Well, I’d be happy to disclose that, but if you’re interested, I say we at least sign an NDA and an agreement that you’re willing to work withus.”
“Oh, wow. Sounds like I need an attorney for this.” He pondered for a moment. “Commercials? I’d be like the GEICO Gecko?” he asked with awink.
“Probably more like Progressive’s Flo, but that’s actually a pretty good idea of what you’d bedoing.”
He chuckled before throwing his head back to enjoy a good laugh. He took another sip of his beer before saying, “This is some crazy shit, Dax, right?” I confirmed it, and he said, “Listen, you have to bear with me for a second. This has all been a lot to deal with recently, and so far outside anything I’m used to. I’ve spent most of my life in Fever Falls, and stuff like this just doesn’t happen unless you happen to be a big-shot sports celebrity like Ash Carmichael, who for the past few months had paparazzi hounding him after being outed online. But after my picture got big, I was getting all these calls, so much that I had to change my number. I even stayed at my mom’s place for a few days because people were hiding in the bushes outside my house to get pictures. It was out of thisworld.”
As I’d suspected, the guy was in way over his head. I almost felt bad that I would be persuading him to get himself in this that muchdeeper.
“You’ve gotta enjoy some of it,though.”
“Oh yeah. It’s a little fun, and it’s awesome having people and even kids coming up and asking for autographs. And I got Mac out of it,so…”
“Macis…”
“My little Shar-Pei.”
I laughed. “Of course. He looked like a Mac, so good name selection. So…what do you say, you interested in being the face of abrand?”
“Me, the face of a brand?” He laughed out loud, as though that was the funniest shit he’d ever heard. “But what exactly does that evenentail?”
“For something like this…a year commitment to the endorsement deal, but a longer non-compete clause. You’ll be expected to, at the drop of a hat, head off to any city, worldwide, for photoshoots and commercial shoots. You know how singers go on tour? Or like Miss America? You’ll be doing something similar, but to represent the brand at events, fashionshows…”
“What about thestation?”
“The fire station? You would have to take time off to make this commitment, but we could likely work something out for you to worktoo.”
He bit his lip, as though that was his greatestobstacle.
“I think maybe I need to tell you, we’re talking high six figures here. I’m not dicking you around, flying out here to bullshit you with some offer that won’t be well worth your time. This would be lucrative for everyoneinvolved.”
He sighed. “Yeah, I just don’t know. I’m sure you know this isn’t the first pitch I’ve heard since all this started, and…well, it was especially hard to handle when everything was happening those first couple of weeks. I like my life. I like my job. I like my little Shar-Pei.”
“Oh, we would expect the Shar-Pei to be part of the deal,” I assured him, finding the whole situation fairly comical. By the way he laughed at my comment, he seemed to aswell.
He shook his head. “It just doesn’t seem like me. Hell, this whole thing started over a dumbpicture.”
“Jace, it might have been a dumb picture, but it’s not: it’s gold. An opportunity like this is like winning thelottery.”
“Six figures? Yeah.Damn.”
Our food arrived, and I nibbled on my chicken tenders as Jace devoured his steak andfries.
He swallowed another bunch of fries before saying, “Well, you’ve definitely given me something to think about. Why aren’t you eating yourchicken?”
“I’m eating it,” I said defensively, and he offered a cross look inresponse.
“What kind of diet isthis?”
“A lifelong diet. Apparently, the gods gave you the metabolism of a titan, but I have to fight this shit off if I want to look even close to that picture ofyou.”
“Ah, you must have a pretty hot body. Comeon.”
Again with him catching me offguard.
