Frank almost growled at her. “Maybe if you hadn’t turned off your cell phone, we could have gotten ahead of this. You made your choice when you pushed the power button instead of calling me. Now I don’t have any choices at all. No work, no agent.”
“I’ll talk to Curtis. We can work this out.”
“Ellie, you need to leave. There is no talking; there’s nothing to work out. If you even try to talk to Curtis, you’re going to make everything much worse. You’re done for right now; it’s best just to accept that sooner rather than later. Consider yourself lucky if it ends with you just being fired.”
She frowned. “What does that mean?”
Before Frank could answer, a knock on the door interrupted them. A security guard stuck his head in the door. “Is everything okay in here? I was sent to escort Ms. Dampier out of the building.”
Ellie slammed her hand on the desk. “Are you serious right now?”
Frank flopped back down in his chair and avoided her eyes. “Goodbye, Ellie.”
Speechless, she walked to her dressing room in a daze. The guard stood awkwardly as she haphazardly packed up what had been her little kingdom. Within the hour, she stood outside the gates of the studio waiting on a taxi, with the contents of her dressing room piled next to her. The powers-that-be even refused to allow her use of the company car that had picked her up that morning. Her mind still reeled at the implications of what had just happened.
She texted Nita to meet her at the house as soon as possible. Once everything was loaded into the taxi, she stared out the window without seeing a thing. Disbelief still ran through her. Never in a million years would she have thought that Curtis would follow through on what she had taken as whining.
When the taxi made it up the long driveway, Nita stood waiting. “What happened?”
Ellie waited until the car left. She grabbed a box as she gave her friend the two-cent version. “I don’t even know what he said to everyone to get me fired so quickly.”
Nita grimaced. “I might be able to help you with that.” She held out a newspaper. A huge headline ran across the top.HOLLYWOOD ACTOR SEXUALLY HARASSED BY COSTAR.
Ellie grabbed the paper. “He didWHAT?”
Nita cleared her throat. “Umm, it’s more what he said you did.”
Ellie’s eyes widened as she scanned the article. “Inappropriate touching, sexual innuendos, implied blackmail. What the hell is that?”
“Basically, he felt like you were pressuring him to have a sexual relationship to keep his job.” Nita spoke fast, evidence of her nervousness.
“And people believe this crap?”
“Apparently. You got fired over it.”
Ellie crumpled the paper. “I got fired over the drama, for not listening to Frank when he told me to avoid this sonofabitch.” She remembered the guard interrupting them. “Or so I thought.”
Nita pulled the door open and grabbed a bag. “Come on. Let’s get your stuff inside.”
Once everything was stuffed in a corner, they took a bottle of wine to the balcony. Ellie shook her head as she poured.
“I can’t believe this happened to me.”
Nita accepted a glass. “Honey, a little tough love. You’ve been warned about this before.”
“Frank has always covered for me. And I’ve never been accused of criminal misconduct.”
“I don’t know how criminal he’s going to make it, but you need to be careful. This guy is totally not used to being told no.”
“And yet I stand my ground and now I’m the one out. I mean, who does this? Who goes this far to ruin a costar because I refused to go out with him?”
“Little man syndrome? Nita offered.
“Eww. Don’t even go there.” Ellie sipped her wine. "What am I going to do?"
Nita gestured around. "You live in a castle. Stay home. Order delivery. Go on a trip somewhere outside of the tabloids' reach."
"Does that place exist?"
