“That’s good,” Robbie said. He looked at Quentin’s lawyers. “Does the team plan on bringing any charges against Mr. Beckett?”
“Not if Quentin doesn’t want us to,” Jankowski promised.
“I don’t want you to,” Quentin said.
“That settles it,” Robbie Kaschen said. “Thank you all for your time.”
“Wait,” Shivonne said. “I don’t think we’re done. Theaccidentlast night was viewed by 5.1 million people live, and more have seen it online since then. My client goes on tour in less than a month, and Big Hockey has their panties in a wad and are trolling him online. It’s a PR nightmare for something that was an accident.” She nodded at Quentin and his lawyers. “I know you’re not to blame for the fans saying nasty things at my client, but the fact remains, they’re saying some terrible things. Accusing him of being violent, of hating the sport, of trying to sabotage your career.”
“That’s ridiculous,” Joel said, looking shocked. Quentin wondered if he looked at social media or if he kept strict boundaries to keep away from it.
“It’s war online,” Shivonne said. “Big Hockey against the Beckettes—those are Joel’s fans—and we’re trying not to feed the fires from our end. But simplynotfeeding the fires isn’t enough. I think we need to actively fight them.”
“What do you have in mind?” Caselli asked.
“As I said, Joel goes on tour in less than a month,” Shivonne continued. “We’re offering Quentin a VIP ticket to attend the tour—more tickets, if he wants to bring a friend or two—and when he goes to the tour, he’ll take some pictures with Joel, we’ll post them, show that they’re friendly, and that’ll be that.”
“That’s in a month,” Jankowski said. “That’s a whole year according to our news cycle.”
“Which is why,” Shivonne continued, “we’realsogoing to get some ‘candid’ photos of them today, at lunch, eating like the friends they are.” She was speaking through closed teeth. She really was the shark. “We’ll release them along with a statement, saying that Joel and Quentin became friends during the show, bonded, and that what happened last night really was an accident, and there’s no bad blood between them. The concert in a month will prove that they’re friends. Trust me,” she said to Quentin and his lawyers, “you want this, too. The Beckettes are a ruthless bunch. They can get anyone canceled. Hell, if they all mobilized to vote, they could shift the entire political framework of this damn country.”
“It’s true,” Joel added softly.
Quentin sighed. It wasn’t a bad idea, but it was also a terrible idea. One of the things he’d been looking for about the end of this week was that he’d never have to see Joel Beckett again. Now he’d have to get lunch with him today, and then see him again in a month. It was a miserable idea, but Shivonne made a good point. Joel was a global superstar with dedicated and powerful fans, and Quentin had already seen some of the hateful comments directed at him by Joel’s fans.
“Quentin?” Jankowski said. “What do you think?”
“I don’t like it,” Quentin admitted, “but I see her point. I don’t want to have any fangirls after me. As long as it’s just a staged lunch and a few photos, I can live with it.”
“And you get to go to a free concert,” Shivonne added, like that was a bonus.
“Lucky me,” Quentin said, feeling incredibly unfortunate with this turn of events.
Chapter 2
Joel
Joel had worked hard for his entire career to maintain the perfect image, and in one night, he had almost accidentally ruined it.
When he walked out of the conference room in 15 Madison Ave, with Shivonne and his lawyers in tow, he was seething, but he waited until they were in the large elevator going to the ground floor before he let his anger out.
“Assault?” he cried. “They wanted to accuse me of assault?”
“You’re fine,” Shivonne said. “No one actually made any accusations.”
She was right, and he knew it, but it didn’t make him any less frustrated. “I can’t believe this happened,” he muttered, shoving his hands in his pockets and staring at himself in the mirrored walls of the elevator.
Though Joel would never admit it, he had the temperament of a diva. He was high-strung and often demanding, but it came from a desire for excellence. He demanded excellence of himself, and he wanted the same from everyone around him. He lived in a fast-paced, high-stakes world, and he couldn’t afford things like mistakes or mess-ups. He couldn’t afford for things to be less than perfect.
Last night, onFriday Comedy Live, things had been less than perfect.
Truth was, he was more angry at himself than anyone else. He was the one who had messed up. He didn’t know how he’d hit Quentin. It hadn’t been his intention. It truly was an accident. He had swung his arms out like he was a student actor at the end of a theater production, intending to gesture to theFCLcrew in the wings, and his band beside him. But Quentin had been in his way, and Quentin had gotten a nose full of the back of Joel’s hand.
He knew what people would say, even after his team put out their perfect PR statement that everything was fine, just fine. He knew there would be more comments from the hockey trolls who’d love nothing more than to see Joel Beckett have a scandal. That was the nasty thing about the Internet. Even two days ago, many of those hockey fans couldn’t have cared less about Joel. Maybe they knew his name, because he was one of the most famous singers in the Western world, but they probably didn’t have any opinion on him, except maybe they thought his music sucked because it wasn’t country, or he wasn’t singing about beer.
But now they all had an opinion, and they’d been sharing it online. Joel was worried that the Internet trolls would start digging up stuff from the past. That’s what always happened when a celebrity of any sort had a scandal. People would dive straight for the archives to find anything embarrassing or incriminating.
Joel had nothing incriminating in his past, but he had plenty of fuel for embarrassment.
