“I wish my lawyer was as hot as you, but I’m stuck with Rami here!” Chad slapped Rami on the back. He just didn’t know when to shut up. “Ophelia, huh? Never met one of those before! Can I call you Big O for short?” The laughter died in his throat when he got nothing but icy stares from both of us.
Ophelia turned to Alex. “Is he serious? Is he trying to be funny by being a walking stereotype?” She turned back to Chad, looking him up and down with distaste. “Brad, is it?” She waved dismissively when he tried to cut in. “If we could keep the frat-tastic behavior to a minimum, this will be much less unpleasant for everyone involved. Do you have the maturity to discuss this agreement or do we need to drop you off at daycare and go find a grown-up to represent Mr. Chase?”
Apparently undeterred by the withering look she continued to give him, Chad blurted, “Hell, you’re the one who should be a dominatrix! I’m kind of terrified of you.”
“I am a dominatrix.”
I met Alex Chase’s eyes and couldn’t quite fight down a smile at the delighted amusement twinkling in his expression. We were both enjoying Ophelia destroying Chad. He grinned when he saw me crack, so I narrowed my eyes, but he didn’t look away.
Thankfully, Rami said, “Have a seat,Brad, and let’s get started.” He cut the tension by sliding a set of documents across the table to us. “Shall we walk through the final thing quickly together? It’s a pretty standard contract arrangement. The term is 31 days. Let’s focus on the “dates” Lady Elena and Mr. Chase will have, which are outlined on page 37. Some of these are appearances Mr. Chase has scheduled and others will serve as meetings to train under the guise of a date. Asha will appropriately notify the press of your movements and leak information as necessary. Asha, can you discuss the strategy for the dates and what we hope to accomplish? ”
Asha said, “Here’s the overall plan. We capitalize off your current notoriety and stage a few good photo ops to make people lose their minds wondering what’s going on between the two of you. We won’t give any official statements or interviews right out of the gates, but I’ll offer enough candid photo ops and anonymous quotes that the public will be foaming at the mouth.”
Chad flailed his hands animatedly. “I want you to roughen up his image a little. Up to this point, we’ve protected the wholesome brand, but this would be a good moment to rebrand and explore some edgier angles to Alex Chase. I want people to wonder if he might have a thing or two in common with Lucas Steel.”
Asha nodded. “We let the frenzy build, fanning the flames as needed, and then play on the sympathy when Alex gets his heart broken. We absolutely cannot let the public suspect any of this is staged. I’ll adapt our media plan when we see how people are responding to each phase, so this schedule is tentative.”
“The compensation is what was discussed at our last meeting,” Rami said. “The various statements and strategy for the public dissolution of the relationship are on page 57.”
A woman motioned to Rami through the glass wall, and he glanced at his watch before nodding to her.
“If you don’t have any amendments, we can go ahead and move to the signature pages.”
He started to turn to the flagged pages with eyebrows raised slightly in question. Ophelia pulled her copy of the contract from her purse, setting it gently on the table in front of her. She should have warned me because I nearly laughed aloud at all the markups. There were multicolored little flags sticking out from most of the pages.
Rami didn’t manage to hide the alarm on his face. Poor guy was way out of his depth and had yet to realize the full extent of it. She got off on this.
Ophelia said, “Let’s start with page one…”
She nudged my knee under the table, my cue to be far too Busy and Important for this conversation.
I glanced at my phone and showed it to Ophelia gravely. “I need to take this. Is there another room I could step into?”
“No problem.” Chad immediately jumped up. “I can take you to my office.”
It bothered me that he put his hand on my lower back when I stood up, but before I could say anything, Ophelia plucked his hand away. “Touch my client without permission again and I take this finger home as a souvenir.”
I winked at her and moved towards the door only to jerk in surprise when suddenly, from behind me, Alex Chase started making fake, exaggerated ringing noises. “Ring-ring! Ring-ring! Oh my gosh! I have a Very Important Phone Call too! I guess I better show you to Chad’s office and take my ‘call’ out there.”
His grin made it clear he didn’t buy my excuse to leave and he was poking fun at me, but trying to defend the lie would only make me look dumb. I rolled my eyes, but followed him out of the conference room, several doors down to what I assumed was the aforementioned office, wondering how best to get rid of my soon-to-be boyfriend so I didn’t have to make small talk with him while we waited.
5
Alex
“What are you doing? I need to take this call.Privately.” Elena lowered herself gracefully onto one of Chad’s overstuffed leather chairs like it was her throne and glanced at the door expectantly.
It was obvious Lady Elena expected me to show her inside and leave, but if we were doing this, I needed to make sure the two of us were clear on something. Everyone else could make all the rules they wanted, but there was only one that really mattered to me and I wanted to talk to her about it alone.
Sorry, Your Highness. It’s going to take more than that to intimidate me.
Instead of leaving, I plopped down on the couch, enjoying how infuriated she looked more than I should have.
“Cut the shit.” I grabbed some candy from the jar on the coffee table. “We both know you don’t have a call.” I didn’t pause to let her confirm or deny. “You’re a decent actress, but your body language gives you away. It’s fine. But let’s lay some ground rules between us while they’re working out the contract, or this isn’t going to work.”
“Like what?” she asked.
I looked her straight in the eye. “No more bullshitting. People want things from me. I’m famous. There’s almost always a hidden agenda. You get used to it after a while, but since the nature of our…arrangement…is so personal, I need to know the hidden agenda between us is only what’s being negotiated in that room. With each other, we’re straight up. No lies.”
