Page 61 of Hard Count
He started to type, Big game in San Francisco. Don’t get hurt.
Three dots kept appearing. Denial is so on brand for you, Ashton.
Chapter Twenty-Two: Los Angeles
In Century City, the conference room was glass on three sides, and had top floor views of the sprawling city below.
Vivienne took the center seat in a low-cut, black Gucci pantsuit, showcasing her doctor’s stellar work on her third pair of tits that cost more than the assistant’s annual salary. Carmen slid in beside her a second later.
“Bitch, you look like a rich fucking widow,” Carmen said under her breath.
“I am a widow. I married my career.”
“Tragic. At least I tried three times at the last count.”
“My career bought me this Cartier panther ring, Carmen. You keep losing half your net worth marrying those losers.”
“Bitch, I respect the ring. Also, I have no regrets. I loved them all for at least the first year.”
“Mm-hm.”
Vivienne set her Birkin bag on the conference table. Carmen placed her Chanel snakeskin clutch on the table and smiled at the team across from them the way one smiles at a dog who has shit all over her carpet.
Derek Molina, the brand’s CMO, sat his hands flat on the table, poker face was on full display.
Next to him sat Taylor Love, the creative director who had signed off on the unauthorized edit of the commercial. He was much younger than the rest of the room and seemed agitated. His foot moved up and down under the table.
Two attorneys were beyond them. The senior one was Meredith Goss, silver suit, YSL, a partner who was now regretting that she had taken the red eye from JFK to experience this. The junior attorney next to her looked like he might pass out.
Vivienne and Carmen were both practicing lawyers in California so no counsel was needed on their end.
Carmen leaned forward.
“Before we start,” she slid her phone onto the table, “I want to understand what you thought was happening here.”
“The campaign has exceeded projections and we are very happy with the results,” Derek said.
“Mm-hm. Derek. Honey. I didn’t ask about projections. Save your corporate fucking sound bite for your interview withAd Agethat will never happen.”
Meredith Goss stepped in. “Our understanding is that all footage captured during the contracted shoot falls within standard contract verbiage.”
“Meredith.” Carmen didn’t raise her voice. “I’m going to stop you right there because I like you, and we got drunk together that one time at a legal conference in Vegas. You remember that night at the Wynn, don’t you? I don’t want the record to reflect how much of a fucking idiot you’re about to make of yourself for money that is not yours.”
The junior attorney’s head turned slowly toward Meredith Goss. Meredith held still, reflecting on that day at the Wynn six years ago when Carmen and her sloppily made out after too many Aperol Spritzes at the Encore Beach Club.
Carmen hit play on the screen behind her in the conference room, the last twenty seconds of the commercial played.
Noah and Piper gave each other a look of pure yearning as the bathroom door opened. Carmen paused the clip as silence filled the room.
“You had footage your talent didn’t know was being used,” Carmen said. “You cut it without approval. Then you spent forty fucking eight million dollars on ad buys ensuring everyone in the world saw it. The intent was obviously to extend the narrative.”
“The intent,” Vivienne said, and it was the first time she had spoken, “was to manufacture something you didn’t have access to.”
Her voice was quieter than Carmen’s, which made the room lean forward without knowing it. Vivienne had grown up on a cattle ranch in Montana and had trained the cattle so this was nothing to her. The room, full of people who had probably attended some Manhattan prep academy, would not understand any of the things Vivienne had grown up on, and did not know the edge she had on them. Nobody ever knew she held the cards until they did.
“You built a media buy,” Carmen said, “around something you didn’t control.”
“We believed it fell within usage rights on the original contract,” Derek said.
