Page 2 of Me For You
“Maybe, maybe not. What you won’t do is stress me out in the process. Pick from the list I send you. They’ll all be qualified…”
“Nah, fuck that. I don’t want another publicist. You have that job, Van.”
“Used to. Now if you don’t mind…”
“I mind.” I scowled and brushed a hand over my head. “One more chance, Van. I swear I won’t fuck up again. Let me get one more chance.”
I made the demand with zero confidence that I wouldn’t end up right back here in a few months, or hell, weeks. When I drank, I did stupid shit.
“No,” she stated with finality.
“Van…”
She sighed and dropped back in her office chair, glaring at me. “Okay fine, you want one more chance, it’s going to cost you.”
“How much?”
Van smiled arrogantly. “Let me think about it. I’ll send you an invoice tonight along with the list of publicists I recommend. You either pay the invoice or pick a replacement. The choice willbe yours, but I promise you Ryland, this is your last chance. If your dick finds its way to the internet again, we’re done.”
“Fair enough. I’ma head out.”
“Good.” She was back to typing on her laptop and I decided to leave now instead of pressing my luck. As soon as I was in my truck, I hit my boy Omiri because he was about the only person who understood the position I was in with Van and I wanted to feel him out to see what level of pisstivity I had reached with her.
Omiri Hayes, Sharks quarterback and my best friend, was also signed to Vanessa. Until marrying his daughter’s mother recently, he’d been ten times worse when it came to media fuckups than I had ever been. Although only a handful of his indiscretions involved public nudity and sex tape scandals, prior to becoming a father and getting married, Omiri was the bad press headline in heavy rotation.
“She drop you?” Omiri said as soon as he answered the call.
I backed out of the spot before I responded. “No, but she threatened to. She even told me a list of replacement publicists would be emailed to me by close of business.”
“Damn, Van isn’t playing with you, Land. She never hit me with a potential list of replacements. She’s pissed, fam.”
“Shit, I guess so.”
“Can you blame her?” my boy asked and I pulled to a stop at a traffic light and slouched in my seat.
“Nah, I can’t. So no matter what this costs, she’s got it.”
“Oh trust and believe she’s about to hit your pockets, but real shit, Land. She might actually drop you. You better chill out.”
“This isn’t my fault. How was I supposed to know ol’ girl was going to post the video?” I frowned and pulled off when the light changed.
“I know you’re not serious right now. Do you hear the dumb shit you just said? You fucked someone in a club. Her homegirl recorded it and you didn’t think she would post the video?”
“Nah, I really didn’t. Why would she want that out there? She fucked me in a club.”
“Because she fucked you in a club, Land. You really think she cares about the moment going viral if she did that shit in the first place. I’m sure that’s what she wanted. You were a payday.”
I smirked. “You have a point.”
“Yeah I do and Van is not going to keep saving you from losing endorsements if you don’t get your shit together.”
“Daddy, Mommy wants my brother.”
I smiled when I heard Avi’s cute little voice come through the phone. If anyone had asked me a year ago if Omiri would ever end up in the position he currently claimed, I would have laughed in their face. Father of two, married, and wrapped around three sets of fingers—his wife Makari’s, their three-year-old daughter Avi’s, and his son Orion’s. My boy didn’t stand a chance at winning when it came to them but he didn’t give a damn. They could have every penny he owned and every second of his time. They made him happy, but after the years of darkness that consumed him, he deserved their light.
“Mommy’s working, Avi. She doesn’t want your brother right now.”
“Yes, she does, Daddy. She told me to get him so I can have you.”
