“And how are you suggesting we do that?” I ask.
He smirks, but I know not to trust the snake across Nigel’s thin lips. “It’s like I’ve been saying. You’re getting older, Zane,”
“That has nothing to do with my popularity,” I grit out.
“Maybe not. But your edge has gotten a little dull compared to…some of the other guys…”
“If you’re talking about Jett Navarro, I sign as many contracts as he does,” I snap.
“You do, but it never hurts to shine things up a bit.”
“How about we stop talking in circles and you just tell me what it is you want me to do,” I tell him.
“You need to be more relevant,” he says, and I know what he’s hinting at.
“I prefer mature women, if that’s where you’re going with this,” I say.
Actually, I prefer any and all women as long as they have a head on their shoulders and a little spice underneath.
“Either way…you need to find her,” Nigel says with a smirk. And despite my thoughts on most of his suggestions, I think he’s right.
Chapter 5
Ashlyn
“Doyou have any idea how much that camera cost?” My boss’s assistant, Prudy, asks.
“A lot?” I cringe. It’s a terrible answer, but it’s all I've got because I know how fucked I am right now.
“That was a Canon EOS-1D X Mark III,” she bullets each word, and I feel like the camera gets more expensive with every syllable.
“So I owe the company a couple grand,” I say, chewing on my pencil. I don’t know why I’m holding a pencil. I saw Prudy coming and reached for something to fidget with. Troy already stole the fidget spinner my therapist gave me, so a pencil was the best I could find.
“Eight. Thousand. Dollars,” she snaps.
“Yikes,” I cringe again.
“Yikes is right,” she says. “And when Deborah finds out that you lost it, you’re going to lose your job. And if you lose your job, I’mgoing to lose my job because I’m the one that told her that out of all the applicants, you looked the most promising.”
“And I am eternally grateful for that,” I tell her. What I’m not telling her is that I didn’t lose my camera in Zane Calloway’s backyard. It got hung up on his pergola when I fell into his hot tub trying to get a million-dollar shot. And then, of course, he smashed my camera into a billion pieces, but I don’t think Prudy needs to know that.
She narrows her eyes at me and then stands up straight to pat down her pencil skirt. “All I am saying is when Deborah gets here, I wouldn’t wanna be you.”
With that, she turns and walks away, heels clicking on the marble flooring. I take in a deep breath and let it out. Then I hear office chair wheels coming up behind me.
“Who pissed in her Cheerios?” My friend Alice asks as she suddenly, but not so quietly appears behind me.
“Same person as always, I am sure,” Troy says, rolling into my cubicle as well, actively playing with my fidget spinner.
Troy and Alice have been my allies at Sigma magazine since day one. They let me know the ins and outs of the paparazzi world: the good, not so good, and the downright ugly. They’re also a low-key couple. I call it low-key because while there doesn’t seem to be a lot of romantic chemistry between them, they’re outwardly together. Alice claimed Troy long ago, and they will die a couple, happily ever after or otherwise.
“What happened last night, anyways?” Alice asks.
“I broke my camera.”
“Wait,” Troy says. “Weren’t you supposed to be getting photos of Zane Calloway?”
“God, I was so jealous when you got assigned that job,” Alice groans.
