I clear my throat, trying to end this moment between us. “But then you took her and went to Pulse.”
He shakes his head in short, quick movements, the smirk back.
“You should have listened to my voicemail.”
That freaking voicemail.
I close my eyes. “Can we just get back to our current disaster?”
Our phones ring at the same time. I pick mine up from the table; Luke fishes his out of his pocket.
“It’s Bailey’s manager,” I say.
He holds his phone screen out toward me. “I’ve got River’s calling me.”
We take the calls, which last all of two minutes. It’s only thirty seconds into mine that I know why we both were contacted.
“Let me guess,” Luke says after we hang up. “You were just invited to a meeting at the studio tomorrow.”
I nod my head. “Yep.”
“This is probably not a congratulatory meeting to tell us what an amazing job we’ve done.”
I shake my head this time. “Nope,” I say.
The studio calling means they’ve been watching.
And they’ve seen enough.
Chapter 14
PR Tip #57:When the money gets nervous, everyone answers to the money.
Here’s something that I never thought would be on my bingo card: me, sitting in the massive conference room of Silverline Studios, a security badge hanging from my neck, framed posters of shows and movies they’ve made lining the walls, with extra-large ones ofKingdom of Flame and Moonlightfront and center.
Under normal circumstances, I would be fangirling—taking pictures of everything from the show for Sam and me. But because we are sitting in what feels like the PR equivalent of a divorce mediation, I have to be professional.
It felt a bit like a death march as we all filed into the large room, the heels of my black patent leather shoes clicking on the glossy tile floor. The mood was ominous and the lighting too dim for a room this size. It’s also, like, aggressively cold in here—I wish I had brought a jacket because I’m practically shaking.
But I’m also extremely nervous. This meeting is a big deal. And I’m not sure I’m made for big deals. I think I’m mostly up for the smaller, easier ones.
I’m not alone, though. Luke whispered to me in the hallway outside the conference room that he was feeling the same way.
“Is this how we die?” he said, standing so close that I could smell a spicy cologne he’s never worn around me before. I would have remembered it.
I snort laughed, which was actually annoying because our clients, who couldn’t even look at each other, both looked in my direction. It wasn’t very professional, and now I can add another bullet point to the list of why I don’t like Luke Wilder. At this point, it’s going to be a mile long.
And now here we are, me with Bailey and her manager, Kara, on one side, and across the massive conference table sits Luke, River, and his manager, James. Luckily, no one has died yet. But we’re just getting started.
“I think we all understand why we’re here today,” says Victoria Chen, the head of programming—whom I’ve already had the displeasure of speaking to—with her straight dark hair pulled back,wearing an incredibly expensive red tailored pantsuit. “Preproduction starts soon—table reads are next week. We’ve got our two leads who can’t even look at each other but are supposed to act out an epic love story together and a public relations problem that can no longer be ignored.”
She gets right to the point, doesn’t she? This should be fun. And by fun, I mean something akin to the feeling of getting a tooth pulled.
I look at Bailey sitting next to me, frowning as she focuses on a spot on the table. She’d warned me that Victoria was scary, but I truly wasn’t prepared.
“The question is, how do we move forward?” Victoria asks, looking around the room. Next to her at the head of the table sits Paul Lin, Senior VP of Production—a short, balding man in a crumpled-looking suit who looks considerably less impressive by comparison. He looks around the room too.
Luke raises his hand.
