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Me: I’m not going to throw this in Laila’s face. I’m not even going to mention it to her.
Kendrick: You lied to Laila, too, remember? In fact, you lied first about that waitress in NYC, and then about all those women you brought into her dressing rooms. Call it even and let it go. Otherwise, if you bring this up to her, you’d better be ready to tell her all the shit you lied about, too. And WHY you lied to her. The FEELINGS you were having when you did all that. Are you ready to open up about how obsessed and crazy you were, behind the scenes?
Me: Not even a little bit.
Kendrick: That’s what I thought. So, keep your big mouth shut.
Me: I will. Thanks for the info. Gotta go.
I plop my phone down onto the seat, facedown, between Laila and me, while Laila keeps tapping away on her phone. Why didn’t she want me the way I wanted her, during that last month of the tour? I just don’t get it.
“Who are you texting with?” I ask, when she still hasn’t looked up.
“Aloha.”
“You were with her all day.”
Laila calls up to our driver. “Hey, Mike, could you turn up the music, please?” When music starts blaring loudly, Laila looks sheepishly at me. She says, “I have something I need to tell you. It’s something I’m contractually not supposed to tell you or anyone else. But, screw it. I’ve already told Aloha and I don’t want to keep this from you any longer.”
My stomach twists. “Okay.”
Laila takes a deep breath. “I kept this from you because I didn’t want to burden you with it, or make you change the way you acted on-camera. I thought if you knew what I’m about to tell you, you might act differently on-camera, in a way that didn’t seem natural.”
“Spit it out, Laila.”
She bites her lip and exhales. “There’s a termination clause in my contract. A buy-out clause, by which the show can send me packing, at their sole discretion, at any time, without prior notice, by paying me a hundred grand.”
“A hundred grand? Jesus, Laila. No.”
She nods.
“A hundred grand is peanuts to them!” I whisper-shout, running my hand through my hair. “No wonder you’ve been so stressed out about what Nadine said yesterday.”
“I’m obviously on the chopping block, especially after we didn’t deliver today.”
“You should have told me about this the minute Nadine left my dressing room last night, Laila!”
“I didn’t want to force you to do anything you didn’t want to do. Plus, I thought I could handle this on my own. But after today, when you were so sweet to me and I didn’t have the heart to be anything but sweet back to you, I realized I can’t do this alone. Everything depends on me delivering ‘Vintage Savage and Laila’ tomorrow. It’s my last chance to hit a homerun before the long break. After shooting was over for today, Nadine popped into my dressing room while I was changing and made it clear she was pissed about our ‘happy couple’ routine today. She didn’t say this, explicitly, but her demeanor made me think they’re going to fire me during the break if we don’t hit it out of the ballpark tomorrow, exactly like she’s requested.”
My heart feels like it’s exploding. “They can’t fire you. They’re contractually obligated to let you perform in the finale, remember?”
“Okay, so maybe they’ll invite me back to let me sing. Yet another chance for huge ratings.”
“But we’re picking four teams tomorrow. The whole audition process has been built around you being one of the judges.”
“That’d be an easy fix. They could fire me during the break, say we broke up and I didn’t want to return to the show. And then, they’d parcel off the contestants on my team to the three remaining judges and finish out the season with three judges, like always. Just think about the ratings if they did all that, Savage! They’d have a self-created ‘scandal.’ A big ‘mess’ they’d have to scramble to fix. Don’t you think everyone would tune in to see that? Not to mention, to see how poor Savage is doing after his breakup with Laila? I haven’t slept a wink since Nadine talked to us in your dressing room, and I’ve looked at it from every angle. I’ve decided I’m not paranoid. They’re going to fire me during the break, Savage. I can feel it. Unless we deliver what Nadine asked. And even then, I might be toast, regardless.”
“Well, fuck that. I won’t let them fire you,” I say, my jaw tight. “If that’s what they ultimately decide to do, then I’ll tell them I won’t do the show without you.”
Laila’s face melts with affection for me. She touches my cheek gently and smiles ruefully. “Thank you, but I’d never let you do that. You’re contractually obligated to do the show. You’d have a lawsuit on your hands.”
