AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“It’s my life!” she sobbed. “It’s my career and my friendships, and my family will see that! My writing staff will see that! Everyone’s going to think my entire success is because of who I am fucking!” She pushed back from him.
“No! They won’t, they’ll–”
“It’s like the ‘wedding photos’ Rick!” She recounted what Jill had told her, watching his face change as he realized what he had done in encouraging Thad to cut ties over a gossip story.
“Okay,” he said softly, and she watched him shift gears again into solution mode. “Okay. You’re right. Listen… Why don’t you stay here today. I’ll tell everyone you’re sick. I’ll talk to Thad and I’ll call Kyle. We’ll get this figured out. Don’t worry. We’re going to get this figured out.”
"I just don’t understand how it happened. It means that someone on our team sold the pictures and the story.”
“Or a local. It could have been a local.”
“How would they have contacts at US? For an indie film?”
“Well, we have been here a while. Maybe a local outlet is connected?”
“This is... It’s mortifying, honestly.” Rhiannon wiped her face and took a shuddering breath. “At least with the nudes–at least that was the truth. But this? You were there! You saw what it was.”
“With my own two eyes,” Rick said. He shook his head. “I’m so sorry this happened. This fucking film–it’s cursed. I’m so sorry.”
“You didn’t do it,” Rhiannon said.
“No, but it happened on my watch. On my film. Jesus.”
“They just make up the stories they want to tell to sell the magazines. You can’t even live a life without someone there to take a picture if you’re halfway famous.”
“Are you going to be okay?” He looked stricken.
Rhiannon sat down on the edge of the bed. “I honestly don’t know.” She threw up her hands. “I went to LA to take the Simon Says job because it would look good on my resume. I knew it was a setup. Everyone said it was a setup because they were trying to cancel the show, so if they brought in an inexperienced head writer it would be easier to blame me when ratings dropped. I took it on as a challenge and I got them nominated for an Emmy. I went to LA to prove myself, and just when I thought I had, just when we got the nomination–this. I just look like I sleep with everyone. Now? This is going to overshadow everything I’ve worked for.
“I took this job thinking I could prove myself in a different way, and now it’s going to look like I only got the job because I was sleeping with Thad. And god forbid anyone finds out I’m actually sleeping with you.”
He said nothing, just let her continue. “I hate how it is for women in this industry. In my internships, in my first few real writing jobs, they all came with a certain amount of getting my ass slapped. I took it like everyone else does. I laughed at the jokes like everyone else does. I tried to be above the constant harassment–even Thad’s teasing, you know? But I never slept with anyone for a job. No matter how hard I work, though, there’s always something that brings it back down to who I might or might not be fucking.”
“I didn’t give you this job because I wanted to sleep with you,” Rick said in a strangled voice.
“I should hope not!”
“I gave you this job because I was impressed with your work. I know you never slept with anyone for a job.”
“Well, the rest of Hollyweird seems to think that since I slutted it up with Kline, I’m just willing to slut it up with anyone. Now with this, it’s going to be even worse.”
“I’ll make a statement on behalf of you both,” Rick said. He was looking for his pants. “I’ll make it a priority.”
“I don’t want any statements made. The pictures show exactly what the captions describe. There isn’t a statement that can be made that changes that. People are going to look at those pictures and see what they want to see. I just don’t know if this is the life I want to have. As long as I’m working in this industry, being in the same room with famous people, I run the risk of more of this.”
“Please don’t let this stop you from your career! You’re good at your job!”
“If it affects my career, it’s only going to be from the perspective of where I’m sitting. I’m not going to let those bastards keep me from doing what I love. I’ll just find a different way to do it.”
Jill Parker
The trailer was still and quiet, nothing but the constant hum of the air conditioning unit stirring the air as Jill sat staring at the clock. Now and then, a voice or laughter from outside would turn her head, but for the past eleven minutes she’d been daring the digital numbers to flash forward to 10:27. She had four more minutes to go before she could walk back into the bathroom and check the results on the pregnancy tests she’d taken. Technically, she told herself, she could have just stood over the tests in the bathroom for fifteen minutes to watch them develop, but that had never helped before.
It was the last week of filming, and she was realizing that what she thought was stress, or a bug simply wasn’t. She had felt this way before, with a constantly sour stomach and sore boobs, and even though she wasn’t truly late for her period yet, it also hadn’t started when she’d expected. So, she had asked her PA to discreetly pick up a few home tests. Now, watching the clock, she couldn’t decide how she wanted the tests to read.
If it was negative, she told herself, no worries. Negative was good. Negative meant the five-year plan was on track and she just needed the warning to be more careful about birth control. If it was positive? She couldn’t even let herself think about that because if it was negative, she was going to be so disappointed. Just the thought of being pregnant made her heart leap and she couldn’t let herself even go down the path of all the cons of an unplanned baby without that little voice in her head echoing the word, “baby!” Anyway, if it was positive, she was sure her entire team would be there to outline every wrinkle it would cause.
In a show of self-discipline second only to how long it had been since she’d tasted ice cream, Jill waited six minutes before steeling herself. The four steps from where she sat on the bed of her trailer to the closed door of the bathroom stretched out like a mile until she could put her hand on the doorknob and give herself the big reveal.
