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"What's your point? You pay me to look out for your best interests, remember? I'm telling you, right now, you need to be seen with someone high profile. A knockout. Someone who will send the media into a frenzy. An Academy Award, your very career, hangs in the balance."
"I'm seeing someone, and Jill's not interested.I kind of fucked her over back in the day."
Roland dabbed at his mouth with a napkin. "I'm not talking about love here, Kline. Or even like. This is business."
"Roland..."
"I'll get with her people.You'll have lunch here next week. Public--the paparazzi will love it."
"No," Kline said, raising his hand for emphasis. "Just stop this. I let you set me up for a lot of things, but not this woman. Not this time. Just leave her out of your grand schemes." He sighed, tossing his napkin on the table and settling back in his chair. "Besides, what part of 'I'm seeing someone' doesn't register?"
"All of it. I say who. I say when. I say how long."
"The line is how much."
"Whatever.I'm not Julia Roberts.Hell, she's not even Julia Roberts anymore. Jill Parker would be a great PR vehicle.And you know you want to drive that. Who wouldn’t want to drive that!"
"That was over a long time ago. I'm not interested, and neither is she. Just, please, Roland--let this one go. I don't want to use her for publicity, and I don't want to mess up what I've got going, okay?"
"We'll see."
They sat and ate, talking of mundane business until Kline saw that Jill and her party were standing to leave. Her manager went first, and then August lagged until his girlfriend practically dragged him along ahead of Jill, who wagged her fingers at Kline.She seemed to reconsider following the rest and walked over to his table instead.
"Hi," she said to Roland, "I'm Jill."
"Roland Davies," he introduced shaking her hand as he did. "Kline's manager."
"Right," she nodded, then looked to Kline. "I don't think you have my cell phone number–just the landline to the house. Would you like to have it?" She pushed back a lock of hair.
Kline couldn't hide his surprise at her appearance and her offer, but he recovered quickly. "Of course. Yeah, I only have the house number."
"I could put it in your phone," she said sheepishly.
Before she could finish her sentence, Roland had grabbed Kline’s phone and was putting it in her hand. "There you go. Drop your digits, Honey. He'll call you."
Half her mouth quirked up. "You're from New York, aren't you?"
"You bet I am."
"I like him," she said to Kline.
"Glad someone does," he said, shooting a warning look to Roland as she entered her number in his contacts.
"Most of the managers out here come off smarmy and fake," she said, handing his phone back to him. "At least he doesn't seem fake."
"Oh, he's for real."
She turned her most winning smile on Roland and laughed, "If you didn't belong to Kline, I'd hire you."
"You got management issues? I could hook you up."
"Not issues. No.I just have a very oily manager. He gets me dirty." Kline watched as she bit her lower lip. So fetching. She had turned on the charm and Roland was practically barking like a seal.
"I can take care of that." Roland produced a card. "Call me. We'll talk."
She took his card, then leaned and kissed Kline's cheek. "August doesn't answer my cell phone,” she whispered in his ear.
Intoxicated by her warm breath in his ear, a sexy smile stretched across his lips. "Thanks, I'll definitely call you."
