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"I've been working since I was born. I have not known a time in my life that there wasn't a project, show, or event scheduled in for me. I'm tired. I could retire now, but I would still need to work now and then. I want to make enough money in the next few years that I never have to work again. I can just let my investments work for me.”
Roland eyed her seriously. "I handle a few big names," he said. "They do what I tell them because I can get them what they want. Are you willing to work like that? Like Kline. I called Kline up tonight and said, ‘You need to be seen,’ and told him to be here in an hour. Here he is. Are you willing to do that?"
Jill glanced over at Kline who shrugged. He was bored, but did crack a smile at her answer.
"Until I make what I want, yes. After that, hell no."
"I can get you where you want to be. I think I can get you more. I'm sure I can. How airtight is your contract with your management?"
"Not at all beyond Devil’s Party, and a couple of small obligations. I signed a limited representation deal with them. I'll have my attorney call you."
Roland grinned and cut another big bite of steak, and Jill looked at her watch, “That was twenty-five minutes, not fifteen.”
“Ready to go?” Kline asked. He was.
“Wait, wait, wait,” Roland waved a hand. “Since I got you both here.”
“Roland, don’t,” Kline begged.
“I’ve been asking Kline how you might feel about a little shared PR? Nothing serious. Just being seen out together. He’s got an awards season coming up and having his name in the press is a good thing, but even better if the name comes under a picture of him with Hollywood’s hottest new commodity?”
“A showmance?” Jill asked, laughing. She looked at Kline and he felt himself wilting.
“Not even that. Just be seen around. Let Kline show you the city’s hot spots. Just be out where you can be photographed.”
Jill demurred. “I told Kline that I’m in a complicated situation right now.”
“The divorce?”
She looked surprised, but rallied quickly. “Yes. I’m expected in court next month to finalize everything. It’s complicated because my husband and I are both well-known, but no one knew we were married. To the public eye, we kept very separate lives. The city rags feel betrayed and Gary, my husband, hired Clark & Checks for PR and they’ve pretty well eaten me alive there in the last few months leading up to the big event. I’m lucky it’s contained to the Manhattan society and that no one is interested in my ex nationwide. It’s part of why I’m here in LA. I needed to be able to breathe.”
“So you understand the power of good and bad press,” Roland said, nodding.
Kline felt Jill’s eyes on him, so he opened his own. He had shut them halfway through that conversation and tried to pretend it wasn’t happening. The last thing he wanted was for her to shut him down in public over a fake romance. “Are you okay with this?” she asked.
The question surprised him. “Rol and I have been talking about Selena Gomez–trying to get something moving there.”
“Oh,” Jill said.
“But, Sweetheart, you’re three of her!” Roland said.
She looked back to Roland. “Like I said, I’ve been working my whole life. I fully understand the difference between my public and private persona. I kept a marriage hidden from the public for years, among other things, while theater gossip linked me to everyone except my husband.”
“And you didn’t mind those links?”
“I can’t control what people think,” Jill said. ‘I know what my job is. My job, as Jill Parker, is to disappear. My job is to become someone else. Sometimes, my job is to pretend to be a different version of myself.”
“You hear that, Kline? That’s a smart woman talking. Listen, I think both of you will do what it takes to get where you want to be. Why don’t you talk about it on your drive home? I gotta get out of here anyway.” He shoveled the last bit of steak into his mouth and wiped his lips, standing. “I already got the check,” he said around the chewing. “You two have fun.”
As soon as he was gone, all the warmth lighting Jill’s tone faded out into ice. “Is that why you wanted to talk to me?” She asked. “So you could use me for a fake relationship?”
“No!” Kline hissed, leaning closer, careful to keep his voice down and his face pleasant, just like she was. “No. I had no idea he was going to spring that.”
“But you were going to spring it, when?”
“I wasn’t. I’ve already told him no about you.”
She hesitated. “You did?”
