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“Not really, Henry,” she sniffs. “But thank you for asking.”
I have little doubt she’s stressing about Levi’s manuscript and whatever Wyatt told her, but I can’t give that away. As far as she knows, I’m completely unaware of what’s going on.
“Were you enjoying Levi’s reading?” I ask, desperate to get her to talk.
She looks up at me, her nose bright red, black stuff smeared under her eyes. “Ugh. You know how many times I’ve listened to him read from that book?” She laughs weakly.
I laugh. “Yeah. Same here. I go to all his signings. I have to as his agent. But they do get tedious. Hell, these things get boring for him too.”
With her thumbs, she wipes under her eyes and transfers her smeared makeup to the legs of her black jeans.
But she misses a spot. “Hey, there’s still some, well, right here,” I say, trying to point it out without touching her.
She rubs at her face, still missing the spot.
“Here. I have a napkin. It has some wine on it but take it.”
She looks at me, like really looks at me. Her long, dark eyelashes are still wet from tears, and her eyes are bloodshot. But the redness in her face is fading quickly, and when she finger-combs her hair, I can’t stop staring at her slender neck, just right for… things I should not be thinking about right now.
“Thank you, Henry.”
“Perfect,” I say. “You got it all.”
She sighs. “I know I shouldn’t tell you any of this, the stuff going on at Empire, but what the hell. I don’t expect to be working there that much longer. I need to acquire a manuscript in order to save my job and it looks like that’s just not gonna happen.”
My stomach knots and I wish I hadn’t eaten those greasy stuffed mushrooms. At the same time, I think I deserve to feel like shit. After all, this woman is suffering more or less at the hands of us guys.
I know Levi put the kibosh on publishing the Ryder Night book but I’m starting to think maybe there’s no harm in letting it out in the wild, as long as it’s done carefully. Wyatt might actually be able to wear him down if he keeps up his campaign of pressure and then if I join in, well, maybe that will help. Either way, Amalia’s waiting for an answer, a simple yes or no, and she deserves to get that sooner rather than later. I know Wyatt’s drawing it out, avoiding contacting her in the hope that he can maybe, finally, get Levi to say yes. That’s still a big maybe, though.
I make a mental note to talk to the guys and settle this once and for all. No reason to string the woman along. As much as we all want an excuse to keep seeing her.
She dives into telling me how she found a book in her desk and how she met with a ‘guy named Wyatt’ in the hope of getting permission to publish it.
I nod with great interest, like the phony fucker I am.
“I haven’t heard a word from him, probably because I turned him down when he asked me out.”
I bite my tongue to keep from laughing. Her rejection shocked the shit out of Wyatt, which I find to be absolutely fucking hilarious.
Without waiting for me to say anything, she continues. “He probably figured he could get me to put out, like all men in New York do. I mean, I like sex, I really do, but these transactional kinds of things don’t do it for me. Like I have to go out with him in order to get his help with this book? How sleazy is that?”
She looks at me, waiting for an answer or some kind of agreement, but I’m so blown away I can only respond with a slight nod.
Did she really just say she likes sex? I mean, I think everyone likes sex, but I didn’t expect her to blurt that out in a stairwell at a work function.
“Hell, the book I found is way better than that shit Levi writes,” she says, shaking her head.
Now I really have to bite my tongue to keep from laughing.
She takes a quick look at me, and her lips are so fucking delicious. “Oh. Sorry. I just said that about your client. But facts are facts.”
Holy shit. This woman is a baller.
She gets to her feet and brushes herself off. She’s put back together but at the same time she’s not. There’s a sadness in her eyes that is making me feel like absolute dog shit.
It wouldn’t be that hard for us to help her. She’s a nice woman and everyone needs an occasional leg up, especially when they’re in the early stages of their career. First chance I get, as soon as this signing is over, I’m going to join Wyatt and put the pressure on Levi. It won’t hurt his career to publish this one thing as long as everyone agrees his name stays off it.
“You know, Amalia,” I say, leaning on the door before she can open it and return to the event, “I can… put my feelers out about this. If I can figure out who wrote it, I’ll see if they would be open to a meeting with you.”
