At first, I wasn’t focused, and both Paul and Fritz took turns pounding me. Then Paul made a mistake.
“Your fighting is so bad today, you couldn’t land a role on the Lifetime Network,” he teased.
I gave him a hard look.
“What the hell did you just do?” Fritz wondered aloud.
Paul was soon begging like a baby for me not to hurt him. Fritz, on the other hand, was a cagey veteran. I think if we weren’t pulling our punches, we might have killed each other. Turned out, coming to the dojo was precisely what I needed.
◊◊◊
Caryn was waiting for me in my suite when I came back. I promised Fritz and Paul that I would stay in tonight so they could meet their ‘dates’ for ‘dinner.’
“Order us some room service, please, while I take a shower,” I said as I walked through the living room.
Cuban food was bland, but they did a pretty good steak with baked potato here at the hotel. Whenever we traveled on vacation, I wanted to try the local cuisine. It had only been a few days, and I was ready for a good burger.
When I came out of the shower, Caryn began to tell me about her day.
“Cassidy talked to Kimberly and her mom, and they don’t want any part of bringing down Laurent. They worry about what it would do to Kimberly’s career. She’s willing to have Cassidy help her, though.”
“What happened this morning?” I asked.
“Laurent wanted to know how last night went with you, and Cassidy told him that that kind of thing was over. He got the message and left Kimberly alone the rest of the day.”
I just nodded my understanding.
“I talked to your dad and filled him in. He called Bev Mass to get some direction. She offered to put out an inquiry to see if he’s been accused of anything like this before,” she said, and then frowned. “I think you need to fire Saul.”
Saul and Caryn didn’t get along. Yes, he was a condescending prick sometimes, but even she agreed he was a good agent. For her to say that, something bad must have happened.
“Why?”
“He said you need to grow up and recognize the realities of the business. He didn’t seem fazed that Kimberly was only fifteen until I reminded him that his daughter was thirteen. His advice was not to rock the boat and to keep your mouth shut,” Caryn said.
There is a famous saying that goes something like ‘all that is required for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing.’ It was Saul’s attitude that was the part of Hollywood that had allowed this kind of behavior to be accepted. I wasn’t a prude, but what Laurent had done was wrong, and I just couldn’t let it go. In a way, though, Saul was probably right. For now, I needed to keep my mouth shut. I couldn’t just accuse the man based on what Cassidy had told me. Before I fired Saul, I needed to talk to him.
“Saul Gessler’s office.”
“Yes, may I speak to Saul, please?”
“May I ask who is calling?”
“David A. Dawson.”
“I’m sorry, Mr. Dawson, but Mr. Gessler is unavailable. Would you like to leave a message?”
“Yes. Please let Mr. Gessler know that his services are no longer needed,” I said and hung up.
“What was that all about?” Caryn asked.
“His new guard dog won’t put me through. I’ll let her explain why he was fired,” I said as I looked through my contacts.
I’d warned Saul about me being on set and just ignoring me. If she’d been helpful at all, I might not have been pissed. I found Thelma Yates’s number. I’d met her when I took Halle to Soho House in West Hollywood. Halle had pointed her out as Channing Tatum’s agent.
“UTA, where may I direct your call?”
“Thelma Yates, please.”
“Who, may I ask, is calling?”
“David A. Dawson.”
“One moment, Mr. Dawson.”
“David! So good to hear from you. I can’t say that I’m surprised,” Thelma said.
“Why do you say that?” I asked.
“You haven’t heard? Saul might be out of a job.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“He had a fight with his partner, and she was the money behind his venture. Unless he can buy her out, he’s out.”
That might be a good reason not to take my call.
“Okay. Thanks for the information,” I said and hung up.
I couldn’t see myself kicking him while he was down. I told Caryn what Thelma had said and my decision to wait.
Caryn gave me an update on the plans for the grand opening of the restaurant. It sounded like it would be a busy night with the number of confirmations they’d received.
◊◊◊ Saturday May 21
I was not expecting Saul to call me so early in the morning.
“Sorry I didn’t get back to you yesterday. Caryn said you had some concerns about Laurent Vance. I’ve made some calls, and it sounds like this might be an ongoing issue with him, but no one wants to confront it.”
“I understand you have some of your own issues.”
“Let me worry about that. I have a new cell phone. Call me on that,” he said and gave me the number.
“This deal with Laurent has me more than a little freaked out. I understand that shouting from the rooftops is probably not the best tactic, but I can’t let it go, either. I won’t stand by and let him take advantage of others like that.”
“Look, I said some things to Caryn, but she deserved it. Ignore her and me bickering; that’s between us. I have your back on this. I’ll talk to Gabe Francis about it,” Saul assured me.
“Alright, you do what you need to do, and I’ll keep my head down for now.”
“Oh, and tell Thelma Yates to suck my balls the next time you talk to her.”
I about dropped the phone. There was the Saul I was used to.
◊◊◊
Today was a light day for me on set, so I planned to go to the baseball game the guys I practiced with were playing. I drew Paul as my babysitter. Fritz had a ‘date’ with his new Cuban girlfriend. Paul and I joked around about it, and Paul advised that I not knock it until I tried it. I won’t go into details, but it sounded like they were having fun.
We caught a cab to Estadio Latinoamericano, the stadium the game was being played in. I was impressed when we pulled up. This place was bigger than Wrigley Field in Chicago. I asked an older man about it, and he told me it held over fifty thousand people. The professional team, Industriales, called this home. Because of the rivalry, they planned to have their youth game played here today.
When we walked into the stadium, it wasn’t even close to being full. But all the same, it had to be a rush for the youth teams to play on this field. Paul and I were making our way to our seats when a police officer stopped us.
“Dame su dinero.” (Give me your money)
While I wasn’t expecting to be shaken down in Cuba, I guess I wasn’t shocked, either. I translated for Paul, and he gave me a pained look. I just shrugged. We’d been told not to carry much cash or anything of value. We both pulled out our tourist money and handed it over. Some of the fans yelled at the police officer, but he took our money and left us alone.
“Did you get that?” Paul asked.
“Yes.”
I’d worn my bodycam glasses, but Paul had forgotten his. We would worry about money after the game. I figured it would be more trouble than it was worth to do anything about it.
The game was hard fought. The teams were evenly matched, and there was a lot of emotion from the fans. It reminded me of when we played Eastside. In the end, the good guys lost, but they had nothing to be ashamed of. It was just the way the ball bounces some days. A seeing-eye grounder slipped through to cost them the game.
We made our way to the players’ entrance so we could congratulate the team when they left. When they finally came out, Coach Conde, Tony, and Luis came over to say ‘hi.’ Luis wanted to introduce me to his family.