Because I’d been one of the people that Kimberly had slept with at Laurent’s behest, Frank Ingram, my publicity agent, wanted to have a chat.
“Tell me everything,” Frank said.
I noticed that Caryn, Cassidy, Fritz, and Paul all seemed to show up at my suite about the time Frank called. I made a hand motion that they should all leave, but Caryn shook her head ‘no.’ Finally, I gave up and put him on speakerphone.
“You want only the facts? Or do you want me to tell you what happened chronologically?” I asked.
“Let’s do it in order, and if I have questions, we can come back to them.”
“I was born in OW!” I complained when Cassidy jabbed me in the ribs.
“Don’t make me really hurt you,” she warned.
“Yes, ma’am,” I said and then got serious. “Kimberly came to my suite a couple of times with a group in the evenings. We all would watch movies, some cocktails were served, and I played a little poker. There was never much one-on-one interaction between the two of us. I liked her, but it never was going to be anything other than us working together.
“After a few nights, I shut down the after-work get-togethers for two reasons. One was to avoid getting a reputation as the ‘party guy.’ Since then, I’ve lent my DVD collection, player, and monitor to others who want to hold a movie night,” I said.
“What DVDs were played? Please tell me they weren’t porn,” Frank worried.
“No, they weren’t. Rita James wasn’t happy with my movie knowledge. She gave me classic movies that highlighted good acting.”
“That’s a relief. These gatherings never turned into anything other than what you described, correct?” Frank asked.
“No, we were good. If anything was going on, I had my security people with me, and they would have stopped it,” I said hopefully.
“Frank, this is Fritz. David’s right, there wasn’t anything sexual or illegal happening that you need to worry about.”
“Good, good. Not that I expected David would be into anything illegal … the sex …” Frank left hanging.
“Anyway,” I said to get the conversation back on track, “Kimberly showed up after work one night. She seemed nervous, and I thought about sending her away, but … ah … ya know … she went down on me,” I finished in a rush.
“I think I get the picture. Unless you did something kinky, let’s assume I can figure the rest out,” Frank said.
“What do you mean by kinky?” I asked to tease him.
“If you don’t know, have Fritz send you his recent browser history,” Frank said.
“Hey,” Fritz said, sounding aggrieved.
We all just smiled at him, and he took it the way Frank intended instead of getting offended. It was hard to offend an ex-military guy.
“Nothing kinky,” I assured Frank. “Cassidy woke me up in the morning and told me that Kimberly was much younger than I thought she was. I’d guessed she was in her early twenties. It just seems that all the actors playing teens are about that age.”
“So, you had no idea she was younger than you?” Frank asked.
“No, but I probably should’ve asked.”
“How did you find out that Laurent had asked her to come visit you that night?” Frank asked.
“Cassidy told me. She and Kimberly had started to become friends. There aren’t that many people our age here, so they bonded.”
“I won’t even ask why she didn’t warn you ahead of time,” Frank stated. That was an excellent topic I needed to discuss with Cassidy. “What did you do when you found out?”
“I gathered my team, and we came up with a plan. Cassidy was assigned to watch Kimberly to keep Laurent away from her. I called Bev Mass to see if she could find out anything about Laurent and whether he’d done anything like this before. Saul talked to the studio and expressed our concerns.
“There wasn’t much we could do when Kimberly wouldn’t go against him for fear he could damage her career,” I said.
“Now that she’s quit the film, she doesn’t have that same constraint,” Frank reasoned.
“I got the impression that this happened before with other roles she received. As much as I would like to expose the ‘casting couch’ dirty little not-so-secret, I can’t make unfounded accusations.”
“True. I don’t expect she’ll say anything, but if she does, I need to be ready.”
“That sounds expensive,” Caryn chimed in.
“What is peace of mind really worth?” Frank asked.
“But he didn’t do anything wrong,” Caryn said.
“You think the press will care? I thought you had that figured out by now,” Frank shot back.
I sighed. He was right. I’d only recently gotten a graduate-level education in how the press might react.
“Do what you need to,” I said.
“Two more items …” Frank began.
“Yes?” I asked.
“When were you going to tell me about you hooking up with the Cuban dancer?”
I turned to Paul with a confused look on my face.
“The picture,” he reminded me.
The club owner had shot a promotional photo of the two of us.
“I didn’t hook up with her. I just danced with her, and she asked me to get her a job,” I said.
“Doing what?” Frank asked.
“I put her in touch with Adrienne about modeling. I sent Adrienne pictures of Bianca, and she’s supposed to get back to me if she thinks Bianca could do it,” I said.
“What kind of pictures? From the rumors, when you left her dressing room, she was only in her panties and bra,” Frank said.
“How the heck did you know that?” I asked.
“I would assume she or one of her people leaked it. You know how that works,” Frank said.
Yes, I did, unfortunately.
“David, you’ve got to get your head in the game more than you’ve been doing,” Frank said. “Now, our last agenda item. We’ve reached a settlement with the outlets that kept the ‘anti-feminist’ story going after we’d sent them the unedited footage of your interview by the feminist activists. They’re going to run a retraction on their broadcasts, the same ones they published the doctored videos on. They’re also paying all your legal bills, including my fees.”
I was perplexed.
“Why didn’t Ms. Dixon run it by me?”
“Your mom and dad okayed it. You’re still a minor, remember?”
I didn’t even need eyes to see Frank’s smirk.
“Seriously,” he said, “I’m glad it’s done, and it’s time to let that whole issue die a rapid and quiet death.
“From this point forward, you’re going to be vulnerable to people wanting to tag you with this kind of stuff, so at least try to be more careful, okay?” Frank asked.
“Okay, I’ll be more careful,” I said.
Sometimes having a high ‘Q Rating’ really sucked. I consoled myself with the thought that the PR and legal money I’d been hemorrhaging was being replaced, at least.
◊◊◊
I called Coach Conde because I wanted some batting practice today. He suggested that if I would pay a few American dollars, he could organize some decent pitching. I warned him they couldn’t be professionals because I didn’t need trouble from the NCAA. So far, I’d only seen him pitch batting practice, and with all due respect, Cassidy could hit him. I told him to set it up.
Fritz, Paul, and Cassidy joined me for baseball practice. Cassidy was feeling better and told me I wasn’t getting out of sixty minutes of hell. It looked like she planned to kill me today because she’d packed my weighted vest.
Coach Conde showed up early with two pitchers I’d not met before. One was a big lanky kid who looked to be my age or a little older. He was at least six-six, and as he warmed up, he threw some serious heat. His only problem was he was a one-trick pony whose sole pitch was a fastball. He would be perfect for the closer role, but he needed to learn to throw a changeup. Otherwise, opposing players would just learn to time his pitches and light him up. That was precisely what I did.