“I’d love it! It really comes at a good time for me. They’re renovating the studio, and we haven’t had classes for four weeks. Could I bring my dog?” Hailey had visions of a Great Dane moving in, or a pit bull that would attack them. “She’s a teacup Chihuahua. She’s fourteen years old and she sleeps most of the time. I can’t afford to put her in a kennel so I can babysit, and I would hate to do that to her.”
“Perfect. No problem.” She was willing and able to cover all the days and nights Hailey had left to fill, and by the end of the week, she knew the kids would be all set. It was a patchwork of people, and the kids were unhappy about it, although they loved the idea of a dog staying with them, since Hailey refused to get one. It would be one more thing to take care of and pay for, and she had enough with three kids.
“Can we keep the dog?” Will asked, wide-eyed.
“No,” Hailey said firmly, “but you can have fun with it while it’s here. It’s really little, so you have to be gentle, Will. And it’s old.”
But at least she was covered. She hoped Phillip White never asked her to do a tour again. She just couldn’t do that to her kids, and it was going to cost her a fortune to pay all the sitters. She felt sick every time she thought of missing Arianna in Annie and Bentley’s science project about the importance of water. He had promised to save it for her, and she was going to ask one of the mothers to video the performance. It was the first time she had let them down that badly in her five years of single motherhood. It was a terrible feeling and by far outweighed any pleasure she might have had joining an important author on tour. She was sorry she’d said yes, but Phillip White was thrilled and Bob Benson was grateful to her. Hailey felt that breaking her kids’ hearts and disappointing them was just too high a price to pay. She wondered for the first time if she should mention more often that she had children, instead of being discreet about them. They were her life, although she kept that a secret at the office in order to seem professional. But she loved them, and even though her career was important to her, this time she had sacrificed her children for her job, and she had the terrible feeling that she had betrayed them. In this instance, she could either be a good mother or an efficient employee. It was a choice. She couldn’t be both.
Francine was trying to set up an appearance for one of her authors on Good Morning America on the pub date of his new book. She knew that the show wouldn’t book him during sweeps week, when ratings were all-important to them, since the author was a quiet man who wrote political thrillers. His books did well, but he wasn’t exciting enough for them to put on during the week that ratings counted most. She needed the calendar to tell her when sweeps week was, and wandered into Allie’s office to see if she had it. She was out, and Francine walked around her desk to see if it was on her bookcase, desk, or somewhere obvious where she didn’t have to dig around for it. As she stood behind Allie’s desk chair, she suddenly saw the photos on the computer screen. At first she thought they were young actors. They were a beautiful pair, naked and entwined. The photos weren’t pornographic, but they were very close to it, and extremely sensual, and in one you could guess that they were making love.
She didn’t mean to stare at them, but she couldn’t help it. And then suddenly, with a jolt, she realized that they weren’t of a young actor and actress. The photos were of Allie and Eric Clay, the actor who had just landed the starring role in next season’s biggest series. Francine knew he was Allie’s client, and that she went out with her clients occasionally, but she’d had no idea that Allie and Clay were involved. She was staring at them as Allie walked back into her office.
“Seen enough yet, or do you want me to show you some more?” Allie said as she crossed the room, and Francine jumped.
“I was looking for the sweeps schedule for ABC,” she said, embarrassed to have been caught looking at the photos, but Allie had openly left them on her computer screen. “Sorry, I wasn’t looking for those,” she said, indicating the screen. “I didn’t know you were dating him.”
“What I do in my off hours is my business. I don’t need permission from the agency.”
“No, but it’ll be a big deal in the tabloids if they get wind of it.”
“Why?”
“Because he’s going to be a big star now, and you’re his agent.”
“And older than he is, right? So fucking what?”
“Are you out in public with this?” Francine asked, curious.
“Not really, we spend most of our time in bed,” she said boldly, angry at Francine for snooping at her desk and commenting on it. She’d been looking at the pictures herself, admiring him, and forgot to turn her computer off when she went to the restroom.
“I don’t blame you. I just think it could be dicey. Be careful that someone doesn’t find out and make a big deal of it. It could go viral and that would look very bad for the agency.”
“Who I date or sleep with is no one’s business, and certainly not the agency’s.”
“It is if you sleep with your clients. He’s young enough to be your son. That might not look so great in the press either. They could say it’s a Me Too issue, if you promised him a part.”
“He’s not complaining,” Allie said angrily.
“I can see that,” Francine said. He had a huge erection in one of the pictures. “You should be careful with those, Allie.”
“At least I’m not sleeping with our bosses, just the clients,” she said pointedly, and Francine looked horrified. It was her worst fear that people at work would find out that she was Dan Fletcher’s whore and had been for years. There had been whispers about it, but no one had ever come right out and said anything before. She liked to believe that no one knew. But maybe Dan had been bragging. It was possible. He was neither discreet nor honorable, and he talked when he drank too much.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Francine pressed her.
“That’s up to you, Francine. I don’t give a damn who you sleep with. And who I fool around with is no one’s business.” It looked like a lot more than fooling around, and the truth was that Eric said he was falling in love with her, and she cared about him too, more than she expected to. She didn’t want it to get too serious with him, but it was heading there. They spent every night together in his apartment or her loft, and they went out openly when they felt like it. They weren’t hiding, and felt they had no reason to. Anyone could have spotted them at any time. She got along better with him than she had with anyone in years. Their age difference wasn’t an issue to them, and Allie wasn’t going to stop seeing him because Francine said it could go viral. If it did, they’d deal with it. They weren’t ashamed of being together, and he said frequently that he was proud to be with her.
“Just watch your ass, Allie. I’d hate to see you or the agency get in a mess over this. I’m sure he’s a nice guy, but you’ve got a lot at stake here. If someone puts the wrong spin on it, it could look nasty. You got him a big part, a starring role, and now you’re sleeping with him. It could sound like shit in the press.”
“We’ll deal with it if that happens. It’s not your concern.”