As they were talking, the heavyset white-haired man whom she had seen earlier in the reception area appeared in the doorway. He opened the door without knocking, ignored Jane this time, and looked straight at Francine.
“Seven? The usual?” he asked, and Francine nodded, looking irritated. Jane noticed that her new boss’s eyes went dead after he spoke. Francine nodded assent again and he left her office, leaving the door half open. He didn’t bother to close it, although it had been closed when he arrived.
“That’s Dan Fletcher, one of the two heads of the agency,” she explained to Jane without further comment.
Jane nodded. “I saw him this morning when I arrived.” She didn’t comment either.
“I hope he behaved. He doesn’t always when attractive young women are involved. No one has explained the Me Too movement to him. I hope he didn’t say anything inappropriate,” she said, still looking annoyed.
“No, not really. He just looked me over and assumed I was here to interview for a receptionist’s job.”
“He thinks that’s what I do too.” Francine smiled. And then she told Jane how to find Alabama Moore’s office, the head of the talent side of the agency. Francine said she had work to do. Jane stood up and thanked her for her time.
They shook hands and Jane left Francine’s office and made her way down the long hallway, with countless offices on each side, and people busy at desks inside them, looking at computer screens or talking on the phone.
Jane’s only worry was that Dan Fletcher would appear again and harass her, or invite her into his office, an invitation she had no intention of accepting.
She found Alabama Moore’s office after a few wrong turns. She had to double back once, but she finally found the office with her name on the door. As the head of the dramatic department, she had a huge office. Allie Moore was on an exercise bike when Jane knocked and walked in. She was wearing a white Chanel jogging suit and listening to something on headphones. She smiled and stopped pedaling as soon as Jane entered the room, feeling awkward.
Alabama Moore had a dazzling smile, and Jane thought she was very beautiful. She had met Allie in her initial interview and was impressed by her then. She had a mane of blonde hair and big blue eyes. She was wearing no makeup and her face looked young and smooth. Jane wasn’t experienced enough to recognize the work of a great dermatologist combined with an expert plastic surgeon or to realize that Allie Moore had had “work” done, along with Botox shots and fillers. She looked as if she were around Jane’s age. Jane would have guessed her to be about thirty, when in fact she was forty-three. Her figure was slim and lithe in the white velour jogging suit that molded her flawless body. She got up at four on weekdays so she could be at the gym religiously at five A.M. She owned a loft apartment in Tribeca. She hopped off the bike and invited Jane to join her in the seating area in her office, which consisted of a comfortable couch, two big easy chairs, and an oval coffee table. There was expensive contemporary art on the walls, and her smile was warm as Jane observed her and the effect she created in the outfit she was wearing. It had been a good choice.
“It’s great to have you here,” Allie said enthusiastically. “You’ll like Hailey a lot. She works incredibly hard and is the consummate professional. I’m the official renegade, the rebellious child of the Fletcher and Benson family. I have to be, to deal with the actors, writers, and producers I represent. Some of them are barely more than kids, and they act it. Others should have grown up years ago and never will. They all get spoiled working on movies where people cater to their every whim. But some of them really deserve praise and attention because they have such huge talent. The badly behaved ones get away with it, and will never realize how spoiled they are, until it’s all over for them.
“I grew up with Hollywood parents, so I’m used to it. My mother is a well-known actress, you’d know the movies she’s been in, and my father produces hit TV shows. My parents’ lives were enough to convince me that I never wanted to be on stage myself. I went to USC film school, but I decided I wanted to be an agent.
“My mother trained me to deal with divas from the time I was two. I worked for CAA, Creative Artists, in L.A. for a few years after I graduated, and then I came to New York to work at William Morris Endeavor. Then I met Bob Benson and he made me an offer I couldn’t refuse, so now here I am, thirteen years later, and we represent some wonderful talent.
“I’m proud to be here, and I love what I do.” She beamed at Jane and was all innocence. “Are you interested in the dramatic side? Maybe you can do some projects for me sometime before they lock you away forever in the literary world. The talent side is much more fun,” she said mischievously as Jane thought about it for an instant. She had never considered being an actor’s agent or even a writer’s agent. This was kind of a sidetrack for her, to learn more about the business, and had been her father’s idea when she didn’t find a job in publishing at first. She was in love with books, much more than film. But Allie made the dramatic side sound appealing too.
Jane also suspected that there was a lot more to Alabama Moore than she was admitting. She was obviously very bright, her face was smooth and guileless, but her eyes said something different. She was a keen observer and noticed everything, and her welcome was much warmer than Francine Rivers’s. Francine seemed tougher. There was something bitter about Francine that came through her pores. Allie seemed to love her job and Jane had the feeling that she lived and breathed for her career and would have killed anyone who interfered with it in any way. They were both highly successful professional women, who seemed competitive while trying to appear as though they weren’t. She had a sense that either woman would attack if she felt threatened. This was the big leagues, and they were playing for high stakes, for their clients and themselves. The women who worked at the agency were pros in every way. They had fought hard to get where they were, and it showed in an intensity about their jobs.
Julia Benning, Hailey West’s executive assistant, appeared while they were still in the seating area in Allie’s office, and a moment later she whisked Jane away to Hailey’s office, which immediately felt like a safe haven to Jane when she got there. The atmosphere was different in Hailey’s office than in Allie’s or Francine’s, and Julia was a gentle guide. There was a desk for Jane near Julia’s, which she could consider home base, and an office just messy enough to feel human but not chaotic. Julia showed Jane the closet where she could leave her things, and then the espresso machine. They had their own. Julia felt like a fellow student and upperclassman, showing Jane around her new school.
Hailey was in a meeting in the conference room with a major author when Jane got there, and she returned to her office an hour later. She was smooth and professional and slightly younger than the two department heads Jane had seen that morning.
Hailey was thirty-eight years old, and had an extremely responsible position as the number two agent in the literary department. She was wearing a white blouse, a well-cut, straight navy blue skirt, and high-heeled sandals. She had dark hair and wore it loosely pinned up on top of her head. It gave her a softer, more feminine look than the other two. Jane had noticed photographs of three young children on her desk, but Hailey made no mention of them when they spoke. She was entirely professional and all about business. It was obvious that Julia liked her and respected her, and when Hailey went into her own office and closed the door, Julia filled Jane in on the rest.