“It means that a partner in this agency is being charged with attempted rape and assorted other charges, one of our biggest clients was charged with the rape of a minor last week, and if the head of the dramatic department is now going to start sleeping with clients, people are going to think this is Sodom and Gomorrah and we have no morals whatsoever.”
“First of all, you don’t know if I’m sleeping with him or not. The photo shows us fully dressed and getting into a cab, not having sex in the back seat. And what I do in my private life is none of your damn business. Eric and I have been seeing each other for a while. It’s the first time the press noticed us. And the only reason they did is because Alan Singer and Elizabeth Fox were having dinner there and the press were after them, not me and Eric.”
“Give it a few months. Once his new series starts, he’ll be as big as they are. Should I point out to you that, first of all, he’s a client of the agency, and, second of all, he’s twenty years younger than you are.”
“Seventeen,” she corrected him, “and no, you should not point that out. It’s none of your goddamn business who I date or what I do after hours.” Their age difference was even less Bob’s business.
“In real time, that might be true. But right now, we need to look respectable,” Bob insisted. “You can sleep with whomever you want in normal times, but right now, it looks like shit for the agency and for you.” He had raised his voice and so had she. “It’s going to hurt your career, Allie. It makes you look like you’re not serious about it, that you’re just screwing around. And ultimately, it will hurt the agency too. You don’t care about this guy. You’re just playing. That’s what you always do. I know you’ve had affairs with other clients, and normally I wouldn’t say anything. I never did before, but now I am. You need to give this up before it’s all over the tabloids, with you and us looking like shit.”
“I’m not going to,” she said coldly. This time was different. She really did care about Eric, no matter how much younger he was.
“I can’t force you to. But I’m asking you.”
“I’m not going to stop seeing him. I happen to care about him a great deal.”
“I’ll believe that when you’re still seeing him in a month,” Bob said angrily. “And we both know that’s not going to happen. He’s a toy for you, and you’re playing with fire, with your reputation and ours. No one is going to take you seriously if this gets out right now. I really want you to stop seeing him.”
“I’m not going to. I’m not giving him up.” She stood up at her desk then, stared at her boss with a victorious expression, and dropped the tabloid in the trash where it belonged. They were just going to have to be more careful. But she was not going to let Bob Benson dictate the fate of her relationship. On principle, if nothing else. Allie was furious when he left, and she hated what he’d said: that no one would take her seriously after this. She was a very serious agent. What fucking business did he have saying all that to her, that she and Eric couldn’t date? She was one of the best agents in the business, and got great roles for her clients. She was steaming.
While Bob was arguing with Allie in her office, Dan had walked in and gone to his own office at the opposite end of the floor and no one had noticed. He took his checkbook out of his desk and wrote Bob a check for what he owed him, and then walked into Jane’s office with his checkbook in his hand. By sheer bad luck, she was alone and jumped a foot when she saw him. She stood up and backed away as though she’d seen a ghost.
“Don’t act like you’re so lily pure and terrified of me,” he said. “We both know what you are, now what’s your price?”
“For what?”
“To clean up this mess you made and tell them you were lying? What’s the price for that? Ten thousand? Twenty?” He didn’t want to go too high and whet her appetite. “Twenty-five? I’ll write you a check right now, and we can clean this whole thing up.”
“No, we can’t,” she said, feeling stronger. “You can’t buy me off. You can’t treat people like that. I’m a human being, and you can’t grab me whenever you want to, like I’m a piece of meat.”
“Isn’t that what you are? You’re not a virgin. All I did was grab a little ass, and you act like I was trying to kill you. It was just some fun between friends. I could show you a good time, you know, and maybe a few tricks of the trade you don’t know yet.”
“Get out of my office,” she said in a raw voice, “or I’ll call the police. The judge said you can’t come near me. My lawyer told me so.”
“Martha, that bitch, and her flunky. How much?” He walked toward her and she was afraid he’d try to kill her. “How much, bitch?”
“Nothing. I don’t want your money.” He was two feet away from her, advancing toward her menacingly, when Bob walked past her office on the way to Merriwether’s to tell her what had happened with Allie. He walked into Jane’s office as soon as he saw Dan.
“Dan, what the hell are you doing here? Get away from her right now, or you’re going to wind up back in jail.”
Dan gave a start and turned around to face him. “We were just doing a little business,” he said, with his checkbook still in his hand.
“No, we weren’t,” Jane said clearly. It was like a nightmare and she couldn’t wake up. It was continuing. “He tried to bribe me to drop the charges, and I’m not going to.”
“I understand,” Bob said, trying to appear calmer than he felt. “Dan, come to my office. Now, please.” Dan looked like a thwarted child. He sat down in one of the chairs and looked up at Bob when he got to his office.
“I figured she’d want the money,” Dan said, upset.
“Her father is one of the richest venture capitalists in the country. If he knew what you did to her, he’d put you in jail himself. You’ll be lucky if she hasn’t told him yet. For chrissake, you heard what the judge said, if you go near her, he’ll put you in jail until the trial. Stay away from her, for God’s sake!” He was shouting as Dan handed him the check for the bail money, and Bob sat down in the chair across from him, looking defeated and trying to calm down. “Please, Dan, for heaven’s sake, take this seriously. You’re in enough trouble as it is. You can’t come back to the office.”
“Why not?” He looked surprised, and Bob groaned. Dan just didn’t get that he couldn’t do whatever he wanted.
“Because you can’t go near her, for one thing. And for another, the agency is on shaky ground. One of our biggest clients has been charged with rape, and now you with this mess. We’re going to lose all credibility. Do you want to destroy the agency?”
“Of course not,” he said, finally contrite. “We have to get her to drop the charges, though. I didn’t realize who her father is. Clifford Addison?”
“Exactly,” Bob said. “I went to Princeton with him. And she’s not going to drop the charges. You genuinely traumatized her.”
“That’s bullshit. None of these little sluts are innocent.”