“What new girlfriend?” He stared at her.
“The one I saw you in the tabloids with. She’s gorgeous and about twelve years old.”
“She’s on the show. They had me go to an event with her for publicity, and she’s a raving bitch. I love you too. I’ve been miserable since we broke up. I can hardly make it through the show every day. I didn’t want to fuck up your career. And just for the record, I don’t care how old you are, or if you’re Grandma Moses. I love you, YOU. Now shut up for a minute, will you?” She started to say something, but he kissed her, and whatever had happened, whatever had gone wrong, whatever he had meant to do, didn’t matter now. And her age didn’t matter to either of them. She loved him, more than her job or her career or all her other clients. He wasn’t a client, he was the only man she had ever loved. And he loved her too.
“I’d rather quit my job than lose you.” He beamed when she said it. “And I don’t care if they put us on the cover of the tabloids every day, or what Bob Benson thinks about it.”
“Good. Me too. Now that we’ve gotten that clear, what are we going to do about it?”
“I don’t know. What do you want to do?”
“I want to never let you out of my sight again. Let’s have dinner when I finish here, get a great picture of us on the covers of the tabloids, and go home and make love till the sun comes up. And we’ll figure out the rest after that.” He pulled her into his arms then, held her so tight she couldn’t breathe, and kissed her harder than ever. It felt familiar and wonderful, and was what she had missed every hour of every day while he was gone. They were both smiling when he stopped. “Where’s the stuff you want me to sign?” She pointed to where he’d thrown the envelope on the table. He grabbed it, opened it, found a pen, signed all of it, and handed it back to her. He was beaming. “I love you, Allie.”
“Yeah, me too. You’re the only man I’ve ever loved,” she said, and it was true. “I never realized how much, until you were gone.”
“Let’s not fuck it up again. We’ll get married if you want. This is it for me,” he said seriously.
“I’m a hundred years older than you are,” she said, grinning. “You shouldn’t marry me.”
“Why not? We’ll ask Bob to be best man. Marry me, don’t marry me, just don’t leave me, Allie. I want you with me forever. My life was shit without you, a wasteland. I thought of you every day.”
“Me too. I won’t let you leave me again. If we fight we’ll have to fix it, because I’m not going through this again.”
“Good. I’m glad you showed up with the papers. That was brave of you.”
“I know. I figured it was my one shot at seeing you. The worst you could do was have me thrown out.” He pulled her tightly in his arms again and held her. “You feel so good. I have to be back on the set in five minutes.” He took a long swig of the Coke, and then walked her out on the set with his arm around her, smiling broadly. He introduced her to the technicians and actors who were hanging around. “This is my agent and my girlfriend,” he said proudly. “Never mind dinner,” he whispered to her as the hair and makeup people headed toward him. “I want to go to bed with you.”
“Me too,” she whispered back. “I’ll pick up something to eat.”
“See you around seven. I’m in the last shot.” He gave her one more quick kiss and she scampered across the wires on the set. She ran down the hallway, and was smiling when she got in the elevator, went outside, and hailed a cab. She called Hailey on the way back to the office.
“I just saw him,” she said triumphantly.
“Who?” Hailey sounded busy. They were finishing up the painting and the kitchen in the new apartment.
“Eric.”
“Oh my God. What happened?”
“I got brave and went to see him, with some papers he had to sign. We’re back together.”
“That was fast.”
“Very. He’s been miserable too. And I don’t know why, but he’s the one. After all these years of guys I never cared about. He turns out to be it.”
“You didn’t tell him about Benjie, did you?”
“Of course not. He was an idiot. I don’t know why he told Jane. She still barely speaks to me. The new head of literary likes her. He’s a good guy. I just wanted you to know what happened. I’m on my way back to the office now. Eric’s coming home tonight. How’s the apartment coming, by the way?”
“Almost finished. It’s gorgeous.”
“We came out winners,” Allie said to her. “You with Phillip, and me with Eric. And Francine got three million dollars. She deserves every penny of it. And Dan got what he deserves. All these years I thought that all that mattered was my career. It’s not enough, Hailey. In the end, it really doesn’t matter.”
“I know. The same thing happened to me,” Hailey said.
“And poor Jane is heading down that path. She’s just starting,” Allie said.
“She’s young. She’ll figure it out.” Hailey had faith in her, she was a bright, courageous girl.
“None of it matters,” Allie said. “I don’t even care how much younger he is, and neither does he. It’s not about age, or money, or careers. Maybe in the end, it’s just about courage, and having the guts to go after what you want.” The cab pulled up outside the agency then, and they hung up. It was also about having the good luck to find the right person, Allie realized, by some miracle finding the right one. She and Hailey had, and so had Merriwether and Bob. They were all the lucky ones.
Chapter 14
Dan Fletcher’s sentencing happened right on schedule, thirty days after he had pleaded guilty. Bob and Merriwether went, and so did Julia and Jane. Francine decided to go at the last minute. She hadn’t been sure before that. David Bristol went to lend Jane support, and sat with her respectfully. Hailey couldn’t go because it was their moving day, into the new apartment. Allie went, although she hadn’t been one of Dan’s victims, and Eric went with her. He took half a day off shooting to go.
Dan was led into the courtroom in chains and leg shackles again. His hands were cuffed and attached to the chain around his waist. He hadn’t shaved in a few days, his hair was matted and dirty, and there were dark circles under his eyes. He told his attorney he hadn’t had a decent night’s sleep since he’d been in jail, and he looked it.
The judge talked for a few minutes about the seriousness of his crimes, aggravated by the abuse of power, threatening to take their livelihood away from women with children to support. The judge called it a reign of terror, and Bob winced.
The judge sentenced Dan to state prison. All of his crimes were felonies, three of them with indeterminate sentences, the misdemeanors were dismissed when he pleaded guilty, and the judge sentenced all of Dan’s crimes consecutively. He sentenced him to one count of rape for Francine for three to fifteen years, attempted rape for Jane for another three to fifteen, two counts of sexual abuse for seven years each, and three counts of coercion for one to four years each. And the judge enhanced each sentence by two years, for abuse of power, which added another fourteen years to his sentence. The minimum amount of time he would serve was thirty-seven years, and at most seventy years. It was unlikely that he’d be paroled in his lifetime. He was going to spend the rest of his life in prison.