You need to be responsible now. You chose to go out in public with your girlfriend. That means you have gone public with the relationship, no matter how out of the way you thought this little sushi bar was. You need to find out how Randi would like the two of you to handle it. A joint statement would probably carry more weight anyway.”
Rhett’s eyes flashed in annoyance at the idea. “She’s out of the country for a couple of weeks on a shoot,” he said impatiently. “Left last night. I can’t reach her.”
“Then you’ll need to handle it. Do it now before it explodes in your face and you have control of the narrative. And be nice to Becky.”
“I’m always nice,” he smarted off as he turned and left the room.
Cassie couldn’t help but have hurt feelings at his curt tone. She hadn’t liked the way Rhett spoke to her. She supposed this was her first taste of male diva behavior. Everything had gone smoothly until now. For a first crisis, it would have to involve Randi. Just her luck. At least Becky would handle the fallout on this one. Cassie wouldn’t have a thing to do with it.
At least knowing she had a couple of weeks with no more run-ins with Randal James was a nice consolation prize.
◆◆◆
Rhett went to his bedroom and called Becky, who was thrilled to hear from him so quickly. They ironed out a cryptic statement that was a brief response and wouldn’t satisfy the public’s thirst at all. It wouldn’t need to. The pictures would be discussed on radio and talk shows and message boards across America. Rhett would be the butt of Fallon and Colbert jokes and winks from Seth Meyers and dirt in every entertainment blog on the planet.
All for a woman he didn’t even like anymore. If he ever had.
It figured that just when he was ready to end things with Randi, the inevitable would happen. His numbers would surge with men who’d like to jump Randi’s bones. They’d plunge with women who felt threatened by Randi’s earthy sex appeal and think she’d taken Rhett off the open market.
Most likely, it would mean good business for the movie opening on Christmas Day. Fireball was predicted to do record business this holiday season. The new gossip would bring out the crazies and busybodies as well as the action fans to the box office. The whole situation depressed Rhett.
Of course, Irv Stromberg would be ecstatic. His agent would look ten years younger the next time Rhett saw him, all because of the wild publicity that would surround this incident.
Suddenly, Rhett remembered Randi saying she needed to go back in and change purses as they were leaving for the restaurant. She hadn’t liked the way the one she was carrying looked with her outfit. They were already getting in the car so he’d waited there. Rhett suspected Randi had gone inside and called or texted some paparazzi. She already knew where they were going and couldn’t obviously contact them in front of him. When she returned outside, she still carried the same purse. Rhett hadn’t even questioned it because Randi’s fashion whims drove him up a wall. He figured she’d changed her mind and decided the purse was fine after all.
What the little bitch had changed was his life with the stunt. Rhett determined that wasn’t going to happen. He would show her who was in charge. Taking a deep breath, he reined in his anger. He’d taken it out earlier on Cassie and she hadn’t deserved it. It wasn’t her fault he had a slutty girlfriend who craved publicity.
Rhett looked over at the scripts he’d found in the kitchen and thought he’d see what Cassie had done with them. He grabbed them and went to his favorite chair in his bedroom. It had a perfect view of the back yard and plenty of light came through the windows.
Both her summaries impressed him. She captured the essence of each script in two pages. She’d also done a character study for both roles he might play, addressing the strengths and weaknesses of each part and giving reasons why he should and shouldn’t consider the scripts.
Rhett already had read both screenplays so he simply focused on Cassie’s margin notes after that. She had keen insight into story and character. She should probably be his agent instead of Irv.
A couple of hours had passed for his temper to cool so Rhett walked back to the office.