buttoned up his pants and opened the door without saying a word and left.
Staring at me from the other side of that door was Sean Lindsey. The look of jealousy and desire shooting daggers at me from his eyes as he assessed the situation he just interrupted. Sean has loved me from the day he met me and I have used that love as a pawn in my game.
I keep him close so I can be close to Cal.
Sean and Cal have been best friends for years. There is no one who knows Cal better than Sean. I have toyed with the idea of Sean as my backup, but despite his good looks, Sean doesn’t light my core on fire the way Cal does. So I keep Sean in my back pocket, teasing him with hope that one day we might be together.
Do I have remorse that I’m stringing him along? Absolutely not!
My mother taught me at a very young age to go after what I wanted, because the only person who can look out for me is me. And that’s exactly what I’m doing.
I want Cal Harrington.
I will have Cal Harrington.
And nobody will stand in my way.
The ringing of my cell phone brings me out of my trance. I get up and retrieve it out of my purse to see my agent calling me. I purposely signed with Philip Logan because he was Cal and Sean’s agent. He’s ridiculously expensive, but worth every penny. I quickly debate whether or not to answer, but decide it’s better to answer his call in order to see if I can get any information out of him regarding Cal’s next movie.
“How is my favorite agent doing?” I sweetly ask as I answer the phone.
“Do you have another agent working for you? Because I wouldn’t put that past you,” he sharply answers back, no amusement in his voice whatsoever. I sigh hearing his tone, knowing that this conversation will not be fun.
“What’s wrong now, Philip?” I roll my eyes, not hiding my annoyance. I have no energy to deal with his melodrama today and I now regret answering his call.
“Guerdain is dropping you.”
“What? They can’t do that. I’m in contract with them!” I yell into the phone in disbelief. I have been the face of one of Guerdain’s perfumes for the past five years, raking in a million dollars per year for ad campaigns. They are my last endorsement since all of my other ones have run out and the companies don’t want to renew. Some bullshit excuse saying I’m difficult to work with.
“They most certainly can and did, Cora. All you had to do was show up on time, be nice, and keep that pretty big mouth of yours shut! But it seems you not only were late this last photo shoot, but were rude to the director, whining about how slow he was and complaining about how long the shoot was. Your reputation is preceding you and no one wants to sign you for endorsements. I can’t even get a tampon company to want you!” He sneers, making me want to hurl my phone against the floor and scream. I needed that money and with no other movies lined up right now, I need to figure out quickly what I am going to do.
“What kind of scripts do you have for me, Philip?” I change the subject, hoping for some good news to come out of this conversation and that he has another job booked for me.
“I only have two scripts for you, but they are the same type of parts you seem to gravitate toward. Villainous bitch, ready to destroy things. I know those roles are true to reality, but aren’t you tired of playing yourself?” His sarcasm makes me grit my teeth from refraining to tell him to go fuck himself.
“My fans like me in these roles and we want to keep them happy in order to keep them coming to the box office,” I remind him so he can keep his focus on dollar signs and not the type of roles I play. “Scan and email the scripts to me so I can read them.”
“Why don’t I just physically hand them to you this weekend?”
“Since when were we meeting this weekend?” I ask in confusion, trying to remember if I agreed to a meeting in Los Angeles with him or if he was coming to London. My mother is the only one who knows about this apartment in Chicago,