we either lost a high-profile or gained one.
I turn to Willow and shake my head. “No, this is definitely not good.”
I walk by the reception desk, past women speaking so fast that I can barely understand a word. A group of agents crowds around cubicles, some of them spilling into the hallway that leads straight to Vinnie’s office. A senior agent is standing outside of his doorway.
I march straight into Vinnie’s office, where I find more agents and secretarial staff perched on couches and seated at his conference table. Vinnie makes a fist, the color fading from his knuckles. He yells into his Bluetooth headset, tugging at his hair that’s pulled into different directions.
Vinnie steps out from behind his desk to hand a notepad to an agent. He has a slightly crazy look about him, but he’s not entirely disheveled, dressed in a sharp three-piece charcoal suit and black wingtips. A silk tie is loose around his neck, the buttons of his vest open, exposing a white oxford with a coffee stain on it.
I shove my way through the crowd and wave my hand in front of Vinnie’s face. He glances up from his desk to acknowledge my presence.
“Ash,” he says, relieved. “About time.”
Vinnie drops the headset onto his desk, cups my shoulder with a firm hand, and leads me out of his office.
He shakes his head, staring down at the floor. “We have a problem.”
Please don’t fire me…
I’m only a few minutes late.
We step into a conference room with a large flat-screen television hanging on the wall and a table large enough to seat most of our employees comfortably. I shut the door behind us. Vinnie takes a seat at the head of the table, gesturing for me to sit next to him. My heart hammers against my chest as he stares at me.
“I hate to ask this,” Vinnie says with a sigh. “But, I need a favor.”
I blow out a relieved breath.
At least he's not firing me.
“What do you need me to do?”
He rolls his chair closer to me. “Nico Chase is spiraling out of control. His assistant quit. He won’t answer any of my calls. I’m worried about him. He’s holed up in his mansion, probably drinking himself to death. I need you to take a box of scripts over to him and talk some sense into him.”
“I thought you were letting him go.”
He rolls his shoulders. “Nico is like a son to me. We’ve been together for a long time, but I’m losing my patience with him. He likes you, says you remind him of his sister.”
Of course, the chunky girl reminds the hot movie star of his sister. Yeah, go figure. When people look at me, they say, She has a pretty face, which in Los Angeles translates to She’s pretty for a fat girl.
“Why is everyone going nuts? It’s not because of Nico Chase.”
He shakes his head. “Hailey Rayne is threatening to leave. We also have a shot with Carter Max. He’s taking meetings with every agent in the city this week, and we’re one of them.”
Vinnie pushes up his sleeve and glances at his watch. “I have to jump on a call. Walk with me.”
After I accompany Vinnie back to his office and set the box of scripts onto my desk, it occurs to me that I don’t have a car. Shit. I often run errands for Vinnie throughout the day, but I wasn’t thinking when Sloan insisted I carpool with them.
Now, what am I supposed to do?
Mr. Control-freak drove us to work. Dylan would never let me borrow his two hundred-thousand-dollar Maserati. He used to tell me that I’m the worst driver on the planet.
Dammit. And damn him.
I clutch my cell phone in my hand and groan as I scroll down to Dylan’s name. What choice do I have but to call him? I promised myself I would never use his number.
I take a deep breath and blow it out as I tap Dylan’s name on my screen, hoping he takes my call.
Please don’t act like an asshole, Dylan.
I can’t afford to lose this job.
Chapter Nine
Dylan
I lean against the wall in the Date Crashers training room and watch Sloan teach our new Crashers. With the sudden spike in business, we’re hiring new Crashers almost daily to help break up our customers’ dates.
A few months ago, a major Hollywood starlet used our app to save herself from a bad date. She documented the entire night on her Instagram and Snapchat accounts and tagged