Touching the Billionaire - Holly Jaymes Page 0,5

been expected of her and how little control she felt she had to fight against it. A sticking point between her and my father had always been that he hadn’t done enough to stand up and protect her. Of course, my mother was a very strong woman in her own right. Maybe the industry had made her that way. Now, she was almost a living legend and I doubted many people pushed her around anymore.

I supposed if I wanted to, I could evoke the power of being her daughter to protect myself but I was determined to make it in this industry on my own merit. I didn't want to be known as Kate Talbot’s daughter and have people think that the only reason I was getting work was because of my relationship to her or even my father.

I also wasn’t going to sleep my way to the top and I very much didn't want to let men like Theo Wolfe think that they could have their way with me because they had power over my career. It was quite possible that I had just ended my new career before it even started and while that made me angry and maybe I should’ve controlled my own irritation a little bit more, I wasn’t going to blame myself too much. It wasn’t my fault that Theo Wolfe had roaming hands, nor was it unreasonable of me to expect him to keep his hands within the context of the scene we were playing.

I finally calmed down enough that I was able to wave down a taxi to drive me to my sister's office downtown. While I was in the car, I called my agent to let her know that I potentially needed her to find me new job possibilities.

“Oh God. What did you do?” she asked when I explained to her that Theo Wolfe was probably going to fire me.

“He was going to grab my ass, so I responded in kind.”

“That script has all sorts of grabby touchy sexy bits. It’s part of the script. You’re not eleven years old anymore, Maddie. If you want grown-up roles, you're going to have to do grown-up things.”

I decided not to remind her that I didn’t go by Maddie anymore because everyone thought of Maddie Fox as being eleven years old. Now, I went by Madeline Fox because I was grown-up. “There is nothing in the script that called for grabbing my ass.”

There was a pause and then she said, “Listen, I’m not telling you that you have to put up with men grabbing your ass, getting handsy or saying inappropriate things to you-”

“Except you are about to tell me that I have to put up with that stuff.”

“God, I hate that I’m going to have to say this but to a certain extent, you have to put up with the fact that men can’t handle boobs. There is a limit though. You have to decide what that limit is just like the rest of the women do in the rest of the world everywhere that they work.”

I sighed, because I knew she was right. The question was, what was I willing to put up with. For years and years, the generation before me put up with much more. Until recently, society figured boys would be boys and men would be men and it was just something women had to put up with. But we don't or at least we shouldn't.

Perhaps if I wasn’t fired, I’d have an opportunity to make a change in the industry. Just because a character was a misogynist pig didn't mean the actor or producer or director or any other man or woman on a set or involved in showbusiness should feel entitled to touch or otherwise make anyone else uncomfortable. Perhaps I should’ve gone into law after all.

The car pulled up in front of my sister’s building and I paid the driver and got out. “I’ve got to go but if you see anything else that might be fitting, let me know.”

“Are you sure you’re fired? How about I call Corrine and ask her what’s going on.”

“This wasn’t a test to see how Theo and I were together. It was an audition and I suspect at this point, Theo isn't going to want me.”

“I’ll see if I can get a hold of her and find out what’s going on. If Theo is adamant about getting rid of you, how hard do you want me to work to make her