Young Adulting - Christina Benjamin Page 0,43
time. I’d heard back from Heather, but her brief text of ‘I’ll handle it’ didn’t exactly leave me feeling confident.
Being here might not be the best idea, but I needed to talk to Izzy. I’d texted her twice but hadn’t heard back yet. I checked the time again. Her pitch meeting should be over by now.
Was it a good sign that she wasn’t picking up?
Maybe that meant her boss liked it and wanted to hear more. Maybe they were drawing up contracts right now.
Or maybe she was being told to clean out her desk because they’d seen the tabloids.
There was no way to know and it was driving me crazy.
I was contemplating whether to wait in the lobby or take the elevators up to her offices when I heard the haughty voice of one of her co-workers. “It’s not fair. She’s sleeping her way to winning the competition.”
I ducked my head as two girls exited the elevator I’d been about to get on. I recognized one as the bossy brunette who Izzy worked with.
Her black-haired cohort snorted in disgust. “Please, there’s no way Henry Landon would sleep with her. I mean he’s dated some questionable girls, but even he wouldn’t slum it with some country bumpkin from Iowa.”
“Well it certainly looked like he was enjoying having his tongue down her throat in those photos.”
The other girl’s sigh was world weary and cynical. “Taylor, after what was printed about your father, you of all people should know you can’t believe everything you read in the tabloids.”
“But what if it is true? I mean it’s kind of genius. Getting a hot celebrity attached to a script is a guaranteed win.”
“Kinda makes me wish I’d thought of it,” the other girl teased.
Taylor growled. “It makes me so mad. Colin thinks she’s little Miss Innocent. Meanwhile she’s going around town flashing her skin for the win.”
“You know what they say. There’s more than one way up the ladder. Some people climb it, some lay flat on their back.”
The girls snickered and I snapped. “Spoken like someone familiar with the technique.”
My voice echoed off the marble of the empty lobby, startling the girls who’d been walking toward the floor-to-ceiling glass doors.
Both girls whirled around, gasping when they realized who I was. No point in keeping my sunglasses on any longer.
I stepped out of the shadows and advanced on the two bitter nitwits. Even as I did it, I knew I was making a mistake, but I couldn’t just stand there and listen to their degrading lies. “Not that you’re owed any explanation, but Isabelle Ellis and I aren’t sleeping together, and whatever is going on between us, it has nothing to do with my interest in her script.”
The black-haired girl took a step back, her skin turning the color of paper as she inhaled sharply. But Taylor wasn’t so easily intimidated. She crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes at me. “Right. So you were just groping her in front of that pathetic dump of an apartment for what, role research? Or is being a celebrity that boring that sometimes you just have to hook up with randos?”
Rage had my nostrils flaring, my hands clenching at my sides. “That rando is the most talented script developer I’ve ever worked with. Though I can see why you’d be jealous. She’s driven, authentic, and smart.”
Taylor glared at me. “Well, if she was really smart, she would’ve gone after your father. Everyone knows he’s the one with the real power.”
With that she turned on her sky-high heels and clacked her way right out the glass doors, her little friend following behind her. I was just about to go after them when I heard my name.
I turned around to see Izzy standing in front of the elevator doors. Her eyes wide with shock. But worse than that was the hard set of her boss’s jaw.
Colin Davis stood behind Izzy on the packed elevator. I didn’t know the guy well, but I knew that look. He wasn’t happy. I wasn’t sure how much of the conversation he’d heard, but judging from the scowl on his face it was enough to ask Izzy to stay back.
Everyone else filed off the elevator and Izzy and I shared a brief look before the doors closed again, blocking her from my sight.
Panic slithered into my gut.
Had I just made things immeasurably worse?
Chapter Fourteen
Izzy
Moments ago I’d been soaring with excitement. My pitch meeting with Colin had gone tremendously. Colin had seen those awful photos this