Hollywood Girls Club (25 page)

Jessica’s personal designer had decorated the entire interior. The floor-to-ceiling windows provided a fabulous view.

She pulled open the refrigerator. Holden would starve if she didn’t have Gelson’s market deliver a standing order to his home twice a week. Anything special he wanted, he called and told Kim. Thanks to Jessica, fresh fruit, beer, vegetables, and toiletries all magically appeared at Holden’s door.
See if the little fuck Josh Dragatsis takes care of this.
She could almost picture Holden’s confusion once his provisions ran out and he actually had to
find
a grocery store.

Jessica cracked half a dozen eggs into a glass bowl and started to whisk them.
Josh Dragatsis?
What a way for Holden Humphrey to piss away a career. She knew it’d be less than twelve months before Holden would beg for Jessica to take him back. But by then his quote would be $10 million, tops. And Holden could say good-bye to the big gross dollars. He’d lose more than fifty percent of his value in the marketplace. And why? Because Josh Dragatsis would whore Holden out. He’d have him do any crappy teenybopper film that would pay Holden’s quote. One, maybe two, of those, both of which would tank and would completely erode Holden’s fan base. Any credibility Holden was beginning to earn as an actor would vanish. Never mind career longevity.

Jessica knew the kind of agent Josh Dragatsis was. Agenting for his kind wasn’t about building a relationship or creating a career. For agents like Dragatsis, it was wham, bam, thank you, ma’am.

Jessica poured the eggs into the hot ironclad omelet pan on the stove. She pulled strips of turkey bacon out of a package and dropped them into the hot fry pan. But Dragatsis, Jessica was sure, could talk sports, go to strip clubs, and even score drugs, things Jessica never did for her stars.

No, the only things she did were read scripts, get meetings with A-list directors, and sometimes cook them breakfast. Oh, and she also honed careers. Jessica spent every waking moment thinking about how to make each of their careers better, more solid, more lucrative. She tried to determine what each of them needed to feel creatively fulfilled and spiritually satisfied. It wasn’t how most agents, at least these days, operated, but it was, for her, the only way to do business.

Just as Jessica plated his eggs, bacon, and toast, Holden stumbled into the kitchen, sporting tighty-whiteys and bed head. She’d already set the table. The coffee and juice carafes sat next to a bouquet of fresh flowers from the backyard.

“Jess?” Holden stared at her dumb-faced.

“Sit.” Her waitress days from law school were proving very handy this morning.

Holden lumbered to the table and flopped into his chair. Jessica pushed the steaming food toward her client and sat down across from him.

“I will
not
let you fuck up your career like this,” Jessica said, her tone hard and her eyes full of steel.

“Jess, I—”

“Holden, please. Just listen for one minute,” Jessica said very slowly. “I will not let you fuck up your career like this: Do you understand?”

“Jessica, what are you talking about?” Holden shoveled eggs laced with mozzarella into his mouth.

“Josh Dragatsis.”

Holden slowly settled his fork onto his plate. “Oh, man. Jess, I didn’t want you to hear it from someone else.”

Jessica watched Holden’s face. It was hard to read actors, as it was their business to make you believe the unreal was actually real. But Holden wasn’t such a good actor that Jess couldn’t pick up on his subtle tells.

“Tell me what?” Jessica asked, pushing Holden to say it. Admit to it. Then she could have a real conversation with her star.

 “He’s been hounding me day and night. Really mostly nights. Parties and girls and strip clubs …” Holden’s voice trailed off.

 “And blow?”

Holden gave Jessica a sheepish grin. He was a good boy, but this
was
Los Angeles.

“Not so much.” He looked at Jess. “Well, maybe a little. But Jess, it was just guys being friendly. Well, it started out like that.”

“Holden, when you make twenty million dollars per film and ten percent of gross, there are no guys just being friendly. You are a commodity. We talked about this. And people who can get close to you will want things.”

“I know, Jess, I know. It’s just, I mean, Josh and I have so much in common. We’re both single. We both love sports. We both come from small towns.”

“What small town is Josh Dragatsis from?” Jessica asked.

“I don’t know. Someplace in Indiana, I think. Fayetteville. Not far from where my mom grew up.”

“Uh-huh.” Jessica made a mental note to check on this point. She didn’t think there were many Greeks with New York accents from Fayetteville, Indiana, and a lie like that could completely sour Holden on Josh, making him realize that Josh wanted to advance his own career by pretending to guide Holden’s.

“Jess, you’ve been so good to me.” Holden looked down at the floor. “But lately I just don’t feel like we connect.” He seemed honestly hurt and a little scared.

“Holden, I know agents like Josh. He will ruin your career. He’s not in it for the long haul. He’s going to book you into crappy films so that he can make some big dollars, and you will lose any acting credibility that you’ve established. For God’s sake, you’re up for
Inside the Fire
—Tony Scott is directing that. Every actor in town wants that role. Tom, Brad, Will. You have a real shot at this, but if you go do some crappy film or if Josh doesn’t have the same type of relationship with Tony and the studio like I do, then this opportunity will disappear.”

“Jess, Josh already got me in to meet with Tony.”

Jessica’s stomach lurched. She was speechless. That meeting, the meeting she’d scheduled for Holden with Tony Scott, was for Thursday.
How had Josh Dragatsis gotten Holden Humphrey in to see Tony Scott before now? And how had Tony’s office not called Jessica’s office to confirm?
She was going to vomit.

“I can’t—”

“Jess, you’re the very best agent in town. It’s just that right now, where I am, I just think I need a guy agent. I think he understands me better.”

“So that’s it?” Jessica asked.

“Yeah. I’m sorry,” Holden said. He pushed the plate away from him. “The eggs were really good, Jess,” he said as though trying to soften the $20 million blow.

“Thanks.” Jessica gave him a half smile as she stood. She’d found Holden in obscurity. Gotten him his first head shots and acting gig. Even loaned him money in the lean years so that he could stay in Hollywood and not have to return to Podunk wherever. And now, after five years and some success, Holden was canning her for a young guy with a good connection for blow. It was ludicrous. Insanity, really. Jessica walked over to Holden. He looked a little afraid, as if she might dump the carafe of hot coffee in his lap.

“Stand up,” Jessica said.

Holden stood. He wasn’t really much taller than her, at least not when she was wearing four-inch Givenchy heels. “Give me a hug.” Holden obeyed and wrapped his arms around her. “Now listen, when this little pecker fucks it up, you come back to me. You hear me? Don’t ever feel embarrassed or ashamed to make that call. You got it?”

Holden nodded his head in the affirmative. He looked as though he might cry.

“Don’t let them fuck up your career, Holden. You are in charge. Got that, too?”

Again he nodded. Jessica pulled back from Holden’s embrace and turned her back to walk away. She’d been officially shit-canned. Her noble words in parting were complete. Just a little sucker punch at the end to plant the seed that Holden Humphrey had, in fact, made the biggest mistake of his career.

*

Jessica stepped off the private elevator next to her office. She still felt queasy; the eggs, the coffee, the being fired. She’d just lost a huge client for the agency, and if Kim didn’t come through with Maurice, the bloodbath for the day had only just begun. Jessica walked toward her office, eyeing her number two and number three assistants. She glanced at Kim’s desk. Her chair was empty. Jessica stopped.

“Where’s Kim?” Her question was met by deafening silence. “Lauren?” Jessica looked at her number two assistant, who was juggling three phone lines and typing an e-mail.

Lauren hit the Mute button on her phone and glanced up at Jessica. “Gone,” she said.

Gone? On a morning like this, her number one assistant decided to leave her desk? Maybe this battlefield promotion needed to be reconsidered. Jessica started toward her own desk. Or perhaps Kim was, at this very moment, convincing Maurice that he had to stay with CTA.

“When will she be back?” Jessica called out to Lauren.

“Jessica,” Lauren answered, sounding irritated, “she’s gone.”

“What?”

“Not out-of-the-office gone. Gone gone.”

“What?!” Jessica screamed. The reality of the situation hit her. The Tony Scott meeting. The fucking the stars. The parties. The 6:45 A.M. phone call. Kim’s absence from her desk.

“Dragatsis,” Lauren said. “He got Holden, Maurice, and Kim. Offered her senior agent status, a huge salary, and to be on Holden’s and Maurice’s agent teams.”

“That traitorous bitch!” Jessica inhaled deeply and grabbed her headset. “Who else?”

“No one yet. But we’re bleeding here. She took all the numbers. Not just your clients, but also every number of every client with any value in the building, including writers and directors. She’s got copies of files, submission logs, deal memos, and e-mails.”

Within the heat of rage, Jessica felt the emergence of fear and panic. CTA had just taken a torpedo hit to the hull.

“Jeremy’s on his way to your office.”

This was war. Jessica started barking orders. “Okay, send an agent-only e-mail announcing an emergency meeting in twenty minutes. In the e-mail, tell all agents to start calling and checking in with all their clients. Tell them to begin with their biggest clients first. Now get me my client lists.
Now!
We are calling everyone this morning.”

“Got it.”

“Call Human Resources and get a trainee up here.”

“They’re on the way.”

“Lauren, get me Angie first.”

“Dialing.”

“And Lauren,” Jessica called.

“Yeah?” Lauren glanced up from her phone keypad. “Congratulations on your promotion. You’re number one now.”

Lauren smiled. “Thanks. I had the computer department turn off her BlackBerry and purge her security codes the minute she got on the elevator. Hope it helps.”

“Probably not, but good call.”

*

“Okay, love. Just wanted to check that you were well.” Jessica cooed into the ear of one of her biggest stars. “Please give Maddy hugs and kisses from Aunt Jess.” Jessica looked up to see Jeremy entering her office. She smiled at her boss and mouthed the word “Angie.” Jeremy nodded, understanding the importance of the call, and sat down. “Okay. Great, see you when you’re back from Africa, then. Mmm-hmm. Bye-bye.” Jessica unwrapped her headset from her ear. She looked at Jeremy. Always the dapper Englishman, he looked cool and well dressed even with the mounting stress.

“Quite a day,” Jeremy said.

“Quite. And it’s not even ten A.M.”

Jeremy leaned forward in his seat and moved the knot of his tie. “Listen, Jess, I know we’re under attack, and I don’t doubt you for one second, but we’ve been thinking—”

Jessica arched her right eyebrow.

“Tolliver and I.”

“Tolliver?”

“And I believe that in this situation with a day like today, we need a show of strength,” Jeremy said.

“I completely agree. I’ve got the client lists and we’ve just closed three huge deals. I think we need to leak the deals to
Variety
and the
Reporter
. They need to be on the front page tomorrow.”

“Right. Yes. Jess, that is absolutely brilliant. But Jess, I think also that now is the perfect time to announce Tolliver.”

“I see.” She was sitting wounded in the water and Jeremy wanted to fire the shot that would kill her in front of the entire town.

“Jess, I am a big believer that two heads are better than one. You and Tolliver have such complementary skill sets. The two of you really will be unbeatable.”

“Yes, but Jeremy, today is not the day. It will look to the community as if you are replacing me. That you are concerned with my ability to run the company during a crisis.”

“Rubbish. Everyone knows that Tolliver’s been here for quite some time.”

“Jeremy, most people in this town can’t remember the last twenty-four hours. All they’re going to see is that I took two very bad hits to my client list and that you decided to bring some man in to help me.”

Jeremy visibly bristled. “You said 'my.' “

“Excuse me?” Jessica didn’t understand Jeremy’s meaning and really didn’t have time to play games.

“You said ‘my’ client list when referring to Holden and Maurice. Don’t you mean ‘our’ or CTA’s’?”

“Well, of course I do, I only meant that—”

“Jess, I’m sorry, but I’ve already decided. Today is the day.”

“No. Absolutely not. This was not part of the deal with Tolliver coming over here. Jeremy, you specifically told me that I would never, ever look undermined by him. You gave me your word.”

Jeremy stood when Jessica completed her tirade. It was a gentlemanly act for Jeremy to even walk over to Jessica’s office; since he owned the company, it was Jessica’s place to come to him. Jessica had now not only infringed upon Jeremy’s courtesy and civility but had also yelled at her very uptight and stuffy British boss.

“I did, Jessica, tell you when Tolliver arrived that he would never be used to undermine your authority. Nor would the perception ever be present in the Hollywood community that Tolliver had more power within the company than you. You are correct. However, Jessica, with respect to you and your abilities, I have made my decision and the story will run tomorrow. As for appearing ‘undermined,’ Jess, I think that
your
two clients who have chosen to leave and fire you, as well as your former assistant, took care of that.”