“I’ll call you later,” Kendrick said as he placed a kiss on Nicole’s cheek.
“I look forward to it,” Nicole said as she unlocked the door to the apartment. After having Nicole at his place all night and all morning, he didn’t want her to leave. However, they both had to be at the studio tomorrow, and Nicole had to work at Bare Sophistication tonight. Since their jobs couldn’t care less that they’d much rather stay in bed together the entire day, they chose to be responsible and see one another after work tomorrow.
Last night, he’d accepted what he’d known in his heart weeks before. He’d fallen completely in love with Nicole LeBlanc. Kendrick felt like he was floating on cloud nine as he walked back to his car. The moment he pulled out of the parking lot, his phone rang from a number he didn’t recognize.
“This is Kendrick,” he said when he answered.
“Kendrick? Is that you, baby?”
He pulled his car off to the shoulder at the sound of a voice he hadn’t heard in two years. “Amanda, is that you?”
“Of course, it is, silly. Has it been that long?”
“Over two years,” he said as a matter-of-factly.
“Two years? It only feels like two months to me. Listen, I need you to meet with me in an hour.”
“No,” he said. “You can’t call out the blue and tell me to meet you somewhere.”
“I see. You need me to be polite,” she said with a forced laugh. “Kendrick, will you please meet with me in an hour?”
“No,” he said again. “I’m busy.”
“Busy,” she said. “You mean with that woman I saw you walk out of your condo building with today?”
Kendrick frowned. “You don’t know what you’re talking about. You don’t even know where I live.”
“Yes, I do,” she said. “You’ve lived a few blocks from the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica for the past couple years. Just this morning you were wearing a burgundy tee and a pair of jeans. And I can’t remember what that chick you were with was wearing, but trust me, I saw you. And I think it’s best if you take me up on my offer to meet.”
Kendrick dropped his head to his steering wheel. He’d known Amanda long enough to know that if he didn’t oblige, it would only make matters worse.
“Where do you want to meet?”
“At the park we used to always go to.”
“Okay, I’ll be there in thirty minutes.”
“I said an hour.”
“Thirty minutes. I’ll see you there.” He disconnected the call and started driving in the direction of the park. His mind was racing with what she could possibly want. One thing he knew for sure. When Amanda popped up out the blue, it was never a good thing.
* * *
Kendrick glanced down at his watch. Late as usual. He’d told her to be here in thirty minutes, but she’d wanted to meet in an hour. Now it was an hour and a half since they talked, and she was just now strolling toward him.
“You’re late,” he said.
“I know,” she said, flicking her hair over her shoulder. “Since you wanted me to be here in thirty minutes, I figured I’d make you wait it out.”
Typical. She still enjoyed playing games. “Okay, so I’m here. What did you want to talk to me about?”
“Well, I’m not giving up on my acting, but I’ve decided that I would be a great set designer. Since I got out of rehab, I’ve worked on a few sets for community service work, and I loved it.” She pulled out her résumé and handed it to him. “I need you to get your agency to sign me and tell them that I come highly recommended.”
Kendrick grabbed the paper and read a few of her recommendations. “Are these recommendations legit?”
She cleared her throat, cracked her neck, then cleared her throat again. “Of course they are, silly.”
She’s lying. She always cleared her throat and cracked her neck when she was lying. “Amanda, I’m not convincing my agency to hire you.”
“Why not?”
“Well, for starters, they are one of the most reputable agencies in LA.”
“I know. That’s why I want them to sign me.”
“That also means that they have a no-bullshit mentality. You checked yourself back into rehab last year. How long have you been out?”
“For a month.”
“How long have you been clean?”
“For a month. What does it matter?”
“It matters because I think you need to focus on getting healthy first.”
“I am healthy,” she said. “And I’m trying to get back my life, which is why I need you to talk to your agency.”
Kendrick handed back her résumé. “I wish you the best, but I don’t want to get involved. And I really think you need to focus on getting better first.”
“What the fuck do you know?” she said as she stuffed the résumé back in her purse. It was then that Kendrick saw the bottle of liquor sticking out. He reached for it and pulled it out before taking a whiff of her breath.
“I thought you said you were clean?”
She grabbed the bottle from his hand and threw it back in her purse. “Who the hell are you to judge me?”
“I’m not judging you. I just want you to get better and realize that addiction is a disease, which means that you have to get the help you need.” He stepped closer to her and lightly grabbed her elbow. “Amanda, don’t you see that this path you’re headed down is not a healthy one? You have to get the right help.”
“Don’t touch me,” she yelled as she pulled her elbow away from him. “All my life, you’ve always looked down on me and thought you were better than me.”
“That’s not true.”
“Yes, it is. And you and your self-righteousness are getting on my last nerve. I asked you to get me a job with your agency, and you pretty much laughed in my face. I didn’t want to have to do this,” she said. “I didn’t want to go there.”
“Do what?” he asked. “Go where?”
“I do have some connections in the industry,” she says. “So if you can’t get me the career I deserve, then I’ll find someone who can.”
“Amanda, you sound crazy right now.”
“Do I?” she yelled. “Do I sound fucking crazy? How about now?” She raised her voice even more. “Embarrassed to be in public with me yet, or is that big-ass ego of yours too good to be embarrassed?” She took two steps closer to him. “After I leave this park, I want you to remember this as the day that I finally stopped letting your judgmental attitude affect me and took matters into my own hands. Just remember that I warned your ass before I exposed you.”
He frowned. “What are you talking about?”
She laughed. “Don’t you get it? I’m the only person in this new life that you’ve created for yourself who knows the real you. The you behind that do-gooder image you try to portray. But just in case you need a reminder, how about I give you a hint.” She got closer to his ear. “Ménage à trois.” With that, she turned and stomped through the park the same way she came.
Crap. Crap. Crap. Crap. As much as Kendrick wanted to ignore Amanda’s threat, he could tell that she was unhinged, so he wouldn’t put anything past her. He pulled out his phone and called his uncle.
“Hey, nephew,” Benjamin said. “What’s up?”
Kendrick huffed. “I need to get ahold of your lawyer. Amanda is threating to expose my past.”
“Expose your past how?” he asked.
“She has some pictures from a time in my life when I was at an all-time low. When I refused to help her get ahead in her career, she threatened to leak the pictures. I think she’s desperate to get her fame one way or another.” Kendrick ran his fingers down his face. “There may even be a video too.”
“A video? Nephew, I think you better start at the beginning.”
Kendrick grew more and more angry as he recounted the details to his uncle. By the end of his story, damaging his career wasn’t the only worry he had. His relationship with Nicole would be in jeopardy, as well.
* * *
Nicole walked into the studio anxious to see Kendrick. She’d tried to contact him several times yesterday, and he hadn’t responded to any of her calls or text messages. She’d had a strange feeling all morning, yet she couldn’t really place it.
“Hey, sweetie,” Angelica said as she gripped her arm. She seems nervous.
“Hey, Angelica. Is everything okay?”
“Of course it is. Why wouldn’t it be? Have you seen Kendrick? Or have you talked to him today?”
“No.” Nicole gave her a skeptical look. “Why do you ask? And why are you so nervous?” It was then that she noticed that everyone was staring at her with looks of pity.
“Um, why is everyone looking at me?”
Angelica nodded for Monty to come over. Once he reached them, Angelica and Monty took her into a small meeting room and shut the door.
“Listen,” Monty said. “Kendrick is a good man. Please wait and talk to him about this before you draw your own conclusions.”
“What are you talking about?” Nicole asked. “You guys are scaring me.”
“It’s pretty bad,” Angelica said. “But I figured you’d rather see it with us than anyone else in the studio.”
“Show me whatever it is that you’re talking about,” Nicole said. “I don’t like the energy in this place right now.”
Angelica and Monty shared a worried look before Monty took out his phone. “A popular blog site posted this today, so of course everyone who follows the blog got the notifications in their emails. Kendrick isn’t famous or anything, but since he works in the film industry and through the agency, we have a lot of high-profile clients. News is spreading like wildfire.”
Nicole took Monty’s phone and pressed play on a video. Within the first few seconds, her mouth dropped. Kendrick was in the room with two other men and six females. She immediately recognized Amanda as one of the females. They are sitting around a table sniffing what she assumed was cocaine, drinking and shooting what she assumed was heroine. Although she wasn’t sure what the drugs were and Kendrick only appeared to be drinking, it looked bad. It looked really bad.
“He looks young,” Nicole said.
“Yeah,” Monty said. “I don’t know what’s worse. If he was an adult or that he’s obviously underage.”
“People do crap way worse than this every day,” Nicole said.
“Um, keep watching,” Angelica said. A few minutes later, Nicole wished she’d stopped it just at the drugs and drinking, because watching Kendrick and Amanda have wild sex in a porno-style video before the whole room erupting into a sex frenzy was more than her stomach could handle at the moment.
“Oh, my God,” Nicole said as she tried to hold down her breakfast. A part of her was completely shocked by what she was watching. However, another part of her felt so bad for Kendrick.
“Who leaked this?” Nicole asked. There was no way Kendrick had wanted this getting out into the world. That’s probably why he hasn’t called me back.
“I was only able to talk to Kendrick briefly when he called this morning and asked me to make sure you were okay, but I think Amanda leaked it.”
“I figured,” Nicole said, handing Monty back his phone when Kendrick started throwing money at what she assumed to be strippers. She’d seen enough. “Why didn’t he just ask me if I was okay himself?”
“He probably doesn’t know what to say to you,” Angelica said. “The Kendrick in this video is nothing like the man he is today. Up until you, Kendrick wasn’t even a PDA type of guy. I know you probably have a lot of questions and he owes you a lot of answers, but give him time. My guess is, he’s getting his lawyers on this right away.”
“He is,” Monty confirmed. “That’s why he won’t be at the studio today. And I can only imagine how the agency is handling this. We may work behind the scenes, but The Gilbert Monroe Agency lands some of the largest clients in the world by offering them the best, drama-free film crew that they could ask for. They once let go of the lead technician because his friend had gone live on Facebook when they were hiring prostitutes.”
Nicole shook her head. “My heart is hurting for Kendrick.” She pulled out her phone and tried to call him again. Still, no answer.
“Give him time,” Angelica said. “And I’m sure if you can’t handle being here today, the producers will let you go home and bring in one of the temp makeup artists.”
“No,” Nicole said as she composed herself to step out the meeting room. “Although I still need to process what I saw, I will not run out of here like an embarrassed little bunny.”
“That’s the spirit,” Monty said. “Stand up for your man.” Both Nicole and Angelica turned to face Monty. “Too much?”
“Just a little.” She opened the door and as suspected, there was a small crowd gathered around the meeting room waiting for her to come out. So many eyes, she thought as she looked around the room. The old Nicole would have hung her head and tried to be invisible as she made her way through the crowd. However, the new Nicole was done hiding.
“Seriously, guys,” she said to the room. “Don’t act like that video is any worse than what most of you masturbate to on a daily basis. Next time I talk to Kendrick, I’ll let him know that he provided endless entertainment and jokes all day.”
Everyone laughed and the tension was broken. Nicole knew that it was only temporary and that Kendrick would probably be the main gossip all day, but she hoped that people would stop giving her those puppy-dog eyes.
“You’re my shero,” Angelica said as they walked through the crowd.
“That was badass,” Monty said.
Nicole plastered on a smile, when internally she was so frustrated she wanted to scream at the top of her lungs. She glanced at her phone again, hoping she at least had a text message, but she didn’t have anything.
Kendrick Burrstone, you have A LOT of explaining to do.