Xavier
I’m like the fucking king of my little empire. As I walk on location around the studio, about to oversee events for the new commercial launch, I acknowledge how fucking awesome it feels to own all of this.
In a short time, Hard Pressed has become a leader in the industry, and that was always my vision. I set lofty goals and achieve them. It’s just what I do. What more can I say?
I walk into the main floor of the building just in time to see Allie duck into a corner.
She seems upset and despite myself, I want to go find out what's wrong. I walk over to where she is and peek around the corner to see her eyes flooded with tears.
"Allie," I say with more sincerity than I anticipated feeling. "What's wrong? What happened? Tell me."
She looks at me like she's happy to see a friend. Little does she know how much of a friend I am—or used to be. Because if she knew the depths of my dark plan, she’d know I’m her fucking enemy. Even if I don’t quite feel like that right now.
"Oh, Xavier, I'm so happy to see you. Except I don't want you to see me like this." She wipes the tears away from her mascara-stained face.
"Well, tell me what's going on. What happened?" I ask.
"Fine. Here's what happened," she says. "You know how I've been with that sleazy agent? Well, her name is Cheri, and she's been against me since day one. I kid you not. Today, I saw that they were doing a commercial so I called her and asked if she could book me an audition.
“She said that's not the direction she wants my career to go. She says she's in charge of my career and by extension, my life."
"Wait, what? She threatened you?"
I have the impulse to beat her agent for hurting her, but once again, I have to check my emotions. She's not mine, nor do I want her to be...not for anything more than a fling. Still, there may be an opportunity here.
"So, I went behind her back," Allie continues. "I just felt so enraged by the fact that she's not helping me get ahead. I went directly to the Project Lead, and guess what? She said I may be perfect for the part."
Of course she's perfect. Allie's the most gorgeous girl to walk into this studio in as long as I can remember.
"So, I called her back, my agent, and I told her I wanted to part ways. But she threatened to sue me for breach of contract. And she said I'm under her thumb for the next five years."
Fresh tears are rolling down her face as she recounts the way this fucking agent threatened her. For some reason, the idea of someone else owning her makes me feel possessive in a way I've never known.
I ignore these ridiculous feelings, though, and set about initiating phase two of bringing Allie down. She makes it all too easy being so vulnerable with me. She needs to learn not to wear her heart on her sleeve.
Yes, I'm dying to fuck her again, but I'm also consumed by this need to cause her pain. I want her to hurt the way she made me hurt.
And suddenly, the perfect idea practically presents itself.
"Don't worry, Allie, I'll take care of everything. I have the power to do that," I say. "Please just give me a minute to make some phone calls."
I step away from her and into an empty office. I shut the door and began mounting my next attack. First, I'll make a call to her modeling agency.
They put me through to the director. Within a few minutes and with a few promises, he agrees to let me buy him out. Just like that, it's my agency now. I own it and I own her, only she'll never know it was me.
I laugh to myself. It’s fucking perfect.
I decide it's time to assign her a new representative. I make sure Cheri is fired and I put her with a guy named Harry. He seems pliable and easily influenced by money, so it's not hard to convince him to book his new model client all the wrong jobs.
If she thought her career was suffering before, it's really gonna hurt now.
I talk to Harry and make sure he understands that I want Allie to book the worst possible jobs, with an extra incentive to him for his discretion, of course.
I never anticipated that such a sublime opportunity to take her down would fall so easily into my lap, but things have worked out perfectly.
Harry's scheduled to call Allie in about fifteen minutes, so I can make my move.
I seek her out again and promise her it's going to be okay. Tell her I've taken care of everything. She has a new agent.
"He's the best of the best," I lie. "And he'll take you to the top."
"Thank you, Xavier, for everything."
Her wide-eyed genuine gratitude astounds me. How could someone with that amount of heart have been the heartbreaker I knew back then? She seems so innocent.
But I don't allow myself to fall for it, not this time. I remind myself that she is in show business. It’s her job to make people believe shit.
I kiss her cheek and make my exit before Harry calls.
He's gonna phone her up and introduce himself. He's been instructed to book her for a terribly boring video. I told him not to share the details with her.
But it’s all going to be under my guidance now. I'm going to be calling the shots on Allie's career, but it will all be done behind the scenes. None of it will be revealed to her. She’ll be fucking clueless.
I've got her right where I want her and I never dreamed it would be so easy. She's gonna pay for everything that went down in high school. She'll never guess that this was all coming from me. And I'm not gonna tell her until the time is right. When I’m ready to crush her.
But for now, all I care about is that Allie thinks I'm her savior, when in fact I'm her goddamn enemy. She's literally sleeping with the enemy, and that makes me feel so fucking good to have that power over her.
Revenge is mine, at last.