Chapter Eight
Blaire
It was nice having a break from acting after the month in Wyoming, but when I got a call from my agent asking me to come in and see him, I couldn’t help but feel excited. I was aware how important it was to keep the roles coming. I wasn’t a big enough actress yet to be able to take off too much time. I was hoping I’d get some good offers once the cowboy movie came out, but that wasn’t going to be for a while. For now, I needed some more work to come my way.
My agent’s office was near Katie’s place of work. She worked as a graphic designer for a well-known company in the middle of the city. I called her the moment I hung up with the agent.
“Free for lunch?” I asked.
“Ooh, yes! Good timing too. I have a very boring sandwich with me today that I’m not in the mood for, and there’s this new café that everyone is talking about.”
“Perfect. I have a meeting with my agent at eleven. I’ll call you as soon as I’m done. Where is the café?”
“Literally next to my office. I’ll meet you there.”
My agent was Reggie Grant, and while he looked nothing like Hugh Grant, he liked to tell me that they were related in a previous past time. I highly doubted it. Reggie was fairly short, with a wide girth and an unfortunate lack of hair despite being only in his forties. What little hair he did had was pushed over his head in an attempt of presence. But he wasn’t fooling anyone, and it only made him look worse. But, despite his outward appearance, he was a good agent. If it wasn’t for him, I never would’ve gotten the cowboy film.
I arrived just before eleven and sat in the waiting room. Reggie liked to think that he was above his clients. So even though he was probably not busy at all at the moment, he would wait until exactly eleven before letting me in. I knew it, and so did the receptionist. She rolled her eyes a little when she told me to take a seat and wait for him, and the two of us giggled slightly. Reggie wasn’t a bad guy, and he was completely transparent in everything he did. But he had no idea that everyone could see through him. I didn’t really care what he did, or what he looked like, as long as he got me some roles. I should’ve known not to arrive any earlier.
“Okay, Reggie will see you,” the receptionist said when the clock turned to exactly eleven.
“Thank you,” I said and walked to his office.
He was on the phone when I walked in, but I had a feeling he wasn’t talking to anyone. There was just something in the way that he was speaking that gave me the impression that the phone call was made up for my benefit. He gestured for me to sit down.
“I better go—one of my best clients has just arrived,” he said and shot me a smile. “I’ll call you later.”
“Hi, Blaire. Good to see you. Welcome back from Wyoming.”
“Thanks, Reggie. Good to see you too.”
“So, how did it go? I talked to Roger, and he said the whole thing went exactly the way he wanted it to go. And I heard nothing but praise for you.”
I beamed. “That’s good to hear. It went well. And it was kind of fun being away in a new place for the month. It was far better than I expected.”
“So, you didn’t mind being in the middle of nowhere like that? It was in a farming community, wasn’t it?”
“It was. And I didn’t mind at all. In fact, it was very peaceful. And the people were all so great.”
“Did you hear about the Sloan scandal?” he whispered even though nobody else was in the room.
I had heard about the scandal. How she hadn’t really attended Yale and how she’d been involved in porn movies. It was all anybody could talk about these days, although I didn’t see why it really mattered. She was a good actress. Although, I was starting to learn that being in the film industry wasn’t all about acting. From what I had discovered, she was still in Wyoming, hiding out with Ryan’s brother. I had thought about asking Ryan for more details, but I figured it had nothing to do with me. I decided not to tell Reggie that I had recently been on a date with Brady’s brother. If he knew, he’d be badgering me for days to find out about Sloan. Reggie fit right into the Hollywood scene. He loved nothing more than good gossip.
“Yeah, I heard. I feel so bad for her,” I said. “She’s such a nice girl and way more down to earth than you think. She doesn’t deserve all this bad publicity. You should’ve seen how good she was in the cowgirl role. She really got into it. This is the last thing that she needs right now. And I hear her agent fired her?”
“Dorothy! Yes. She’s crazy, though. I wouldn’t have fired Sloan for something like that. I mean, doesn’t Dorothy realize just how much these rumors have done for the movie? The publicity! You should all be thanking Sloan for what she did. All eyes are going to be on this movie when it comes out. Dorothy is going to regret the day that she fired Sloan. Hey, I wonder if she’s on the hunt for a new agent? I should contact her.”
I didn’t think it was appropriate to be thanking Sloan for making porn movies, but I didn’t say anything. At least I knew he had no intention of firing me if I ever did something wrong, even if his intentions were purely based on greed.
“I think it’s going to be a great movie,” I said instead.
“It is. Wish they’d hurry up and release it. These things always take so much longer than you think they will. I have a good feeling that you’ll get some great roles from being in that movie. But until then, we have to dig around for something else. Anyway, let’s move on from there and start looking toward the future. So, I do have a few parts for you.”
“You do? That’s great!” I was surprised to hear that he had more than one idea for me. It was always nice to have a selection to choose from. And if I could get all of them, then even better.
“I think you’re going to like these,” he said and started reading out the four different role ideas he had for me.
They were all small parts, which I didn’t mind at all, but each one of them required me to either have sex or get completely naked. I was surprised how little Reggie knew about me. Surely he knew that these were not the sort of roles that I would be interested in? He seemed to think these roles were just right for me.
I shook my head. “Thank you for thinking of me, Reggie, but I’m afraid these are not the right roles for me. I hate turning you down like this, and I am aware that it’s not good to turn down roles, but I also don’t want to do something I’m not comfortable with.”
“Is it the nudity?”
“Yeah, I’m not too keen on that. Especially not the sex roles.”
“Blaire, you’re absolutely gorgeous. You do realize that you’ll have millions of offers if you get naked for one of these roles? I know you have the whole good girl look going, but that’s only going to make the men like you even more.”
I felt slightly put out by the conversation, and I was clearly aware that Reggie was now talking to my breasts instead of my eyes. I crossed my arms, and he quickly snapped out of his daydream to look at me. At least he had the decency to look somewhat embarrassed for being caught.
“I’m sorry, Reggie. But I’m going to have to decline and just hope that something better comes my way. I do appreciate you thinking of me, but those are just not right for me at the moment.”
“Well, okay, then. I can’t force you. But give it some thought. If you change your mind let me know. I do think you’d be great at these. If you didn’t want to do the sex one, you should at least consider the one with the simple nude scene. I’m sure it will be very tasteful.”
I wasn’t going to change my mind, but I thanked him anyway and promised him I’d think about it.
I quickly sent Katie a text to let her know that I was heading out to the café. I wanted to get out of the meeting because Reggie was starting to look at me in a strange way. I wondered if he was trying to imagine me without my clothes on.
“Wow, that was a quick meeting,” she said as she saw me.
“Yeah, sorry about that. I know this is a bit early for lunch.”
“It’s never too early for lunch. Hey,” she said and looked around. “This place is pretty neat.”
The café was a designer’s dream. Whoever had designed it was obviously a typographic genius, with a keen eye for both creativity and photography. There was a lot to look at, and yet the place didn’t look at all cluttered. Everything had its place.
“It’s awesome. I think it’s going to be very popular.”
“No wonder everyone is talking about it. So, tell me how the meeting went? You don’t look too happy. No nice roles? Wait, hold that thought, let me get us some coffee first.”
She got a menu for us to look at and we placed our order for two coffees. The moment we had decided what to order, she looked at me and nodded. “Okay, go ahead.”
I sighed and told her all about what had happened with the agent.
“I just can’t do it, Katie. I know it’s not a big deal for some people, but it’s too weird for me. I’m not even having sex with anyone in my personal life right now. I don’t exactly want to get naked with some stranger in front of the camera.”
“You do realize that you won’t actually have sex with them, right? And it won’t be romantic at all because all the cameras will be on you.”
I raised my eyebrows. “I didn’t think you’d want me to do it.”
She shrugged. “It’s not such a big deal. It’s just pretend sex. You’re an actress, so that’s what you do.”
“Yeah, but it’s not pretend when I take my clothes off. That part is real.”
“So what? You have a beautiful body. You know, maybe you’re just nervous because you’ve been so out of touch with sex lately. Maybe you need to practice a bit. Get out there and practice until you feel comfortable.”
I laughed. “You know, this does not feel like the sort of advice you usually give me. And you know that’s not my style.”
“I know. I just think you should give some guys a chance. You keep saying no to them before you even know if anything could happen.”
“I say no to them only because I’m sure nothing will happen. I don’t want to waste my time.”
“How did your date go with the sexy fighter, by the way?”
I smiled at the thought of Ryan. “It went well. He’s so easy to talk to, and despite our differences, we actually seem to have a lot in common too. He’s nice.”
“I can see that. You can’t stop smiling when you talk about him. So, did you kiss?”
I shook my head. “No. He asked me back to his place, but I said no. I mean, it was the first date. I just kissed him on the cheek before leaving. But that’s it.”
She laughed. “You’re so into this guy, and yet you said no to him. I mean, I’ve never heard you talk about anyone the way you talk about him. You obviously really like him.”
“I do really like him. But that doesn’t mean I have to have sex with him.”
“True. But you could’ve at least kissed the guy.”
“You know, I think you’ve got baby making on the brain too much. It isn’t like you to encourage me to have sex with random guys like this.”
She giggled. “Maybe you’re right. But he’s not a random guy.”
I changed the subject and moved onto something that wasn’t making me feel completely anxious. But as we left the café I couldn’t help but think about what she had said. Was Katie right about this one? Should I have taken things a bit further with Ryan? Had I blown my one chance with him?