“Haillllleyyyy!” The screaming cry that came from her phone took Hailey by surprise; it was Missy June.

“Missy, what’s wrong? Where are you?” Her voice on the other end alarmed her, but she was happy to finally hear from her.

“He’s such an asshole,” she said ignoring the question. “Why are men such assholes, Hailey?”

“I’m sorry, Missy, you’re going to have to tell me what you’re talking about.”

“I’m pregnant and he won’t even acknowledge that it’s his. It’s his baby.”

“Who’s baby is it, Missy. What are you talking about?” Hailey was happy to hear from her, but her mind was already racing on how to deal with the PR of a pregnancy announcement.

“You know that band Jasper and the Weeds,” Missy hadn’t lowered her volume, and she was still scream-crying into the phone.

Hailey’s chest clenched. She hoped it wasn’t Jasper’s baby.

“The bass player, Dustin. This is his baby and he’s saying he’s going to wait until it’s born and take a paternity test.”

“Have you been with other men, Missy?” Hailey asked.

“No, how could you ask me that?”

“Have you?” Missy wasn’t a one-man type of girl at all.

“Okay, yes, but I know it’s his. I did the math.”

“I represent Jasper Daly now, Missy. I can talk to Dustin for you. If you’re sure it’s his.” Hailey wasn’t sure that Missy could be sure, and she wasn’t sure how far along she was. She’d get all those details later. What she was sure of was that she was pissed Dustin didn’t want to take responsibility for his actions and be a man. She was in obvious distress and he was making it worse.

“After I go to the event today, I’ll give you a call so we can meet,” Hailey talked in a soft voice. “We’ll figure all of this out, okay?”

Her mind was racing with all the things going on in her head. When Matthew walked in her office, she couldn’t help picturing him in the awful underwear from her dream, just for a second. He saw the look on her face.

“What happened?”

“Missy June is having a crisis. I have to go to this field day so I can’t help her right now. I just am not sure how to help her yet.”

“I understand. Well, would you like me to go over and talk to her?”

Matthew’s suggestion took her off guard. She didn’t want him going over and talking to her client. Maybe he was only being nice, but how could she tell him to back off without sounding insane?

“No, I’ll go after. You about ready?” She turned on a bright smile for him, and he leaned over and kissed her. It was a quick kiss, but it was sweet. She felt all tingly inside.

“Yep, let me go grab my iPad and we’ll be off.”

Hailey wasn’t sure how she would confront Dustin or Jasper about the problems with Missy. Dustin wouldn’t be there, but if Jasper knew and didn’t take up for Missy, that would be as upsetting. He’d been kind of a jerk lately anyway, so there was no telling what she might run into.

She was standing outside of the building waiting for them when they pulled up with Autumn West. She was twirling a long strand of her hair and smiling up at him. Hailey reached over and took Matthew’s hand as they walked towards them. He looked over and smiled at her.

“Hello, Jasper,” she said trying to sound pleasant.

“Hi, Hailey, you ready to have some fun? I bet I can beat you in any sport they have going on in there.” He grinned at her but then tilted his head curiously. “What’s wrong, Little Bird?”

“Matthew, will you take Autumn inside, I need to talk to Jasper for a minute,” Hailey asked.

“Sure thing.” Matthew smiled and kissed her on the top of the head before holding his arm out for Autumn.

Hailey watched them disappear “You need to tell your bandmate to grow up and own up to his mistakes,” she started, sounding a bit more irritated than she meant to. Maybe it was Autumn, she wasn’t sure why, but she irritated her.

“Whoa, what are you talking about? Did one of the guys do something to you?” He leaned forward.

“Not to me, to Missy June. She told him she was pregnant and all he could do was tell her it wasn’t his. How does he know?”

“You really need to get your facts straight.” Jasper stood up taller and she shrank back a little. “Dustin slept with her once, he used protection. He knows she’s been with other guys and there’s no way he’s going to spend nine months supporting her when he’s not even sure the baby is his.”

“Really, so he can just dismiss a woman’s knowledge of her clock? She counted the days and did the math, Jasper.” Hailey had no idea if Missy even knew how to count the days, but now the argument was more important than the facts.

“You’re going to take that low class, D-list tramp at her word?” Jasper was actually snarling at her now, and the words coming out of his mouth shocked her.

“Those are big words, Jasper. Just because she’s not as famous as you and she made a mistake, you want to put her down. You rock stars are all the same.” As soon as she said it, she wanted to take it back. It wasn’t fair to him, she was just angry over the whole situation.

He looked hurt for a moment and then took a step back from her. “I’m the biggest client you have, so you should worry more about me and what I’m doing than what she’s doing. All she’s doing is trying to stir up trouble and get herself in the spotlight. Dustin was stupid for going near her.”

With that, he walked away and left Hailey standing outside the building, alone. Things had taken a very ugly turn.

***

“Jasper, come show me how to do this!” Autumn stood with a golf club in her hand looking uncertain. It was a driving range, and she was standing beside a small boy who hit it almost to the hole, then did some form of his very own victory dance.

“Nice job, buddy.” Jasper gave the kid a high-five before he ran off to putt the ball in.

Autumn was wearing a tight T-shirt with the sleeves cuffed and cut off jean shorts that showed off her nice legs. She was so pretty standing there in the sunlight waiting for him. Screw Hailey, he thought. She had made it clear what she thought about him.

He walked up to her and pressed his body against hers, wrapping his arms around to hold the club with her. She smelled like a spring day and he inhaled deeply. He showed her how to swing back, running his fingers down her arm as he did. She turned to him.

“We’ll get to that later, there are kids here now.” She winked.

He felt a tingle in his pants.

It wasn’t until Dustin showed up that things got hairy again. Jasper was playing a game of flag football with a group of kids when he saw Liam and Dustin walk into his line of vision. Hailey was going right for them and he tagged Autumn in, who reluctantly ran out and took his flag.

“Hailey, leave him alone,” Jasper yelled, as he ran towards her.

He didn’t know when she’d gotten such a fire under her ass. She wasn’t usually so angry and in your face. He was glad she wanted to go to bat for her client, but Missy was making a fool out of her.

She was already in his face yelling at him, words Jasper couldn’t hear. He made it to them while Dustin was pulling out his phone.

“Look, Hailey, look what she was doing last night! Someone sent this to me. She’s lying. Either she’s not pregnant, or she doesn’t care, but I’m not going to wrap myself up in her stress until she proves it to me.”

Jasper looked at the picture. It was Missy with a bottle of vodka in a club turning it up. She was wearing the sluttiest outfit she could find. She was literally wearing a shirt that said Baby Slut on it. She certainly didn’t look like someone’s mother. Hailey stared at the picture for a moment unable to say anything about it.

“That could have been taken anytime, Dustin.” She turned and walked away.

Jasper saw her cheeks flush. She walked into the bathroom and Autumn was right behind her, on her phone. He hoped Autumn was going to ask Hailey how he felt about her, maybe set up some kind of date. It was cute how shy she seemed.

He hoped the Hailey, Missy, and Dustin thing would work itself out somehow. Looking at Missy’s picture, however he was pretty sure she’d take it really far.

***

Hailey went into the stall. She put the lid down and sat on the toilet, thinking over everything that was going on. If Missy was lying to her and to Dustin, then she was definitely going to look stupid. Someone came in to the bathroom behind her.

“No, I don’t give a shit. I’m not kidding, Archie. You need to work on being a better agent.”

It was Autumn. Why did she choose to have private conversations when Hailey was in the bathroom?

“No, I’m at some stupid kid thing. Because Jasper Daly will do more for my career than you will. No, I hate kids. I hate being here. Come and get me. Get me away from these kids.”

Hailey was shocked. She’d not acted like she hated kids the whole time she’d been there. She was quite the actress, and if she hadn’t been so disgusted, Hailey would have been impressed.

Autumn snorted something loudly and walked back out of the bathroom. She really needed to find a way to warn Jasper, even if he was mad at her. That girl was the wrong element.

Going back out of the bathroom she saw Autumn had run right back over to cozy up to Jasper who was still talking to Dustin. They all looked over when she came out, but, thankfully, Matthew met her with a drink.

“You sure do get in a lot of arguments with that crowd.” He smiled at her.

“Well, they make it easy to argue with them. Thanks.” She took a long sip of the soda. “I need to talk to Jasper one more time and then we can go. I’m hot and tired, and the kids are all exhausted. I think it was a good day. There’ve been a lot of pictures taken of Autumn and Jasper.”

She pointed at a photographer who thought he was hidden behind a tree. When he saw her point, he casually dipped down behind it like that was the normal thing to do.

“Okay, go tell him what you need to and we’ll go grab dinner and take it back to your place. If that’s okay.”

Hailey grinned tightly. “That sounds perfect.” She walked up to Jasper and forced a smile. “Can I borrow you for a moment?” She purposely reached up and pulled him away from Autumn so they could go talk.

“Are you going to say sorry?” Jasper said, and it took everything she had not to blow up on him again.

“No, I want to warn you about Autumn,” she said seriously, wanting him to know she meant it.

He threw his head back and laughed loudly at her. She kept her cool and waited for him to finish.

“You want to warn me about the teenage witch? She won’t cast a spell of goodness and virtue on me, Hailey.”

“She isn’t what she seems, Jasper. She’s looking to lose the good act. I’ve heard her doing coke and talking about how you’re going to advance her career, twice now. She’s not the good girl you think she is. We’re trying to keep you away from this. We don’t want another Tara incident.”

“I think you’re just jealous, Little Bird. I can take care of myself. Autumn will be good for my reputation and she’ll be good for my body. Have a good afternoon with Matthew.” With that, he once again left her standing alone and speechless.

“Um… you ready to go?” Matthew moved up and put his arm around her, clearly not sure what had gone down.

“Yes, I think I’ve had enough of this whole day.” Hailey leaned into him and let him lead her to her car. She truly had enough for the whole week.

As they got in the car, she looked at her Twitter account, and Jasper’s. She managed to read a tweet from Autumn that she’d posted earlier in the day.

After tonight the good girl you know is gone.

Hailey hoped Jasper wasn’t getting in over his head but she would worry about that tomorrow. She smiled at Matthew as they went to spend what she hoped would be a great night together.

 

Continue reading Managed 3. .