Page 193 of My Five Daddies

“I can talk to her again. Tell her to backoff.”

“No,” I say forcefully, meeting his gaze. “Don’t. Stay away fromher.”

“I just want tohelp.”

“You helped enough already. Now Holly hates me, and I’m going to have to deal with it.” I slam my locker shut, lock it, and turn away from him. “Thanks forthat.”

I storm off, so angry I can barely think. I don’t want to stick around and keep arguing withhim.

I’m torn about this. On the one hand, he did turn down Holly for me, which is kind of a huge deal. He’s supposedly a big player, but not sleeping with her for my sake might actually meansomething.

But on the other hand, because he told her that, now she hates me. And my working relationship with her is screwed up. I know you’re not supposed to get involved with your coworkers, and Jackson is my coworker. He’s making things so much more complicated than I everwanted.

I’m torn on how to feel about this, but in the end, I’m angry with him. I don’t want him talking about me behind my back, even if it’s just to say that he wants me or whatever he said. I want our history to remainprivate.

I head back home, mind spinning, completely torn on what tothink.

17

Jackson

Iknewthis shit with Holly was going to be aproblem.

“Get me out of it,” I say into thephone.

“You know I can’t,” Mickey replies. “Listen, Jackson, it’s just a short-term thing. Just a few months. And plus, Holly Hart? Come on,man.”

I sigh. I’m sick of hearing that I should be happy about this relationship with Holly just because she’s fucking attractive. Frankly, I’m not that into her, and it’s goddamn insulting. Like all I do is think with my fucking cock, and I should be so lucky to have some fake Hollywood shit with a half attractive psychostarlet.

“Holly is fucking unhinged,” I say to Mickey. “She’s giving Tara shit now, and how the hell are we supposed to work together likethis?”

“Tara?” Mickey asks. “Who’s that, some girl you’refucking?”

I hesitate for a second, because I genuinely don’t know how to describe her. “She’s the reason I don’t want to be in this shit in the first place,” I decide tosay.

“Tara? Who the fuck is Tara? This is your career, dummy. You have to suck it up and get through it. Tara willunderstand.”

I clench my jaw. “No, Tara will not understand. She won’t understand when Holly makes her fucking life a livinghell.”

“Who the hell is Taraanyway?”

“She’s the script girl on this movie. It doesn’t matter. All that matter’s is you get me out ofthis.”

Mickey sighs and I can tell he’s really frustrated, but I don’t care. I know I’m not his usual Hollywood client. Most of those pretty-boy asshole actors would be fucking thrilled to be in my position. I’m not like them, though. My life is fucking real, and it’s not just some big game and act for my fuckingcareer.

“I’ll try,” he says finally. “I don’t think it’s going to happen though, Jackson. If you want to stay on this movie, you gotta get throughit.”

“What if I just dump her in a few weeks? They won’t be able to fire methen.”

“Do that and they’ll fucking blacklist you from every single major studio and you’ll be on the street sucking cocks for dimes,” Mickey says with a little fire. “Don’t bestupid.”

“Just fix this,” I say to him. “You want your big fat paycheck? Do your goddamn job. I don’t care about this as much as youdo.”

I hang my phone up and throw it across the room, annoyed ashell.

It’s around midnight, and I’m a little surprised Mickey is even still awake. He has a wife and kids, although he does work pretty much all day and all night. He’s one of those type-A crazy guys, but he gets the job done. I know this isn’t his fault, but I need him to get me out of this garbage, or else I’mfucked.

I sigh and sit down on the couch. I grab my glass of whisky from the table and sip it, staring at the television blankly. It’s on mute and playing some old French movie that looks like it’s pretty goddamn dramatic. I’m sick of living out of hotels, but I know I have nowhere else togo.

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