Page 200 of My Five Daddies

Von smiles sweetly. “Iced tea for Mr.Hendricks.”

“Thanks,” I grunt as he hands me thedrink.

“Did he ask for it?” Mickeyshouts.

“No,” Vonsays.

“But it’s really good,” I say, taking asip.

“Damnit, Von,” Mickey says, and he’s already starting to get a littlered.

Von grins at me. “I think you should do whatever you want, and ignore this old blowhard’sadvice.”

“I’m going to fire your ass,” Mickey screams, and Von laughs as he leaves theroom.

I grin at Mickey. “That kid loves fucking withyou.”

He takes a deep breath and shakes his head. “Yeah, well, if he were smart he’d be kissing my assinstead.”

“I think he’s right though.” I stand up and put the drink down on Mickey’s desk. He instantly shuffles some papers around and tries to find a coaster for it. “I’m going to figure this out on myown.”

“Jackson, hold on,wait.”

I turn and go to leave, and Mickey is too busy trying to get a coaster under the drink to stop me. He cares more about his precious little desk, which doesn’t surprise me at all. That’s this whole fucking town in a nutshell: all flash, nosubstance.

But I have substance. And I know what I need todo.

Outside, I get into my car and start driving. I call up Mickey’s office and Von answers on the first ring. “Mickey Rains,” hesays.

“Von, it’sJackson.”

“Didn’t I just see you?” he asksme.

“Listen, what’s Franklin’s homeaddress?”

He hesitates a second. “That old studioguy?”

“Yeah, that’s theone.”

“Mickey would kill me if I toldyou.”

“Isn’t that a good reason to do itthen?”

He laughs a little. “Yeah, okay. But seriously, Jackson, you should take Mickey’s advice. He knows what he’sdoing.”

“I know,” I say. “Address,please.”

“Just a sec.” He taps at his computer for a minute before reading me an address. It’s in a really nice part of town, which isn’tsurprising.

“Thanks, I owe you one.” I hang up and plug the address into my GPS before taking off evenfaster.

My plan is pretty half-baked, but I hate waiting around for Mickey to make something happen. Clearly that’s not working, and I have something good with Tara, or at least I might. This new picture in the tabloids isn’t helping anything, but I think I convinced her that it’s allbullshit.

At least I hope so. Tara doesn’t seem like everyone else out here. I don’t think Hollywood has contaminated her like it has everyone else. She seems more interested in getting her work done and doing a good job than she does in networking and pretending to be everyone’s best friend. There are other people like her out here, of course, but they’re few and far between. The longer I’m here doing movies, the longer I realize that I hateHollywood.

It has a stink to it. Everything reeks of plastic and cleaning agents. It’s all too smooth and perfect, but I know that’s just the image they want you to see. People out here are all façade and show, but there’s nothing underneath propping it allup.

Which is why I think I can convince this studio guy. He’s probably not used to an actor actually standing up for himself and demanding something. Sure, actors want little stupid perks, but when it comes to the big stuff, they always roll over and do what their masterwants.

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