Page 103 of Guild Boss

“No offense, Mr. Jones, but audiences—especially the teenage to twenty-one-year-old crowd—expect younger, more spectacular leading men. We need someone who looks like a real Guild boss.”

“Right,” Gabriel said. “Well, so much for that career path.”

“What about Lucy?” Veronica asked.

“Absolutely not,” Xander said. “We need someone with real charisma. Star power.”

Lucy folded her arms. “I bet you don’t get invited to a lot of fun parties, do you, Mr. Attwater?”

“Call me Xander.” He refocused on Veronica. “You know, you’re perfect for the role of Lucy Bell. The whole dominatrix thing works.”

Veronica brightened. “Do you really think so?”

“Yes. Perfect.” Xander pulled a business card out of his pocket. “Come in for a screen test tomorrow. The address is on the card. Ten o’clock. Wear the outfit.”

Veronica was dazzled. She took the card and looked at it. “Okay. Thanks. By the way, here’s my card.”

Xander accepted the card and glanced at it. “Veronica Star. Perfect.”

Veronica winked at Lucy. “Guess I’d better get to work. Congratulations, Lucy, and you, too, Gabriel.”

“For not having any star power?” Lucy asked.

“For not looking like a real Guild boss?” Gabriel said.

Veronica chuckled. “You know what I mean. See you guys tomorrow.”

She catwalked down the hall. Xander did not take his eyes off her until she disappeared down the stairs.

“I have a question for you, Xander,” Gabriel said.

Xander spun around. “Sorry,” he said. “Got distracted. It’s not often you stumble across real talent, you know. What did you want to ask?”

“How did you find us?”

“It wasn’t easy. Ms. Bell wasn’t taking my calls—”

“I thought you were a spammer,” Lucy said.

“I had a hunch that was the problem, so I asked your colleagues at Weather Wizards if they could help me contact you.”

Lucy went very still. “Colleagues?”

“They assured me they could make you available because you were going to be on the Weather Wizards team. They said you were about to sign a contract with them.”

“That’s interesting,” Lucy said. “Why were they so eager to help you?”

Xander winked. “I told them I would make sure Weather Wizards got plenty of product placement in the movie. I promised I would make certain the heroine wore the company’s uniform. There would have been shots of the Weather Wizard headquarters. Walk-ons for the Roxbys, of course. And credits. There would have been plenty of opportunity for Weather Wizard merch.”

“I gather that’s not going to happen now?” Lucy said.

“No, the deal fell through when it turned out they couldn’t get you on board,” Xander said. “I tracked you down today by contacting Ollie’s House of Pizza.”

“Let me take a wild guess here,” Gabriel said. “You offered Ollie’s placement in the film, too?”

“Of course. The owner is thrilled to be a part of the project.”

“Aside from telling us that we don’t have the looks or the talent to play ourselves in your picture, was there anything else you wanted, Xander?” Lucy said. “Because we have plans for this evening.”

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