Page 30 of The Boss I Can't Stand
“Have you seen the latest email Jillian sent over?” she asked.
“Yes.” I’d opened it just long enough to be sure she was still banging the fake engagement drum rather than telling me anything new. The increased clickthrough rate onEvery Dayarticles since this morning was a tempting metric to consider, but I’d closed the email before I could give it any real thought. “What about it?”
“Did you readallof it?” she said.
“Enough of it,” I grumbled.
“Well, Ididread through it,” Sierra said. “Did you see the part where there’s another period drama coming out with early awards buzz?”
My eyes narrowed. No, I hadn’t read that far. I snapped my head toward my computer screen, opening the email again, scanning.
“It’s a war drama about the weeks leading up to the Armistice,” Sierra said, crossing the office toward me. “And its lead actor and director are rumored to be in a relationship.”
“It’s propelling their stats overEvery Day’s,” I finished for her, finally getting to that part of Jillian’s email. Oh, hell no! That was unacceptable. Frustration boiled in my blood. This day just kept getting worse.
“The two films cover a similar time period,” Sierra said. “And theaudience members that might not see a regular period piece like ours might be more tempted by a big, splashy war movie. And?—”
“They just changed their fucking release date?” I snapped. Way for Jillian to bury the goddamn lede.
“To the same weekend asEvery Day,” Sierra said. “Yeah.”
I curled my hand into a fist, trying not to slam it down on my keyboard.Fuck!“We need to pushEvery Day.” Now we were in direct market competition for a box office opening weekend. Could we move the weekend? Sure. But we might end up competing with another big release in a more popular genre.
And anyway, there was nothing stopping this other production from also changing again. If they wanted to compete with us, they would. Dodging them wasn’t the answer. What I needed was to get people talking aboutEvery Daythe way they’d once talked about me and Violet.
Damn it all to hell. I needed this fake engagement. I need Sierra.
“Okay, look,” I said. “I can make this worth your while. If you agree to Jillian’s PR plan, I’ll finance a new Hart of Gold production for Ro. I can’t promise her a budget likeEvery Day’s for her debut film, but she’ll have input into the script selection—she can find a project that speaks to her.I know how much she wants to direct. You work with me on this, and I’ll make that happen for her.”
To my surprise, Sierra laughed.
My eyes narrowed. “What’s so funny?”
“I was actually coming in here to pitchyou, but go on…keep it coming.”
I frowned at her. “Why were you going to pitch me?”
Sierra tucked her hands into the pockets of her cardigan, sighing in a way that made her look a little sad. She walked toward me, and I tried not to stare at the way her hips swayed as she came around my desk. “Bring up the article Jillian attached.”
I opened the article.
“There,” Sierra said, pointing to one of the photos about the other production—the war movie. I clicked on it. “That guy…That’s Trey Rollins. My ex.”
Her ex? My jaw tensed.
“We dated for a while, and one day he just ghosted me,” Sierra explained, her tone clearly aiming for casual, though I could hear an edge of bitterness. “No warning, no explanation. Just walked out of my life.”
“What’s he do in the industry?” I asked. I felt the urge to say something comforting—but I had no idea what that something should be. Still, a sense of protectiveness bubbled up in me. I might not be able to make Sierra feel better right here and now, but at least I could make sure the guy never set foot on a Hart of Gold production.
“Stuntman,” Sierra said. “Anyway, it’s petty, but he was always so damn competitive.” She crossed her arms. “We don’t even work in the same fields, but he was always trying to one-up me. Like if I landed work on a project, he couldn’t just be happy for me, he had to go out and land something bigger and better. One second, he’d act like we were partners and the next, he’d make some dig about the film I was working on.”
“Sounds like a real gem,” I muttered.
“Honestly, in hindsight, dealing with his attitude was exhausting.”
“I guess he did you a favor then, disappearing from your life.”
She let out a soft, humorless laugh. “You would think so, wouldn’t you? That him ghosting me would mean I was free from his garbage now? But being the asshole he is, he just tagged me in an Instagram post.”
