Page 98 of You Chive Me Crazy
“I have another copy of this, just in case you are thinking of taking my phone and destroying it.” I showed him the video of Damian paying Lazlo, then the video of Lazlo admitting he was paid by Damian.
The Dickster swallowed hard, then walked back over to his chair, plopping himself back down. His confidence was clearly gone.
“What do you want?” he asked, his ears turning red, to match the color of his neck.
I shrugged, trying to exude a sense of calm confidence. “I’m a reasonable man. I want my two years of severance pay. It’s fair.”
The Dickster poked the inside of his cheek with his tongue, clearly nervous.
He knew he was in the wrong.
“And fire Damian,” I added.
“You can’t be serious,” he said.
“Do I look like I’m kidding?” I asked, my confidence growing by the second.“Non-negotiable. If you don’t want to play ball, you’ll be hearing from my lawyer, and I really don’t think you want that. Because when the dust settles, we’ll find out if you had any part of this charade. I’m willing to bet you did. You have ten seconds to make your decision or I’m out of here.”
The Dickster hesitated, then ran his hand through his hair before finally picking up the phone. “Change of plans. Lucas Filo gets two years of severance pay. And cancel the hiring of Damian Landau. His contract is null and void because of behavior detrimental to the company. Please prepare the new exit package for Lucas, then come to my office to discuss Damian.” He hung up the phone. “You can head back to Paisley’s office now.”
I turned to walk out, feeling a complete sense of satisfaction. The Dickster knew he had no choice but to comply with my demands, and I was not being unreasonable.
“How do I know the video won’t go public in the future?” he called out.
I stopped and flipped around. “Unlike you, I’m a man of my word. You know that. And as long as you stick to our agreement, you have nothing to worry about.”
As I finished up with Paisley, I gathered my things and headed out to my car. I couldn't believe what had just happened. I had never done anything so bold in my life, but it was the right thing to do. Rolando always told me that people were rewarded for doing the right thing, maybe not immediately, but something good would eventually come my way.
My phone rang from someone not in my contacts, but I answered it anyway. “Hello?”
“Lucas!” the male voice said. “It’s Jeremy Hayes from the Food Network.”
I chuckled. “I know who you are, Jeremy. What’s up?”
“Rolando gave me your phone number—I hope you don’t mind.”
“Not at all.”
“I’ll get right to the point—I’m sure you’re going to get hit with a slew of job offers when people get word of you leaving the magazine, but I wanted to let you know that an opportunity came up for a TV show you would be absolutely perfect for. Are you still interested in getting in front of the camera?”
“Absolutely,” I said, feeling a sense of excitement building inside me.
“Great!” Jeremy said. “Please do me a favor . . . promise me you won’t accept any job offers from anyone until you give us the opportunity to chat with you about this. It’ll be worth your while.”
“I promise.”
“Thank you. I appreciate that,” he said. “I’ll get back to you with all the details soon. I’ve got back-to-back-to-back Zoom meetings with producers all day, but I have a feeling they are going to want to move quickly on this. In fact, knowing them, you could have an offer by the end of the day.”
“Wow,” I said, getting more pumped up by the minute. “You guys don’t mess around.”
“You’re a hot commodity, Lucas—everyone knows that,” Jeremy said. “Who knows? By this time next week, you could be packing your bags again!”
My heart had been racing from our conversation, but confusion quickly overshadowed the excitement. “Why would I need to pack my bags?”
A knot began forming in my stomach.
I was certain I would not like his answer.
“We film at our studios in Chelsea Market,” Jeremy said. “New York City.”
