“Thank you, Shandi. You may go now.” Drew dismissed the starry-eyed assistant with a wave of his hand. He sipped from his cup and assessed me. “So what are you going to talk about on your first segment this Friday?”
I narrowed my eyes and placed my hands on my knees. “What do you mean? I haven’t been given the script.”
His head jolted back and his eyes widened. “You mean your agent didn’t tell you?”
My eyebrows rose on instinct. “Uh, tell me what?”
He chuckled and slapped his knee. “Darling, you’re supposed to write the entire segment for Living Beautiful. It’s all you. What you see as beauty. Based on your modeling with the Beauty in all Sizes and the Love on Canvas, as well as the video you did, our research showed a segment driven by you and what you feel is relevant as it pertains to beauty would resonate with our audience.”
“You’re kidding?”
He shook his head. “ ’Fraid not darling. Sounds like you need to have a chat with your agent and get to work. I want the cliff notes of your fifteen-minute segment to me by Wednesday. That way we can meet, discuss it, and when we tape it live on Friday, I’ll be able to play off what your focus is with the studio audience.”
I had to come up with a fifteen-minute segment relating to Living Beautiful out of thin air. What the fuck did Millie sign me up for? I thought I was going to be acting, playing a part. No, I was the part. This was real life. A shimmer of excitement and dread rippled through me. Could I do this? Was it possible that I could come up with something millions of people would find interesting enough to want to watch it every week on the Dr. Hoffman show? I guess I’d find out. Maybe Wes could help? This could be the thing that helped him find his passion again.
Suddenly, I couldn’t wait to get started, bounce ideas off my man, and come up with something that would wow the producers and Dr. Hoffman himself.
“So what do I do now?” I asked the cocky, sexy doctor.
“You get to work. See you on Wednesday for our pre-production meet. Don’t let me down. I personally asked for you. I’m expecting a wow moment for my viewers.”
I stood and clomped to the door. Turning, I flung my hair over my shoulder. “I’m going to blow this out of the water. You’re never going to want me to leave.”
He smirked. “Prove it, darling.”
Without a look back, I exited his office. Dr. Hoffman had a bit of an ego, and he definitely looked at me as though I were a piece of meat, but not so much that I thought he’d move on those feelings. Maybe he was a good guy wrapped in a pompous, sexy-as-fuck package. My douchecanoe receptors weren’t firing, and after the experience with Aaron, I was always on high alert.
* * *
During the ride back home, I pulled out my phone and called Millie.
“Exquisite Escorts, Stephanie speaking.”
“Hi, Stephanie, it’s Mia. Can you patch me through to my auntie?”
“Oh, hey, girl! So good to hear from you. Ms. Milan says you’ve left the escort business. Everything okay?”
It was impossible not to laugh. I certainly had left the business all right. I’d never wanted to be in the business in the first place, but now that my debt was paid, I was able to move on to greener pastures. Since Max had paid off Blaine, Millie got me out of November’s and December’s contracts. For now, I would do four segments for Dr. Hoffman’s show, and if they renewed my contract, maybe more. I guess that all depended on whether or not I liked the job and if they liked what I brought to the table.
“I’m totally fine. I was only doing the jobs to pay off some debt that my family incurred. Now that everything’s settled, I’ve moved on and gone back home to Malibu. Anyway, is my aunt available?” I brought it back to the reason for my call.
“Oh, sure thing. Take care, Mia! Don’t be a stranger,” she said and switched the line. It rang a few times.
“Hello, dollface. How is the land of silicone, plastic surgery, and starlets treating you?”
“ ’Bout as well as you’d expect. Was there something, dear auntie, that you forgot to mention to me about the Living Beautiful segment?” I asked, my tone implying that there was indeed.
Clacking on the keys could be heard through the line. “I don’t know. Their people sent over the contract, I reviewed it, the legal team reviewed it, and everything was perfectly in order. Don’t beat around the bush. What’s the problem?” Her tone was all business, and I welcomed it. That meant she took her role as my agent very seriously.
“Millie, you never mentioned that I had to write the segment on my own.”
She hummed and continued working through our chat. I could imagine her reading her emails, plucking at the keys, setting up lonely men with too hot to handle women. “I’m not seeing the problem. Don’t be obtuse, darling. Get to the point.”
I sighed. “Millie, I have to write the segment. From scratch, every week.”