Page 16 of The Producer: Aaron

“Teach the girl to stay in her place, or I swear I’ll do it, and you won’t like it,” he hisses before leaving, slamming the door behind him.

A few moments later, Tracy’s head peeps in, and I beckon her to enter.

“What a ray of sunshine, your father.”

I throw her a look that would be reproachful, but makes her laugh instead.

“Thank heaven that you and Evan grew up with nannies who instilled some decent value in you. That man is Satan himself.”

“You don’t need to remind me.” I rub a hand across my face,trying to drive away the bitterness my father’s meeting left in my mouth.

“Aaron, you have a meeting with the PRs,” she continues seriously.

I inhale deeply before I get up and tell her to follow me. “Do you have Dakota’s filming schedule? I need her with us. At least she’ll know what we are feeding to the press.”

“I’ll see what I can do,” she tells me before disappearing. I already know that the director will be pissed, but Dakota will be present in the office for this meeting.

Not even fifteen minutes later, Dakota enters, accompanied by Tracy, still dressed in her stage costume. She is serious but doesn’t seem particularly worried.

“Okay, let’s get straight to the point,” Sharon begins as Dakota sits next to me. “The problems that have arisen with that video are two. The fact that you live together and that you clearly make fun of him. While for the second problem, the thing has been quietly resolved with some jokes and some meme circulating on the internet, the fact that you live together has made the press cry scandal.”

I inhale thoroughly. Being the object of online jokes is not pleasant, but at least it is something I can manage while ignoring the virtual idiots.

“Sorry for the story of the mummy. I didn’t want to,” Dakota mumbles with her gaze resting on her hands in her lap.

I look at the tunic she has on. It appears very heavy. She is dying of heat buried by all those layers of costume.

“Didn’t want to? Really? Because you seemed very convincing.” I would like to reproach her, but I can’t because the truth is that she has done nothing wrong but leverage my insecurities.

She turns to me with a firm look.

“Look, Serena cornered me, okay? If the video of the entire conversation had circulated, you would also have seen the part where she insinuated that I had become a snob who gives up friends to play the precious princess with her big boss. What should I tell her? That I am ashamed to go out with her because she is vulgar and boisterous? She is the only friend I have. I would have said anything to keep her. So I told her that you are a mummy because confessing to her that I much prefer your class and the chats I have with you to her bullshit didn’t seem nice.” She blurts this out all in one breath and takes me by surprise. “I didn’t want to put you in the middle of a stupid girl’s fight when you have an empire to run.” She gestures with her hands, pointing to the room. My kingdom.

Did she really try to protect me? Her reaction is almost…sweet. I look at Tracy and Sharon and see that they are trying to hide their smiles. I think it’s the first time someone has bothered to do something nice for me when they’re not forced by their job description.

“Okay, you clarified this point,” Sharon continues. “But what remains is the fact that you threw a party while you live in his house and we asked you to keep it quiet. We have to justify this so as not to make you look like his lover.”

“Oh no. I didn’t organize anything at all,” she snaps in disgust.

“There were thirty drunk people in my pool,” I remark incredulously, raising my voice a little. She cannot deny the evidence.

She turns to me, and the furious look I find takes me back. “If you had let me explain,Mr. Go-to-your-room, I would have told you last night that I had just come home, and that Serena showed up at your house with thirty drunk people that I couldn’tstop. When she didn’t find me at my old apartment, she followed me from the set to your home. I never told her where I lived. Ask your driver when he took me back last night, and you will understand that I had no desire to throw a party.” She lowers to unfasten her boots, and when she takes them off, I am surprised to find white socks stained with blood. “Because my feet are torn up after twelve hours of shooting, and I have only a few hours to rest before starting again. Trust me, I have no desire to party by the pool.”

I am so stunned by her confession that I feel like a complete idiot. I assumed she was the one who behaved like the irresponsible girl I always painted in my head, but maybe this time, I’m wrong. And why the hell didn’t she tell the costume department that those boots are killing her?

“Okay, we understand your position. It doesn’t change the fact that that video was released by one of the participants and that we have to silence the newspapers,” Sharon continues, exasperated by the continuous interruptions.

“By the way, do you know who released the video?” I ask when I realize that I don’t have this information.

Dakota rolls her eyes and snorts. I suspect she has the answer.

“The only one who witnessed the conversation was Roland. After you fired him, he probably wanted revenge and put the video online, I suppose,” she explains as if we were perfect idiots. And perhaps we are since we have not come to the most obvious conclusions.

“Did you fire Roland?” Tracy blurts out. She had taken the kid to heart after I had her do a check on all the people who work on set with Dakota. Considering that she lives under my roof, I wanted to ensure the people she hangs out with aren’t crazy freaks.

Next to me, Dakota exhales indignantly. “Not only him. Also, the pool guy. Two guys showed a modicum of interest in me, andMr. Cavemanfired them.” She looks incredulous at me. “I don’t know. Do you want me to become old like you, a spinster, and with a house full of cats?”

I am so stunned by her reaction that I don’t even have the words to answer when she gets up and grabs the boots she has taken off from the ground. “Now, if you will excuse me, I’m returning to the set. I have already missed my entire lunch break to give you some information you would already have if he had let me explain last night. Have a nice day.”

---