Page 13 of Would You Rather
But of course, Ana interrupts again. “Don’t let him scare you,” she tells her. “Yes, there might be some negative comments here and there, but people are already interested in the two of you together. This will be big,” she says before looking at me. “For both of you.”
“No,” I repeat. “I’m not doing it. I’m not letting another girl you bribe take advantage of me again. No fucking way.”
“Excuse me?” Madeline replies, her eyes flashing with frustration, her tone sharp as knives. “I’m not taking advantage of you. I don’t even know who you are, except that you’re an asshole. And besides, I don’t want to do this either.” She turnsto face Ana. “I want to make it on my own. I don’t need your help or his,” she says, glancing back to me.
“Good,” I say, my jaw clenching. “I don’t need your help anyway.”
“Great.”
“Fantastic.”
She lets out a frustrated groan and lifts herself off the chair, heading to the door. I look back at her to see she’s got her arms crossed, facing my agent. “If you have a real opportunity, then you can call me. If not, then don’t bother me again.” Her eyes slide to mine, and I feel the chill from her gaze a mile away. “I’m going to make it even without your help.”
She turns around and walks out, the door slamming behind her. The silence in the room is deafening while Ana stares back at me with disappointment.
“Great,” Ana says, shaking her head. “The one plan we had. Gone.”
“You’ll come up with something else.” I shuffle in my chair, my body growing hot with irritation.
She pins me with a glare. “You pay me for a reason, Lucas.”
“Yeah, I pay you to make sure things run smoothly. I pay you to find me gigs, to make me reach more people, not to pimp me out.”
She shakes her head, sighing disapprovingly. “We need her, Lucas.”
My skin starts to itch. I don’t want to need anyone. I can do it myself. It’s how I’ve done it ever since I’ve started this. “We don’t. I don’t want to do this.”
“Well, what do you suggest we do? If you don’t change things, you won’t get any jobs. This business is so much more than looking good. You need to keep people interested. They’regetting tired of the same old stuff. This is gold. This will work. Believe it or not, I’m only trying to help you, Lucas. I don’t want you to be washed up.”
My jaw aches from grinding my teeth. Fuck. I reach up, brushing my hair back, tugging at the strands as I do. I can’t stop getting Jobs. Adrianna needs braces. James’ hospital bill is going to cost more than I have saved up. And my mom… she’ll go back to working.
How did I let things get so fucked up? I run a hand down my face. I hate what I’m about to say, but… “Fine,” I relent, gritting out the words, hating how I’m going to have to resort to more schemes. Will this be my life forever? “I’ll do it.”
Ana laughs. “You’re kidding, right? After you just scared her off.”
Shit. I guess I did. I made her walk out of that door, and now I’m eating my words. “We don’t need her. We can find someone else,” I suggest. “Like you said, there are hundreds of girls that would love this position.”
Ana shakes her head. “That won’t work,” she says. “We can’t have you holding some girl one day and claiming another as your girlfriend the next. They’ll see right through it.”
Of fucking course. “So what do we do?”
She gestures to the door. “You need to get her to agree.”
“You’re joking.”
“No, Lucas. I’m not. We had the perfect plan, and you messed it up. You need to talk her into it,” she says. “We need her.” Her eyes narrow at those last two words and I slump back in my chair.
Yeah.
We do.
Chapter 6
It would be agony
“Hey, wait up.”
I freeze, my eyes widening when I hear his voice. My head leisurely turns around, and my pulse starts to pick up when I see Connor Ellis running toward me.
