Page 2 of Shape Of My Heart
Joshua Mancini was the star linebacker for the Gladiators. He’d played football all his life. Tragedy had however struck last year at the start of the season when his mother and sister were killed in a car crash. Understandably, he was unable to continue with the season and was left devastated at the news. She’d read all about the incident, and other things about him, during the week that she’d spent here in the dreadful hovel of an apartment she’d managed to get on herbudget.
Her job was to help him get ready for the upcoming season in six months. She imagined it to be the standard paperwork filing and sorting, organizing events, doing emails, and just offering support. Surely it was thatsimple.
“That’s exactly what I was worried about.” Zelda sighed again. “Amy, I’ll be honestwithyou.”
Amy leaned forward, her curiosity piquing from the tentative tone Zelda’s voice took on. She would have thought that her sensitivity was exactly what was needed here, given what had happened to the poor man. Amy just assumed that Mr. Mancini needed someone to get on with the work and handle hisaffairs.
Zelda brought her hands together and knitted her perfectly manicured fingers. “This job is going to be difficult.” She bit the inside of her lips. “Teddy is a dear friend of mine and he spoke very highly of you. His word alone was sufficient for me to offer you the job.” Zeldasmiled.
Amy really appreciated that. It was the first job she’d ever had where she hadn’t gone through the standard interviews and assessments process. She’d been lucky to have met someone like Teddy. He’d always looked out for her and was the kind of person that helped because he cared and wanted you to do well. He’d helped her to no end when she worked for him and he was still helping heroutnow.
“However,” Zelda pulled in a breath. “That is the same reason why I wanted to meet with you today before you started. I wanted to give you a full brief and heads up. Mr. Mancini is like your standard athlete with thesuperego.”
Oh, that was what this was about. It hadn’t escaped her that Joshua Mancini was incredibly handsome and a masterpiece of a man. She’d seen the pictures and she guessed Zelda was going to tell her that she’d have to deal with his fans and footballgroupies.
“I’m used to working with celebrities,” Amy stated with a confident nod. She’d worked with a number of them on photo shoots and other fashion-related events. She’d long since lost that starry-eyed craze and knew how to handleherself.
She assumed that was why this job came with such an attractive salary. A salary that only an idiot would refuse. The role was full time and permanent, but she’d get fifty thousand dollars at the end of the first six months if she could get Mr. Mancini ready to play for the season, which started in September. To make the deal even sweeter, she was promised twenty thousand dollars as an extra bonus in three weeks if she could sort out all the backlog work from the previous PA and get him to the first scheduled TV appearance with ESPN. That was the first hurdle she had to jump over, which was her trial run. She planned to use that twenty thousand as a deposit for her mother’s surgery. The doctors had agreed to start treatment with a deposit and a subsequent installment plan. The price she was quoted was fifty-five thousand dollars, so by the time she was fully paid she’d have more than enough money foreverything.
Amy was ready for this and failure was not an option. Her mother’s life dependedonit.
“I wish it was that simple.” Zelda sighed, raising fine, arched brows. “As a PR company we’ve managed to keep a lot of the truth out of the media. What happened to Mr. Mancini was truly terrible, but I’m afraid it affected him a great deal and made him worse than healreadywas.”
It was the way she put it that held Amy’s attention.Worse than he already was?What did she meanbythat?
“Really?” Amy widened her eyes and bit the inside of herbottomlip.
“Yes. I have to be frank with you because, aside from coming from Teddy, you seem like a nice person and I can only imagine that the attractive salary is whatinterestedyou.”
“Well, it is rather large.” It was a hell of a lot of money. More than what she’d made at Style in any year, and the fact that she’d get it in lump sums was even better for hersituation.
“There’s a reason for that. I’m sure you must have done your research, but what the internet won’t tell you is that Joshua Mancini is a raging alcoholic suffering from deep depression and bereavement. He lost complete control when his mother and sister died, and all I know is that we’ve had ten PAs leave him in the last four months. I won’t scare you with the details but, put simply, before the accident he was a womanizing, self-righteous jerk and now he’s an uber-womanizing, self-righteous jerk with alcohol and mental issues. That’s the part you didn’t read about.” She pressed her mouth together in a tight-lipped smile. “Also, he tends to get overly sexual when under the influence, and you’re blonde and beautiful. His favorite type.” Her eyes clung to Amy’s, analyzing herreaction.
Zelda’s bluntness shocked her. Amy wasn’t expecting that at all. She definitelywasn’t.
“Still want the job?” Zeldaasked.
“I need it,” was all Amy could say, because she did. There wasn’t a question about it. She needed this job, and that was the end of any contemplationforher.
“Well honey, I appreciate that, but if he grabs your ass you run like hell. No job is worth the hassle and stress that this man can cause. I just didn’t want you walking in on thisblindeyed.”
“Okay.” Amy brought her hands together and pressed on her nails. This didn’t sound good at all, but shehadto do it. It was a necessity, and she couldn’t see any other way of getting the funds she needed for hermother.
Her mother had been sick for a very long time. Amy was originally from Atlanta. She’d lived there with her mother and Tristan, her brother, beforecollege.
Her mother had always had heart problems, probably because of all the time spent working so hard to support Amy and her brother. Particularly after her father walked out on them. Amy was eight at the time and her brother was five. Her mother had a part-time job at their school as a receptionist, but her father walking out heralded the need for her to grab another two jobs and move to a trailer park to keep their family going. It was a really rough time and the years of harshness took its toll. The week before Christmas last year Amy got a call from the hospital in Atlanta letting her know that her mother had a severe heart attack and was in intensive care. She was also informed that her mother’s insurance company wouldn’t cover the cost of surgery because she’d lowered her plan to the outpatient package. A way of savingmoney.
Amy had to use all her savings, everything she’d built up to go to L.A. It was everything she had, but was only enough to cover the cost of a temporary fix to keep her mother going. That was a stent placed in her coronary artery to keep it open and reduce the chance of another heart attack. Had her mother gotten the stent sooner it would have helped her out a lot, but the years of non-treatment and lack of care deteriorated her heart significantly and what she needed was a triple bypass. This was why Amy was here, and why she couldn’t run like hell if Mr. Mancini so chose to grabherass.
“You sure you’re okay?” Zelda asked, eyeing her withconcern.
“Yes, you can count on me. I’m a strongperson.”
“Alright, well here is the job specs with your duties. As discussed, your first task is to get Mr. Mancini to the ESPN show. We’ll deposit the twenty-grand bonus into your account then, and the rest will follow in a few months if you can get him ready for training.” The show was in a few days short of three weeks. She was sure she’d be fine. “For your sake, I hope you’ll last the week. These are the keys to his house. That is where you’ll work. We need you there nine to five, later for events as required. If you need anything call me. Ifheneeds anything call me. Bestofluck.”
“Thank you. Iappreciateit.”
“Just remember what I said,” Zeldawarned.
