This girl is seriously good, I thought.
When Harper greeted me, we sat opposite one another at her desk, and she quickly grilled me about how the deal had gone down.
I told her everything, and when I was finished, I opened my briefcase, removed the preliminary agreement with Hunter’s name signed at the bottom of it, and handed it to her.
After a quick glance, Harper put the agreement down in front of her, leaned back in her chair, and smiled at me.
“Brava,” she said. “While I would have liked to have received a text about this the moment after it happened, I understand why you didn’t. You wanted to tell me in person so you could see my reaction, which I hope you know is nothing short of pride. Look what you did,” she said. “You got him to go up from a million dollars to two million—and with a $500,000 signing bonus, no less. I call that not only impressive, but a win for Pepper—and also for you.”
“Because of the commission?” I said.
“There’s that,” Harper said. “But this kind of deal, Julia? From you only one day out of the gate? It just gives me even more ammunition to make my case that you should become an associate agent sooner rather than later. Now, I can’t promise whether or not that will happen, but we can hope, can’t we? So, as I introduce you to more new clients, continue to keep up the good work.”
“I will,” I said.
“I believe you will, darling.”
“Thanks for having my back, Harper.”
“I’ll always have it,” she said. And I knew she would, because that’s just who Harper was—a friend to the end.
A knock came at the door, and we both looked over at it.
“That will be them,” I said. “Harper, what if the deal isn’t enough? What if Pepper is expecting more? You’ve seen how she is. She’s not only the daughter of a billionaire, but the advertising revenue she hauls in on her YouTube videos is worth millions. I know that’s true, because I’ve checked into it. This kind of money will mean nothing to her. What if she’s disappointed? What if she won’t sign?”
Harper stood and straightened her shoulders before she glanced down at me.
“If she balked and I was representing her, what would you tell me to do?”
“I’d sell her on her future,” I said. “I’d say that this is just the beginning. I’d say that being popular on social media is one thing, but being successful on mainstream television is something altogether different. I’d say that she needs to prove herself to the network, so that when we negotiate for season three? We’ll demand a hell of a lot more money while we work on selling her cosmetic line.”
“Do you even need me here?” Harper asked.
When she said that, I stood and gave her a meaningful hug as she kissed me on each cheek.
* * *
“Pepper and Savannah Winters,” Opal said as a long, bluish plume of cigarette smoke billowed deep into the center of the room. Savannah Winters appeared in the smoke, looking weirdly like a younger version of Norma Desmond from the movie Sunset Boulevard.
Dark, stylish sunglasses concealed her eyes. A dramatic leopard-print turban was perched on top of her head. She wore a chic white pantsuit that revealed how thin she was; daytime diamonds glimmered at her ears, throat, wrists, and fingers; and when I glanced down at her feet, I noted that her heels matched the pattern on her turban.
“I hope you don’t mind the smoke,” Savannah said as she turned to her right and struck an odd, angular pose. She cupped the back of her head with the palm of her left hand before she exhaled another cloud into the room. “I mean, since you did call us saying that you had good news, I simply must indulge, mustn’t I?”
“You’ve indulged enough,” Pepper said angrily, as she stepped into the room and took Savannah by the arm. “You’re still drunk from last night, for Christ’s sake.” As Savannah giggled and Opal eased out of the room with a look of horror on her face, Pepper shot me a heated glance. “Which sofa, Julia?”
“The right one would be fine, Pepper,” I said, meeting her eyes. When she glanced away from me in embarrassment, I felt for her in that moment, because despite how rich, privileged, and demanding she was, no one deserved to be raised like this. “Harper and I will sit opposite you, just like yesterday.”
“Perfect,” Pepper said. “And just like yesterday? My mother needs a fresh pail of gasoline before we even begin this meeting, which better end with a proper deal. Because I can tell you that getting her here today took one hell of a superhuman effort on my part, that’s for fucking sure.”
“Don’t say fucking, Pepper,” her mother admonished. “It’s beneath you.”
“How about this, Mother?” Pepper asked her. “You get yourself into rehab, and I’ll stop it with the F-bombs.”
“Reeehab!” Savannah said, drawing out the word in a long sigh of disgust. “As if I need reeehab! Don’t make me laugh.”
“Laugh or hurl? In fact, I believe you did the latter earlier this morning while I held your head over the toilet.”
“What you saw earlier was the direct result of me coming in contact with some sort of awful stomach bug,” Savannah explained with a little wave of her hand. “And by the way, since that’s out there, Harper and Julia should stand far away from me. I mean, my goodness! I could be contagious!”
“Alcoholism isn’t contagious,” Pepper said.
“Mind your mouth, Pepper, darling,” Savannah said. “Because much of today and your future ride on my signature. You’re still a minor, after all—and right now? I’m the one who has the power to grant you my signature or not . . .”
God, she’s awful, I thought. This has to be why Pepper behaves the way she does . . .
After Pepper deposited her mother on the sofa, she plucked the cigarette from her hand, walked it over for me to dispose of, then charged toward the rear of Harper’s office, where the bar was.
It was only then that I registered what Pepper was wearing—dark skinny jeans, a black, strapless corset top studded at the waist and breasts with shiny silver buttons, and black Louboutins whose red soles flashed angrily at me as she stalked away. Her pretty brown hair had been hoisted up in a high ponytail, and it literally whipped from side to side as she crossed the room.
“Who’s joining my mother?” she asked in a confrontational tone when she reached the bar and looked over at us. “Julia? Harper? Certainly, both of you will have a drink.”
“Oh, please, do join me,” Savannah said from the sofa as she tried to hook her right leg over her left knee. She was so out of it, it took her three awkward tries before she succeeded in closing the deal. “I mean, one does hate to drink alone.”
“Since when?” Pepper said. “Especially when it comes to you? You drink alone every day and every night.”
Savannah’s response was simply to hold out her hand and look at her nails.
I looked over at Pepper, who was holding a bottle of Grey Goose in one hand and a crystal shaker filled with ice in the other. Like yesterday, she’d come here knowing that her mind had to be sharp since she couldn’t rely on her mother to guide her through anything even remotely related to business. But unlike yesterday, when it was clear that Pepper wanted Harper and I to join her mother in a drink, this time I felt that she didn’t want that at all—and so I supported her.
“I’m fine, Pepper,” I said.
She nodded briskly at me. “Good. Harper?”
“Same here, my darling girl.”
“Perfect,” she said. “One martini to hold off the shakes coming your way, Mother!”
“How can it be that neither of you will join me?” Savannah sighed at Harper and me. “Both of you are absolute bores! I mean, shouldn’t we be getting into a celebratory mood, for goodness’ sake? Isn’t that why you called us here today? I mean, the very reason I got out of bed today?”
“More like off the bathroom floor and straight into the shower,” Pepper said.
“Whatever,” Savannah said, adjusting her turban as well as
her sunglasses before she turned to Harper and me. “Please tell me that you got my daughter the deal she wanted. I mean, you must have, right? It has to be why we’re here. And trust me, Julia, if you did come through, thank you for that!”
“Because I’ll finally be out of your house, Mother?” Pepper asked as she began to bang out her mother’s martini. Vodka and ice clashed between her hands in ways that sounded as if she were smashing boulders into bits. “Because as you know, that’s the deal when it comes to The Terrible Teens. Obvi, we’re here because they’ve made me an offer. And if I decide to take it? Both of us know that I’ll be on set for the next three months while we shoot, which will leave you free to drink yourself into a coma without me being there to rescue you from yourself.”
“How characteristically dramatic,” Savannah said.
“You know what, Mother?” Pepper said. “Maybe both of us need a break.”
“For once we agree, darling. Maybe you and I do . . .”
Once again, I watched Pepper fill a martini glass with such finesse, I had to wonder what Savannah had turned her into. What kind of a hellish childhood had Pepper been through? Money could solve a lot of problems, but none of it ever could replace a mother or father’s love—or prevent emotional scars from forming if you never felt that love. And if you felt that you were never wanted—which I was beginning to sense that Pepper did—my God, how deep those scars could cut . . .
There’s a reason she’s like this, I thought. The more I spend time around her and her toxic mother—and after what she said yesterday in front of Hunter about her father’s philandering ways—I’m beginning to understand her. Does she have any friends? Someone she can confide in and trust? I’m not sure that she does. And if she doesn’t, at the very least, if she signs this deal, I need to step up and become that person for her. Pepper is aggressive as hell, but it’s only because she’s hurting inside for reasons that are becoming very clear . . .
With an expression of disgust and rage, Pepper came over with her mother’s drink and handed it to her before she sat down on the sofa next to her. As Savannah greedily sipped, her daughter looked at Harper and me. “Aren’t you going to sit down and join us?” she asked. “I want to hear what they proposed, I’ll think about it for a minute before I give you my answer, then I need to get my mother home and back into bed before she passes out again. So, what’s the deal?”
Harper and I sat opposite them.
“Hunter offered you one million dollars,” I said to her.
“Well, Jesus,” Savannah said before I could continue. “Take the money and run, honey. Because God only knows what that son-of-a-bitch father of yours is going to leave you in his will—if anything at all. I mean, he might leave all of his billions to his favorite prostitutes. So, with that in mind, I say that you become financially secure while you can!”
“Actually, I will take it,” Pepper said calmly. “Because despite how low that figure is, that show is going to be my summer vacation away from you.”
“Not so fast,” Savannah said. “I’m managing you, remember? Because of this whole guardian thing, I’m supposed to show up on set on an ‘as needed’ basis. You know—if you get out of line and I need to talk some sense into you.”
“I won’t be holding my breath for that to happen,” Pepper said.
“Oh, my dear—at the very least, you always were a savvy girl,” Savannah sighed.
“Actually,” I said to Pepper, “what I just stated was only the initial offer, not the final offer.”
“I’m sorry?” Pepper said to me.
“You and I both know that due to your social media following alone, you are worth far more than that. So? I pressed Hunter, and after a bit of a fight, I was able to get him and the network to come up to $2 million, along with a $500,000 signing bonus, which you’ll receive at once if you agree to the deal.”
“Well, look at you earning your commission,” Pepper said to me with the faintest hint of a smile. “That’s a lot better, Julia, so thank you for going to the mat for me. Not many do. But even so, you and I both know they’re still getting a steal when it comes to the free advertising I’m offering them alone.”
“I couldn’t agree more,” I said. “But if you do sign with them, and if the Pepper effect does draw in millions of new viewers to The Terrible Teens, as Harper and I believe it will? Then we’ll go for their throats and get serious money out of them when it comes to signing you for the next season.”
I leaned toward her.
“My best advice is this, Pepper—take the gig, get into people’s living rooms, become a bigger celebrity than you are now, and build on it. If you want a cosmetic line—which I know you do—becoming a family name is the best way to get one.”
“And also, being on television will offer me the kind of legitimacy I don’t enjoy by being solely online, right?”
My God, she’s smart . . .
“That’s exactly right,” I said.
“And that’s why I want to be on this show. But before I sign, I want to know one thing.”
“What’s that?”
“Do you know what Lexi Reynolds makes per season?”
“Actually, I do know,” I said. “When I turned down Hunter’s initial offer of a million dollars, he complained that was more than double what Lexi was making.”
“So, I’m crushing that bitch already,” Pepper said. “Score. Knowing that, I’m ready to sign, Julia.”
I got up from my seat, retrieved the paperwork and a pen from Harper’s desk, and sat down opposite Pepper again, whose eyes were so cold in the wake of her mother’s behavior, they chilled me.
“This is the preliminary agreement, but it’s still legal and binding. Here is the amount you will be paid,” I said, pointing at the figure. “And here is Hunter’s signature agreeing to that amount, as well as to the signing bonus. Once you sign here and here—and once your mother signs there and there as your legal guardian—this will go to legal, our team will finalize everything with Hunter’s team, everyone will be asked to sign the final contract when it comes to us, and that will be that.”
“Done,” Pepper said, plucking the pen from my hand. But once again, she wisely didn’t sign right away. Instead, she took her time to read over the entire contract before she took a deep breath and finally signed the paperwork. She looked over at her mother, who was tossing back the last of her martini, and thrust the pen into her hand while she removed the empty martini glass from the other. “Sign it,” she said.
Without reading the contract or even questioning how any of this would affect her daughter’s life going forward, Savannah Winters—mother of the year!—simply scribbled her name twice on the document, and blew her daughter a kiss.
“Congrats, darling,” she said. “Well done—your father and his many prostitutes would be proud of you.”
When Savannah said that, I saw the sting brighten Pepper’s eyes before she blinked once, shook off the pain of her mother’s words, and stood.
“I need to get this one home,” she said tightly to Harper and me.
“Pepper, congratulations,” I said to her. “I know the offer isn’t everything you wanted, but we’ll turn that around next season. And with Harper at my side armed with her contacts in the cosmetic industry, we will get you your cosmetic line. I can promise you that.”
She looked at me for a moment before she came forward and gave me a warm, unexpected hug.
“Thanks,” she said quietly in my ear. “I appreciate all of it, Julia. Right now, it’s not about the money. If anything, it’s about getting the hell out of my goddamned home.”
“You can talk to me whenever you need to and know that your secrets will always be safe with me,” I whispered in her ear. “Because I’m a vault. So if you ever feel that you’re alone, those days are over. I mean that. You now have me.”
And I meant it. But even that small gesture of kindness was too much for Pepper to either handle or believe. Instead of responding to me, I
felt her bristle in my arms as she threw up a wall between us. She broke from me and instead took her mother by the hand.
“When do I start?” she asked me.
“This week.”
“When this week?”
“I’m not sure yet, but now that the initial contract has been signed, things will move quickly, if only because they start shooting this week. If I were you, I’d go home and start packing your bags, because you could be there as soon as tomorrow.”
“Got it,” she said crisply. “Thanks tons. Talk soon and all that.” She looked over at her mother, who was fidgeting with the sunglasses she’d never taken off, likely to conceal how red the whites of her eyes were. “Let’s go,” Pepper said. “Like a good dog, you’ve done what I needed you to do, so thanks for that, Mother. And now? For the next several months, we’ll finally be free of one another.”
“Watch your tongue, Pepper,” Savannah said with ice in her voice. “Because if I decide to not show up on set ‘as needed’ as your legal guardian?” She rolled her eyes toward the heavens. “Oh, my dear! You’ll be shit out of luck—and likely out of a job—if I decide not to show. So! Best to treat Mommy with the respect she deserves . . .”
Without another word to either of us, they left Harper’s office. Harper placed a hand on my shoulder as we watched them walk away. It was only when Opal closed the door behind them that Harper turned to me.
“It’s awful,” she said.
“If you don’t understand Pepper’s rage now, you never will, right?”
“To the world, that young woman seems to have it all, but after spending the past two days with her and her mother, you and I both know that she doesn’t have what she needs most.”
“Her parents’ love,” I said.
“Exactly.”
“I feel bad for her.”
“And yet the last thing Pepper wants is our pity. Whatever you said to her when she hugged you made her go tense. It was like an iron curtain dropped, and she shut you out. What that girl needs is a friend.”
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