The Price of Fame: A Price Novel (The Price Novels Book 2)

by Craft, Maggi

  “Honey, I totally understand where you’re coming from, and why you feel this way, but it couldn’t be further from the truth. Now, my honest opinion on the whole Arden subject is this: I don’t believe that you have a right to be angry. I do think Slayde should have told you about it, and I really would have liked for you to have been at the wedding, but I didn’t think you would have been able to be there without causing a problem. Am I wrong? Were you still angry?”

  “Of course I was still angry.”

  “So, do you think Slayde did it to hurt you? Or to keep you from infuriating his wife?”

  Looking down, he nodded, starting to understand where I was coming from. He finished his tea and then stood up from the bar. “I love you too, Lexi.”

  I smiled at him, and he walked around to put his glass in the sink. He turned and gave me a hug. “I know you do,” I said.

  He grinned at me and left.

  Chapter 10

  Slayde

  I was sitting at the table with a notebook full of scribbled-out notes and a calendar with days circled and crossed out. I was stressed, very stressed. I had missed a telephone interview that morning, and my publicist was not happy with me.

  “Babe, what are you doing?” Arden asked as she came in, dropping the mail onto the table.

  “I’m trying to figure out what I have to do next week. I know I have commitments. I just don’t remember who they’re with and when and what they are.” I stared at the page as if the answers were going to jump out for me to see them.

  She leaned over my shoulder. “What do the circles mean?”

  I looked up and smiled at her. “Those are days we are both off.”

  “There are a lot more Xs than circles. What are the Xs?”

  “Days when I’m filming. And the other notes in here are stuff I have to do.” I pointed at one. “Ellen is this day, but I don’t know the details.”

  “Does Jennifer?” Jennifer was my publicist.

  “No, that’s not her responsibility.”

  “Then whose is it?” Arden asked, pulling a bottle of water out of the refrigerator.

  “Well, mine,” I said, shutting my notebook of disorganized chaos.

  She put her hands on my shoulders. “Babe, I think it’s time to hire an assistant. Everyone has them these days.” Pointing at my book, she said, “That must be why.”

  “But who can I hire?”

  “Well, I don’t know, but I bet Jennifer does. She can at least point you in the right direction.” She nodded at my scribble-scratch. “I mean, that is a recipe for disaster.”

  She was right. I had to hire an assistant. Me trying to do everything myself was getting ridiculous. I was definitely not organized enough to do it all.

  Jennifer did point me in the right direction, giving me some names of people to interview for the position. And Mom helped by setting up the interviews.

  Trish, who had been my dad’s assistant since he started Price Enterprises, Mom, Arden, and I were all going to meet at my dad’s office to do the interviews.

  Mom and I were there a little early, but we had to wait for Arden, who was stopping by on her way home from the hospital. I knew she was going to be exhausted, but she had insisted on coming. I hated stuff like this, so I was glad I had all of them to help figure it out.

  “I ran into Arden’s mom at the market yesterday,” Mom said. “She said she hasn’t seen her since her graduation.”

  “And?”

  “Don’t you think that’s weird?”

  “For us it would be, but not for them.”

  “I think it’s sad, that’s all.”

  “Arden doesn’t act like it bothers her. I guess you can’t miss what you never had,” I explained. Arden’s mom was not my favorite topic. She had pretty much been an absent parent as long as I had known her. She worried about her own life, and that was it. She had fed, clothed, and sheltered her daughters, but that was as far as her parenting had gone.

  “Do you think we should have invited her to the wedding?”

  “I don’t know. That was Arden’s decision to make. Between us, I think she was afraid her mom wouldn’t come if she did ask her. So it was probably for the best.”

  “I guess you’re right. I just feel bad for her. I don’t know what I would do if I didn’t see you all the time.” She smiled and kissed my cheek.

  I wiped off her lipstick. “I do. You would hunt me down.” I smiled at her.

  She leaned back in her chair and smiled. “You are absolutely right, and don’t you ever forget that. I don’t understand how mothers don’t think about their kids twenty-four hours a day.”

  “Well, Mom, you are an exception.”

  She hit me on the arm. “Slayde, are you saying you would like me to be less involved in your life?”

  “Maybe.” I really was just teasing her. She knew it, but she still gave me her “how dare you” look. My mom could say nothing but give you a look and you knew exactly what she was thinking. “I’m kidding, Mom, geez.”

  Luckily, Arden walked in and saved me. “Good morning,” she said, hugging us both.

  “Are you tired?” I asked her. She was still in her scrubs, and her eyes had dark circles under them.

  “Not too bad. I actually got four uninterrupted hours of sleep last night. It was a miracle. I will be fine for a few more hours.”

  I kissed her.

  Trish came in and sat across from me. She was in her late fifties but was still super cool. She wore her gray hair in the same short pixie cut and sported the same blue eyeliner as always. She looked over her lime-green reading glasses at me and asked, “OK, Slayde, you need to tell us exactly what you are looking for in an assistant before we start.”

  “I don’t have anything in particular in mind, other than someone who understands that I like my privacy. A work wife, I guess.” Arden gave me a funny look. “You know, someone who takes care of my everyday shit and keeps me in line.” I smiled at her.

  The first three candidates were definite nos. The first one had absolutely no experience. I wasn’t even sure how she had gotten the interview. The second one was arrogant. Numerous times she acted as if she didn’t want to be there. The third was too young.

  “This is so frustrating. I don’t see how I can hire someone I haven’t known for ten years. This is never gonna work.” I put my head down on the table.

  “It will work, Slayde—chill out,” Trish said.

  “It better work, because you are driving all of us insane,” Mom added.

  The fourth one was an attractive woman in her midtwenties. She had long, dark hair and dark skin and eyes. When she smiled, big dimples showed. She did have some experience, but Arden said, “Absolutely not.” Of course Mom agreed with Arden. Number five wasn’t much different than number four.

  “Maybe we need a male,” Mom said, laughing.

  “Why?” I asked.

  “Because none of these women have been able to concentrate on anything but you. That’s going to be a problem when you are cramped in your bus with her and you’re walking around with no shirt on,” Mom said.

  I laughed, but they didn’t.

  “I agree. Maybe we need a man—or a lesbian,” Arden said.

  “Look, I don’t care. You three figure it out. It’s really going to be your decision anyway. Maybe it would be easier if I’m not here,” I said.

  “No, we need to see how they act around you, Slayde,” Mom said.

  I sighed. I’d rather be doing anything but this.

  The sixth woman was in her late twenties and had worked at a big PR firm in New York for four years. She had just moved to LA to be close to her family. Her name was Julie, and she seemed perfect. She was just a normal woman. Her boobs weren’t hanging out, she seemed very intelligent, and I suspected she might be borderline OCD. Which was exactly what I needed. She didn’t seem in the least bit nervous around me, which was a huge plus. She looked like a girl next door, short, with thick, wavy, sandy hair. Her face
was average, and she didn’t wear much makeup. She had a genuine smile and kind blue eyes.

  The worst part of being in the entertainment business is that people don’t act like themselves around you. Actors, singers, athletes—they’re all just normal people. They just have jobs in the public eye. They still go about life like everyone else, and they like to have the same amount of privacy as everyone else.

  You learn who your real friends are quickly once you’re famous. You lose some you thought you wouldn’t, and you gain some you never really thought you would. You become extremely cautious about who you let in your life. So in the course of interviewing, I started to realize that it was really important for me to surround myself with real people, and I needed an assistant who understood this. She also needed to understand that privacy was a priority. I could ignore a lot of the media BS, but Arden hated it, and I always tried to see things from her perspective, since she was what was most important to me.

  After we finished all of the interviews, I knew it was Julie, hands down. I decided to wait and let the women weigh in, however, before I told them what I thought.

  “Well?” Mom asked me.

  “Who did you like?” I asked her.

  “Julie,” Arden, Mom, and Trish all said.

  “I think she’s your perfect work wife, Slayde,” Mom said.

  “Well, as your real wife, I don’t want you calling her that,” Arden said.

  “All right, Mom, call her in a little while and see if she wants to meet us for dinner at Spago.”

  “No! You call her,” she said, handing me Julie’s résumé.

  Julie agreed to meet Arden and me for a second interview and dinner. When we arrived, there was a ton of paparazzi waiting, which wasn’t anything new.

  “Great, paparazzi,” Arden said. “You sure you wanna go here?”

  “This is where we told Julie to meet us, A. We can’t change plans last minute.”

  She sighed but agreed. She knew I was right. “I guess it doesn’t matter anyway. There’s a good chance there are more leeches around the corner.”

  We got inside without anything other than the smile-wave-picture. I didn’t usually stop and sign autographs or take personal pics with fans when Arden was with me. It opened the door for problems.

  Julie was already seated when we got there. I liked her punctuality. Not that I had any, but it would be nice if someone did. “Hey! Glad you showed up,” I said and shook her hand.

  “I saw the crowd and almost left,” she joked, nodding toward the front of the restaurant. “Is this what it’s like every time you go somewhere?”

  “For the most part,” I said, laughing.

  “How do you stand it?” she asked.

  “Well, I think of the paparazzi like a person, all of them as a collective group. Kind of like the relative you really can’t stand, but you know it’s better to smile and make nice, so your mom doesn’t find out you were rude. If I can avoid them, I do. Sometimes it’s better to give them a little attention, so they get something in exchange for some privacy later. If not, they will make something up.”

  She nodded.

  “Don’t worry, you will get used to it.”

  “Well, I still haven’t,” Arden said.

  Hiring Julie was the best thing I could have done. She made things so easy for me. Now that filming had started on the third movie, I had no time between that and promoting and getting ready for the premiere of the second film. I was losing what mind I had left.

  Filming was a big priority, and I spent most of my time at the studio. But when a movie was coming out, I was also running all over the place promoting that movie and having multiple appearances on the TV talk shows as well.

  Had Julie not been there, I don’t think I would have survived. She only came to the set two or three days a week, but that was enough to keep me in check. She made sure I knew where I was supposed to be and when. She was the mediator between my agent and me. And she also reminded me ten times about everything, just like Mom and Arden. So she was a perfect fit.

  I bought three iPads, and Julie uploaded Arden’s and my schedules into our calendars, so we’d each know what was going on with the other. I didn’t know how I had ever lived without our new system.

  She also helped me get everything together for Arden’s birthday. Arden really needed a new car, but she refused to admit it. She was not like me at all as far as cars were concerned. I would only keep them for a few months, but she had had her damn 4Runner since med school, and it was time to get rid of it. When Julie and I went to lunch one day, I decided it was the perfect time to go car shopping.

  “I need to go get Arden a new car for her birthday. Will you please go with me?” I asked Julie. She looked at me warily.

  “Sure, but you know her way better than I do. I don’t want to be the one who picks out something she doesn’t like,” Julie said. I had already sensed that Julie wasn’t too sure what she thought about Arden, but that was fine. Arden was a pretty guarded person, and it took a little while to get to know her.

  “I just want another opinion, and if she doesn’t like it, she can go get something else.” I smiled at Julie to let her know I understood where she was coming from.

  I called first to make sure Henry was at the dealership. He would see to it that I wasn’t there all day. I told him what I wanted, and he met us outside, four cars already pulled around back. I knew I was going to get her a BMW 650, but I wasn’t sure what color. I needed Julie’s opinion for that. After Julie drove away in my car, I told him to bring me a 550 for Julie and a 760 for myself in two weeks. I couldn’t very well give another woman a car on my wife’s birthday. I wasn’t stupid. But Julie had an older 5 series and I thought she deserved a new one. She worked her ass off, and I wanted her to have it.

  Arden was scheduled to finish a thirty-six-hour shift at 7:00 p.m. on her birthday. After I left the studio, I picked up a pretty diamond necklace for her. I was planning on cooking steaks and relaxing at home. I knew the last thing she would want to do was go out. I made sure to get home in plenty of time to surprise her with dinner.

  Seven thirty rolled around and I still hadn’t heard from her. By nine o’clock, I was starting to get frustrated. She never answered her cell phone when she was at the hospital, and it was still going to voice mail, so I assumed she was still there. At ten thirty, I finally took a shower and went to bed.

  At midnight I heard the garage door. I didn’t want to be an ass on her birthday—even though technically her birthday was over. She came into the bedroom quietly. She probably knew I was upset. She went into the bathroom and got in the shower. I lay in bed fuming but trying to calm myself down. She would have blown a gasket if I were five hours late and didn’t so much as call to tell her where I was. She couldn’t even bother to text me?

  When she got in bed, I couldn’t be quiet any longer, but I wasn’t going to be ugly to her. “Where have you been? I have been calling you for hours.”

  She put her arm around me, and I moved it. She wasn’t changing the subject with sex. I knew it usually worked on me, but not tonight. “Baby, are you mad?”

  “A little, Arden, yes.”

  “It’s my birthday—you can’t be mad at me,” she said.

  “Actually, your birthday was over forty-five minutes ago, so, happy birthday.” I got up and threw the jewelry box onto the bed and went outside.

  She followed me. “Slayde, please don’t be mad. I was in surgery. Dr. Greene let me perform almost the whole entire surgery by myself. It was awesome.” She was beaming, and part of me wanted to not be mad, but I couldn’t help it. “I couldn’t turn that down. Don’t you understand?” She grabbed my crossed arms, looking up at me, her eyes pleading with me to forgive her.

  I did, kind of, but the fact that she cast me aside without a thought of how it would make me feel really bothered me. Her feelings mattered to me, and this made it pretty obvious that mine didn’t to her. I pulled away from her. “I understand that you
chose your job over me again.”

  She stiffened her back, and her tone turned serious. “Slayde, that is not true. I got an offer I couldn’t refuse. I thought you would be happy for me.”

  And that was the truth of the matter. An offer she couldn’t refuse. “I am happy for you, Arden,” I said and went back inside and put some clothes on.

  “Where are you going?” she asked, following me, sounding shocked.

  “I don’t know. To get some air.”

  “To your mom’s?” she chided. The way she said it was completely uncalled for. I didn’t say anything but looked at her with disdain. I threw the keys to her new car and her birthday card on the table and left.

  I really did want to go to my parents’, but it was late, and after her smart-ass comment, I wasn’t about to do that. This was when I wished I could sit at a bar and have a beer without being harassed, but that wouldn’t happen. So I went to the gym instead. I always parked in the back during the day so I could get in and out without any problem. When I pulled up, I saw Kevin’s car. He usually left by seven at the very latest, so this wasn’t normal, but I was glad he was there. I walked to his office to see what he was doing and found him sitting at his desk, drinking.

  “Dude, what are you doing?” I asked.

  “Don’t want to go home, so I’m not,” he said, rolling his shot glass around on his desktop.

  I understood. Kimberly was crazy, and they fought all the time. I had no idea why he was with her. Listening to him talk, you would think he hated her.

  “Are you gonna sleep here?” I asked.

  “Yep!”

  “Kevin, what’s going on?”

  He looked at me for a second and then said, “Why are you here? I thought it was Arden’s birthday or something.” His changing the subject told me he didn’t want to talk about it, probably because he knew what I would say. Probably because I had said it before.

  “It is, but she worked late, and … ” I sighed, not really wanting to talk about it either. “Just, everything got screwed up.”

  He smiled and slid me the bottle of whiskey. “Misery loves company.”