A Life More Complete Read Online Free Page B

assumed
everyone wanted wealth and success. She was a prime example of how wrong we
were.
    “Bob,” Ellie addresses him harshly
causing all three of us to whip our heads around to stare at her. “Work with IT
and figure out if there is anything we can do about the mass email. Liaison
with Green Pea’s IT department if needed. Melinda, type up a statement
regarding the changes in the product after you meet with Debi Miller. She’ll be
able to fill you in on the changes that have been made. This will be hitting
the news soon, so make sure the statement is ready when the calls come in. Kristin,
I need you to meet with Kathy and find out how serious the damage is. Meet her
in the Calabasas store. And Melinda, email the statement to Kristin, because
she’ll need to do some damage control. All statements need to match in order
for this to be seamless. We need this to blow over, Kathy needs this to blow
over.” That’s Ellie for you. She doesn’t even come up for air. She thrives on
this kind of shit and her day has been made.
    Ellie slams the door behind her as
she exits the conference room with such purpose that I fear for anyone standing
in her way. Before the door even closes Melinda laughs.
    “Can’t we just have a normal day at
the office?” she giggles. “Most people get to take an hour lunch, eat sushi,
drink a beer, play solitaire. Not us.”
    Before I can answer her the bell on
my phone sounds alerting me of a notice on my calendar. “Shit,” I mumble to
myself. As I scroll through the calendar. “Today’s Trini’s interview with Hollywood Reports and I never got the
list of “don’t ask” questions to the interviewer. Also, one of us needs to be
there. She’ll never make it on her own.” I reach for my milkshake, knocking it
into my lap by accident, spilling the small amount that is left onto the crotch
of my pants. “Damn it,” I say as Melinda instantly hands me a Tide stick from
her purse. I smile at her gratefully.
    “At least it’s not on your butt this
time. You looked like you shit your pants,” Bob says smirking. “I got Trini. No
worries.” He leans down and kisses me good-bye.
    Trini Walters is our cash cow, our
gold mine, the reason we earn the salary we do. The reason we amassed more
celebrity clients than Ellie Regan P.R. has ever seen. Trini was an adorable
twelve-year-old girl on the brink of stardom when she signed with Ellie. A tiny
little thing with chipped nail polish and an adorable smile, precocious and
endearing, but she could force your hand at anything. I loved her at first
sight. She could sing, dance and act. We got along famously. Her mother left
when she was a baby. She was being raised by her elderly father and series of
revolving nannies, leaving her on her own more often than not. Her father,
famous in his own right, was a musician, a bona fide 1950’s pop star, who fell
from grace and was now surviving on residuals and his daughter’s money. Trini
had just inked a deal with a children’s network starring on a show called Trini Knows Best . The show became wildly
popular in a matter of weeks and catapulted her into a world she was far too
young to ever know.
    Trini is now eighteen and we still
remain close. Her show ended two years ago and in that short span of time she
recorded her second album and starred in four movies. I need to call her and
let her know that Bob will be meeting her at her interview this afternoon. I
mark that down in my endless list of things to do today.
    We all head off in our respective directions knowing this day
will last forever. It will be one of those days when you glance at the clock
and an hour has passed; yet it feels like an eternity. We’ll work into the night,
tiring long before it will be over. There is no overtime pay in my job. I just
do it exhausted and defeated.

---Chapter 3---    

 
 
    The darkness has taken over as I pull
into Ben’s driveway, parking on the apron. I’ve missed dinner...again. My job
is my