I should just tell her to fuck off and storm away, but something in me stops me. "I don’t think there is anything for us to say."
"Right this way." She ignores what I just said now and turns around, walking away from me. My feet move while my head screams out to continue walking out the door to my car. She walks into the closest office, and I follow her inside. It’s almost a copy of the office I dragged her into not too long ago, but this time, the mood is completely different. I take one step in, and I don’t bother closing the door behind me because I’ll be leaving in a matter of minutes. "I think we just need to take a minute to calm down and regroup."
"A minute to calm down?" I say, laughing bitterly. "I need a minute to get the fuck out of here."
"I know you must be upset."
"Don’t even pretend to know how I feel right now," I hiss.
She stays in the same tone as before, ignoring the fact I just hissed at her. "And if you have certain topics that you want to steer clear of, he should have respected your decision."
"One fucking thing." I hold up my finger, not even trying to stay calm. "It’s not even something he doesn’t know." I point at Bill. "It’s not a new rule with me," I inform her. "My family is off-limits, period." I shake my head. "Not like you would know anything about that." A tightness forms in my chest. "Not everyone has someone to hold their hands while they go through things. Not everyone has someone to help fight their battles." I can see her eyes getting darker and darker. "We all don’t have the perfect family like you. I don’t have someone who is going to jump to my defense like you do, princess." The words come out almost like a dagger, and I know it’s triggered something inside her when I see her eyes gloss over for a split second. I regret the tone the minute I see the change in her.
"One, I’m nobody’s princess," she says, her voice going tight. "Nobody’s family is perfect, Wilson, least of all mine. Now, if you want, I can talk to Bill and make sure he sticks to the rules, and we continue, or you can storm out of here like a child having a tantrum because you didn’t get your way." We stare at each other. "The decision is yours. If you’re not on set in the next ten minutes, I’ll have my answer." She storms past me, mumbling “asshole,” and out of the room. How did this go from me being in the right to me feeling like a dick?
"What the hell is going on?" Richard comes into the room, looking confused.
"Where the fuck were you?" I look over at him and see that he still has his coffee in his hand.
"I went to take a phone call." He takes a sip of the coffee. "It was an emergency."
"You’re fired," I say before anything else. "Consider this your termination letter."
"Whoa, whoa, whoa." Richard holds up his hands. "Where did this come from?"
"It didn’t just come," I tell him. "One, you got here late, and two, you were nowhere to be found when shit went down. You were supposed to be in my corner, and when I needed you, I was sitting by myself." I shake my head. "So there will not be a third time."
I walk past him as he stands there, not able to say anything. Even if he did, I’m not interested in hearing it. I pull out my phone, calling Nico, who answers after two rings. "Hello."
"Hey, it’s Wilson," I say, looking around to make sure no one is around to hear this conversation. "Just giving you a heads-up."
Nico groans. "Why is it when you say that, my balls shrivel up? Nothing good comes from that sentence."
I try not to laugh. "I just fired Richard."
"Fuck,” he groans. "Why?"
"We just aren’t a good fit," I say, not wanting to get into the rest of the story.
"I’ll talk to Becca," he says, and I look over at the set and see people getting into place. "I’ll let you know what she says."
"I don’t really need an agent," I reply. "No one is banging at the door bringing offers." Another thing that comes with the bad-boy title is sponsorships are few and far between.
"I’ll keep you posted," he says and hangs up the phone. I can hear voices around me and walk toward it.
"You knew the deal, Bill." I hear her voice and look around the corner to see Bill and Frances in a face-off. "And you fucked it up. If he comes back to that set and you mention his family, I’ll cut the segment myself." She turns and walks away, and I turn and walk back to the set.