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“Oh shit dude, you went for the jugular,” Liam laughed, unable to be upset at Chet’s remark. He clutched his bottle to his chest, feigning a blow to his heart.
Once our collective laughter died down and Chet cleared his throat once more, I asked why he called.
“I have your upcoming schedule for the VelCon circuit,” he stated.
Taking the lounger next to Liam, I placed my phone on my stomach and reclined. “It’s what, six cities right?” I voiced, waiting for confirmation.
“It is. First stop is Portland, then up to Seattle, over to Chicago, Boston, Long Island and ending in San Antonio. All the details will be emailed to you shortly, Jake, but you leave tomorrow.” Chet was no nonsense and where I appreciated his clear and concise nature, it wouldn’t kill him to not be so professional all the time. “And seeing as I didn’t book you for San Diego for Sunday photo ops and autographs, you can get to Portland and settle in so to speak. Maybe you and Liam could go sightseeing, get some custom Nike’s made or even buy each other a Voodoo donut.”There it was, his personality! Dry and minor, but by God it was there. As rare as a shooting star, but just as brilliant.
“I love donuts,” Liam emphasized, hanging on the only piece of information from the conversation that didn’t matter. “What are these Voodoo baked goods you speak of?”
“Shut up,” I told him.
Chet clipped, “Google it. Jake, I’m sending over the info now.”
I thanked him but before I could hang up, he caught me. “Sorry, one more thing. The photo ops and autographs over your three-day appearance were quite lucrative. Is it still your wish to donate the earnings to the city?”
“That’s fine, yes,” I answered.
In order to do these conventions, I was paid an upfront fee—a price guarantee—to appear over a series of one to four days. Being a part of the biggest comic franchise had its perks: my price guarantee was $500,000 for the three days. Add in the photo ops and autographs, and it was serious money. Whatever the earnings were from the addons, I always had Chet give that back to the host city—after he took his ten percent of course. He was a great manager and probably deserved more.
“Very well. Good evening to you both,” he concluded.
“Bye Chester!” Liam called from the edge of the pool where he was now dangling his feet in the water.
Thanking him, I hung up, walked over to Liam and pushed him in the pool.
He emerged, spouting water like an elegant dolphin. “Dick.”
“I’m off to go pack. Might I suggest you pack more than your board shorts this time?” It was all he wore. In SoCal it was easier to chalk the look up to that of the lifestyle, but Liam literally didn’t give a shit what he wore.
“Would that make you happy?” He shook the water from his hair unceremoniously. Now he resembled a dog.
“Sure. I’d be stoked.”
“Then I’ll make sure to pack just the shorts.”
I shook my head sighing, unable to hide my grin at his response. “Who’s the dick now?”
Chapter 5
Lucy
Chula Vista
I couldn’t tellif it was the lingering notes of our dinner conversation or the brick of meat sitting heavily in my stomach, but the car ride home was somber.
Which was just as well. E headed straight to her room to do her packing, and I headed straight to the kitchen for a glass of wine.
Plopping my ass on a bar stool, I took a look over my shoulder before opening the internet browser on my phone.
“Jake Stanley,” I typed aloud to myself, which was stupid since I was concerned about being caught by E. She’d never let me hear the end of it.
Not that it really mattered either way. The chances of us meeting again were right up there with never and nada.
Several articles popped up, mostly pertaining to the recent movie that was about to be released. Sitting at the top was a YouTube link to what looked like his interview that he did with E’s ex earlier.
Clicking the link, I checked the date stamp and sure enough, it was today’s date. The thing was posted six hours ago and it already had 697k views!
