Page 30 of Legally Yours
“David, you just don’t get it, do you? I will never betray Liam and Anderson. If this is all you wanted, I’m out of here.”
I stand up to go, and David jumps up to block my path. I look around to see if the restaurant goers are watching us. So far, so good. I don’t want to cause a scene, but I want rid of this guy.
His face is no longer serene and welcoming. His expression is severe, hostile. A small part of me feels fear. Nevertheless, I hold my ground. Barely.
“You turn your nose up at my offer, huh? It’s three times your already hefty salary!”
“David, listen and listen good. I don’t care if it’s ten times my current salary! You already have Emma. She’s stunning. We both know that. She can be your agency’s top model!”
By now, all the guests are listening intently to our feud, putting their knives, forks, and cocktail glasses down. I can feel their eyes on us. My face grows hot. More out of rage than embarrassment. David is way out of line, and he knows it, but he keeps pushing.
I slide past David and head for the hotel doorman as fast as my feet will allow to order a cab. I can feel his heels on me, but I don’t stop, and I don’t look back. Approaching the turnstile glass and brass doors, I see there’s already a cab idling outside, so I bypass the doorman to scoot outside and get right in.
“Anderson Modelling Agency, please. This guy is stalking me. Go!”
The taxi driver throws the car into gear and burns rubber, squealing the tires out of the entrance. As we tear off into the bustling traffic, I turn my head to look back out the rearview window.
I see David rushing out after me. He puts up his hands as if to ask why and I see him shake his head. For the time being, he’s out of my hands. I only hope it stays that way.
On the way back to the agency, I fume in the cab.The gall, the unmitigated gall David has! And such arrogance, thinking he can lure me back with mere cash. What did I ever see in that guy? Or back then did he put on a fake persona for me? I dodged a bullet there.
Through the lane switching and the honking of endless horns, I sit in the cab staring straight forward, praying this is the last I’ll ever see of David Brown. A part of me fears my prayer might not be heard.
26
LIAM
“Can you get this lawsuit off the ground today, Hiram?”
“The motion is an easy one. I’ll get my paralegal on it right away, and it should be filed with the Southern District of New York by the end of business today,” he replies.
I exhale. “Hiram, I don’t know what I’d do without you and your legal team. David Brown has gone too far this time. He has to be stopped.”
“I completely agree. You let a shyster like that get away with stealing models once, he’ll do it again. I’ve handled cases like this before. And if you don’t nip it in the bud, well, I’ve seen agencies file Chapter Eleven because of it. You’re making the sound choice here, Liam. This is a slam-dunk case.”
I’ve had enough. I instructed my corporate lawyer, Hiram Swaddle, to file a lawsuit against David Brown for poaching our clients, many of which are taken in breach of their contract. I can’t do anything about the ones whose contracts had expired, but I can get David where it hurts, in his wallet, for stealing my models still under contract.
And more than anything, after the stunt he pulled with Cassandra the other day, trying to steal her back personally and professionally, it’s definitely payback time. I might have looked the other way initially but cornering Cassandra like he did, no more. That’s a bridge too far.
Over the coming weeks, after Cassandra’s successful flyer promotional and job fair, Anderson Modeling Agency has a bevy of new seedlings to develop. I keep my eye on Cassandra when I can, and I see her doing a phenomenal job with the new recruits, putting them through their paces, getting them up to speed with AMA’s expectations and bars of excellence.
I also keep an eagle eye on David. Leakers from inside the firm tell me the agency is bleeding money and models. David stole ours but has done nothing with them, and so they end up walking.
He’s making all the decisions in the firm now, I hear, and all of them are highly detrimental. David is acting like he doesn’t care. He fought the big fight to tear me and my agency down but when it didn’t happen, he gave up.Or is it when he didn’t get Cassandra back on his side, he gave up?
The good news about David’s bad news doesn’t have me celebrating just yet. I know you could never underestimate his prowess in the industry. David has been around for a long time. He still holds a lot of sway with influencers in the business, especially in New York. A part of me is thrilled he’s bleeding money and models, but another part of me is saying,Liam, hold your horses. The fat lady hasn’t sung yet.
My reverie on the situation abruptly stops when I hear raised voices in the outer office. I walk out of my office and see Emma. I see her getting into Cassandra’s face, making digs, defending the indefensible in David Brown’s offer.
“Cassandra, have you lost your mind? You turned down David’s gigantic offer, and then you ran out on the guy? What the hell were you playing at?”
“Emma, you weren’t there. David was acting super weird. He pulled me out of the job fair and took me to a hotel. He knew that would pull heart strings, hurt me. And the cherry on top of the icing was his offer of that wild contract, as long as I came back to him.”
“You mean come to Manolito?”
“Really, Emma? You naively think that’s what he meant? I wasn’t born yesterday, you know. I know you have to read between the lines with David. Coming to his agency means coming back to him. You know that, and I know that.”
“So, your wily plan was to diss him right there in the middle of a public restaurant where everyone can see? Like you’re kicking a horse when it’s down?”