The Hunt Begins

The agent recommended by Will, Stella Bullingham, proved to be a tall, full figured lady

with frizzy hair dressed in a powder-blue power suit. She was shown into Meghan's study/office

during the star's morning routine, when she was at home, of drinking coffee made by Will while

watching her consultant in the pool.

"Who's the pool hunk, Ms Chalmers?" asked Stella, looking out the window.

"I employ him as my consultant'" she said, smiling. "Please sit."

"Uhhh – huhhhh," said Stella, sitting. "Your consultant fills out his swimmers real nice. I'm

sorta curious – what does he consult on?"

"Among other things, he got you to come here," said Meg.

"Oh right, right, this must be Will, the Olympic swimmer," said Stella. "A real nice guy I

was told."

"Olympics? Will never said anything about the Olympics," said Meg. "He just said college

swimming scholarship." She went to the door and raised her voice. "Mia, can you ask Will to come

in here for a moment."

Mia, who had also been drinking coffee on the patio while watching the show walked out to

the pool and intercepted the writer at the shallow end. Will appeared at the study door towelling

himself.

"I won't come all the way in, as I'll get chlorinated water on your carpet," he said. "You

must be Stella."

He shook hands with the agent who thought that the display of flesh was worth the trouble

of coming to the house.

"You never told me you were in the Olympics," said Meg.

"That's because I wasn't," said Will. He turned to Stella. "You heard this from Violet,

right?"

"Others who knew her," the agent said.

"She was always telling people I was in the Olympics to give herself an edge, I guess. I was

in the national swimming team for a time – a few months – but I never got to any international

meetings, let alone the Olympics. Best I did was bronze in the two hundred metre butterfly in the

nationals."

"That's impressive enough," said Meg. "Why talk yourself down all the time?"

"You mean I should slip in a mention of my time on the national team just to impress

people? Seems phony. I prefer to play the victim card and hope for sympathy. Anyway, you didn't

hire me because I could swim."

"Humph!" said Meg, "and is this Violet the sad story girl?"

"Yes, that's her. Can I get you coffee, Stella? I make a mean mocha."

"Sounds good, Will," said Stella amused.

"Then I'll get back in the pool if I may, boss. I haven't finished my session."

"Yes, yes, but finish quickly as I want to talk," said Meg.

"Yes, ma'am."

"And don't 'boss' or 'ma'am' me," Meghan called after him.

"Okay," said Will from the kitchen.

"He seems real nice," said Stella, after Will had gone. "Shame what happened to him."

"Why, what happened to him?" asked Meg. "He only says his heart got cut out."

"Violet is also an actor. I looked at her but decided I couldn't help her," said Stella.

"Another client who knows them says that she took up with a theatre producer who could get her a

part back East. Will arrived home unexpectedly with a ring in his bag ready to give her, to find

Violet loading up the producer's car for the trip back. Took him completely by surprise. They'd

been together for three years. That's what I heard anyway."

"Oh my, quite a story," said Meg. "No wonder he's not dating."

"It is a more interesting back story than usual, Ms Chalmers, but yours is the one that has

my attention, now. Will thought I might be able to help you."

"I understand I'm the blonde and sex sells and all that," said Meghan. "I don't even mind

the beach volleyball movie role."

Stella chortled. "I've placed a couple of the minor characters in that one. It ain't

Shakespeare that's for sure, but they've got a lot of eye candy, boy and girl, lined up. They won't

have to say much to fill the theatres."

"I have scenes that'll raise questions about ratings."

"I was also aware of that, Ms Chalmers," said Stella, smiling. "Like I said, they'll be lining

up."

"But my present agents are sending me more of that stuff than I can possibly do," said

Meghan, "and it's all the same blonde roles. I don't want to do films as a female weightlifter or a

truck driving mama, but I can act. There must be parts a step or two above just playing eye candy.

Then there are all the endorsements and appearances at night clubs and promotional parties. It's

good money, but I'm sure I don't need to do all of it. When I complain, they just tell me it all has to

be done or if I don't turn up I'll damage my image or I'm already contracted in even though I didn't

agree to it, or some other crap. I don't want to have to argue with them."

"Shower scenes with a hot leading man in a box office hit gets you promotional deals and

the brand can look after itself, Ms Chalmers," said Stella. "Sounds as if your agents are milking you

for whatever they can get while you're still hot."

"Okay, what can you do for me?" said Meghan.

"In the interests of full disclosure, Ms Chalmers, it would be quite a coup for me if you

come on board with me as I'm going out on my own. That said, you're already established and

you've got the assets, if you don't mind me saying, and you can act. I saw you when you did

Broadway. I was impressed."

"Thank you," said Meghan. She decided that she liked Stella.

"If you sign with me you'll still get scripts sent to you, no problem there, and the choice

ones because the producers will want you no matter who represents you. I can certainly promise to

listen to what you say and agree on an acceptable work load in appearances and endorsements. It's

not good to do too much of that stuff, in any case."

"That's what I thought," said Meghan, "and call me Meg in private, as that's my name. Not

'boss' or 'ma'am' either," she said sternly to Will as he reappeared with Stella's coffee.

"Has she told you yet about how she's not really a diva?" Will said to Stella, unabashed.

"Not yet," said Stella, laughing while Meghan glared. "But it doesn't seem like her staff is

afraid of her."

"If signing is an issue a copy of the contract with your present agent is in that folder on your

desk, not-boss," said Will. Meghan made a face at him. "Basically, any jobs you've already agreed

to, and specifically you not just the agents, has to be done and they get the commission. Otherwise,

you can just change – although you have to tell them, formally, and that can be tricky, as they'll be

losing fees."

Will got back into the pool while the ladies talked, eventually agreeing to let Stella be her

lead agent on trial.

"You're going to tell your present agents?" said Stella, tentatively.

"I'll get Will to do it," said Meghan. "If it's anything like getting rid of the social media

consultants I was with he writes a letter which I sign, and he takes the calls. It's very convenient."

Stella laughed again. "He's really a consultant then, and not just a bod in a pool."

"The pool thing is an interesting bonus," said Meghan. "But I'd keep him around just to take

the calls from consultants. He put a couple from the social media consultants on speaker while I was

here so we could listen. They were nasty, claiming I was destroying my fan base and ruining my

future. Will didn't lose his temper with them or even snap back and eventually they gave up."

"I know getting rid of Bennett's" (that was Meghan's present agency) "can be hard, if

you're an established, commission-generating star," said Stella. "Wish Will luck for me."

"I dunno if I'll get around to wishing him luck," said Meghan. "I have questions to ask."

Later, when Will appeared at her study door showered and ready for the day, she said in her

best boss voice, "come in Will and sit down."

Will did so, wondering if he was about to be fired.

"It looks like I will go with Stella as my lead agent," she said. "Which means firing

Bennett's."

Will shrugged. "No problem, Meghan. I'll write you a polite letter thanking them for their

services and listing those events and roles they can expect commissions for, then take the calls. Can

they contact you directly?"

"Always through Mia. I also get emails."

"I'll brief Mia and I'll show you how to set your inbox so that the emails are forwarded to

me automatically."

"All good," said Meghan. "Now!" Will recoiled at the 'now' thinking that he was going to

be yelled at. "Tell me about this breakup with Violet."

"But what do you care?" protested Will, taken aback. "You went out of your way to tell me

you had a boyfriend and weren't interested in me romantically during that first call. Harped on the

point, in fact."

"Gossiping about you is way different from dating you, Will Moreland," she said. "I'm

allowed to be curious about the lives of my own staff. Violet is an actress how did you meet her?"

"Through friends at the University of Chicago."

"This is the college you got into on a swimming scholarship?"

"That's right. She was in a theatre programme there. I knew her for a while before she took

it into her head to date me."

"She made the first move," said Meghan.

"Called me, in fact. Now that I look back on it, she wanted someone to take her to a theatre

function and that was it, but things went from there."

"How come you two ended up in LA?"

"She wanted to try the West Coast acting scene, and she asked me to come with her. I gave

up my reporting job to come."

"You couldn't get a journalist job here?"

"Nope," said Will. "Traditional newspapers have been dying for some time. Plenty of web

sites but none hiring. It doesn't help that I'm not very competitive."

"I've noted that," said Meghan, leaning back and crossing her arms. Will thought even in

her morning attire of track suit pants and black tee shirt with the words 'TOP MODEL' in bold

white letters she looked fabulous, but he was careful not to show this. "How come you ended up

with that Silicon Valley type you were with at the bar when we met?"

"I hadn't met Hap before that night, but he was the college roomie of another good friend

and he read my book…"

"Book! Now I find out about a book?"

"… I told you I wrote trashy military SF," said Will. "It's not the sort of thing you'd read, so

what would you care?"

"But it's still more impressive than real estate ads," said Meghan. "That's what you said you

were doing."