His entourage snuck him out the back way of her hotel to his awaiting car where he promptly poured himself another glass of straight bourbon and lit up another smoke. He thought of what Preston had said to him earlier.

“Slow things down?” he said, taking a drag then letting very satisfying stream of smoke out the open window. “He must be out of his mind.”

~~~

Felix made note of two things when he first met Ms. Lazardi: A) She was a hell of lot younger than he’d expected, and B) She was no different from all the women he’d ever been in contact with. Except for a few of his close friends’ wives, who seemed to be the exception, most women either bluntly put it out there for his taking or, like Lazardi, put on a class act of indifference at first. The outcome was always the same in the end.

“I read the email you sent me, Mr. Gallardo” she said to Felix’s agent Rene. “I understand that Mr. Sanchez’s—”

“Call me Felix,” he said before she went on.

He stared at her straight-faced from behind his dark sunglasses as she stopped to look at him. “Okay,” she said with a smile and quick flutter of her lashes and then continued.

Felix watched her as she explained that she knew how different Andy and Preston were as publicists and that she was confident she’d fall somewhere in between. For a while, he entertained himself, watching how she’d occasionally lose her train of thought when she’d look his way. He hated all these formal meetings, but he knew it was necessary, so he was thankful for the diversion. This was much better than sitting across from some snooty publicist like Preston or the car salesman type like his first publicist Andy, who talked your ear off. It was the only thing that kept him from dozing off. She was your typical young starry-eyed girl, only she did her best to hide behind the sophisticated-looking business suit. Watching how hard she attempted to stay poised kept him amused momentarily until, as he did in all these drawn-out meetings, he began to get bored.

Ms. Lazardi, who’d since asked all three men to please call her by her first name, Adelina, went over her philosophy for her relationships with her clients. She was determined to become as close as she could with Felix as she was with all her other clients without, of course, cramping his style. She smiled big. “My ultimate goal here,” she said, “is to keep Felix, my VIP client, continually relevant in the media, but in a positive light only, and do a little damage control. I’ve gone over all the past incidents, and I don’t think the situation is too bad. And, of course, I need to keep Felix happy—at all times.”

Felix sat, legs crossed, across from Ms. Lazardi and next to Rene. Continuing to lean his chin on his hand, he casually glanced at Rene, fighting the urge to smirk because he could already see his agent’s brow lifting in concern. Rene gave him that look to which, of course, Felix responded with his utmost expression of innocence.

They concluded the meeting after Fernando Cortez, Felix’s longtime attorney, went over some of the legalities and stipulations he wanted to make sure were on the contract before Felix signed anything. Felix made arrangements to meet with Ms. Lazardi the next day for lunch to go over the plan of action, and they were free to leave. Easy peasy.

“You see.” Felix smirked as they entered the elevator. “And you were worried. What can possibly go wrong?”

~~~

As he sat on the balcony of yet another hotel room, this time in Santa Monica, California, Felix did his best to calm Rene down on the phone. He took another drag of his cigarette as Rene went on and on about how this was highly inappropriate and could lead to nothing but more bad publicity and downright trouble.

Ironically, Rene called for that very reason. He hadn’t wanted to discuss it in front of Cortez yesterday and hadn’t had a chance to call Felix since, but now he had and the first words out of his mouth when Felix answered were “You better not get any funny ideas about Ms. Lazardi.”

Felix had given him the unfortunate news that he was too late. “We’re just getting acquainted,” Felix assured him with a chuckle, keeping his voice low. “Relax, okay? I’m out of here tomorrow. She works here in L.A., and I won’t be back for months. I got that thing in Miami, remember? From here on, she and I will handle all business via email and phone. You saw her yesterday. You can’t say this was all me.”

He leaned in to check if Adelina was still asleep. He smiled when he confirmed it, taking in her half-covered naked body sprawled out on his hotel bed.

“You were the one who said this girl came highly recommended,” he reminded Rene.

“Her mother came highly recommended,” Rene snapped. “I didn’t know she’d retired and Ms. Lazardi had since taken over the agency. But from what I’m told, she’s not just a publicist she’s a hell of a negotiator when it comes to endorsement deals. I don’t want you blowing this.”

“Well, I’ll tell you right now,” Felix said, taking a swig of his drink with a smirk. “Her mother taught her well. She’s doing a helluva job.”

He heard Rene groan. Once again, Felix had to laugh but reminded his agent that he had things under control. He really did. Sure, this relationship with this new publicist would be a lot different than the two prior ones. But when it came to publicists, Felix already had two major fails. The third time had to be the charm. So he had a publicist who he’d be doing a little more than just consulting with anytime he was in town. That didn’t sound so bad to him.