Chapter One Friendly Favors

3:17. The clock flashed brightly, almost teasing her. She cant sleep again, especially the nights she slept over at his apartment. She didn’t care for him, she didn’t like him, but she needed him. Samantha was one of the world’s most loved models, but as she got older she could see her career start to fade. She was 29 years old and stood a slender yet curvy five feet eight inches. Her long straight brown hair was the envy of every woman who saw her. Bridgette Kerr, her agent suggested she start the transition into movies, a move many models have rushed before. For decades models rushed into film, grabbing the first movie and pay check they could get their hands on. Sam wanted her first movie to be special, a grand entrance into the world of film. That’s why she needed Kyle Whitney. Kyle was 29 years old, just over six feet tall, fit, arrogant and wealthy. He had short black hair that was gelled most of the time. His life was money, sex and repeat, that’s all he cared about. He also loved getting his picture in the tabloids which happened a few times while he was dating actresses and models. Dating Samantha was a great way to get back into the tabloids. Along with having a wealthy career he had connections everywhere. Some of his connections were the producers of a new film called Sandra’s Time, a film Sam was desperate to do. The film was going to be a blockbuster, she would be an instant celebrity if she could get the lead role, but she was at the bottom of the list of women considered. So as her agent always told her to do, Samantha was doing whatever it took to get the job.

“You still awake, babe? I figured I wore you out tonight,” Kyle said with a smile on his face. She ignored him and just rolled over. They both knew what this was. They knew what the other one got out of the deal. Once she was signed onto the movie she was gone. He was just enjoying the month of fame he had, walking around town with a world famous model on his arm.

5:30, the alarm clock goes off. He popped out of bed and started his day. Every morning he woke up and from 6 to 7 worked out. If the weather was poor he would hit the gym. If the weather was nice he would usually take a jog on Miami beach. He loved checking out the waves as he worked out, he also loved women checking him out as he jogged down the beach. He always ran shirtless to show off his psychique and his tattoo. He had a large cross on the top center of his back with the words “God doesn’t judge me, He asks me for advice.”  After the workout he went home, took a shower, ate breakfast and was off to work. While his work started at 9, it didn’t officially end until he went to sleep that night. His job at JMFC Financial Group was simple, make money. To his boss Richard, Kyle was like a son, a young, great looking, money hungry machine that could close major business deals left and right.

Richard Conrad was 56 years old, he was in great shape for a man his age. He had black hair with shades of gray and always dressed as if he was being photographed for a men’s fashion magazine. He was five feet eleven inches tall and had a small scar on the bottom corner of his left cheek. He got the scar when his wife, well ex-wife, slapped him across the face while she was still wearing her wedding ring. She purposely hit him with the top of the ring so he could come face to face with the nice diamond he had bought her just four months earlier. In her defense she had just walked in to her bedroom and found Richard and the maid in bed together. Richards excuse was one he always bragged about when telling the story of his scar. “She asked me what I was doin and I said that’s why I have to sleep with the maid, shes the only one who knows what to do in the bedroom.” Richard is divorced twice and has a daughter. He hadn’t seen her in over 8 years and it wasn’t on his to do list. He saw Kyle as a son, a protégé, because Kyle reminded him so much of a younger Richard only more successful at an early age. Richard worked his way up from the mail room, running errands for the higher-ups, doing anything he could to get ahead. At the age of 35 he was Vice President of the company when he had to make a tough decision. He could increase profits and his own salary by firing 10 employees. The catch was that one of the employees was his best friend. They had gone to grade school and high school together and worked their way up in the company. Richard’s ruthlessness and work ethic helped him to rise up faster than Tom his best friend. Tom was more focused on starting a family than being wealthy. Richard could have kept Tom in the company but his salary would not increase. It took Richard longer to tell Tom he was fired than it did for him to make the decision. He always looked back at that day as the day he sold his soul, but he looked back at it proudly. He knew he had to do it if he was ever going to get where he wanted to go in life, and that was to the very top. Now he had Kyle who he knew would take his place one day. “Morning Kyle, are you ready for the meeting with the gentlemen from Boston?”

 

“You know it,” boasted Kyle.

“Before that I want to talk to you, have a seat.” Kyle sits down in a chair and props his feet up on the coffee table. “Kyle you have been working here for 6 years and I have always seen you as the prince of this company, waiting to be king. You do want to be king one day, don’t you?” asked Richard.

“One day? How about today?” joked Kyle. “I’m ready for this life Rich, I want it, I have thought about it forever, it will be mine.”

“Not today, the king still has a few years left, but I promise you, you will be the most powerful Vice President we have ever had, even bigger than I was. You’re going to be the one who takes this company to new heights,” explained Richard.

“As long as the money keeps coming in, I can wait,” Kyle said with a wink. “Now if you will excuse me I have to go make a phone call.” Kyle stands up and walks out of the room.

 

“Before you leave I just want to give you a heads up, were looking at a major client coming around in a month, we will need our A game for this one, and I’m putting you on the contract Kyle.”

 

“I would expect nothing else,” Kyle said while leaving the room. As he walked to his office he couldn’t help but think about how fast his star was rising at the company, and how it opened up new oppurtunities in his life. Four years ago he never would of dreamed he would be sleeping with a model like Samantha Burke. Now he was, mostly because of the favors he could produce, but he didn’t care why people needed him, he only cared about what he got in return. Just as he got to his office door his secretary, Joyce, spoke up. “Good morning Mr. Whitney, I wrote Mr. Lawerence’s phone number down and placed it on your desk as you asked sir. Can I get you anything else Mr. Whitney?”

“Nope I’m good.” Kyle walked right into his office and grabbed the note with the number off his desk. He sat down on his couch and called his old “friend” Ron Lawerence. He was such a friend that Kyle didn’t even have his number saved.

 

“Hello this is Ronnie.”

 

“Ronnie, it’s Kyle. How’s it going buddy.”

 

“Great man, what can I do for you.”

 

“Well Ron, I need a favor, you need to take a serious look at Samantha Burke for the movie Sandra’s Time.”

 

“Sure buddy, I’m use to getting your girlfriends into a movie, that’s not a problem. I have a ton of parts with three or four lines I still have to fill.”

 

“See Ron, that won’t work. I need her to get the lead role.”

 

“Kyle are you serious? The lead role, she’s enver acted before. I’ve got award winning actresses who are auditioning for that role. I can give her a role with more lines but that’s the best I can do.”

 

“That’s not wat I want to hear Ronnie. I said I could deliever on this and if word gets around that Kyle Whitney couldn’t deliver on something people would stop relying on me. The way people rely on me, hell depend on me to keep things secret. Things like if they were cheating on their wife with an extra from their last three movies. I’m sure that person would rely on me to keep that information a secret.”

 

“Kyle……….I thought we”

 

“Had a deal? Of course we do. That’s what friends do. They have eachothers backs no matter what. So call her agent and set up an audition. Also let me know when the premier is, its always a great place to take a date.”

 

“Your dating the I guess lead actress now, won’t she be your date Kyle?”

 

“Come on Ron, the only way Samantha Burke and I will be together by the time there’s a premier for this damn movie is if she wants to join my date and me for a three way.”

 

Kyle hung up the phone and leaned back in his chair, amused with himself.

Across the city Sam was walking into her agent’s office. “I’ve got great news, it looks like the producers of Sandra’s Time have suddenly taken a big interest in you,” said Bridgette. “If this keeps up and you impress them at the audition, the lead role is yours. I told you Kyle was a good way to go, and to think you wanted to get the role on your own!” Samantha just smiled, she did want to earn the role with talent in acting, not talent in the bedroom, but she got what she wanted, so she was happy.

“Let’s go out tonight and celebrate, how about dinner and drinks on me?” asked Bridgette.

“I can’t,” replied Sam. “I have to meet up with Kyle tonight. It’s his brother’s birthday and we’re taking him out to dinner.”

“Fun. The small time doctor who doesn’t drink or doing anything wild and he’s a date for a night on the town. I think I’ve had audits that were more fun than Kevin,” joked Bridgette.

“Tell me about it, Kyle doesn’t even want to go, he and his big brother had a fight a few years back and since then they’ve never really patched things up. They just see each other on holidays and birthdays to kind of keep their parents happy. Kyle and Kevin are night and day and I just get the sense that everything Kyle does is to prove he’s better than Kevin. I think it’s a sad way to live, but its not my problem.”

“Well have fun, and I’ll let you know when we have set the date for your audition, of course now it’s only a formality,” replied Bridgette as she began laughing. Samantha left Bridgette’s office and headed back to her apartment. She didn’t take a cab, she felt like walking, she had a lot to think about.

Samantha’s life was taking a new path, she always followed a road she was told would bring her fame, and she knew that this was the right thing to do for her career. She looked at those other models who were unemployed at 40 and were grabbing whatever small reality TV show they could get their hands on to make a quick buck. She would not allow that to happen to her. For her it wasn’t just about the money. It was about the freedom. She wouldn’t have to marry some asshole millionare just so she could stay in the life style she had grown accustom too. It was about being in the spot light. Magazine covers last a month, runway photo’s might last a year, but films, especially great films live forever. How many times do we see films from the 1930’s to 70’s and on, still running on TV? We watch them because they are still great. We talk about the actors even though they died long ago. That’s what Samantha wanted, her star to never burn out.