Chapter 3
"Jake!" Ari yelled from his office to his assistant. Quickly Jake stuck his head through the doorway.
"Yes, Mr Gold?" He questioned.
"Call Shauna Roberts for me, have her assistant bring over a couple simple dresses in a size six sent over. I'm taking a client with to my lunch meeting and she will need a change of clothes." Ari spoke and when he did not hear his assistant move he stared him down. "Now Jake, or I will find an assistant that can!"
"Yes Sir." Jake spoke quickly then exited the room and got on the phone. About thirty minutes passed when Shauna came storming into his office with her assistant dragging a small rack of dresses.
"Seriously Ari, you know I don't work for you right!" Shauna spoke as she sat down on his couch and crossed her arms.
"But Shauna who else would I trust to dress the woman that will be sitting next to me at lunch." Ari smiled as he stood up to examine the rack of dresses. "Just bill the company for this."
"So who is she Ari?" Shauna asked from her spot on the couch.
"Just a client, but she is going to need a change of clothes before our meeting." Ari looked over at Shauna and as he did so noticed Jade being escorted by Jake towards the office.
"Ah and here she is now." Ari smiled as Jake opened the door for Jade to enter. Jade looked around at everyone in the room then over to Ari.
"Sorry am I interrupting something, your assistant said I was fine to come in." Jade spoke. Ari watched as Shauna stood up and examined Jade.
"Ari you didn't tell me she was going to need shoes!" Shauna spoke to Ari as she began to pull stuff off the rack.
"Jade, meet the devil." Ari spoke as he moved to put his hand on the small of Jade's back.
"Hey watch it or I'm billing you for double." Shauna said this as she pulled a dress off the rack, a simple deep blue halter style dress with a large black stripe at the waist. "This should work with the flats. Go try it on." Shauna then held the dress out for Jade to take.
"Jake!" Ari yelled for his assistant. "Please show Jade where she can change."
"Certainly Sir." Jake spoke as he directed Jade out of the room. Once Shauna saw Jade was far enough away so she would not hear she began to drill into Ari.
"So who is she Ari?" Shauna spoke as she waved her own assistant out of the room.
"She is just a client Shauna." Replied Ari. Shauna just rolled her eyes in response.
"Well even if she looks like fucking Marilyn Munroe in that dress, your not getting it till you tell me who she is. I know everyone in this town Ari, and I have never seen her." Shauna spoke her voice raising with each word she spoke.
Ari quickly put out his hands to signal for her to quiet. "Fine, but you cannot say anything, to anyone, or so help me god!" Ari quickly looked around to make sure no one was paying attention to their conversation. "It's E's sister."
"E, Vince's E? Oh Ari you know you're fucked right." Shauna spoke crossing her arms and staring down Ari.
"I know okay. So unless you want to be witness to my death by midget bludgeoning you will not speak of this." Ari spoke looking at Shauna then looking over her shoulder as he saw Jade approaching them.
Shauna noticed his stare and turned to see Jade walking back towards them, looking exquisite in just a simple dress with flats. Turning back to look at Ari she sighed. "You're so fucked Ari."
Jade entered the office and went to stand beside Shauna and in front of Ari. "The dress if lovely, thank you." Jade smiled as she looked to Shauna then back to Ari her smile widening.
"God you are both so fucked." Shauna spoke as she walked over to the couch and plopped herself down. Jade looked questioningly between Ari and Shauna.
"She knows who you are, I had to tell her." Ari spoke rubbing his face with his right hand. Jade turned to look at Shauna and held out a hand. "Jade Murphy, Eric's sister. It's a pleasure to meet you."
Shauna leaned over and took Jade's hand in hers. "Shauna Roberts, Publicist." Shauna let go of Jade's hand and looked over to Ari. "I have a sneaking suspicion your going to me, so give me a call when you're back from lunch." Shauna then stood and left Ari's office.
Ari moved to stand in front of Jade and smiled down at her. "You know you do short much better then your brother." Laughed Ari.
"Ha, ha. So not that I mind, but what's with the dress?" Questioned Jade.
"Well I must admit I might be using you a little." Ari spoke as he moved to direct Jade out of his office. "I found out my lunch meeting was bringing his wife, and I really want to impress so I though I would also bring along some arm candy."
Jade allowed herself to be led out of the office and towards the elevator. "Who's your lunch date with?"
"Mark Wahlberg and his wife Rhea." Ari smiled as they entered the elevator.
The two of them arrived at the restaurant for lunch and found the Mark and Rhea were already there. The couple stood and greeted Ari and Jade as they arrived.
"Ah so you're the reason they added another chair." Mark smiled as he took Jade's hand in his in greeting.
"Mark, Rhea this is Jade." Ari smiled as he helped Jade get seated then sat himself between Jade and Mark, leaving Jade with the opportune to talk to Rhea.
"Pleasure." Jade smiled as she situated herself in her seat.
"So Ari, we were sorry to hear about your divorce but looks like you bounced back quickly." Mark laughed as he looked from Jade to Ari.
"Mark!" Rhea screeched as she looked at Jade. "I will just apologize now for that and everything else that will probably come out of his mouth."
"What can I say, when someone looks this exquisite it's hard to sit on the sidelines." Spoke Ari with a smile, he reached out and took Jade's hand in his and brought it to his lips for a quick kiss.
"Awe, remember when you cared that much for me." Rhea laughed as she swatted Mark on the arm.
"Hey watch it there Ari, if you want me to take this movie you should probably stop showing me up." Mark spoke with a laugh.
A few moments later a waiter came by and took everyone's orders then rushed off. Mark and Ari had begun to talk about work and Rhea groaned as she turned to Jade. "I'm so glad you came with, I hate it when he drags me to these meetings."
"Well you should know that Ari was concerned about that, so he asked if I would come along to keep you company." Jade smiled. "I don't know how you could sit through this all the time without company."
"Tell me about it. I love that he want's to make me feel included but I can only stand shop talk for so long." Rhea pulled her napkin off the table and laid it in her lap then sat back casually. "So what is it that you do Jade? Actress, singer, both?"
"Actually I work as an appraiser." Jade answered, then she felt Ari's hand on hers.
"Actually you was offered a job with Black Fin's, they wanted her so bad they flew her all the way from New York." Ari spoke looking at Rhea.
"Oh, I love that place. They get such rarities, I'm a sucker for antique tea pots." Rhea gasped as she looked from Mark to Jade.
"I will be sure to get Ari to get in touch with you should I come across anything." Jade smiled to Rhea. Just then their waiter arrived with their food and began placing their dishes down.
"Oh screw Ari, don't you leave here till I give you my number." Rhea spoke as she prepared to eat. The four then ate and chatted casually for a couple hours then once they were finished left to go to the valet together.
"Okay, Jade be sure to give me a call, even if you just want to meet for lunch." Rhea spoke as she wrote her phone number down on the back of one of the restaurant's business cards, and then handed it to Jade.
"Definitely." Spoke Jade as she smiled widely.
"Ari, you better be right about this one." Mark spoke as he walked over to his car.
"When am I ever wrong?" Ari spoke as he waved to Mark and Rhea as they got in their car and left. Once they had driven away, Ari turned and took Jade in her arms, kissing her deeply. After a few seconds he let her go and smiled down at her.
"I could not have made that deal without you." Ari spoke as he handed his ticket to the valet.
"Yes you could of." Smiled Jade as she rocked back and forth on the concrete.
"No, I couldn't have. You were brilliant." Spoke Ari as he made his way back over to her. "Now, can I drop you back off at your hotel?"
"Please...oh my phone and things are back at your office." Jade spoke.
"Well if you don't mind hanging around my work, I only have two in office appointments left for the day, should only take me an hour or so then we can both go back to your hotel. Then I can properly thank you for today." Smirked Ari as he wiggled his eyebrows at her.
"How can I say no to that?" Jade laughed as Ari took her arm and led her over to the car.
They arrived back at Ari's office and Jade made to grab her clothes to go change, but Ari swiftly grabbed her wrists and held them to her chest. "Nope, I'm going to be the one to get you out of that dress. Now, my two thirty should be here any minute I'll have Jake get you what ever you need while you wait."
Jade smiled and allowed Ari to take her out of his office. "Jake, make this fine young woman feel at home till I'm done with my meetings, and Jake no eye fucking her either." Ari motioned that he would be watching him, and Jake swallowed so loudly even Jade heard it.
"Yes Sir."
Jade sat on one of the couches flipping through a magazine when she felt the section of the couch next to her shift. Looking over she found an Asian man with a colourful looking at her with a smile.
"Hi, I'm Lloyd." He spoke stretching his hand out to her. Jade smiled and took it in hers.
"Jade, nice to meet you."
"So you must be the one that Ari was all smiles for this morning." Lloyd spoke crossing one leg over the other and wrapping his hands around his knees.
Jade looked at Lloyd not sure of what to say. "Oh don't worry, I will not say anything, but I think we should take you somewhere else for the time being. Ari is having a little trouble concentrating." Lloyd pointed towards Ari's office and as Jade looked over she found Ari staring at her through the glass and not paying attention to his client.
"So it would seem. Do you have an office I could hide out in?" Lloyd nodded and stood, holding out a hand to help Jade up from the couch he took her into his office next to the waiting area.
"So Lloyd, what do you do here?" Jade spoke as she sat across from Lloyd who was seating himself behind his desk.
"I'm head of the television department here at Miller Gold." Lloyd spoke proudly. "I actually use to be Ari's assistant, that was till I quit. Didn't take him long to realize he missed me though and he hired me back as an agent."
Jade and Lloyd were talking happily, when Ari's head popped into the doorway. "I know she's not your type Lloyd but this one could even convert the likes of you if you hang out with her for long enough." Laughed Ari. Then he looked towards Jade, "You ready to go?"
"Yup, just let me grab my stuff." Jade spoke as she stood from her chair.
"Already got you covered." Ari said as he raised Miller Gold gift bag in the air for her to see. Ari held out his arm for Jade to take and the two said their goodbyes to Lloyd then headed off to go back to the hotel.
Once they were in Jade's room Ari swiftly grabbed her and lifted her to rest on his hips, moving her legs to wrap around him. "Now, Ms. Murphy are you ready for me to properly thank you for today?" Ari questioned as he began to kiss her neck and walk her towards the large couch in the living area.
He threw her down and quickly jumped on top of her causing Jade to giggle as his hands began to roam her body. Jade reached up to undo Ari's tie and once it was free tossed it behind her and onto the floor. Ari pulled away at that point and just looked at her. "God you are beautiful." He whispered as he pushed a stray hair out of her face.
"Careful Mr. Gold or I might start to think you are falling for me." Giggled Jade as she looked up at him.
"Hook, line and sinker baby." Ari spoke before he leaned down and kissed Jade aggressively. Just then Jade's phone started ringing from inside the bag on the floor. Jade pulled away and looked from Ari to the floor. "Nope you're mine right now. You can call them back." Ari then began to kiss Jade's neck and then began to kiss a line down towards her chest. Then he felt his phone vibrate in his suit jacket pocket. Groaning Ari pulled away and got off the couch, reaching for his phone Jade's began to ring again.
Ari looked down at his phone, "It's Vince." Ari spoke simply as he watched Jade grab her phone to see who was calling.
"It's Eric, I better go take this in the bedroom." Jade spoke as she answered her cell and rushed off to the bedroom closing the door behind her so hopeful he wouldn't be able to hear Ari in the other room.
Ari answered his cell and brought the phone up to his ear. "Vince, to what do I owe this wonderfully timed call?"
"We are all going out for dinner tonight, E and I both loved the 'Man with no Name'. So we wanted to go over it tonight with ya." Vince spoke through the phone.
"I can't tonight, I already have plans for dinner." Ari spoke as he shed himself of his suit jacket.
"Ya well your plans are about to be canceled." Vince's voice dropped to a whisper, "E is talking Jade out of her work dinner right now."
"You know you are the best fucking cock block I've ever seen right?" Ari spoke sitting down on the couch and stretching out casually.
"Hey now, that's my sister you're talking about." Vince laughed in reply. Just then Jade came back out of the bedroom.
"We will be there, bye Vince." Ari spoke as he swiftly hung up the line. Ari turned to look at Jade, "So let me guess you're going to dinner tonight with the boys."
Jade nodded. "Well how about we resume where we left off, we don't need to be there till six, so we got a little time to kill." Jade held her hand out to Ari. He took it but instead of getting up, he pulled Jade down into his lap.
A while later Jade and Ari arrived at the restaurant Jade sporting a simple black knee length dress and Ari in his suit for the day minus his tie, which they could no find. Jade decided to enter first to put a little distance between their arrival times.
Just as Ari was entering he saw Lloyd coming out of the coat check. Ari rushed over to him and quickly pulled him back into the room. "What the fuck are you doing here?"
"Drama invited me to come along, thinks there's a character in the script for him." Lloyd spoke not understanding what was going on. "Why what's happening."
"Lloyd, I swear to god you better keep the cock sucking mouth shut. You saw nothing today, you got that?" Ari spoke holding Lloyd's face between his flattened palms.
"What are you talking about Ari?"
"Jade, you did not see her, you did not meet her, you know nothing about her got it!" Ari then let go of Lloyd and started to walk towards the dinning area.
"What, why Ari?" Lloyd spoke stomping his foot to the ground.
"You'll see Lloyd, now come on." Ari then made his way over towards the group. Lloyd following close behind.
"Hey guys!" Vince greeted as Lloyd and Ari sat themselves between Vince and Drama.
Ari looked over to Jade who held a worried look on her face as she looked between him and Lloyd. Ari quickly kicked Lloyd to grab his attention and motioned with his eye's over to Jade. Remembering what Ari had just told him, Lloyd gave a small wave to Jade and spoke, "Hi, I'm Drama's agent Lloyd, it's nice to meet you."
"Oh ya Lloyd, this is Jade, my sister." Eric spoke looking between the two of them.
Ari felt a quick kick in the leg from Lloyd as he looked at him with big eyes. In response Ari just locked eyes with him and glared at him.
After years of working for and with Ari, Lloyd knew that was the look to keep his mouth shut. So the rest of the night went by awkwardly, at least for all those who knew about what was going on, at least everyone but Vince, who seemed to be finding pleasure in both Ari and Jade's squirming.
"So Jade, do you still want me to take you car shopping tomorrow? Eric asked from his seat next to Jade.
"Oh ya, that would be great, LA is not really a great place to not a car. At least in New York we had the train." Jade spoke as she pushed the food around on her plate.
"Well you seem to be getting around fairly easily." Vince spoke smirking at Jade as he raised his drink to his lips.
"The company has been pretty good with sending a driver when I need to get somewhere." Jade spoke quickly and confidently. Ari smirked to himself at Jade's quick thinking when suddenly he felt his phone vibrate. Pulling out he looked down to see Eddie's number on the screen.
"Excuse me, I need to take this." Ari spoke as he made to stand up.
"We are just about done here, how about we meet you outside?" Vince spoke and Ari nodded as he answered his phone and made his way out of the restaurant.
"Ari, mind telling me why you're looking this girl up?" Eddie questioned. Ari stepped out into the warm night air before he answered, making sure no one was behind him and gave his ticket to the valet while he talked on the phone.
"Why you asking?" Replied Ari as he walked over to the side of the building.
"Well I would like to know, whether I should tell you everything or not."
"I'm paying you to tell me." Then realization his Ari that something was not right. "Why, what don't you want to tell me?"
"Well to start with your Ms. Jade Murphy is really Mrs. Jade Tennant." Eddie waited for Ari to say something, but he did not. "So judging by your response you didn't know that?"
"No I didn't know she was fucking married. Fuck!" Ari spoke pinching his bridge with his fingers on his free hand.
"Well if it means anything, she has a restraining order out against him and they were only married six months ago, but she hasn't filled for divorce. On a nicer note, you landed yourself a billionaire."
Ari quickly removed his hand from his face. "What?"
"Your girl, she's set for life. Between the shares she sold of her company she ran with her husband and a number of investments, she has more money then I've ever seen, and trust me Ari, I've seen a lot." Eddie paused again before continuing, giving Ari's brain a small rest. Ari looked towards the door as the group all came out of the restaurant laughing and smiling. "There is some police reports I haven't been able to get my hands on, but judging by the restraining order, you may not want to know anything about the police reports."
"Send what you got to my office, I gotta go." Ari spoke in a monotone voice, thinking back to the fact that he had just slept with a married woman only hours ago. Ending the call and while still holding his phone Ari approached the group.
Walking to stand right in front of Jade, he looked from his phone then down towards Jade. "You're married..." Ari spoke softly, it was more a statement then a question.
Jade looked at him with wide eyes, then out of the corner of her eye she saw Eric's fist come flying to connect with Ari's chin. "You son of a bitch!" Ari fell to the ground from the shock of the blow, and Jade quickly rushed down to make sure he was okay. Meanwhile Turtle and Drama held Eric back as he tried to get at Ari.
Vince quickly stepped in between everyone with his hands up. "E, calm down."
Eric quickly shook off Turtle and Drama and looked at Vince. "Calm down! I knew that fucker was up to something." Then Eric leaned around Vince to look at Jade, who was currently holding Ari's face in his hands. "And you! When were you going to tell me you were fucking married!" Eric yelled at Jade.
Jade let go of Ari and stood up to look at Eric. "Let me guess it was to the fucker Shawn! Was the sleaze not good enough for you, you had to come all the way across the country just to find another man to fuck!" Vince watched as Jade's eyes began to tear up. He stepped forward looking straight at Eric and blocking his view of his sister.
"He hit her E." Vince whispered. Eric settled down instantly and looked at Vince.
"What?" Eric whispered as moved to look at Jade but Vince stepped with him to keep her from his sight.
"That's why she came out here. He smacked her around a month ago." Vince wanting Eric to understand what was going on. Vince could hear Jade behind him, sniffling trying to hold in her tears.
"Jade..." Ari whispered as he stood up from the ground and wrapped his arms around Jade. That was all she needed however, as she broke down sobbing into Ari's suit jacket. The last thing she ever wanted to do was relive that moment.
"You knew?" Eric spoke looking at Vince.
"She didn't want me to tell you. Jade called me right after it happened, I sent your mom and mine to go help her pack right away. It was good timing she had just been offered a job out here. Either way she would have been out here with us." Vince spoke stepping forward and placing a hand on Eric's shoulder trying to get him to understand. "She didn't want you to know, she just wanted to move on."
Vince then moved out of the way so Eric could see Jade, who was being consoled by Ari. "Jade..." Eric began but Jade turned quickly and cut him off.
"No Eric, we are not talking about this right now!" Jade spoke sternly but slowly. Turning back to Ari she looked at him through her glassy eyes. "Can you please take me back to my hotel?"
Nodding Ari led Jade through the group and over to his car where he opened the door for her and helped her get in. Then he made his way over to the drivers side without looking at the group and got in his car and headed back to the hotel.
Once they arrived Ari helped Jade out of the car and walked her towards the entrance of the hotel but they did not enter. "Jade, I will call you in the morning okay, we can talk about all this..." Ari started to talk but Jade looked at him quickly and shook her head.
"Please, I don't want to be alone right now." Her eyes bore into his, and Ari knew that look, the look he had seen so many of his actress portray on set but never wanted to see in reality.
Ari leaned down and kissed Jade on the head, "Okay." He then told the valet to take his car and took Jade's arm and led her into the hotel. Once they were up in her room Ari helped Jade out of her dress and got her into her bed. "I'll be right back okay, I'm just gonna grab some ice." Ari spoke pointing to his cut lip. "For a little guy your brother sure has a mean punch."
Quickly Ari left the room and grabbed a dish towel full of ice from the kitchen then kicked off his shoes as he entered the bedroom. Ari sat himself on top of the covers and wrapped his left arm around Jade's shoulder and pulled her in close.
"How did you find out?" Jade spoke with a sniffle.
"I might have hired a private investigator." Ari quietly chuckled as he leaned his head to the side to sit atop Jade's and placed his ice pack to his lip.
Jade laughed lightly at Ari's words. "Did you think I was after your money?"
"I'm piss poor, I knew that way you were into me for my chiseled body." Ari spoke trying to lighten the mood. "Just something Vince had said to me got me curious."
"You know, I should be mad at you." Jade then pushed herself up to look at Ari. "What did Vince say to you?"
"He said that you had already been through too much, so I wasn't suppose to hurt you." Ari whispered sitting up slightly so he could use his free hand to push a strand of hair out of Jade's face and behind her ear. "You got a few protective brothers you know, hopefully the rest of them don't hit any harder."
Jade smiled and reached up to take hold of the ice pack from Ari. "Does it hurt bad?"
"Like a mother fucker." Ari spoke wincing in pain as he spoke, Jade placed the ice pack lightly back on the side of Ari's face. "I'm guessing you're not going to want to see E for a while, so how about I take tomorrow off and we go look for cars together. We can go have breakfast, but just so you know it's all on you Mrs. Money Bags." Ari laughed.
"So you found out about that too?" Jade whispered. She looked into his eyes with a smile.
