A/N: I did it! I had hoped that I would be able to edit and post this chapter today. :) Thank you again for your overwhelming support! XO
I hope you guys like this chapter, it's one of my favourites.
Disclaimer: I do not own BTR or any of its characters and/or references.
Katie and James reached her office, relatively unscathed. James had almost run over a pedestrian because he was too busy looking at himself in the mirror. Katie tried to keep a fair distance between the two, to amplify her annoyance with him. As she opened the door to the receptionist area, she spotted Mags answering the phone and smiled.
"Knight Management, please hold." Mags pushed down the hold button. "What are you doing here? I thought you said you wouldn't be in, today?"
Before Katie could answer, James sidled up to Mags' desk and plastered on his charming smile. "Well, hello. I'm James Diamond."
"James, if you want me to be your manager, you're going to have to stop trying to get in my assistant's pants." Katie growled, as she unlocked her office door. "Besides, Mags is married."
"Shame, really. You and I could have made beautiful babies together." He continued, disregarding Katie's warning about his flirtatious nature.
"James!" Katie growled, even more ferociously, from inside her office.
"Coming!" James scampered in, after Katie, afraid of her temper. "Whoa, great office, Katie," he stated, as he looked around her office. She had a few promotional posters up of her client's films, including a couple of Russell Brand's films. "You know," James smiled cheekily, "I am going to look great on your walls."
"Don't be so modest, James." Katie said sarcastically, as she looked for the contract.
Magdalene approached the door, and grabbed the knob, fully intending to close it for privacy. Before she did, she pointed to James' back, who was currently looking out of the window, and mouthed to Katie, 'So hot!' and fanned herself with her hand. Katie rolled her eyes, as she went back to scrolling through her documents. Mags continued to silently communicate with Katie by looking pointedly between Katie and James and smiling. Katie mouthed back, 'no,' before making shooing motions with her hands. Mags mouthed, 'go for it,' and closed the door. Katie shook her head at her assistant's antics. After breaking up with Michael, Mags continuously tried to set Katie up with her husband's co-workers, insisting that Katie needed to get out more, if not to find her soulmate, then at least to release her pent-up, sexual frustration.
After finding the correct folder, Katie glanced up at James. "Now, are you really sure you want to do this?"
"Yep, where do I sign?" James eagerly exclaimed as he sat down across from her and reached for a pen.
"Don't you want to talk to your lawyer and agent first?" Katie asked, skeptically as the printer behind her started to whir to life.
"Katie, I think I can trust you to have a fully legitimate contract, without me having to worry about anything. If I can't trust you, who can I trust in this town? And Chris, that's my agent, has no say in whom I hire as a manager. Now will you pass over the papers."
Katie sighed and reluctantly handed over the contract. "Okay, so as your manager, I am entitled to ten percent of your earnings. I must be consulted before you agree to any movie deals or any contractual agreement you have with your musical production company or any other company thereof and," Katie paused dramatically, "you cannot sleep with any of my female employees or clients."
"So, does that mean I can sleep with you?" James wondered aloud, sincerely curious about the answer and not paying attention to what he was insinuating.
"No, James. That does not mean you can sleep with me," said Katie, and narrowed her eyes at him, hoping that he could tell how much of a horn-dog she thought he was. James promptly looked down, and quickly signed and dated the contract before handing it back to Katie.
He broke into smile. "There. You are now my manager." He looked around the room, "Now if you excuse me, I have to use the loo." He pleasantly made his way into Katie's private washroom, completely unaware of Katie's self-musings about what she had gotten herself into.
Katie was about to put the contract away when Mags paged her. "Ms. Knight? Tony and Daniella are here to see you." Katie frowned at the news. Tony and Daniella were a photography duo that Katie had worked numerous shoots with, when she still modelled.
"Was I expecting them?"
"No, but they say that it's an emergency."
"Let them in." Katie agreed. Tony and Daniella had gifted Katie with a few dozen promotional ads, when she started her agency. Katie stood up and smoothed out her shirt.
The door to her office burst open. "Kate, darling−oh my, what are you wearing?" Tony exclaimed as he bent over and kissed Katie on both cheeks.
"Have you been letting yourself go?" Daniella added, as she too embraced Katie.
"No, it's..." Katie trailed off. "It's casual Friday."
"It's only Tuesday, darling." Tony waved his hand and said, "Never mind, let's get down to business," as he and Daniella took at seat. As much as they were all about flare and fashion, the duo had always been very direct about business, something that Katie appreciated.
Daniella cleared her throat, before speaking, "We need your help, Button. We seemed to have run ourselves straight into a wall, and we had nowhere to turn. 'Cuda Cosmetics has asked us to shoot for their new female fragrance, 'Electric Eel,' but our model, Elisha, came down with the chicken pox!" Katie noticed Tony mouthing, 'chicken pox,' in complete horror.
"We were hoping, Button, that you would fill in for her." Daniella continued. "Tony and I think that you would be the perfect representative for this perfume."
Katie was shocked at the request. "But I'm retired. I manage talents now, you guys know this. And anyway, I don't think that 'Cuda would let you pick their models for them."
"Yes, but darling, you would be perfect. We've already shown 'Cuda some of your older shots, and they completely approve." Tony and Daniella smiled hopefully.
Katie sighed, knowing that she was going to regret her decision, but she was in gratitude for what they had done for her in the past. "Alright, fine. I'll do it. But, this is the last time."
James suddenly returned from the restroom, "Hey, did you know your soaps smell like rainforest, strawberries and cotton candy? I spent like ten minutes, just standing there, sniffing them."
"Daniella, look! It's James Diamond." Tony yelped, as he rushed forward to grab James' hand. "Mr. Diamond, it is an honour to meet you. You have amazing bone-structure, look at those cheekbones."
James looked awkward, as he shook Tony's hand. "Thank you?" He looked at Katie quizzically, as she bit her tongue to keep from laughing.
"Kate, how do you know James? What was he doing in your bathroom?" Daniella questioned Katie, rather excitedly. "Have you two been...,"
Katie's eyes widened and hastily answered, "Oh, no! Absolutely not. No way." She shook her head emphatically at what Daniella was implying. "James is just a friend. He stopped by to say hello."
"Goodness, Daniella, I just had the perfect thought." Tony gasped, all the while, poking and prodding at James. "What if James were to be the face of 'Cuda's cologne, 'Shockwave Shark?'"
"What?" Katie cried.
"Did you just say, 'face of 'Cuda?'" James inquired.
"That's perfect, Tony!" Daniella replied at the same time that Katie and James spoke. "Oh gracious. What if we teamed 'Shockwave Shark' and 'Electric Eel' together and campaigned it as his and hers fragrances? Quick, get Marshall on the phone."
Tony nodded frantically and scrambled out the door to make a phone call to the cosmetics company.
Daniella turned back to the two speechless bodies in front of her. "Oh, and we can do the shoot right here. I love that idea you have, Kate−sexual relations in the office," referring to her belief that James and Katie were more than friends. "It's completely scandalous. All we have to do is pull the blinds to cover the windows, natural light just won't do in this situation." Daniella shook her head as she studied the office.
"Stop! Just, stop." Katie screamed, holding up her hands. Daniella refocused her attention on Katie, while James sat down on her couch. "It was one thing to get me to model for you, but now you want me to represent the fragrance in a dual campaign, with James? I can't do it. I mean," Katie pointed at James in desperation, "he's not even a model."
James continued to sit on the couch, bemused at Katie's frustration.
"Oh, Button, that's nothing we can't handle. He is already a singer and an actor. The next step for him is to endorse a 'Cuda Cosmetics product. All we have to do is get his team on board." Daniella turned to James, "James, sweetheart, who is your manager?"
James' smile grew impossibly larger. "You're standing in front of her." Katie could have slapped him at that moment. James, once again, sensed Katie's impending fury, jumped up and cried, "Katie, can I talk to you for a sec?" and pulled Katie into the washroom and locked the door.
Katie wrestled out of his grip. "What, James?"
"Katie, before you do anything drastic, like say, refusing to let me do this. You do remember that I've always wanted to be the face of 'Cuda. This is my one chance to fulfil that dream, I get to finally endorse a product for 'Cuda Cosmetics, and not for their senior line." James stated, referring to the first modelling job that Katie booked for him.
Katie turned around and banged her head against the door. "I've only been your manager for twenty minutes, and you're already making me regret every second of it."
"So you'll let me do it?" James asked, hopefully.
Still leaning her forehead against the door, Katie held up a finger, "On one condition, you have to remain professional during the whole shoot."
"Hey, when I'm working, I am the king of professionalism," James huffed, and for good measured added, "and there's a rumour that I might get an Academy Award for Best Actor this year."
Katie turned around to face him. "You haven't even been nominated."
"Yet." James pointed out before clapping his hands together, "Come on, Katie. Please? I've done plenty of shoots before." Katie knew that he was referring to the various magazine photo-shoots had done for BTR and for his solo career.
Katie groaned before opening the door. "Come on."
Tony and Daniella were talking animatedly, while pointing to various areas of Katie's office. Katie assumed that Daniella had told Tony what she had envisioned for the ad. Once spotted, Tony broke out in a huge grin. "Good news, darling, the company thinks that it is a fantastic idea to have James come on board. They've seen Blank Paper, and they think that it would be perfect timing to promote 'Cuda and James, together. They were worried, at first, about the possible lower projections they would have for 'Electric Eel.' I convinced them that featuring you, a relative nobody, would be more incentive for females to buy their product. Our story states that it's possible for anyone who wears the perfume will be able to catch the attention of James Diamond."
"Gee, thanks." Tony shrugged apologetically at Katie's apparent offence at being termed, 'a nobody.'
"So, Button? Are we all set to go here?" Daniella asked.
Katie took a breath before answering, "Yes."
Cheers came from the three other occupants in the room. "Excellent. Kate, darling, we'll be by to do the shoot tomorrow. We'll bring all the paperwork that need to be signed, as well. Say, ten, tomorrow morning? Great." Tony answered his own question, entering the information into his phone calendar.
"What, so soon?" Katie asked.
"We told you, Button, this was an emergency." Daniella replied, as she walked out of Katie's office.
"Ciao, darling. Good-bye James." Tony blew them air kisses as he followed after Daniella.
When the door closed behind them, James spun Katie around and lifted her off her feet, in a hug. "Thank you, thank you, thank you, Katie."
Katie returned the hug. "Don't mention it." James set her on the ground. "Besides, it's kind of my job now to help you keep your house and your cars now, isn't it?"
"And you're doing perfectly, so far." Katie smiled at James' enthusiasm. She glanced a look at her wall clock.
"Oh, we should meet up with the guys." Katie walked to her filing cabinet to ruffle through the various film scripts that she had put away; she needed to find her extra copy of the script, for the role she wanted Carlos to take a look at. She held the script to her chest once she found it. She went to grab her bag and smiled up at James, "Let's go."
A/N: Well I hope you guys liked it! I also hope it played off well, sometimes, things are funnier in my head, then they actually are...
Like always, would really love to hear your opinions on HM. -D