He was pathetic Lucky decided. One hundred percent pathetic. He rubbed the bridge of his nose as he waited to be connected to the manager of his latest signed artist. This was going to be hell and he was probably going to have to pay dearly for it, but damn it this was going to happen.
"Mr. Spencer. To what do I owe the pleasure?" The booming voice of Jonathan Grief filled Lucky's ear. Lucky rolled his eyes at the false confidence being projected. Grief was good, but he was too new. Getting Daphne Vega a record deal with L&B records was the most success he had to date. Lucky could eat him for lunch in a deal negotiation no problem.
"Listen Grief, I know we arranged for Daphne to appear at Pink Elephant with me tomorrow night, but we'll have to reschedule. Something's come up."
"Reschedule? Mr. Spencer, this appearance is crucial to the publicity for her debut album. Without the proper exposure, my client stands..."
Lucky interrupted him briskly. This was not going to take all night. "I understand the value of publicity, Grief. I'm the one who came up with this plan. And I stand to lose more money than you if her album flops." Satisfied with the ensuing silence, he continued, "Now I have no problem rescheduling for next week, but if that's a problem for Daphne we can always just push back the release date of the CD." He let the threat out slowly. He didn't want to go to that point. Daphne was a sweet kid. The CD was hot and should be yet another hit for L&B, but this wannabe who watched too much Entourage was not going to screw this up for him.
"No, no. We can reschedule. It's not a problem." Lucky smirked as the other man backpedaled. Just like clockwork.
"Thank you for being so agreeable. I'll have my secretary get back with you tomorrow to finalize details." Lucky flipped his cell phone shut, not bothering with a goodbye. Sometimes it was good to be the one with power.
Tossing the cell phone onto his coffee table, he sunk down into the couch. He felt like an ass. Daphne was actually very sweet and did not deserve that threat being leveled at her. There was no doubt in Lucky's mind Grief would repeat it to his client. He would have to talk to her soon and explain the situation, smooth the waters over before she freaked.
It was a foolproof publicity scam that he had run countless times before. Lucky and Ned were well aware of the media attention Lucky generated. He was the youngest vice president in the industry currently and it was no secret that Ned planned on naming him the next president of L&B records. Even though he had only recently turned twenty-five, Lucky had actually worked at L&B for ten years. He had worked his way up from the mail room, to the recording booth, and now into the vice-presidency as Head of the Artists and Development department. Lucky had inherited his father's ear for good music and his passion for only listening to the best. The clients Lucky had signed had become critical darlings, award winners, and chart toppers.
Ned had been a godsend in offering a full time job to Lucky when he learned that Cameron was on the way. And he had bent over backwards in letting Lucky create whatever type of schedule he wanted when he became a single parent. Without Ned's support, he wasn't quite sure how he would have managed to support Cameron. In return, Lucky worked his ass off. He didn't want anyone to say Ned had a made a mistake in even hiring him, much less promoting him so quickly. Lucky wanted to earn the respect of his peers and honor his mentor. So whenever he signed a new artist, Lucky took the promoting of each new client personally, never mind the full department he had to take care of that for him. He went to the right clubs with them. Took them to see the hottest shows. Was seen eating with them at the best restaurants in New York. He knew to show up exactly where the photographers were and made sure everyone heard the name of his newest find.
Of course it was the biggest load of bullshit every conceived. Lucky may enter those clubs, but he left soon after, making a beeline straight for Ned and Lois's New York apartment where Cameron was spending the night. Most of the time the new artists had a boyfriend, fiancée, or in some cases girlfriends at home who were annoyed at having to pretend they didn't exist while the first CD was being promoted. Cameron was the center of his world, but he never mentioned his son. Lucky wanted Cameron to live as normal a life as possible. There was no way Lucky wanted to raise the male version of Paris Hilton. He had met far too many children of celebrities and they scared him. There was no way he wanted that life for his son.
Daphne's CD had all the earmarks for success. He should be scheduling more outings with her, not cancelling. And he for sure should not be skipping a visit to the Pink Elephant for a place decidedly less flashy. Chuck E. Cheese's.
He covered his face in his hands and sighed. He was officially pathetic. Here he sat potentially screwing up the career of someone he actually liked for the possibility of seeing her again.
Elizabeth Webber. Miss Elizabeth. She had haunted his thoughts since he had first seen her. Lucky was embarrassed to admit he had spent way too many hours into figuring out where he stood the best chance to accidentally see her again. And when Cameron came home a few days ago, full of stories of seeing Miss Elizabeth at Chuck E. Cheese's, he felt like a slime ball for seeing his son's excitement as an opportunity to try to see her again.
Lucky had deciphered from Cameron's story that Elizabeth apparently worked at the restaurant. He had a location. It had been somewhat of a shock to discover dropping his name with the manager of a local Chuck E Cheese's could get him a general idea of when she worked the rest of the week. Actually that made him feel a bit like Emily Quartermaine to tell the truth. He knew she worked at least for part of Friday evening.
So here he sat, rescheduling a surefire plan to publicize a new artist to use his three-year-old to meet a beautiful woman again. "Pathetic. Fucking pathetic" he muttered to himself.
The unmistakable strain of The Rolling Stone's "Satisfaction" sounded from Lucky's phone. "Spencer." he answered with a sigh.
"Patrick's not there, is he?" Lucky strained to hear Cruz's voice. In the first place he was whispering. In the second, the unmistakable clatter of restaurant noise was almost deafening in the background.
"No he's not here. Why the hell are you whispering?" Lucky paused for a moment. "Satisfaction" was his general ring tone. Cruz had a specific one, "One Step Closer" by Linkin Park. "And why aren't you calling from your phone?"
"I didn't want him to know it was me if he was there." Cruz raised his voice to his normal level, but the background noise was still causing Lucky to strain to hear his friend. "I'm not using my phone, because I'm avoiding him right now."
"And that's because?"
"You know that job I guilted him to cover for me?" Cruz continued as if he had seen Lucky nod. "Well it was today and I don't think he's too happy with me right now."
"What was the job? Photographing his father?"
"Close."
"I'm not going to guess every person in the phone book, Cruz."
"The job was a shoot at Robin's bakery." Cruz got the sentence out quickly.
Lucky blinked. Surely his friend was not that stupid. Or suicidal. "Are you fucking insane?"
"I was desperate."
"Okay then desperate and insane!" Lucky started to pace his living room. "He's probably killed her by now. I'll have to go bail him out of jail!"
"You don't get bail for murder charges."
"Good thing, because once he gets out of jail he's coming after you."
"Look I know it was low. But I needed the best for that piece and I needed someone I could afford. Two completely different things. I tried to think of a way to tell, him but you know how he is about Robin. He'd never do it in a million years."
He had a point. "Okay you're right there but still man, couldn't you have just killed the piece?"
"How would that be fair to Robin? The piece was written, her business is one of the hottest ones in town right now, and she was so nice about it when I explained my other photographer flaked. It took forever to convince her that I wasn't going to do a scathing piece on her place, because of my friendship with Patrick. If I had cancelled the piece, I would never ever get her to agree to it again."
Lucky could appreciate the dilemma Cruz had been in. The war between Robin and Patrick had them both caught in the middle. Logan had treated her like an ass, but Patrick was family to them both. They had no argument with Robin, but she treated them both with suspicion due to their connection to Logan. It was a constant dance they had to do to maintain an unsteady peace to run their businesses.
"What do you need me to do?"
"If he calls you, just try to find out what he's up to. If he mentions he knows where I am, just page me 911. I'm not answering it, but I do have my pager with me."
"Paranoid much?"
"You met Patrick?"
"Hey man, I'm not the one who screwed him over tonight."
"Lucky, I drove you to Cameron's birth."
"You know one day that won't work anymore."
"I'm desperate. Just page me please. If I'm going to die tonight, I just want to call my mother and say goodbye."
"Fine. If he calls and is closing in on you, I'll page you."
"Thanks man. I owe you. Huge. My firstborn is named after you." Cruz hung up hurriedly.
Lucky sat down and shook his head. He was pathetic, but Cruz was insane.
"Lucas Rodriguez" Lucky shuddered. That poor child. He should start praying that Cruz's firstborn was a girl. No one deserved that name. If he ever had other children...
Like a bad flashback, he could see himself say something to Elizabeth the first time he had met her.
"Well yes but I understood Cameron to be an only child."
"Currently he is. But I do plan on having more children one day." He paused and looked directly at her. "Of course that is if I meet the right woman."
Holy hell had he actually said that to her? No wonder she hustled him out of her classroom like a first-class pervert! What the hell was he thinking? Lucky vaguely recalled his decision to act like Patrick and made a mental note to kick Patrick's ass at some point in the future. Some vague voice reminded him that Patrick hadn't actually told him to say that, but Lucky didn't really care. Surely at some point Patrick had made some such comment or he wouldn't have said something so incredibly stupid, right?
And he had thought just running into her at Chuck E Cheese's was going to be a good idea? She probably thought he was a creep. He was going to have to rethink this entirely.
"Daddy?" Cameron's sleep filled voice sounded from the stairs behind him. "Daddy?"
Lucky mentally shook himself to stop the pity party. He stood up and scooped Cameron off the steps. "What are you doing up Mister? Huh? It is way past your bedtime." He moved back to the couch, placing his son in his lap.
"Monster."
Closing his eyes, Lucky mentally cursed his father. Luke had decided the perfect bedtime stories for Cameron were his tales of fighting the Cassadines. Of course now his son had nightmares of vampires, ghosts, and monsters all of whom were named Helena. He had never fully appreciated more traditional bedtime stories before now. What the hell did his father have against "The Three Little Pigs"?
"The one in the closet or the one under the bed?"
"With my toys."
With his toys? That was a new one. Which way to go here? "Do we need to get the special Monster Be Gone spray?" It was an air freshener with a label Cruz had one of the artist on his staff create.
Cameron shook his head, curls bouncing everywhere. "No. Me stay with you."
Lucky sighed. It was one of THOSE monsters. Of course. "Well we'll fight in a little bit. You know we have to fight them Cameron. Can't let the monsters win."
"Monsters no win." Cameron shook his head determinedly. "Daddy?"
"Yeah buddy?"
"We go Cheese's tomorrow?"
Lucky was stuck. He couldn't disappoint Cameron. He couldn't very well go in there with his previous plan to impress Elizabeth. It wasn't going to work now that he remembered exactly how big of an ass he made of himself.
"Of course buddy. We're not going to skip a trip to Cheese's." It was going to be a long night. He needed to come up with Plan B and quick.