A Love of My Own Read Online Free PDF Page B

issues have come up.”
    â€œHas the movie been moved back?” I asked.
    â€œNo,” Lena said quickly.
    â€œThen what’s the problem?”
    â€œI wish I could talk to you in person, but here goes: Yancey B. just got a wonderful opportunity,” Lena said.
    â€œA wonderful opportunity? What are you talking about?”
    â€œ
Vanity Fair
wants to put her on the cover. She’d be the first African American woman to grace the cover solo. Also, Donatella Versace is designing several gowns just for Yancey B. Isn’t that just fab?”
    â€œWhat does that have to do with our shoot?”
    â€œThey want to do it for September and to have an exclusive for thirty days after the issue hits the stand.”
    â€œAn exclusive?” I said, laughing in my best diva voice. “We already have an exclusive, remember?”
    â€œYeah, but I was hoping you’d reconsider and let us move forward with
Vanity Fair,”
Lena said.
    I started to feel warm as I looked around my office for something to focus on. I had to get myself together quickly before I lost my temper. I knew this woman wasn’t calling me at the last minute to tell me she’d already secured another deal for her client.
    â€œLena, why would I want to move my cover back? It doesn’t make sense. I thought you turned those other magazines down before you chose
Bling
. We have a deal,” I said.
    â€œI know, Zola, but this is big and I have to look out for what’s best for my client, and being on the cover of
Vanity Fair
is something Yancey B. has dreamed of all her life. I’m sorry, Zola. We can still do the shoot, but publication will have to wait until at least thirty days after the
Vanity Fair
cover is off the stands.”
    â€œWoman, have you lost your mind? Do you know how much work we’ve put in to pull off this shoot? How dare you call me at this late date and ask me to do this. The answer is no. Hell no. We will move ahead according to plan,” I said firmly. I was willing to bet that Lena wasn’t telling the entire story. I was certain there were a few little trinkets lined up for both Yancey B.
and
Lena. Probably a few Donatella Versace originals, and other perks, had made them change their minds about doing the
Bling
shoot.
    â€œSo you’re going to play hardball, Zola?”
    â€œCall it what you want, but I’ll see you in the morning.”
    â€œI don’t think you should expect us.”
    â€œWhat?!”
    â€œIf you don’t agree to my terms, Yancey won’t be there. You’ll have to find someone else for your cover,” she said.
    â€œI tell you what . . . don’t show up. I’m sure we can find a nice stock photo of your client. I bet there are lots of not-so-flattering pictures out there of her, and I’ll run one on the cover. So, Lena, don’t play with me. I’m the wrong one,” I said.
    â€œYou wouldn’t do that.”
    â€œWouldn’t I? Try me. Matter of fact, rather than the glowing story we were going to run, I’m going to take another angle.”
    â€œAnother angle?”
    â€œOh, yeah. I know a little more than you think about your client. We’ve done our homework, and there’s lots of interesting information floating around about Yancey B. Maybe I’ll have LaVonya the gossip columnist write the story instead of Kirsten Dawson. You can’t stop us from running the cover, nor do you have a say on what writer we assign if you break the original agreement.”
    â€œCan’t we work something out?”
    â€œWe’ve already worked something out. Deal with it,” I said, and slammed down the phone.

2
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    On a lovely June morning, I stepped into a dream office on the forty-sixth floor of a Times Square high-rise, and it belonged to me. The office building housed several record companies and a large publishing company. Davis leased two floors for the staff