The Truth about My Success Read Online Free PDF Page A

eye blinking like a hazard light. “You want me to keep going? Bring the list up to date?”
    “I don’t think so,” Leone shakes her head. “No, I don’t think she’s into drugs. She’s just being a spoiled brat.”
    Spoiled brat is putting it mildly, if you ask Jack Silk. She’s as spoiled as a Chinese Emperor. It amazes him that Paloma isn’t dizzy all the time, considering how she thinks the entire world revolves around her.
    “At least that’s not putting a strain on her acting talent,” says Jack.
    Leone taps the spoon against her empty espresso cup. “It’s not that big a deal, Jack. It’s just a phase.”
    Just a phase. Jack sighs. He’s had three clients in the last five years who phased themselves into oblivion. He can’t afford to lose another one. Jack Silk was a very big deal yesterday; tomorrow he may be no deal at all.
    “Leone, have you replaced your brains with Styrofoam? Don’t you get it? The ratings are down. The sponsors are backing out the door. The network may not renew. Paloma doesn’t have the luxury of having a phase. By the time it’s over she’ll be a has-been.”
    “Oh, Jack, I thi—”
    “That’s the problem, Leone. You don’t think. If you’d told me what was going on, at least I could have done some damage control. I am Paloma’s agent, Leone. I do have a right to know.”
    “I just figured she was acting out because of what happened with what’s-his-name.”
    “Drachman.”
    “Yeah. Him. I figured she’d get over it.”
    “Well that’s worked well, hasn’t it?”
    Leone is trying to catch the waitress’s eye. “What do you have to do to get another coffee around here? Beat a bongo?” Any second and she’ll be snapping her fingers.
    Jack gives the girl a nod, indicating Leone’s empty cup. She gives him her nice smile. And Jack realizes that he isn’t the only one Leone’s annoying. The waitress has been deliberately ignoring Leone because of the crack about the clean cup. He smiles back.
    “You still haven’t answered my question. Why didn’t you tell me?”
    Taptaptap goes Leone’s spoon. “I told you. I didn’t want to worry you.”
    Jack resists the urge to slap the spoon out of her hand. “Naturally, I appreciate your concern for me and my mental anguish, Leone, but now that I do know what’s going on I’m very worried. If I were any more worried I’d probably have a stroke right on the spot.”
    “You see?” says Leone. “I knew you’d be like this.”
    “Well I’m glad I’m not disappointing you.”
    “It’s because you’re not a mother, Jack. If you were a mother you’d know this really isn’t a big deal. I told you, it’s a phase. All teenage girls go through it. It’s so they can separate.”
    God help them, Leone’s been watching daytime TV again. “Leone,” says Jack, “this is not an average teenage girl living in the suburbs we’re talking about here. This is our meal ticket. Yours and mine. We can’t afford to have a train wreck. Are you listening to me? Watch my lips, Leone. The ratings are down. The sponsors are nervous. The network’s debating another series. If you’d told me sooner we could have done something about it before it’s too late. But now I don’t know if we can.”
    “I’ve tried to keep her in the hou—”
    “But she doesn’t stay in the house, does she? What we could have done was send her to one of those brat camps. Make her come to her senses. But that takes a couple of months, and we don’t have a couple of months. The new season’s about to start.”
    “She’s just acting out Jack. I can control her. Trust me.”
    Trust Leone. Not even as far as he could throw her if she was sitting in her car.
    “Really? You can control her? And that’s why as soon as you left the house she ran off with some guy with a ring in his nose?”
    Leone is spared the effort of coming up with an excuse for today’s escapade by the arrival of the waitress with her coffee.
    The girl puts the