Chapter 35

We needed the rest of the weekend to recover from the Fourth of July activities. The sexual olympics had lasted well into the morning of July 5. I still don’t understand how Juliet had managed to coax a sixth load of cum out of me before I finally cried uncle. It had been an unbridled, insane night of debauchery, but there had also been a deep intimacy to it. We had already developed close bonds with these closest of friends. But that party seemed to push us past a point of no return. We would only grow even closer in time.

But when Monday morning came, we were thrown right back into reality and the drama of Daydream. Maybe the penultimate step surprised us a bit with how quickly it came, though the timing didn’t matter. We were ready.

“Kayla called,” Jess told me as I passed her a steaming hot mug of coffee. “She said she needs to meet right away.”

“Here we go,” I said.

“That was quick,” Kat noted.

“Better to not draw it out,” Rita added.

“They have no idea what they’re getting into,” Katie said. I smiled at her. She had fully become part of us. It was already hard to remember what it was like before she joined our group.

“Do you want me to go with you?” I offered.

“No,” Jess said. “I want to do this on my own. But I’ve thought about it a lot. If I do this alone, Manny will think he’s in control of the situation.”

“You’ve got this, girl,” Kat said reassuringly.

“You do,” Rita said. “We’re so proud of you.”

“I feel a little stupid,” Jess said. “Like I got caught off-guard and almost blew this.”

“You’re fine, sweetheart,” I said. “Sometimes things don’t go as planned. Sometimes we lose a little control.”

“But nobody can mess with all of us,” Katie said adamantly.

Jess smiled. She was in yoga pants and a sports bra. She had pulled her hair into a ponytail, which bobbed through the back of a baseball cap. It was a cute, non-threatening look – a good way to catch Kayla and Manny in the buzzsaw they didn’t know was coming.

“Are you sure you don’t want me to go with you?” I reiterated.

“Positive,” Jess said. “You know it’s safe.”

I simply nodded, and embraced her.

“I love you,” I whispered to her, and she gave me a quick peck on the lips.

The same scene played over three more times, once each with Kat, Rita, and Katie. And then she was gone. I heard the throaty rumble of Jess’s BMW convertible come to life in the driveway, and we all sat down nervously at the kitchen table. We got back to feeding the kids breakfast and making small talk.

Everything would be okay. I hoped.

Tom Petty was right. The waiting is the hardest part. I had a knot in my stomach. One hour stretched into two. I had expected it would take that long. But then it stretched into three, and I got nervous. Jess finally returned home almost four hours later. We would have eaten lunch but were too nervous. I had opened a good white wine to help ease our tension, and we all jumped up when we heard the front door click open.

“Hey,” Jess said, her voice heavy and tired.

“How did it go?” Rita asked.

“We’ll see,” Jess said, setting down her purse and throwing up her hands.

“What do you mean?” Katie asked.

“Kayla said she needed a day to talk it over with Manny,” Jess said.

“That’s a good sign, right?” Kat said hopefully. “She didn’t say no flat-out.”

“No, she didn’t,” Jess said. “But it took some convincing. Manny is adamantly opposed. Of course.”

“Right,” I said. “We knew he would be.”

I poured Jess a glass, which she gratefully accepted, and we made ourselves comfortable in the living room to hear the play-by-play. Part three of Rita’s plan was, in some ways, the most challenging. We needed to drive a wedge between Kayla and Manny. They had been a couple for so long and made a name for themselves in the industry as a pair, although if you asked anyone in porn either of them would have been a star no matter what. Jess had been the most confident in this piece of the puzzle. She felt a natural affinity for Kayla. She sensed Kayla was as driven for success and, despite her dominant, alpha husband, possessed a natural independence that fired that desire to succeed.

While Kayla and Manny had demanded the meeting – and Jess said it was clear Manny tried to set the tone and direct the discussion when she arrived – Jess immediately wrested control from the arrogant pornstar.

“Manny said they weren’t happy with Daydream because they didn’t think it was sustainable for the long-term,” Jess explained.

Kat let out a sarcastic laugh when she heard that.

“And, Katie, your suggestion worked like a charm,” Jess said, smiling at her. “I totally disarmed him. I said just what we rehearsed. I said I agreed that Daydream needed something more. That it had gotten bigger and more successful faster than I ever imagined. And, as a result, I had concluded that I needed help in managing it.”

“Yes! Go Jess!” Rita said, clapping.

“He really didn’t know how to react,” Jess continued, “but Kayla was super cool, like stone-faced. I could tell there was something expectant in her, though.”

At that point, Jess confided, she thought things might go perfectly to script, that the meeting might wrap up quickly. But that wasn’t the case. Of course it wasn’t. It was never going to be. Because Manny wasn’t going to get what he wanted. He wasn’t going to get shit. And that’s why this part of the plan was such a big gamble.

“So I made Kayla the offer,” Jess said. “Oh my god, you should have seen her face light up when I told her I wanted to give her ten-percent equity in Daydream immediately, an extra year on her contract, and would increase the ownership stake each year up to a maximum of twenty-five percent in year four.”

“What did she say?” Kat asked, scooting to the edge of the couch cushion.

“She didn’t say anything at first,” Jess said. “But her eyes told me a lot. There was so much excitement in them. I really can read Kayla. She and I are so alike in so many ways.”

“And?” Rita asked.

“Manny answered for her,” Jess said flatly, her voice taking on a sour note. “He said without hesitation that it wasn’t enough.”

“And then he asked about his stake, right?” I said.

Jess laughed and said, “How did you know?”

I just smiled at her.

“So, yeah, um, that’s where it got a little awkward and heated,” Jess said. “I have to admit it. I really was scared there for a little bit. I thought about caving. You know how I can run from confrontation sometimes. And I knew – I just knew – this was coming. That Manny would blow up.”

“Tell us!” Katie said anxiously.

“Well, I mean, I just said it,” Jess explained. “I told Manny that this offer was for Kayla. And only for Kayla. And that the offer was contingent upon Daydream going a different direction with its male talent, and it wouldn’t include him as part of the team.”

The air fizzled out of the room. She had done it. Pride for Jess bubbled up in my chest. She eschewed confrontation. I knew how much Daydream meant to her simply by hearing that she had made the offer and told Kayla that Manny was out.

“Kayla was confused at first, I could tell,” Jess continued. “And Manny just erupted. He said the company couldn’t exist without him. He said they would take the other girls with them, and that would be the end of it. He was loud, but he never got in my face. I had made sure I sat opposite him, across the table – thank you for that tip, John. And he told Kayla they were leaving.”

“So what took so long then?” Kat asked.

“That’s when Kayla told Manny to calm down and go,” Jess said. “That she would talk to me, that it would all be okay.”

“Wait, so he just left?” I asked, dumbfounded.

“He just left,” Jess said. “I don’t think he knew how to handle it, that I had stood up to him. So he left.”

For the next three hours, Jess and Kayla had a long, detailed conversation. It was obvious Kayla was intrigued. Daydream had more financial backing and stability than her own company ever had. There was a genuine opportunity for Kayla to build something lasting, to help steer it to the top of the adult industry. But, as anticipated, Kayla had a difficult time imagining working without Manny. She had only made a handful of movies at the start of her career before they met. So the rest of their discussion became something of a therapy session. Jess listened a lot. She tried to seem as dispassionate as possible, but she also deftly and subtly steered Kayla toward her way of thinking.

It was a tense, lengthy discussion. Kayla was so conflicted, they covered the same topics multiple times. And, near the end of it, Kayla seemed to have made up her mind. She couldn’t do it. Sure, she and Manny had problems – a lot of problems, more problems than any of us had known. But she spilled them to Jess, seeming relieved to have talked about them out loud. But they had fifteen years together. She couldn’t give that up, even if it meant risking the platform that could give her the crowning achievement of her career, the achievement she had never even dreamed of when she first got into porn.

“I’m grateful for Daydream,” Kayla had told Jess. “But I’ve always been very independent. It might be harder, but I can go out on my own and do it. I think you’ve given me a higher profile platform again, and I’ll always appreciate that.”

“But do you really want to start from scratch?” Jess pressed. “You’d have to take investors. You’d have to recruit talent.”

“I’m sure Kim and Ginger will come with me, you should know that,” Kayla said.

And that’s when the conversation ended abruptly. Jess played one of her aces.

“No, they won’t,” she said flatly, and it elicited a look of total shock from Kayla.

“Of course they will,” Kayla said, arrogance creeping into her voice.

“Only if they want to walk away from their new contracts,” Jess said.

She proceeded to detail the new compensation. The extended duration. Then she played another ace, something she had held back from Kim and Ginger for the time being in case they showed any inclination to defect back to Kayla, if Kayla decided to leave. Jess was implementing an Infinity-like bonus system for Daydream. She would pay out extra compensation to all the talent after each movie. The better the movie did, the bigger the bonuses. So it wasn’t just the generous contracts. There was potentially more. A lot more. With no vesting period. That kind of immediate cash-flow potential was awfully hard to say no to.

“They’re not going to go with you, Kayla,” Jess said. “And it’s okay. Because I don’t want you to go anywhere, either. I have big plans for us.”

The air in the Daydream office had become thick and stagnant. Kayla didn’t speak for what felt like an eternity. And then Jess told us what her final words had been.

“Can I think about it overnight?” Kayla said.

That’s where it stood.

“She’s totally saying yes,” Kat said confidently.

“You were brilliant, Jess!” Rita cried.

“Oh, my god,” Katie said, shaking out her hands. “I’m getting chills! You were so good!”

Jess smiled and blushed. She had been brave. She got out of her comfort zone.

“Well, I think we should celebrate,” I said.

“We have to tell Juliet and Melanie!” Kat said.

“What about an early dinner?” Rita said. “Kat and I were thinking about taking the kids for a long walk. We can go after that.”

I glanced at my watch. It was nearly 3 p.m.

“I love it,” Kat and Katie said simultaneously.

“Let’s do it,” I said. “We can pick a place during the walk.”

Jess looked spent.

“I think I’m going to stay back,” she said. “I could really use a shower. That was really draining.”

“Stay!” Rita insisted.

“I’ll text Juliet,” Kat said. “We can make a plan, and you just rest, Jess!”