Chapter 128

Adam was still in a funk when they left the studio. He hadn't minded it when the girls had tied him up and had their way with him. It was sort of exciting in a way. But he didn't like feeling as though he had crossed a line he could never uncross.

"I wonder if this is how some of the other guys in this business turned out like they did?" he wondered aloud. "I mean, they got a taste of it and it created their sexual identity."

Allie, who was riding back with Adam, reached across and took his hand.

"Adam, it's pure psychology," she said. "Just like a girl will manufacture her self-image in part by breast development, guys rely on dick size. I knew guys when I was younger who would have 'Whip Out' contests. They would actually offer to whip out their dicks to be measured – but only if they thought they had the biggest. I'm not sure what happens in high school locker rooms but I can almost assure you that whatever fucked-up views on sex these guys have, it started well before they got here."

Adam shrugged slightly.

"I'm serious," Allie insisted. "Look, this ties right into what we talked about with Sean. From what I've heard, he falls right in the 'average' category. 'Average' is just another word for normal, you know. Part of the way he looks at the world has been skewed by knowing you."

Gee, what a way to make me feel better, Adam thought. Allie saw his expression and quickly rephrased her comment.

"Do you remember what we talked about, oh, maybe the first week we knew each other?" she asked. "You know, when Mike said his perception of himself was fucked up when he was younger?"

"Yeah," Adam admitted. He hadn't really given the conversation much thought with everything else going on.

"It's like that," Allie said. "You weren't around many boys your age growing up. You would have seen it for yourself. They would have deferred to you, first because you were probably taller and bigger. Once you hit puberty, they would have deferred to you for another reason. Tell me, how quickly did word get around your school about the size of your equipment?"

"Pretty quickly," Adam said. "Sandra told one of her friends the next day and by the day afterward, almost everyone knew, I guess. It was sort of embarrassing. I used to be as bad as everyone else. I'd see a girl and the first thing I'd check out was her butt or her boobs. Then all the girls started to glance at my dick whenever they'd walk by. Girls who hadn't said 10 words to me in eight years of school were suddenly friendly. I guess I got a perception of how a girl feels."

Allie chuckled. Most guys would have eaten up the attention.

"That's what I meant when I said you hadn't picked up bad habits," she answered. "That's what Sarah meant when she said you looked like the type of guy she avoided. If you had grown up any other way than you did, you might have turned out to be just like some of the others in this business. But you didn't. I get the impression that your Mom and Dad would have put a stop to you acting like you owned the world."

"Real fast," Adam said, a slight smile crossing his face.

"I really can't give you a sure answer about how it happens, but I can assure you it happens," Allie said. "Not all guys with big dongs are jerks. But it seems like the ones who made it out here sure are. I just don't see you slipping into that sort of mindset and I don't see us allowing it either."

There is always that, Adam admitted to himself.

"What did the reporter want?" Allie asked, changing the subject when she saw a small smile cross Adam's lips.

Adam filled her in on what he'd learned.

"She got the information from you," he said. "The 'Chronicle' and 'Peaches' are owned by the same corporation."

"No kidding?" Allie asked.

"Yeah, I had to walk her through it, though," Adam said, shaking his head. "She just took the obvious and ran with it. She didn't do any work on it or try to really understand what she was looking at. It was frustrating."

"What else are they going to write?"

"It's no big surprise," Adam said. "They are going to focus on irrelevant things. They are delving into the past instead of looking at the future. They'll cast the blame and we'll all come out looking like shit. Places like Daystar and Dazzle will wind up being linked with RapidFire and Trauma. Five Friends Casting will be viewed the same as Rival and Premiere. It's a lose-lose situation for all involved. The fact that the smaller houses put an end to the crap will be left out. In a month or so, the 'Chronicle' will write a follow-up piece detailing how the industry had taken action – and claiming it was all their doing."

"Maybe it could help someone," Allie pointed out. "It might be worth it. Hell, I'll take a few more shitty looks if it keeps this crap from happening again."

Allie's comment brought Adam back to what he'd been thinking before he arrived at the hotel Judy had selected for his shoot with Angel.

"The ones who stay away are the ones we could have helped," he said. "It's the smarter women who will take a step back and think twice about coming here. First off, the smarter ones are the ones who will look for information like this. The average person we meet in this business isn't very bright. No offence, but look at Angel. She seems like a pretty nice person, I guess. But I don't see her going on to med school or becoming a Nobel laureate."

"No," Allie admitted. "But I don't see me doing those things either."

"But you could," Adam insisted. "Look at the GED. You aced that sucker without even studying much. Just with what you retained from school and with what you took an hour to look over, you scored 94 percent. Allie, I did a pre-test just like everyone else. I scored 86. Sean scored 89. The only person who scored higher than you did on anything similar was Rebecca and I'm pretty sure she is a freakin' genius."

"You did?" Allie asked. "I mean, you all took the test, too?"

"Sure we did," Adam said. "We had to know what areas we were qualified to help you with if it turned out you needed help. You scored higher than me in every single area. You did the same to Sean. I don't know about the individual areas for the rest of them because Sean and I took ours at the same time and we compared them. We also compared them to your actual scores when you got them. I should have mentioned this but I figured everyone had already told you."

"Well, I mean, the rest of them told me that they had done the sample test and what they scored," Allie told him. "I mean the ones we live with. Sean, Rachelle, Mary and Walt did, too? I mean, Mary is a freakin' genius, too. I figured she would nail it perfectly."

"Mary is very smart in the area she is studying," Adam pointed out. "In general knowledge and retention of that knowledge, she is somewhat average. Walt is the same way. The math and science section he killed. I mean an almost perfect score in both. On English and social studies, he was in the 70s. The writing section? Forget it. He would have had to retake that portion later. But it was everyone, Cutie. Tyanna, Jason, Cameron, Leslie, Meredith and Katey took it, too. You had the best score of any of us except for Rebecca."

"Oh," Allie said, her cheeks reddening. She was proud of the fact but she didn't want to show it. It didn't seem right to her.

"Oh," Adam echoed with a smile. "Besides the fact that you were smart enough to get out of that situation as soon as you could."

"I got out when you gave me the chance," Allie said.

"No," Adam replied, shaking his head. "You were already fighting it. You had already told Sven to stop trying. Sure, you might have eventually given in to pressure. But it is just as true that you might not have. You forget that it was Sarah who got you moving in a different direction. It was Sarah who gave you a look at the other side of the coin. It wasn't me. And, sadly, Sarah might have been facing the same decisions two months later that you faced when you met. People like you and Sarah took a look at the situation and saw something you didn't like and helped to change it. You're the same type of people who will take one look at the 'Chronicles' view of things and stay with what you were doing. I'm convinced of that."

"Maybe," Allie said. "It would depend on the money as much as anything. It's changing, little by little, I think, but the most important factor considered when a girl enters this job is how much it pays. Sure, some get into it for the kick or the kink or to get back at their parents, but most of the time it is because this is what they have to do to support themselves."

"And the 'Chronicle' story won't change that," Adam said. "There are always going to be people like me who turn to this life because it represents the best way to get money. I guess I sort of forgot that."

"Besides, it won't change how we do things," Allie continued. "The publicity might slow us down but it won't stop us. Even if we stop where we are, we're still in good shape to prove to the industry that there is money to be made by doing things the right way."

And that was, after all, the major goal of the group.

Adam and Allie arrived to find Celina parked in front of the house. She had upgraded her wheels, Adam noted with a chuckle.

"That's the kind of car I'm getting," Allie said firmly. Celina stuck with the brand she used to drive but had changed the model to a sporty Miata convertible.

"Allie," Adam began.

"I'll wait until the parking situation is resolved," she said, interrupting him, although that wasn't what he started to say.

"Uh, that's probably a good plan, too," Adam said. "But it wasn't what I was thinking. I was thinking that you have said you were getting a Mini Cooper like Leslie, a Navigator like Rebecca and a Mustang. Do you plan to get all four?"

"Maybe," Allie said, sticking her tongue out as Adam parked. "I plan to invest in automobiles. Besides, if you had any sense, you'd get rid of this beast and buy something cool."

Adam was still driving an almost 11-year-old Buick with more than 200,000 miles on it.

"It's paid for," he said simply.

"Of course it is," Allie joked, "and if you took a note on a car this old, I want to own that bank. I could stop that silly practice and make a boatload of cash."

"I worked hard to buy this car," he protested. "I found it wrecked and worked my butt off to fix it up. It means more to me than something I could buy."

Allie rolled her eyes and pulled a year-old French fry from beneath the seat.

"Yeah, I can see you treat it like a treasure," she laughed.

"Besides, we can fit five in here," Adam continued. "If you get a sports car – like everyone else seems intent upon doing – we'll need a car to go places."

"Subarctic gets Rebecca's Navigator when we buy Looker Lass," Allie said.

"I'm still not convinced we should do that," Adam pointed out.

"Oh, get over it," Karlie said. She had walked up to meet them from where she and Shelly had parked down the block. "It's a good deal for everyone. Besides, it shows Rebecca's commitment to us, not just to Subarctic."

"The offer shows me that," Adam said with a shrug. "We don't need to follow through if we think it doesn't make sense for all of us."

"It makes sense," Shelly put in. "How doesn't it? We bought this house to have an unencumbered asset. Buying out Rebecca gives us even more assets. And the property is going to rise in value. Las Vegas is booming, just like Los Angeles. Plus it gives us a place to shoot features. The backyard up there is perfect for things we need location shoots for. Not to mention that it has like a thousand bedrooms or something."

"Thirteen," Karlie said with a giggle. "We're going to check to make sure but I'm almost positive that at least half of them can be used for shoots. We can rent it out for that purpose if nothing else. I don't see how it could be a bad idea for us to bring her into Subarctic and gain something we can use in the process. You brought me in and gained nothing."

"Really?" Adam said, putting his arm around Karlie's shoulders. "I'll tell you what we gained. We gained your ideas and your hard work and more loyalty than 10 people could have brought."

"You already had that," Karlie pointed out.

"And we rewarded you for it," Adam rejoined.

"Like we should reward Rebecca for what she brings," Allie said.

"And we should reward Leslie, Meredith, Jason, Tyanna, Katey, Cameron and Timm?" Adam asked.

"No," Shelly said. "In that respect, this is a simple business transaction. They have nothing except skill to offer. They are being compensated for their skills. Meredith and Leslie live in a place they could never afford. Katey is being offered the chance to pick and choose where she works and with whom. Jason, Tyanna, Cameron and Timm are offered prime spots in a business where they would probably have had a difficult time finding work. They're happy with that."