A Better Man - Book One
G. Younger
Prologue
Lexi
"We want to welcome Lexi Andon, David A. Dawson's personal assistant. Unfortunately, Mr. Dawson wasn't able to be here today, so we got the next best thing," Cassie Krieger of In The Know announced to her TV audience.
Lexi let a trace of irritation touch her eyes at the backhanded slam. Many people underestimated Lexi because she was young and good-looking. It was easy to make that mistake in Hollywood because everywhere you turned, there were beautiful men and women.
Reflecting on it, Lexi realized that people often forgot that Lexi's father was Paul Andon, an executive at one of the largest film companies in the world. They'd been responsible for the Star Academy movie franchise that David was currently starring in. Lexi wasn't a typical Hollywood kid who was off in their own world; she'd paid attention to the details of her father's work-but hardly anyone knew that about her.
Lexi had made up her mind not to use her dad's influence to make her career. Instead, as soon as she'd graduated high school, she'd set her eyes on one of the most promising young actors to hit Hollywood in recent years: David A. Dawson. Her plan was to leverage working for him into bigger and better opportunities.
"David sends his regrets. He is currently in New Zealand, wrapping up the filming of his most recent Star Academy movie," Lexi answered with her best smile.
"It sounds like David has been busy."
"Yes. Besides wrapping the next two Star Academy movies, he finished filming his part in the upcoming James Bond movie, Devil May Care. In that one, he plays James's son, Ian Bond," Lexi related.
"I think we have a clip," Cassie said.
"Yes, we do. This is the first time anything has been released to the public. Ian comes upon a terrorist attack in this segment," Lexi said to set up the scene for the audience.
The video switched to the clip. When it started, Lexi couldn't help admiring David. There was a reason he'd recently been named one of the sexiest up-and-coming actors in Hollywood. He'd gotten his start modeling while still in high school. David was six-four and had a body that made women swoon.
One of her favorite pastimes was sitting back and watching women either check him out or fall all over themselves, trying to get his attention. Lexi was amazed that David took it all in stride and ignored it for the most part. He was too focused to be distracted. It took quite a lot for someone to catch his attention.
What amazed Lexi was that David was never rude or dismissive. He always had time for people but was firm about his refusals. It was hard to pull off and not have women feel rejected or mad when David didn't succumb to their advances. He had a flair and quiet authority that somehow made it okay.
The scene began with David in running clothes, jogging in London. There was the sound of an explosion, which prompted David to set off toward it at top speed. David reached the iconic Tower Bridge over the River Thames, where he found a scene of chaos. A double-decker bus was in flames, and traffic was beginning to pile up.
There was a second explosion that rocked the bridge. People began to jump out of their cars and run away from the carnage. David fought his way through the utter chaos.
There was a cutaway scene that showed another bomb. When the camera switched back to David, he spotted it.
"Run!" he screamed as the bomb detonated to end the scene.
"Oh, my. That looks exciting," Cassie observed and then turned back to her guest.
"It does have a lot of action in it, as you would expect with a James Bond film."
Cassie smiled and then got a serious look. Lexi knew what was coming next and prepared herself not to react if she was asked something outrageous. David's main PR guy, Frank Ingram, had given her a set of talking points to help her navigate an interview like this.
"Tell me about what happened in India. I understand that David refused to film there," Cassie said, digging for dirt.
Lexi kept her composure as she felt some relief; she'd been prepped for this question. She sent a silent word of thanks to Frank and his team. Lexi paused a moment to show thoughtful contemplation, another trick Frank had taught her. It kept her from rushing her answer. Frank had pointed out that pacing was necessary when building trust with your audience. He said it showed that she was confident.
"They'd planned to film in northern India. I understand it's beautiful and would have made an excellent backdrop for the film. David began to be concerned when he did his homework on the region. He'd run across an article that discussed births in the area. During one time period described, there were 216 children born in several neighboring villages. Not a single one was a girl.
"It raised the question: was this a fluke occurrence or something more sinister? David asked me to look into it," Lexi said.
"What did you find?" Cassie asked as she leaned forward in interest.
It was one thing to watch someone like David give an interview and know what he was doing, and another for her to pull it off. Lexi found that being the one on stage was harder than she'd realized. She had to tell a story, one that was engaging and held the audience's interest.
"Indian baby girls are being aborted simply because of their gender. For families living in poverty, boys are deemed more desirable since they are considered the main breadwinners. Families chose to simply never have girls because they are considered a burden," Lexi explained.
Cassie gave her a shocked look. Living where they did, it was easy to forget the reality of true abject poverty. What seemed deplorable to us could make perfect sense if you went to bed hungry at night. Frank had told her it was okay to show outrage but not go over the top with it.
"Isn't that illegal?" Cassie asked.
"India made it illegal in 1994, but the practice still persists."
"What was the other concern that put a stop to filming in India?"
Lexi looked at the camera and grimaced. This was the part that genuinely disturbed her. In her mind, she could come up with no justification for what happened.
"There was an incident. I understand that there are nomadic tribes in the area where we planned to film. The local population was a different religion, which caused tensions," Lexi said to set the stage.
"What happened?" Cassie prodded when Lexi paused.
"An eight-year-old girl left her camp to tend the horses, and she went missing. Her body was found a week later. It was discovered that she had been taken to a small temple, drugged, raped for five days by a group of men, and then killed with a rock.
"When David heard about it, he told Chubby Feldman, the director. Chubby looked into it and agreed that they would have to find another location to film. Neither the studio nor David wanted to have that taint the movie. I was glad they made the right decision," Lexi said with conviction.
"That's terrible," Cassie admitted and then switched gears. "David is one of the most eligible bachelors in Hollywood, yet we haven't heard a peep about a love interest."
Lexi had to choke back a laugh because she was amazed. She'd just described a horrific event, but Cassie showed no interest in digging deeper. Frank had a term for it: 'NIMBY,' or 'Not In My Back Yard.' If it didn't affect someone directly, they could just brush it off and ignore it.
Cassie had just shown Lexi that she wasn't a serious journalist. In truth, though, Lexi hadn't expected anything more of Cassie, given her position on a show like In The Know. They were geared toward reporting the latest starlet exposing herself as she got out of a car or a pop star getting drunk and making an ass of him or herself. So, switching to David's love life fit better with their usual fare.
The real reason David hadn't been linked with anyone on set was that Lexi had hooked up with him. She'd made it clear that they were both young, good-looking, and had needs. They were to both understand that was all it was, just a hookup.
It wasn't as if others hadn't offered David similar opportunities. Both his publicist and agent had told David that if he wanted to maintain his 'All-American Boy' image, he shouldn't be seen acting like a typical Hollywood douche. It was bad enough that he'd had five children before graduating high school.
Granted, one was adopted, but the optics were still far from ideal.
On a football recruiting trip, he'd met a young lady at the campus check-in. He'd asked her to show him around campus and go to dinner with him. David and a few of his fellow recruits went out as a group. They were accompanied by some of the sorority sisters of the girl in question.
It was all pretty innocent until the second night when David had been invited to fulfill a fantasy one of the sorority girls had. That night, he'd spent quality time with both the girl he'd asked out the day before and her sorority sister. One of them ended up having twin boys and the other a baby girl. They'd held off telling David about the children until after they'd been born.
In the meantime, he'd gotten a classmate pregnant, and she'd had a little boy.
David, being who he was, hadn't shirked his responsibilities. He had a healthy family support system, and his parents had stepped in to help raise the children.
The last child was that of a friend who'd found herself in a tough predicament. She and David had actually dated for a while. She'd broken up with him and taken up with another guy who'd gotten her pregnant with a boy right as they were ready to go off to college. The father had signed away his parental rights, not wanting anything to do with having a baby at such a young age.
David and his family had opened their doors and let the girl and her son move in with them. They'd given her a job as a childcare helper, which allowed her to take college classes. David had always treated her son as one of his own and made it official last spring.
Now he had all his children under one roof in his new home in Malibu.
"The poor guy's schedule has been bananas. He's been working nonstop since the beginning of May when filming started on the James Bond movie. Immediately after that, in August, he was off to New Zealand and Australia to film the next two Star Academy films. Because of the compressed schedules for filming, he's often been on set upwards of eighteen hours a day or more. I challenge anyone to find time for a love life when that's happening," Lexi said to deflect the question.
"Why is his schedule so compressed?"
When David had agreed to film the movies, he'd bypassed his first semester of college. A deal-breaker would have been to miss the second semester.
"He'll enroll at the University of Oklahoma for the spring semester in just a few weeks."
"Does he still plan to play football?" Cassie asked.
"That, and baseball."
David had been one of the top recruits for both sports coming out of high school.
"Will he continue to act while in school?" Cassie dug.
Lexi had to admit that Cassie had finally asked a good question.
"He did get a waiver from the NCAA, but he has no plans to act while he's in college. He'll focus on getting his degree and playing ball. David wants to be a normal student-athlete," Lexi answered.
Getting the NCAA waiver had been touch-and-go. The NCAA and its member institutions wanted to control the image rights of their student-athletes. With the help of his legal team, David had come to an agreement with the NCAA powers-that-be. His being a model and actor had been a sticking point for his eligibility.
The NCAA had specific rules that precluded such activities. Their contention was that student-athletes gain the fame that makes them marketable from their athletic abilities. The schools provided training and opportunity, so they should reap the benefit. But David had garnered his marketability before entering college, which the NCAA recognized, and they had finally provided him with a waiver.
Then came the fly in the ointment. A shoe company and university had each approached David and two of his teammates with money if they would go to that school. David reported the whole scheme, which turned into a mess.
The NCAA investigator, Stewart Chadwick, had wanted David to conduct further meetings with the bad actors, to the point of committing to the school. Chadwick was hoping that would help the NCAA get the goods on them. Unlike the FBI, the NCAA could not compel people to talk. The investigator was trying to do an end-around, to the point of seriously jeopardizing David's sports career.
'Fat chance of that,' Lexi thought with smug satisfaction. David had refused.
The investigator tried to coerce David's cooperation with the threat that he would pull David's eligibility and waiver if David didn't help him. David called his bluff and found himself ineligible for a while.
The NCAA and Chadwick didn't know that in addition to reporting the incident to them, David had talked to the FBI. The feds were in the process of building cases against various shoe companies for offering money to high school athletes to attend schools they sponsored. However, no one but the FBI was privy to that information. It turned out that the FBI was more interested in basketball recruiting, so they'd shelved David's case.
David and his legal team had arranged a meeting with the NCAA to work out his issues. The meeting was hijacked by the FBI, and the NCAA was forced to back off. The FBI didn't want it getting out that they were investigating shoe companies. They'd suggested that the NCAA might want to reinstate David's eligibility. The NCAA acquiesced but had slow-walked the waiver to allow him his name, image, and likeness rights, also known as NIL rights.
While he was filming in New Zealand, the story broke that the FBI had moved on the shoe companies. The NCAA, fearing that David might tell the press that they'd known about the investigation and done nothing, had finally come to their senses. They'd given him the waivers he needed to promote his films. There was a lot of language in the agreements indicating that the waivers were an exception due to his unique history.
The NCAA had dragged their feet because they faced legislation in several states that would negate one of their long-standing rules. The laws would allow student-athletes to control their NIL rights and enable student-athletes to make money through advertising, appearances, and the like. It might also mean that they would get paid for jersey sales and other items that universities currently controlled. If the market truly opened, the NCAA's member institutions could take massive financial hits.
"But I'd understood that he was approached about doing the new Star Wars movie. What's going on with that?" Cassie asked.
Lexi bit her tongue because Cassie had been on the cusp of uncovering what had happened behind the scenes at big-time football schools. Instead, she was back to more familiar topics.
David's agent, Ari Gould, had pushed for David to skip college and act full-time. David had, in fact, won the role of young Han Solo but turned it down because it would have meant leaving high school to film it.
Ari hadn't been happy when that decision was made. But then the Star Wars movie had tanked relatively badly compared to the other films in the franchise. And David then won his Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in The Royal Palm. That was followed shortly by his filming the James Bond and Star Academy movies.
Ari had gone behind David's back to see if Disney/Lucasfilm were interested in his client doing another project. David had been furious and fired Ari. Frank, his publicist, suspected that Ari leaked the information as a parting FU.
"David's made it clear that he wants to focus on his family and school for now. After college, he'll see if there's still interest in him as an actor. Then again, he might just play football or baseball," Lexi explained.
"You can let him know that we'll miss him on the big screen, and he needs to hurry up and get back to acting," Cassie said.
"I'll tell him, but remember, you won't be missing him for long," Lexi assured her. "The three movies are due out this year. Starting with Devil May Care this Memorial Day, followed by the second in the Star Academy series around the fourth of July. The final film in the Star Academy trilogy will be out around Christmastime."
"What about you? Will you still be David's personal assistant while he's in college?"
Lexi wondered that herself because everything had been perfect while filming. She'd made herself indispensable to him. Lexi organized and catered to his every need so he could focus on his craft. He'd said many times that she was the best PA he'd ever had.
Looking back, Lexi had to admit to herself that hooking up probably hadn't been the best decision. Lexi had found herself in David's bed most nights. In her fantasy world, that would have continued, but he'd made it clear from the start that it didn't mean anything.
Lexi had made the mistake of announcing that she loved him during a particularly nice orgasm a week ago. After that, David had pulled back.
He'd claimed that she probably should head back to LA since they were wrapping up the shoot. She'd found herself on a flight home the next day.
Kent, her boss, had been happy to have her back. He wanted to dump their problem child, Gwen Larkin, back in her lap. Gwen was mentally unstable but was currently a key figure in a highly rated TV series. One of the benefits of going overseas with David was that she'd been able to fob the nutjob off onto one of her colleagues. Gwen required almost 24/7 babysitting to keep her from doing crazy stuff that would get her in the gossip rags.
So far, Lexi had fended Kent off by saying she needed a vacation.
"I'm back in LA. I'm sure I'll still help David out as needed, but I'll have other clients to keep me busy."
The alternative Kent had given her was time off to go to college to get her degree. The company did more than PA work; they also helped celebrities manage all aspects of their lives. To do that effectively, she could really use a college degree.
Lexi's long-term plan was to get into management at a studio, so she leaned towards going to school. If nothing else, it would make her parents happy.
"Thank you for stopping by today and giving us the scoop on what David A. Dawson is up to. Maybe you could talk him into visiting with us when he gets back into town," Cassie said.
'I doubt he'll show up,' Lexi thought but plastered a smile on her face.
"I'll let him know."
Cassie seemed happy, so Lexi was able to make her escape. David was going to owe her for this one.
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Developmental Editors: XofDallas and Bud Ugly
Line / Copy Editors: Bud Ugly, TheMikeBomb, Zom, and Old Rotorhead
Last One Through: Bud Ugly