Chapter 47: Self-Made Stories
Chapter 47: Self-Made Stories
By mid-April, Los Angeles was heating up.
Edward returned from an outing, grabbed a bottle of ice-cold cola, and gulped half of it in one go. He pulled a check from his bag and placed it in front of Hawk. "Photos I took last night sold for $280. It’s all here."
Hawk took the check and continued leafing through Dwayne Johnson’s personal dossier. The chaos surrounding Robert Downey Jr. had delayed his discussions with Johnson about movies and personal branding. Fortunately, Johnson had been busy flying across North America for promotional work and had only just returned to Los Angeles yesterday.
With nothing better to do, Edward fiddled with a camera, grumbling, "Boss, don’t you think work’s been pretty dull lately?"
Hawk looked up. "Romantic troubles?"
"No," Edward sighed. Having tasted the adrenaline of headline-worthy, high-stakes work, he now found routine photo assignments unbearably mundane. Licking his lips, he said, "We’ve been pulling off huge stories, making the front page every time. Now doing these $200 side gigs feels awful."
Hawk ignored him and asked, "Any updates on Deborah?"
Edward leaned back. "She’s been tied up with Downey’s inheritance proceedings. It’s not the right time to make a move. I can’t just drop the ball on what we discussed—she’s working at the shelter, and cutting things short would be too irresponsible!"