Hollywood’s Fixer!

It’s 8:10am…

Today is January 23rd, 2020.

I know that solely because I’ve been staring at the calendar on my desk for the past ten minutes.

I scribbled an ‘X’ in red marker on the date January 30th…God how I loathe seeing that date on any calendar I come across. I placed the marker down and stared at the guest who’s been in my office for the past ten minutes, silently praying his troubles would go away.

Seated in front of my desk is five time Grammy Award winning rapper Lil Holler aka Curtis Lucas.

Curtis has had an amazing career for the past six years all thanks to his management team, sponsorship deals from trendy clothing brands and even the occasional opportunities to write theme songs for television shows and commercials.

Unfortunately, Curtis decided to do something completely idiotic leaving his career and everything he had worked for, hanging in limbo.

When Curtis called me last night, I expected him to come into my office the next day with a lot to say…unfortunately it’s been ten minutes of silence and the only noise that has been heard are the car horns outside of my three story office building.

“Look Curtis.” I began finally breaking the silence between us, because I no longer found enjoyment in drawing ‘X’s allover anything that had January 30th on it. “I can’t help you if you won’t at least tell me what went through your mind, when you decided to post that picture online for your 8.5 million Twitter followers to see.”

Curtis Lucas reminded me of Eminem-well a less homophobic and more well-mannered Eminem. The rapper sitting before me wore two sets of gold chains around his neck, no one understood why not even him, but his management team felt every rapper should wear golden chains around their necks because it shows importance.

I’ve never been into rap music because a majority of the songs tend to be homophobic and as a Gay man myself, hearing those lyrics would be insulting. But the funny part? I know about 80% of the male rappers are actually on the Down Low, so hearing those type of lyrics come out of their mouths is comically sad. But it honestly wasn’t surprising because these rappers all had a persona they created.

Lil Holler was no different. Sure, he’s a White rapper that claims he was born in the South Bronx and faced very troubling obstacles—which have yet been proven—but he has created a tough image of himself in the music industry that has struck fear in the hearts of his doubters. Unfortunately, the man sitting in front of me was shaken up and too nervous to speak, kind of ironic since his rapper name suggests otherwise.

“Aight, so listen.”

I glared at him and he quickly stopped speaking. He cleared his throat and continued not only changing his demeanor from a tough guy to a mature and civilized adult, but he also ended up changing his tone altogether sounding like the Harvard Graduate with a 4.0 gpa that the world doesn’t actually know he is!

“Alright, so it all began when Mayoral Elect Victor Reber won the damn election. I mean who the hell votes for a racist?”

“So instead of tweeting about it like everyone else does, you decide to burn the American flag to protest his win?”

Curtis nodded his head, “Yeah I did! It’s what anyone else would’ve done. Why do I get singled out for it?”

That question wasn’t one that needed to be justified with a verbal answer. It needed to be shown to the clueless rapper.

I grabbed the remote control off my desk and pressed the ‘Power On’ button and within seconds the plasma television screen which was mounted on the wall behind me, turned on and Curtis’ demeanor once again changed. This time he had regret written all over his face.

“According to multiple reports Rapper Lil Holler wasn’t too thrilled with the idea of a Republican finally being elected to lead San New City. The loud Democrat was so upset that he took the American flag, set it on fire and took a selfie showing us Americans and our troops, just how much of a traitor he really is! Is this the type of artist you want to support, America? Is this the type of man you want your children mimicking? A man who hates America? No! I know I will no longer be supporting this man or his music anymore.”

The annoying and squeaky voice filling my eardrums belonged to Republican mouthpiece Tori Lane. She’s a woman who will do anything to get on top. Of course, it doesn’t help that she manages to bash and label anyone against the President of the Unites States as a ‘traitor’, but if you were hiding deadly secrets from your past, like she currently is, then you too would do whatever it takes to make sure you please the right people in the industry. And in her case, the Republicans who own her network television show is now the ones who own her.

I quickly muted the television not wanting to hear another word that came out of her mouth for my own sanity.

“I’m a traitor?! Is she serious? All I did was burn the flag! The last time I checked, the desecration of the flag is a legal act that is protected by the First Amendment. This means I cannot be imprisoned. Surely you can do something!”

“No one is talking about jail time. This has nothing to do with any legal actions against you. I’m a Crisis Manager. A Fixer. Meaning people like you who are dealing with things like this, come to me and I fix it. All I care about is your image that’s it. Anything else falls solely on you and your team. I’m here to make sure you pop out of this shit storm unscathed.”

The Rapper shook his head. “I screwed up.”

“No, screwing up would be getting a groupie pregnant because you stupidly forgot to pull out. What you did was just burn a symbol of this country because you were angry at the Mayoral Elect. No biggy.”

“No biggy?” Curtis let out a nervous chuckle, “Bro, I lost 7.8 million Twitter followers. My manager told me the show about those girls who are trapped in Walmart has taken my theme song off! All my deals have been dropped. Sneakers, movies, cartoons, hell, even Funko isn’t going to make me a Pop anymore!”

I nodded calmly listening to his rant. When his record label hired me to take this on, I admit I was skeptical at first, but seeing the passion in the blue eyes of this Eminem knock off, I can tell his career is one that he takes with pride.

“I understand how scary this must be for you. Me? This isn’t my first walk in the park. I’ve done this many times before.”

“What?” Curtis gasped looking at me up and down. “You look like you’re 17!”

“Awww, thank you!”

I have been told I look young by many people and that compliment was always one that made me blush. In actuality, I’m 29 years old and in the Gay world that’s about 99 years old. Once I turn thirty next year, the Gay World will legally declare me old and dead.

But many of my enemies know that even though I look young, have a Tenor speaking voice that outs me whenever I talk and I enjoy wearing combat boots with whatever outfit I choose to wear, that I kick ass at my job and my bite is far more worse than my bark!

Knock! Knock!

The knocking on my office door caused Curtis to flinch and I smirked shaking my head. “Come in!” I shouted.

The door opened and standing in the doorway was my assistant Tony Monroe.

Tony is a 6’1 tall man from the United Kingdom who is notorious for wearing custom fitted designer suits. He has vanilla colored skin, dark blonde hair that tends to be slicked back whenever he was at work-reminding me of the T-Birds from Grease. He has a pair of light blue eyes that seems to glow whenever he is in the dark. His clean-shaven face and sharp jaw line makes him look more like n innocent model than my assistant. An innocent and naïve face that makes it easier to hide the darkness which lurks within him.

“I got the pictures you asked for.” Tony said showing me the manilla colored envelope he was holding in his hands.

“Oh that’s perfect! How did they come out?”

Tony nodded with a wicked smile on his face. “Perfect than any of us could have anticipated.”

“And did you also take care of the written response I sent you this morning?”

Tony once again nodded entering the office and handed me the envelope. “It didn’t need much proofing so it’ll be live in a couple of seconds.”

I took the envelope from him and smiled widely. “Oooh, I cannot wait! Thank you so much!”

Tony waved at Curtis and he exited the office closing the door behind him.

Poor Curtis had no idea what my assistant and I were talking about and he had every right not to know, well just not yet at least.

“Do you remember Dave Alex, the former mayor of Singler City?” I asked which caused the rapper to immediately shake his head. “While Dave Alex was running for Mayor, he painted this beautiful image of his family life; wife, kids and white picket fences. You know the same old cliché bull crap closeted Republicans use to get votes with. Well, I knew Dave from my college days and he was in a very long relationship with a guy from my Public Relations class. Anyways, he was caught on a hot mic a few months after being elected, where he referred to Gays as –and I quote- ‘Cancerous beings who need to be sedated or eradicated’.”

Curtis shook his probably again, probably this time in disgust. “Aww shit! That’s sick. Why would he say that?”

“He was surrounded by male politicians who view the Gay community as such and instead of defending the same community he is secretly a part of; he decided to bash us so he could gain cool points with the Jocks.”

Men like Dave frustrate me. Those are Gay/Bi/Pansexual men who unleash their inner homophobia on other Gays because they’re too pussy to stand out from the crowd. Men like that are sick, disgusting, vile and hypocritical.

Unfortunately, that’s the world we live in today. A world where people who want to seem cool jumps on a bandwagon to bash an oppressed group of people just to gain brownie points. Men who do that aren’t men at all, they’re just scared little boys.

“But of course the next day, he blamed that comment on Ambien he took the night before and all was forgiven. Considering, I knew him, he wasn’t on Ambien nor was that something he said by accident. But no one said or did a thing. It was labeled ‘locker room talk’ and forgotten by everyone the next day…well everyone except me. Tony-the man who just knocked on my door- is very gifted with his ability to manipulate photos and make them seem real.”

“You mean like Photoshop?”

I nodded. “In a way, yes. But the program he uses is a bit more advanced; because it shows no traces of manipulation should the FBI analyze it or anyone else for that matter.”

I leaned my back on the chair and continued on with my story getting to the good part, “Someone accidentally leaked a photo of dear old Mayor Alex in a very compromising position and that position was him partaking in some illegal narcotics he shouldn’t have been in possession of.”

“Wait! You leaked manipulated images of the Mayor? That’s illegal. That’s wrong. That’s-.”

“Genius, I know. I could’ve gone another route but one thing about me is that I don’t out people. Never have and never will.” I smiled to myself proud of my accomplishments and boundaries. “Now, keep track buddy, I’m getting to your thing in a minute. Anyway, once those images leaked, the Mayor was impeached and his wife forced him into a rehab clinic. Now, I know the story seems bad but he was released two years ago and was photographed this year at Coachella tonguing down some Muscle Gay he found at the festival, so he had a great time, I’d say.”

My laughing was probably a little extreme in the aftermath of the story I just told, but I needed it to highlight everything I’m capable of.

“Okay, but what does this have to do with me?”

That was a question I was more than happy to answer when the time presented itself and that time had finally arrived.

I unclasped the manilla envelope and took out a picture. I looked at the picture and continued smiling at the amazing job Tony had done!

The picture currently circulating the internet is of Lil Holler holding the American Flag engulfed in flames. In that picture he wore a white tank top, blue jeans and holding the fiery flag stupidly in his hands but the photo in my hands had the rapper wearing a blue shirt, black jeans and instead of holding a burning flag, he’s holding a Tiger cub!

Nothing besides the item, lighting and clothes changed in the picture. His smiling was the same as well as his position. It was an eerily similar picture in every way.

Now I know how weight loss corporations feel when they manipulate photos revealing fake after results.

“Okay, since your photo went viral every media outlet has knocked down anything stupid the President tweeted and has made your mishap their breaking news. But here is the original photo we’re going to say was manipulated.”

I handed the picture over to Lil Holler and his eyes widened, I’m not sure if it was in shock or more so surprised at the result. Either way, his eyes were a nice shade of blue.

“Are you kidding me? No one is going to believe this!”

“Well that isn’t entirely true. Before you stepped foot into my office, I already came up with a worded response as well the details of this photo and in a few seconds, it’s going to go live. But before it does, I’m going to need you to read it, so you can get a better understanding of the lie you’re going to tell TMZ when they stalk you at the airport.”

I dug my hand back inside of the envelope and took out a piece of paper, I handed it to the rapper and he took it probably confused on what I was giving him.

“Please go on and read it.” I said the happy-yet sinister smile still plastered on my face.

The rapper nodded his head and he began to read the letter aloud,

“I want to thank my fans for their response both positive and negative regarding the picture that was uploaded earlier. It breaks my heart that anyone in their right mind would believe that I would burn a flag- a symbol of this Country, a symbol of everything the brave Men and Women overseas have sworn to protect, that you all would believe I would do something both so sinister and vile leaves me silent and hurt. I have been vocal in my community for years and believe me when I say I did not burn the American Flag. I had the FBI and local officials look into the picture and it was manipulated by hackers-” Curtis stopped reading and looked at me. “The FBI? Wouldn’t they deny this claim?”

“They could.” I responded back. “But let’s just say the director of the FBI owes me a favor for a pro-bono job I did for him a few months back.”

Curtis stared at me for a few seconds and then he decided to continue on reading,

“-Apparently, some very angry people were livid that my name was tossed around to perform for Mayor Victor Reber’s inauguration party, that they called me a ‘Traitor’, ‘A liar’ and even used homophobic slurs to describe my intentions. My name was tossed into the hat to perform but I never once held any interest to do so. Yes, throughout his campaign, he had said some very offensive things that made me question where his loyalty was, but I would never disrespect something as special as our American Flag.

I want to thank you all for your understanding. Below I have posted the real picture. If you are going to try to photoshop a picture, do not do it by erasing my new little friend. Lol! Lil Holler!”

Curtis finished reading the letter and he stared at it in silence. “This- this sounds exactly like something I would say!”

I proudly nodded my head. “Duh! I don’t know you well enough to know the exact way you speak, but I studied your past interviews after you called me last night and I was able to get the essential parts down. All we have to do is wait until this goes live and-”

Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding!

Curtis quickly took his cellphone out of his jeans’ pocket and was met with various notifications as the phone continued to ding.

He swiped up and down the screen in excitement. “Holy crap! The post worked! I’m getting apologies from various people and even the network that took my theme song off! I’m in the clear!”

“Not yet.” I replied back probably popping the rapper’s balloon of hope. “It’s barely 9am. The real news tends to pick up at noon, five, six and eleven. Wait until those times and you should be good as golden.”

Curtis quickly got up from the chair he was seated on as his cellphone began to ring. “Shoot! It’s the president of my record label.”

The rapper quickly left the office answering the phone.

I let out a sigh of relief at another job well done.

“I assume the letter and picture went over well?” I heard Tony’s voice ask from the doorway.

I turned to him and nodded.

“Did we have any doubts? Right now his label will be on top of this and make him a star again.”

“And they didn’t even call to thank you?”

I shook my head. “I’ve been doing this for five years now, trust me; this job can be thankless at times. I’m just hoping Lil Holler stays away from flags the next time he’s angry.”

Tony nodded his head probably hoping for the same thing. “Do you think he’d get back the followers he lost? Some people will definitely find this story a bit suspicious. Hacking seems to be the notorious go to excuse.”

“I know it is.” I replied with a smirk on my face. “Which is why you’re my plan B. How would you like to make an additional $25, 000?”

Tony licked his lips smirking. “I’m listening.

2236 Amethyst Plaza: Apartment 1A @ 6:40 pm:

After my work days, I like to come home, kick off my boots and just take a hot shower to wash away the impurities and drama of the day. It was my way of getting the much-needed relaxation I deserved.

I dried my wet naked body off with a soft white cotton towel and stepped out the shower, carefully trying my hardest not to get the white marble tiled floor wet. I wrapped the towel around my waist and let out a soft sigh as my eyes darted to the scar on my right shoulder.

The scar was made on my honeymoon night. Not because I was taking part in rough sex or anything along the lines, but I was standing on the canopy bed in the Honyemoon suite of the Aviant Hotel— located in Torne City-- and thought of using the silver pole as a stripper pole to seduce my soon to be ex-husband. I was unaware the pole had some lube on it, so when I thought I had a good grip, my hand slipped, I lost my balance and fell straight into a nearby dresser. I was able to block my face from any unwanted bruising but my shoulder ended up getting a huge gash and I spent the honeymoon night in the ER room getting 34 stitches.

God, how I wasted so much energy trying to be sexy for that stupid man.

I entered my bedroom and unwrapped the towel from my waist, letting the cold apartment air blow against my bare skin. I slipped into a pair of red briefs and put on a black shirt that was three times bigger than my normal shirt size (which was a large) and now it looked as if I was wearing the shirt as a dress. Something I used to do when I was younger.

My apartment gets very cold during the winter-even with the thermostat on high- so having a long and loose fitting shirt gives me some warmth to get through the nights.

I made my way into the kitchen and grabbed a glass of red wine that I poured myself earlier. I took a small sip and was rudely interrupted by my cellphone that began to beep.

Placing the glass down on my black counter top, I grabbed my phone, which was only a few inches away from me and charging on its docket. Looking at the screen, I saw it was a text message from Tony that read: “Turn on the news now!”

I grabbed the glass of wine, walked out of the kitchen that was only a few feet away and entered the living room, grabbed the remote from the black pleather sofa and turned on the television screen.

On the screen was a blonde newscaster and the headline banner underneath her image read:

‘NYC Based Lil Holler Gunned Down!’.

I turned up the volume taking a long sip of the wine.

“That’s right Linda! According to the San New Police Department, Curtis Lucas who goes by the name Lil Holler was coming out of a meeting with his Record Label, when another car pulled up to his Black Mercedes Benz and opened fire. From what I have been told, the rapper was shot twice in his right arm and is listed in stable condition. Now this comes just hours after Curtis released a public statement that his Twitter account was hacked and a manipulated photo surfaced of him burning the American Flag. Investigators have detained a person of interest and there is no word yet if this individual was behind the shooting-”

As the reporter continued on telling the news, my mind went to the conversation Tony and I had in my office earlier:

***

[Ten Hours Earlier:

Tony nodded his head probably hoping for the same thing. “Do you think he’d get back the followers he lost? Some people will definitely find this story a bit suspicious. Hacking seems to be the notorious go to excuse.”

“I know it is.” I replied with a smirk on my face. “Which is why you’re my plan B. How would you like to make an additional $25, 000?”

Tony licked his lips smirking. “I’m listening.”

“Good, I need you to help Lil Holler gain more followers.”

“Help as in bullets or stabbing?”

“Bullets. But I need you to make sure he doesn’t die. So try to aim for his arm. Right arm, he’s a lefty so this won’t affect his ability to write.”

Tony wasn’t like most men in San New City. Sure, he was attractive and masculine but none of that mattered to me. He was different because he was smarter and much more deadlier than any man I have ever known. Sure he’s a tall, stylish and handsome man but the truth is; he is full of deadly, dark and sinister secrets, secrets that made him and I best friends and those same secrets that made him work for me.

“If I didn’t know any better Sammi, I’d say you’re talking to me now as your hit man rather than your assistant.”

I gave him a smirk that many have told me, would make even the Devil himself nervous. “It was your exact assassination skills that brought you here in the first place. Now? I’m just...promoting you temporarily to do what you do best. Except this time, you’re not killing anyone. You’re just helping a dear client with his unfortunate situation.”

“Sounds reasonable.” Tony stated.

“I know. I’ll wire you the money when the job is done.”

Tony once again nodded his head.]

I shook my head clearing out the memory of my morning and looked back at the news, “Lucas has been receiving an outpour of support from his fans, other celebrities as well as local leaders.”

I tapped the ‘transfer’ button on the bank app of my phone and it let out a bell chime as it indicated to me that the money was sent to Tony’s account. “Merry early Christmas Tony.”

Ding-Dong!

All I want to do from this moment on is sleep, but that became a distant thought once my doorbell rang.

I wasn’t expecting any visitors at this time, so my frustration level was pretty high.

Tony usually calls before he comes over and none of my clients (thankfully) know where I live; so I figured the unwanted visitor was probably my neighbor Ms.Ana, who enjoys “borrowing” my kitchen utensils and never gives them back.

I placed my cellphone on the sofa, got up and made my way towards the door of my apartment complex. I cursed the building manager for never building peek holes into the door, but with 24/7 security guards in the complex, I guess one doesn’t need a peek hole—unless it’s to avoid nosy neighbors.

I unlocked the door and pulled it open to be met with the cold Winter wind that clearly wasn’t forgiven as it caused me to shiver as if I had just been doused with freezing water.

On the doormat in front of my door was a bouquet of black roses.

“What the hell?” I quickly looked around the courtyard but all I saw were two rose bushes Mrs. Baker is trying to save, a fake Christmas tree Mr. Shaw decorated with his ex-wife’s sex toys that she has yet picked up from him and the swimming pool which the building manager is trying to turn into a hot springs. There wasn’t anyone around who would’ve dropped the bouquet off, unless they did a hell of a good job hiding in the rose bush.

I’m not one to have secret admirers…well at least not one that I’m aware of. People have always told me I’m ‘highly unapproachable’.

Wasting no time-and because I didn’t want to catch a cold- I bent down and picked up the bouquet, I noticed there was a pink card sticking out from the roses.

“This better be an apology from Colton.” I stated as I took the card out.

Flipping the card around I lowered my eyebrows as I read what was on it:

“2/2”

“2/2? What the hell does this even mea-”

BANG!

A sharp pain entered the right side of my chest and before I knew it, the bouquet of roses fell to the floor and then I did too.

I looked up at the black night sky trying to form the words “Help me” but I was in too much pain to speak.

I’ve been shot at many times before, but this time I was shot and I couldn’t must up the strength to crawl back into my apartment for safety.

Whomever had the balls to shoot me would probably be here soon to finish the job up close. I tried to move but my breathing began to get short. I felt a warm liquid under my back and I knew that was my blood, by the sensation I could tell it was a lot that I was losing.

I heard the sound of footsteps walking slowly towards me but I don’t have the strength any longer to keep my eyes open.

I exhaled and closed my eyes, prepared for what was coming next.

BANG!