Read Online The Publicist by Christina George - Free Book Online

pushed the door open and peered inside, shaking her head. Nothing. No one else had books. They were thirty minutes from the start of the event and the store had twenty copies of the book. That would get them through the first five minutes of the signing and then Phil would spend the next three hours of this event fuming. The women had their DVDs to sign, naturally someone at the studio knew better than to under order on those.
    “Kate, I need to tell you something,” Carol began, “after doing some more research, it looks as though Bernie stopped the order.”
    Kate was dumbfounded. Why on earth would Bernie do that? Did he intentionally want to set this up for failure? Was he trying to undermine her?
    “Thanks, Carol. I have a few more calls to make, let me see if I can fix this.” Kate tried to remain calm but her hands were shaking. If Edward found out about this, she would lose The Continued Promise , Kate was certain of it. Bernie might have changed the order but at the end of the day, the buck would stop with her. Kate punched a number in on her phone. Mac answered.
    “Yeah?”
    “Mac, it’s Kate…”
    Mac could hear the frazzle in Kate’s voice, “Katie, what’s going on?”
    Kate explained, as best she could, what she surmised had happened up to this point, “My only hope, Mac, is that there are copies in Bernie’s office. Is your assistant around, can she go check on this for me?”
    “Kate, I’ll do it.”
    “Mac, no, you’re not even in the city and the signing starts in thirty minutes.”
    “I’m at my apartment this weekend. I can be at the office in five and to you in less than thirty if I can find the books.” Mac kept an apartment in the city that he often stayed at for several weeks at a time. With the boys gone to college there was no reason for him to go home anyway.
    “Are you sure, Mac?”
    “Positive. I’ll call you when I know more.”
    Kate dropped the phone in her purse and leaned against the wall.
    Outside she could hear Myrna’s screeching voice and reached over to lock the office door. She needed a few more minutes by herself to figure out what she’d do if Mac couldn’t find any books.

    Less than twenty minutes later, Mac showed up, books in hand. He’d found about a hundred copies stuffed in Bernie’s office, grabbed them and then tipped the cabbie twenty dollars to break all the traffic laws and get Kate the books she needed. When Kate saw Mac’s smiling face, she nearly leapt into his arms. Mac didn’t say a word but handed the box to one of the store clerks. The cabbie was waiting outside, trunk open with more copies. Probably not the number of copies Phil was hoping for, but considerably better than the twenty books they’d started with.
    “Mac, I can’t thank you enough…..you know if this hadn’t gone well….” Mac rested a hand on her arm, “It was my pleasure, Kate, I’m just glad I could help.”
    “You did more than help me and you know that.”
    Mac only smiled, “Call me when this is over and let me know how it went.”
    Then, without another word, he turned to leave. Kate noticed he was wearing jeans and a casual white shirt. She’d never seen this look on him but she liked it and she assumed this was who Mac really was, just a regular guy who’d landed this incredible job but was still as real as they come. She watched Mac get back into the cab, lost in thought, when Myrna’s vile mouth brought her back to reality.

    When the last of the line of autograph-hungry fans passed through the line, Kate breathed a sigh of relief. The limo was already out front to take the group to the airport and she’d be done with the lot of them. Kate could hardly wait. She was exhausted but keyed up from having to keep track of Myrna’s rampant demands on the bookstore and Melanie’s constant “water” drinking. Kate knew whatever was in the plastic bottle wasn’t water but since no cameras were rolling, she could care less. As long as Melanie kept