Shawnie's POV

I turn around and I see Aubrey. I felt numbness wash over my body, then I got hot.

After he picked the phone up off the table he smiles at me.

"Hey!" He says

I don't even acknowledge him, I turn and look at Jason. "What is he doing here?"

"Business meeting." Aubrey says, before Jason could open his mouth.

Again, I don't acknowledge Aubrey.

"How exactly are you working with him? This is a conflict of interest."

"Is it? Because I'm interested...." he smiles. "....interested in working with you. DreamCrew and Pride Of Gypsies have their own dealings. You won't be involved in that." Jason explains

"This movie you're talking about you want me in is too close. Production companies working together, I rather not. I can't chance it. Seems like a set up."

Aubrey laughs behind me and I turn around.

"No one is setting you up." Aubrey says

"Take your phone and go..." I say to Aubrey.

"You're mad at me?" Aubrey asks

"Of course. I'm sure this was somehow all your idea." I say. "What are the odds that were in the same place. A completely random place. You don't know him."

"I was contacted about you. We gave them Amanda's phone number. You're still under contract with Oliver."

"Bullshit. You told me when it ended." I say

"Well it wasn't finalized."

"End the contract now." Is all I say to him.

Now I know why they've been reaching out to Amanda. So when I was told over a year ago that Oliver terminated the contract that was a lie. He probably lied about it on purpose. Aubrey probably put him up to it I didn't even need one at the time.

I knew this shit was too good to be true.

"And I want termination documents." I say to him. "This is embarrassing, but I'm sure that's what you wanted anyway." I grab my purse and I try to leave but Jason speaks.

"Okay, hold on. Let's not make any permanent decisions based off of emotion."

I scuff. "Do you know who you're dealing with?"

"Nah, that's all you sunshine." Aubrey says and I roll my eyes.

"Let's talk about this like adults." Jason says

"Don't you think this should've been information I should know about?" I say to Jason. "You're going into business with my ex-husband."

"I was getting around to it. I didn't want to tell you in the middle of the meeting. The meeting had just ended." He says. "I was gonna take a shot with you and then we were gonna sit down and shoot the shit for a minute. That's when I was going to bring it up." Jason explains. I actually believe him, but it's just a situation that's pissing me off.

"Shawnie, let me talk to you." Aubrey says.

"No." I quickly reply to him. The last thing I wanna do is come off a certain way in front of Jason, because I will go all the way off on Aubrey and have Jason look at me like I'm crazy.

"We'll leave..." Jason says. "And when you're done we can finish this." He says to me with a smile.

"No, don't..."

"I promise. It's all good. Just talk to him and will continue this when you guys are done."

Jason, Blaine and Damien leave out of the room, closing the door behind them.

"I thought we were on good terms." Aubrey says

"I thought we were on good terms as well, but now I see that it was all just for you to have the last laugh."

"I'm not trying to have the last laugh. I'm trying to make sure you're good. I feel like you need me."

I look at him like he's crazy.

"Listen to me...." he says. "I went into business with them so this film that they're doing will have a bigger backing behind them. My production company is doing very well right now. They'll have more funding and they have more connections. I will make sure that this movie gets in theaters." He says

"Aubrey, I'm trying to do all of this on my own. I don't want you to have anything to do with this."

"I just want to see you succeed."

"So all of this was your idea and not Jason's?" I ask

"No, it was all his idea. And to be honest, I didn't know the details of why exactly they wanted to contact you. I found out that it was about a movie and I started asking around about it."

"So that's all you know?"

"I don't know anything else, I just wanna make sure your acting career is successful." He says

"So Jason and his company reached out to you on their own."

"Yes."

I stare into his eyes to see if he's telling the truth. But let's be honest, he has looked me directly in my face and lied before, and I had no idea. My ability to read him has never been my strong suit but because I want to I'm gonna take his word for it this time.

"Okay. I believe you, Aubrey."

"Plus I think he's interested in you." He says. "But  what guy in Hollywood isn't?" He rolls his eyes.

That made me a little happy.

"Aubrey, I don't want you involved in this. So please just stay as far away from this as possible. I understand you want me to be successful, but you gotta let me do this by myself."

"I got you." He says. "I always got you."

"I'm not gonna ask you to pull out of the business deal because I think that's overstepping a little bit. I don't wanna fuck up anybody's business, but just stay away."

"Okay." He says then smiles.

"Promise me." I say

"I promise." He smiling bigger. He starts to come around the table, but I stop him.

"Keep your distance, stay over there. We're good." I say

"I just want a hug."

"Nah. I'm good." I say

"Aight but we need to talk."

"Why do we always need to talk? I'm done talking." I snap

"Nah, I'll wait for whenever you're done here and we can have a little convo."

"We just talked."

"...More important things." He says

"Aubrey, please just leave me alone."

"Okay. We can talk here then..." he says, "I heard about your boat incident."

"So what? I don't wanna go back and forth with you."

"It's been a minute now. We've been off for a while." He says.

"And we're gonna remain off. Aubrey seriously? You thought I was playing a game with you? After Joe nearly killed you? You think this is a game?" I look at him like he's crazy.

"You're mine." He says

I just roll my eyes.

"Come on, this shit is embarrassing." He says. "Use your head."

"I'm happy and I knew as soon as it hit you for real you were going to do this. The knife didn't make you realize, but seeing us on TV together did?"

"You can't be doing this shit for real."

I laugh.

"You can't find anyone better than me. How can you go from me to him? I just can't picture it." He says

"I don't care what you can picture. You need to be trying to picture your future cuz if Joe finds out about this you ain't gon have one."

He laughs, "You have that much faith in him?"

"We're getting married."

He shakes his head. "......that won't happen."

"I can't do this with you. This is supposed to be a business meeting."

"I just.... I really thought we could make it work again..." he says

"I'm only going to say this one more time and I swear I can't get any more serious than I am right now. This relationship is beeyonnd repair, and I know you know it. Your ego is hurt, I understand that but my man will seriously hurt you." I say. "Aubrey, we're good. Don't keep reverting back to this. We always make progress then out of nowhere here you come with this."

He nods his head. "Aight. Sorry for interrupting." He says. "We're good."

He leaves.

"Geez, Louise." I say then laugh at myself.

Jason walks back in. "Everything taken care of?"

"Yes." I say

"I thought you guys were on good teams." He says

"Where did you hear that?"

"From him."

I laugh. "I mean, I guess we are. It was just a surprise seeing him here. It's random."

"I can guarantee it won't happen again...The last thing I want to do is get between another marriage."

"We're divorced." I correct him.

"That too." He laughs "I'm happy we would settle this. I can't have my little protégé upset with me already. We haven't even started working yet."

I laugh. "It's an honor to have you mentoring me. I promise I'll take it seriously and not waste your time." I say

"I'm sure you won't." He extends his hand. I kinda look at it for a second then I shake it. "Don't want the boyfriend coming after me."

We both laugh. "Yeah... that he will do."

"And he's welcome anytime he wants to tag along. I know how this might feel to him."

"I'm sure he'll appreciate that. I know I do." I say

After that we wrap up the meeting and say our goodbyes, then I head home.

That went a lot better than I thought it would. I'm so surprised how cool he is, which I kind of already know he was anyway but just like he said, exactly what I see is exactly how he is. That makes me happy to know that I'm not dealing with an asshole.

While on my way home Chris called. I kind of feel like we need to talk because we really didn't get a chance to have a conversation at my party. Not that we needed to. I just found it weird that we really didn't, but I know he was busy and he had a girlfriend to tend to. I definitely don't want to cause any friction there so it's not such a big deal.

"Hellooo!" I answer

"What's up, baby momma!" Chris songs through my car speakers.

"Please don't call me that." I laugh

"I can go back to the "baby", I like that much more anyway."

"No, that's okay." I laugh. "What's up?"

"Nothing. I was just calling."

"I actually needed to talk to you anyway. Things are getting kind of crazy over here and I was against it at first but I need a manager." I say

"I told you you would need one, but you wanted an assistant instead."

"And Olivia is great. But I wasn't doing anything for me to need a manager. Now, yes."

"Yeah, but you still had people trying to contact you, so I'm not gonna beat you up about it. I will have my manager send you someone. How soon do you need them?" He asks

"Like, months ago."

He laughs. "I got you. So what's going on, why all of a sudden you need one?"

"Long story short. Oliver never officially terminated our contract and I have been under his management all of this time. He's been forwarding everyone to Amanda, which we all know she is not a manager."

"Right. So, why do you need a manager right now? What are you doing? What type of moves are you making?"

"I just met with Jason Momoa and his team."

"Awwww shit! How did that happen?"

"I honestly don't know how it happened, but I'm not complaining about it at all and not because I have a crush on him, but because he's literally paying me to promote his products. It's business now."

"That's dope, but can you put aside your fandom to work with him?" He asks

"I just did. And I just said it's business."

"Aight. What did your hulk say?" He asks

I laugh, "Joe's fine with it."

"I wish you well with that. I hope that takes you to the level you wanna be on, whatever that is. I didn't know you wanted to act, this is news to me."

"I only shared that with Joe."

"Oh...well I support it."

"Thank you."

"Don't let me see any video of Jason Momoa giving you head on a boat like Joe, because if it happens I'm taking Joe's side."

I laugh. "It won't happen."

"Ay, I'm happy we cool now."

"We been cool and we're going to continue to be cool. You're really one of my best friends. I'm happy you're in my life."

"Same here." He says. "But, if we ever end up together....nothing. I'm happy you're in my life too."

What the hell? What was he going to say?? You know what, ima just let it go. I didn't hear anything.

"I'm pulling up to my house now. I will talk to you later." I say.

"Aight, I love you." He says then ends the call.

I gather my things and go inside the house. As soon as I get inside, I see Joe sitting on the sofa in the living room.

"Hey, babe!"

He looks at me, and I see him give me a once over before he speaks.

"How'd it go?"

"It went so well until the end. Aubrey was there."

"What?" His demeanor instantly changes.

I sit my purse down and plop down on the sofa next to him. "So he promised me this wasn't gonna be a problem, so I'm not gonna make a huge deal about it right now, but their production companies are going into business together."

"Why?"

"He told me because he wanted to make sure my acting career took off. I told him I didn't need it and to stay out of it and he promised he would so I can only hope that he will."

"I'm so sick of this motherfucker." He says

"I know but he says he's not gonna say anything else about it. He's not gonna do anything and I don't want to mess up anyone's business. That's the only reason I said just leave it how it is but just back off."

"Okay, we'll see." He says. "So how was the meeting with the person you've been crushing on for years?"

"Oh my gosh, she's so cool. I knew he would be. You know how everyone knows I'm like so in love with him? I'm sure he knows it too, but he didn't say anything about that. He was so professional and I met the people I'm gonna be working with. I had a really good meeting."

"Well I'm happy for you, babe. I really hope all of this works out for you." He says

"So just to break everything down, I'm going to be getting $6000 a post and they're going to give me $2000 back pay for the old post..."

"That's cool."

"This part isn't so cool though... So they're going on tour and he wants me to go but he says since I have kids he's only gonna expect me to be at half of the shows and I get to pick the cities."

"I don't know about that." He says, shaking his head.

"If it makes you feel better, he says he's fine with you being there and tagging along whenever you feel."

"I'm not gonna do that though."

"The invitation is open. I would definitely love for you to be there with me. It doesn't have to be all the time." I say

"I'm not going to police you. I told you that a long time ago. I'll give you the freedom and what you do with it is your own decision."

"I don't like that you say that."

"Why? Because if you do something wrong that's on you because it was your decision?" He asks and I'm sensing attitude. "I don't mean it in a mean way, I mean......we basically had this talk long before you and I were even together."

I instantly feel uncomfortable. He's talking about that convo we had with Dori back in San Diego, about the pass.

"I'm not sure I feel comfortable with this conversation." I say

"Why not?"

"Because I don't. It's like you want me to...you know..."

"I don't want you to do anything. Sad to say but I know how you can be. Sometimes you're a huge flirt and anyone can take that as you're really into them. You like this man and you will flirt with him. Depending on if he's the type of man I think he is, he's going to see how far he can go because he knows you like him. He knows that it's a fantasy for you to be with him." He explains. "I don't want you to do it but if it happened...I mean, I might not be that upset, and I also know in the back of your head that that's what you want, so I'm just being realistic. That's all I'm doing is trying to be realistic about this."

I just look at him. This is crazy to me.

"Now I'm not saying cheat on me with him every chance you get. Don't start going behind my back. Once, I understand. Twice, maybe, but if it happens tell me. That's something I would want to know. Don't keep it from me. I promise I won't stab him." He tries to laugh but I don't find it funny.

"I'm perfectly happy with you. That's not my intention. I want you to be with me on those dates that we have to be out of town. I'm not sure I'll be comfortable being by myself. You forgot we always travel together?"

"You'll be fine." He says. "All I ask is that you don't put me in a position where I feel threatened and I need to react. You've never seen that Joe and you don't want to see him." He warns

"I won't." I say. "He also offered to be my mentor and he said I can come on set with him and see how everything goes and I would love to do that but I can't walk down the damn street without being photographed and the same with him. I just don't even want to deal with all of that nonsense that's gonna come from it."

"Don't let that stop you from doing what you wanna do. If you wanna be an actress then you need to do whatever you can to perfect your craft. You're gonna have to learn to see things for what they are and try to make the best of it." He explained

"I hear you."

"Take advantage of the knowledge that he's offering you. Don't not take this opportunity because of me. Fuck me. You need to learn to get in your bag unapologetically. You have two kids, and even though they're taken care of in every way they can be, you're their primary parent. Not mentioning how you have to do this for yourself too. I understand all of that and I'm going to be right here. Aquaman ain't breaking this. Do what you have to do, babe."

"Joe, I love you so much." He always has a way of making me feel at ease and he understands everything, and I can't forget about how patient he is with me. And he's been this way with me since the moment I met him. I really don't know what I did to deserve him.

"I love you too, baby." He says. "I understand the conflict. I'm open to navigating through this. I can't say it's gonna be easy, and I can't say that I won't get a little frustrated from time to time dealing with this but one thing I can say about this is we're gonna be fine. As long as communication is open." He said.

"I promise I will keep the door for communication open at all times." I say snaking my hands around his neck.

"You wanna go upstairs? I know you're wet from being that close to him. Your imagination was running wild wasn't it?" I just laugh. "It's okay as long as I'm reaping the benefits."

I smile, and straddle his lap. "You want me to come home and fuck you, daddy?"

He bits his lip, rubbing my ass. "Oh shit! Hell yeah! But your actual dad is in the house, so don't talk like that."

I laugh. "You scared?"

"I ain't scared of shit." He picks me up and we go upstairs.

I believe with everything that's about the transpire, we're gonna be alright.

**********

The next day

I was sitting on my bed folding clothes. I had been home all day just doing things around the house and relaxing with my dad, Joe and the kids. Joe's mom was here. She was with my dad out in the back barbecuing. Well my dad won't let her touch the grill so she's just watching. Joe and the kids were outside as well. He was in the pool with them playing.

As I was folding my phone dinged and I picked it up. I see it's Aubrey and I put it back down. Then I thought about it for a minute. Maybe I shouldn't be SO rude all the time. I'll see what he wants and if it's some bs I'll just ignore. I got to give it to him though I'm happy you texted instead of called.

Aubrey: Tour starts in a couple of weeks. I want Altas on the road with me. If you're doing this acting thing you're gonna need me and I'm fully supporting this. I'll take him on tour with me so you can focus a little more if it's okay.

Me: Aubrey, that's really nice of you. Yes! You can take him but I don't think tell be for the whole thing.

Aubrey: That's fair. Thank you.

I waited a couple of minutes and he didn't say anything else so I put my phone down and continued folding clothes.

Aubrey: The album is dropping in 3 days. Drew A Picasso is a song I wrote about the relationship. I don't see you being upset about it but knowing you you might. It's just describing the complex and emotional situation that took place in our marriage. I'm just reflecting on past actions, regretting some of my choices, and expressing feelings of my hurt and betrayal. I say how I tried to do right by you, but at the time I was facing a lot of challenges and we had a lot of miscommunication. But overall, it's broadcasting, my desire to try to make things right.

Me: I'll take a listen. Thank you for telling me. I've told you a million times but you know I will always support you.

Aubrey: Ima send it to you. Listen before everyone else does.

Me: okay

I close the thread and see Jason Lee texted. I haven't talked to him since the interview.

JL: Interview is done and being released tomorrow. Would you like to see it?

Me: Nope. I think it's fine. Thank you for keeping your word.

My phone dings. Aubrey sent the file and I go to it to take a listen.

[There should be a GIF or video here. Update the app now to see it.]

I sit there for a minute. Why is it a build up? I laugh to myself. You cannot find no one better than this are his first words. I roll my eyes. He can't help it. Tried to do right by you but we can't mix. True.

He brings up how I said I wasn't going to mess with him anymore and I kept going back on my word and doing it anyway. I know that was crazy time for me but that's something he doesn't ever have to worry about.

Then he goes on to say I'm his. I just can't calculate that statement. He had me and treated me badly. He really thinks betrayed him. I mean, the Chris stuff yeah, but that isn't what broke us up. He did.

He talks about me being with Joe. That he's embarrassed about us. Acts like this is all my fault. Happy he can admit some thing's but it's not enough and he's still throwing this on me. Shit, I tried. The fuck is he talking about?

I shake my head. He still doesn't really comprehend it but that's what happens when you're dealing with a narcissist. I know how to deal with him now. I know to keep him at a distance and I know what to say to keep him cordial with me, so we don't clash. That's it, that's all.

I listen to the rest of the song and I actually like it. I can never say his shit sucks, even if it is about me. He still can do no wrong when it comes to music. That's why he's the artist of the decade. 😌

I get a text notification. I forgot I was texting Jason Lee.

I got back to his thread and continue our conversation.

JL: now that you know you can trust me. When am I going to get out with you and Joe?

Me: ..... might want to hold off on that. I met with Jason Momoa.

JL: DETAILS

Me: I will keep you posted and let you know what you can put out.

JL: This is going to be good!!

I don't respond, I just smile to myself. This IS going to be good!

I start smiling harder. "Jason Momoa called me his little Protégé..." 😌

THE END

What did you think about the Books?

I appreciate you guys reading the Under The Influence books and staying with me for so long. I feel a little weird with it being the end of those books because I really enjoyed writing them.

I hope you guys check out my other books and I have a few new ones on the way you can add those to your libraries because they will be updating very soon now that this series is officially over.

♥️♥️♥️♥️

•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

SURPRISE!!!!!!

Follow Joe and Shawnie as they navigate the ups and downs of Hollywood, Joe with his modeling and her acting careers. Him working closely with his new boss and her working just as close to Jason Momoa.

Recently Shawnie accepted a position with Jason Momoa's companies as a brand ambassador. She also excepted a role with his production company, and they will be working on an upcoming film together.

Just as Shawnie has, Joe has been signed with a huge clothing company, and is new to the field. After taking a professional liking to him, his new boss insists that she helps him out all of his needs. Almost the same girls for Jason Momoa. He offered to take Shawnie under his wing as his protégé, and show her all the ins and outs of Hollywood for her to her new craft.

Save to your library, I will be posting the first chapter to this short story soon!!

•

Here are some of my other books you should check out BOTH out TODAY!

•

Not out yet but coming soon

Love yall! ♥️