Marvin Grey was thirty-five years old this year.
After rolling around in the rotten entertainment circle for over a decade, he has already cultivated a truly thick skin. He could curse or praise someone without any burden depending on the situation.
But, it is not as if Marvin Grey was someone who was at the bottom of the circle. If so, he could never be invited to this party held by Kid Z. He was one of the successful brokers in the middle level of the entertainment industry. He had his fingers in all kinds of pies in the circle.
Whether it be music, film, or even TV series, Marvin Grey has several contacts in his hands that are incredibly useful. He was considered to be an incredibly versatile broker among the agents running around in the entertainment industry at the moment.
One of Marvin Grey's biggest wishes was to create a cross-platform superstar with his own hands. Unfortunately, his goal may be lofty, but his ability was not up to that level. Neither were the talents of his clients.
Since he concentrated across different platforms, the resources in his hands were very scattered. It was only logical. This created a very serious issue in Marvin Grey's career.
As an agent, Marvin Grey was the absolute best a newcomer could get in this industry. With his wide variety of contacts, he can easily introduce a newbie and make them become popular.
However, the problem came when the artist wasn't a newcomer anymore. Operating for newcomers and operating for stars that were a little bit famous were entirely different. Not to mention operating for those superstars who were at the top.
When the artist under his hand reaches a certain level of popularity, they will hit a particular bottleneck in the development. Marvin Grey was never able to help them break through this bottleneck in their career.
Since his efforts were scattered across multiple platforms, Marvin never managed to control the necessary resources required to help the artist under him to push to the next level. He almost always floundered after a period of development and would end up dragging the artist's career down.
Marvin Grey never truly realized his mistakes. And this circle wasn't benevolent enough to educate him on that. Most agents would wait in the wings until the artist under Marvin becomes frustrated and would offer their help. Thus, they will inevitably poach the artist from Marvin and leave him to flounder once more.
It is not as if Marvin was talentless. When it comes to operating commercial projects for new actors or actresses, there are very few who can actually match his energy. The same was true for introducing new singers to company labels. Marvin was a golden sign for newbie recommendations in the industry.
But, Marvin never managed to reach the next level because of his lack of connections with the artistic circle. Any actor or actress would try to hit some awards after a certain stage in their career. The same was true for singers. Awards meant peer recognition. It was natural for anyone famous to crave them.
Marvin never managed to get a hold of this aspect of star development. That became his biggest Achilles heel. And the funny thing was that Marvin acted as if he was blind to this phenomenon. Every time an artist under him wanted an award, they would jump ship and leave him.
He was considered to be a huge joke by major agents in the circle due to this. Those agents always treated Marvin like an egg-laying hen. They will watch him develop an artist to a certain level and then swoop in to grab them from him.
After a decade of such experiences, Marvin was truly frustrated with his career. Every time he would develop someone for two or three years. Then, they would leave him for other agents in the company. This cycle had truly become his nightmare.
And currently, Marvin was in one such situation.
The star actor he had painstakingly cultivated for the past three years had jumped ship without even talking to him about it. And the star wasn't even willing to speak to him after that.
This made Marvin really feel down. He thought that he would be able to hold on to this actor at least after years of friendship. Before jumping ship, the star and him had been very amicable. They had a very great relationship in private as well. Marvin even considered the star to be his friend.
The betrayal from such a friend vexed him more than anything. But, Marvin was actually used to this. Deep in his heart, he knew that this was going to happen. He just didn't want to believe it.
He came to the party hosted by Kid Z to drown out his sorrows. He and Kid Z had a very good relationship. When Kid Z debuted, Marvin helped him with a song release with his connections.
Although Kid Z was never a singer under him, he helped Kid Z out due to an old friendship. And Kid Z had always kept this in the heart. So, regardless of the situation Marvin was in, he was always welcome at Kid Z's parties.
This time, he had to endure the knowing looks and mocking words of his colleagues during the party. So, he had isolated himself was drinking alone in a corner near the bar.
That was when he saw a woman talking to Kid Z familiarly. The moment he laid eyes on her, his intuition that was honed from years of experience told him that she was different. There was something about that woman that held his attention.
But, Marvin wasn't moved immediately. What kind of different artists hasn't he seen in this industry? This industry was filled with people like them. To be a star, the basic quality was to capture people's attention. What this woman did wasn't that special. So, he only paid a little attention to her.
However, Marvin couldn't take his eyes off her when he realized that Kid Z was talking to her a lot. And the conversation between them looked very smooth as well. He had never seen the taciturn Kid Z smile or smirk so openly with a woman during his parties. And he had been to many of his parties.
So, Marvin focused his attention on the woman.
That is when he realized that this woman wasn't dressed up like the other females at this party. While her clothes were decent enough, she hadn't deliberately dressed up to impress anyone at this party.
Most brokers would have rejected this woman in their hearts just based on this aspect. After all, if you can't even be bothered to put in some effort and dress up, why do you want to stay in this circle?
This circle was glitzy and glamorous. Especially for female stars. Fashion went hand in hand with popularity in this circle. Since that was the case, it is essential for females to dress to impress people. It was only natural.
But, this aspect only piqued Marvin's interest in the woman further.
Soon he noticed another surprising factor. The woman was talking to Kid Z as if he was her friend. There wasn't any overt fawning behavior or being hard to get kind of attitude. She acted as if talking to Kid Z was a normal everyday occurrence to her.
That could be only possible if she was in the circle as well. But, Marvin had never seen her before. He had definitely not seen her at any of Kid Z's parties for sure. If she was a friend, then it was something very rare to occur.
And he didn't believe that the situation was like that.
The woman looked more like a newbie. But, she didn't have any awe of Kid Z. And their relationship also looked good. This intrigued him a little. Was she a new singer who has some relationship with Kid Z?
With his curiosity piqued Marvin walked over after Kid Z left his place. He smoothly slid onto the stool and looked at her. As he was examining her, the woman gave him a glance before looking away. She didn't initiate any conversation.
To Marvin, who always had numerous women willing to chat with him so that he could introduce them in the circle, this kind of treatment from a newbie was a new thing. Smiling inwardly, Marvin decided to strike up a conversation to see where it could lead to.
"Hi Miss, my name is Marvin Grey," Marvin introduced himself hoping that she had heard of him.
"Natasha, Natasha Lyons," the woman replied after eyeing him a bit.
It didn't look like she had heard of him. Marvin had always thought he was well-known in the circle. But, from this woman's reaction, it looked like it wasn't the case. Suppressing the annoyance that was caused by it, Marvin continued.
"Lyons? Are you French?" Marvin asked to satisfy his curiosity.
"Half," the woman said smoothly. "My father was French."
Ah, French! No wonder she hadn't heard of him. French girls always had a bit of a temperament to them. That might explain her attitude towards Kid Z. Didn't people say that French women loved being called artistic? Well, let me try it out.
"Oh, ok ok," Marvin Grey smiled amicably. "I knew there was something unique about you the moment I laid my eyes on you. And I was right. You have that indescribable artistic air around you that French people have."
The woman blinked at him as if he had said something incomprehensible.
"Thank you," the woman smiled stiffly.
Seeing her response, Marvin Grey realized that he might have misjudged the woman a bit. But, he still wasn't deterred. He really did feel good about this woman. Furthermore, it looked like this woman had some connection with Kid Z. So, it was imperative to determine who this woman was.
If not, his curiosity wouldn't be sated.
*****
A/N: Check out my other stories and let me know your thoughts...
Support me at patreon.com/kkephemeral