Re:life with Karmic Gacha (Modern Family)
Chapter 92: Getting busy

Chapter 92: Chapter 92: Getting busy

[Edward POV]

"Thankfully I managed to avoid the landmine of Claire coming to supervise." I thought as I breathed a sigh of relief after taking my bags from my house. My driver to the hotel? It was none other than the high dude, Leo.

"No worries man." Leo muttered before he tried to light up a cigar while driving. Although he was doing me a favor by driving me to the hotel, I couldn't let him smoke while I was inside the car.

"Leo. I'm a singer. No smoking in front of me. It'll damage my lungs." I said calmly without trying to antagonize him. Leo was startled and he said, "Sorry Big Boss."

The drive was smooth, and within 30 minutes, I arrived at a luxury 5 stars hotel located in West Hollywood.

As Leo drove me to the entrance, the hotel staff helped me to carry my bags as I waved goodbye to the hippie.

"Boss. Your house is huge!" Leo was in awe after he saw the hotel. His jaw dropped and his eyes widened as he slowly raised his head upward to check out the building.

"Yup. Next time, don't be late, and I'll invite you in." I said jokingly, in which Leo nodded seriously as the big boss image in his heart shot up exponentially after seeing my 'house'.

Despite his effort, he will soon forget about who he was driving and which place he had driven me to, making him the perfect guy to be hired as a driver whenever I wanted to do 'fishy' stuff.

Something shocking that I found when I ran a background check on Leo before, he actually bought a lot of IBM stock in 1962, and was basically a millionaire. But I guess after smoking weed for so long, he had forgotten that fact and was living as a hobo the entire time. He even forgot that he had a son, and now his son even had gotten married and had a kid, making him a granddad.

"I should let them meet after this." I muttered to myself as I saw Leo drive away.

"Mr. Luthor, your room is ready." The hotel concierge said after I walked to the hotel front desk. I had already hacked into the hotel system to check for room vacancy so that I wouldn't come here uselessly, and also reserved the penthouse suite under a different name.

"Lead the way." I said as I didn't want the hassle of replaceing my own room especially at the giant hotel. The concierge nodded and ushered me to my room with the highest professionalism. They didn't inquire about my name, job, age, or even tried to strike a conversation.

"Thank you." I said and tipped the concierge 100 dollars for his effort and entered the room.

"Hmm..Should I go there, or should I just go to sleep?" I muttered to myself as I took out Taylor's hotel key from my pocket. Suddenly, my phone vibrates as I get a text message.

Taylor: Waiting for you. (Pic.attachment)

I opened it up, smirked, and opened my laptop before I hacked into the hotel's close-circuit camera system. You might wonder what was the pic she sent me. All I could say was that it rhymes with 'dudes'.

Edward: Lucky for me, I'm on your floor right now.

Taylor: Wait. Really?

Taylor: Wait 5 minutes before you come in.

The moment I walked in, I saw almost naked Taylor adorning a beautiful emerald-green lingerie, with garter belt on her thigh paired with a long white stocking that reached to her thigh.

"You like it? I just got it from Victoria's secret."

Taylor said with a seductive whisper as she posed seductively with her hand sliding from her waist to her thigh as she did.

"I should've come earlier." I said before locking the door behind me after putting a [DO NOT DISTURB] sign on the doorknob.

"Now, Shall we?" I said with a smirk as I climbed into bed with her.

...

"Ahh~ This feels great." I exclaimed as the warm sensation spread throughout my entire body. The euphoric pleasure made me almost give up trying to keep my cool.

Right now, I was naked and inside....a hot tub in my room after Taylor and Selena had returned to their workplace.

Taylor booked another room for Selena last night after dinner in case I wanted to stop by. I met Selena this morning when she came to Taylor's room for them to check out of the hotel together.

"That was awkward." I muttered as I remembered Selena's embarrassed face when she saw me there... Let me reiterate. She saw me... 'there'.

Apparently she still had the room key after getting kicked out last night.

With a bottle of wine on my side and a few snacks such as strawberries and different types of cheeses, I thoroughly enjoyed my afternoon at the hotel before starting my work.

"So. They found out. Too bad there's no evidence though." I muttered with a chuckle as I watched the hotel front door through the hacked CCTV footage and was counting the number of reporters who caught wind of me staying in the same hotel as Selena and Taylor.

"23, and still rising." I said with a nod while inwardly bracing myself for the future Hollywood shitstorm I would get myself into now that I had debuted. They were trying to call the people involved out, but there's no pictures of us so they couldn't claim that we had our sexcapades in the hotel.

They couldn't enter the hotel because the security wouldn't let them, and even if they did, Selena and Taylor had already left the hotel. Taylor had to return to New York to prepare for her concert while Selena had to return to the shooting set of "Wizard of Waverly Place".

"Thank you Bruce." I said as I toasted my wine glass to the person I received the anti-monitoring ability from.

Bruce's playboy skill also encompassed how to create a 'positive' scandal that would hide his alternate ego, therefore after reverse engineering the skill, I used that to avoid a scandal all together as I don't want to deal with the Hollywood craziness just yet.

Suddenly, my phone rang. I picked up the phone and said, "Hello Harvey."

"Ed. Are you at XXX hotel?" She asked.

"Yeah." I replied casually.

"Did you meet with Taylor and Selena last night?"

"Yup."

"Did you do it?"

"...A little bit." I said as I didn't feel the need to hide anything from my lawyer.

"Don't worry, the last question was just from me. I will send over a few bodyguards to protect you from the hyenas and a driver so that you can have a nice trip." Harvey said casually.

"Thanks. But I'm not getting out of the hotel room. I'm still working on a new management system for the company, it's just something I recently figured out. I will send it to you in an hour?"

Harvey was confused and asked, "Didn't you go there for enjoyment?"

"Nah. I only wanted a nice quiet place to work."

"... I really don't understand you. Okay, I will wait for the document to arrive before I do anything else. So you actually lied to me about sleeping together with the girls huh."

"Nah. I did that too.." I said with a light chuckle. However, Harvey didn't believe me anymore and hung up after confirming my hotel room number. Then, I got a lecture from Pepper about the importance of using protection' and also about maintaining my public image– not acting out like a total incubus.

"Well. that's that." I said before getting out of the tub and wore a towel robe. I soon opened my laptop and typed a 60 page company management guideline and emailed the document to Harvey. All in all it took me no more than 50 minutes to get it all out.

"Hmm...that took me faster than I thought." I said before stretching my arms up and opened up my email next. Soon, I delved into the Newgate tourism business and my Flappy Bird game company work and didn't move from my position for hours until dinner time to settle all the work I had missed.

...

[3rd Person POV]

-Entertain Company, New Office-

Located nearby the busy Pasadena city, the old Saltzman 40 storey building, a classic old skyscraper worth well over 100 million dollars had just changed its ownership from Denise Saltzman to Sherman "Pepper" Saltzman and it was undergoing renovations to change it from a normal, dull and lifeless oil company HQ to a more creativity inclined office under Pepper's leadership.

"Where do you want this Bamboo plant to go?" A skinny latin man from Guatemala asked as he followed Pepper around as an assistant.

"Lucky Bamboo Plant. This plant brings health, prosperity and luck and should be placed in either the east side...if I want it to influence health, or the northeast part of the office if it's for wealth. I guess, put it on the east side. I want Edward to be healthy after all." Pepper said as he fanned his face with a paper fan.

Ronaldo nodded and walked away to place the tree where Pepper wanted it to be. He had a rare, sincere smile on his face after he talked to Pepper and muttered, "He's so kind..."

Pepper had just hired Ronaldo to be his assistant after a recommendation from Edward. Not only that, a lot of the new employees in the company were recommended by Edward and most of them were only starting out in their job, therefore Pepper was extremely confused by Edward's choice.

"I really don't see why he asked me to hire that guy. He'll thrive more as a party planner than an assistant." Pepper said in confusion as he watched Ronaldo walk away.

"You'll also thrive more as a party planner than a CEO." Harvey quipped as she walked into Pepper's stripped bare office that was without a desk or a chair, the walls were broken down to be rebuilt, and the floor tiles were also removed.

"That's true." Pepper said in agreement before asking, "Did mother finish sending the money?"

"Yes. In fact she even started a separate trust under the Company name. You basically have unlimited funding from your mother after this. Also, she wants...and I quote, "The twinkling little star to come have dinner at the estate whenever possible." I believe she has already been captured by Ed's charm as you expected her to be."

"Hmph! NOW she believes in me." Pepper said sarcastically.

Without a change in expression, Harvey said, "Didn't she already apologize to you? When my dad said sorry he gave me a hug. Yours gave you a building."

Pepper smirked and said, "You poor thing, you might think this is a huge concession from her. But no. The loss of this building doesn't even make a dent in her fortune. I can't wait for her to be dead."

"Now now. No need to send her your well wishes. Ed emailed me a 60 page management guideline. So take a look." Harvey took out the printed guideline and gave it to Pepper.

"He also said he will handle the creation of an employee training and management manual soon." Harvey added.

Pepper sighed as he looked at the pages. He turned to Harvey and asked in puzzlement, "I thought he went there to have FUN? I didn't say anything as he was mourning the mysterious grandmother no one knows, but he actually went there to work instead?"

Harvey nodded and explained his thoughts, "That is confusing for me too. 2 girls, and he chose work instead. This...cannot be done in just a few hours. It'll take time to finish it, no matter how much of a genius he is. Unless someone spoon fed him the new management method and let him copy it, I don't think he even met with the girls last night."

Pepper sighed again and shook his head. He said, "How's the search for a therapist going?"

"I found a female therapist with tight lips named Dr Linda Martin. Ed will have his first session on Thursday after his decathlon thing." Harvey said.

"Ted gave the okay?" Pepper asked in confirmation.

"Yes. He is also going to be there for support. But the hard part is to convince Edward."

Pepper thought for a while before saying, "Just leave that to his dad. If he fails, then I'm going to try it."

Harvey nodded before adding, "Not only this..." She pointed to the guideline. "...Ed also did some extra work by straightening out the taxes, handling future investments, and replaceing out a few distribution channels for the album to reach the global market. I checked his game company and the shipping company if he did some work there too,as I expect he did, he's working extremely hard. Someone needs to go there to stop him, or else...."

"You know how he is. If we tell him to stop, then he'll replace another way to do it without us knowing about it instead." Pepper sighed exasperatedly.

"Wait. Didn't Linn call today?" Pepper's eyes lit up as he remembered something.

"Yeah. The Ironettes audition starts tonight. Sarah Finn and Robert Downey Jr are going to be there." Harvey replied.

"Good. Bring him there. He got the audition for his friends, so he needs to be there for support." Pepper said.

Harvey smiled and said, "Okay. I'll tell him and ask him to get ready."

"Make sure he has dinner first." Pepper added. "It'll be a long night for him. But tell him if he wants to go home early, he can. He just has to let his friends down by doing so."

"You're awful." Harvey said with a smile as she arranged for Pepper's plan.

–Cuba–

At Havana's club a few days ago, Camila was listening to her nephew's new song using an earphone while checking her emails on her laptop. She had a grin on her face the entire time she listened to the songs. She was wearing a feminine floral pattern dress but with her leather jacket on.

"Hey chica-"

"Not interested."

Camila shot down the greasy looking Cuban man with a fedora on his head. The man accepted her rejection and moved away slowly while checking out Camila's body one last time.

"That guy sucks. I wonder if he took a stereotype checklist for a Cuban asshole before he came to the club."

Camila turned to check the source of the voice and found an American man sitting adjacent to her at the bar and was toasting his scotch at her as their eyes met. The man looked suspiciously like Ryan Reynolds and was wearing a yellow floral print shirt with a few buttons opened, revealing his taut chest muscles.

She rolled her eyes and wanted to get back to the song but the man had already slid next to her and said, "Are you listening to Edward Newgate's new song?"

"Not inter- Wait, you know him?" Camila changed her mind about rejecting the conversation with the man.

"Know him? I'm a fan of his, even before, when he played the violin." The man said with a smile before sipping his scotch.

Camila grinned from ear to ear as she talked to the man. He was nice, not a horn dog, and most importantly, he knew how to treat a lady right.

"So, are we going to keep talking, or can I finally know your name?" He asked.

Camila smiled and said while fluttering her eyes at him, "Camila. Camila Monroe."

"Wayne. Wayne Bruce."

"Oh. Do you perhaps have an alternate ego in the night named Man-Bat?" Camila joked. Wayne slumped his shoulders depressingly but with a smile on his face that showed Camila it wasn't the first time someone made that joke about his name.

They exchanged numbers and he even asked her out on a date soon while he was still staying in Cuba. Camila learned that he was a businessman coming here to trade a few car auto-parts which made her extremely interested in him and what he was doing. Not to mention, he was handsome.

After Camila left to go back to her hotel, Wayne's friendly face turned stoic and he contacted his team.

With a condescending sneer, he said, "I got in touch with the target. I knew not many women could resist my extremely charming face. See how easy that was?"

The nerdy agent that followed him to Cuba rolled his eyes and said, "Doesn't matter. Don't expose yourself. The FBI don't have jurisdiction here."

"Do you think I'm dumb? I know what I'm doing."

"Really? Then, why don't you invite her to a hotel tonight?"

"...A lady needs to be treated with respect-"

"You have a crush on her don't you?"

"Shut up! I don't! She's just a mission target."

"Really. Then...where are you taking her for your first date?"

"...Cafe L'Amour."

The nerdy agent grinned while Wayne cursed at him.

"Hey you. American!" Suddenly, the Cuban man with the fedora that was hitting on Camila a few paragraphs ago shouted at Wayne. He walked briskly toward Wayne with a few bulky men walking along with him.

"Uh-Oh. Here comes trouble~" The nerdy agent said with a singy-songy voice and was looking forward to Wayne going to be beaten up by the local gang.

"Ummm...I can't fight back right?" Wayne asked.

"Yup. You'll risk exposing yourself. So you should either let them have their way with you. Bend over. Don't gag. Or just run away."

At the bar, Wayne looked at the gang member with an exasperated look as they were already encircling him. "Couldn't you have told me that sooner?" He asked depressingly.

"You're a senior agent. You should have thought of that yourself." The nerd said before cutting off the call. Wayne sighed and put the phone in his pocket before saying, "Hey. Isn't that Ryan Reynolds?"

"Where?!" The gang member turned to check out the bar in search of the celebrity. Wayne took the opportunity to push the fedora wearing man and ran away hurriedly before he was going to get beaten.

"MIERDA!! AGáRRENLO!!" ("Shit, get him!") The fedora wearing Cuban shouted.

...

[Edward POV]

"Iron Man 2? Tonight? Why did they do it at night?" I asked in confusion after I talked to Harvey.

"No idea. But, it seems that it's because of Robert. You go there and you can ask them." Harvey said.

I remembered an article about the Iron Man 2 movie in my previous life that mentioned Robert Downey Jrs unconventional way of improvising in the film.

It caused the writers to almost be mad as they needed to rewrite the script multiple times because of the actor. It became that way because the studio had interfered with the movie production and even interfered with Jon Favreau work because they wanted to sell more merchandise.

'Of course, most of the claims come from people who thought Iron Man 2 was the worst MCU movie.' I thought secretly.

"But...I want to finish my job. I'm even working on figuring out my air-fryers design today. I have a lot of things on my plate!"

"It's okay if you don't want to go. Just call Kaya and Anna yourself. I'm sure they'll understand that you have no trust in them."

"... Are you guilt-tripping me?"

"I don't know. Am I?"

"..."

I sighed and said, "Okay fine. I'll go."

"Great. The driver is waiting for you downstairs. Renaldo will be there to help you get in when you arrive."

Harvey hung up the call soon after.

"Aww. Renaldo's here." I exclaimed happily before going to change my clothes. Luckily for me I brought a few options. I decided to wear a red flannel shirt on top of a white t-shirt and folded the sleeves to half my forearms. I paired the shirt with black jeans and Nike sneakers before leaving the hotel room.

"Let's go to Marvel studio!"