Chapter Five
Brad
Mia had become the star of my every thought. I couldn’t get through a single day without thinking about her. She had been on my mind ever since I’d thought about her and our silly pact on my drunken ride home. No matter what I did, it all pointed right back to her and our promise to get married if we were still single. I wasn’t sure if I was scared or thrilled by the idea.
I knew I should let it go. It had been a drunken promise made in a moment of weakness. Neither of us had been serious. Right? I shook my head. Wrong. I had been completely fucking serious. I just never imagined I would be sitting across the country wondering if I should hold her to it.
The walls were closing in on me. Getting out and doing something—anything—was the only way I was going to stop myself from hunting Mia down and demanding she marry me.
“Hey,” Jaxon said, answering his phone on the third ring. He sounded groggy and I knew right away he was still in bed. “Why are you calling me so early?”
“It isn’t early. It’s ten.”
“That’s early when you didn’t go to bed until four,” he said.
I shook my head. “You’re getting too old for that shit,” I said with exasperation. “You’re going to need to take some vitamins or some shit. One of these days you are going to keel over from exhaustion.”
“No, I won’t. I’m healthy as a horse. And I have the stamina of a horse by the way,” he added.
I scoffed. “That’s not what I heard.”
“Whatever. You’re jealous.”
“Get up,” I grumbled.
“I’m already up,” he said, laughter in his voice.
“Gross. Get out of bed and go to the beach with me.”
“No.”
“Get up. Let’s go surfing.”
“No.”
I growled. “Jaxon, you can’t sleep all day.”
“Who said I was sleeping?”
I rolled my eyes. “Same chick from the other night?” I asked.
“No.”
“You need to expand your vocabulary. No wonder I’m the one on the radio and you’re the one pedaling my show. Come on. We’ll go to the beach and you can look for fresh meat,” I said, really not wanting to spend the day alone.
“I can’t. I have things to do,” he said in that same sly tone.
I heard a soft moan and held the phone away from my ear. I did not want to hear Jaxon pleasuring a woman. We were friends, but there were some lines I wasn’t prepared to cross.
“You can do her later. Get up.”
“No,” he said. “I’ve got to go, unless you want to stay on the line and listen to how a real man takes care of a woman.”
“Fuck you. No, you pervert,” I said, and I hung up the phone.
I was going to go stir-crazy if I didn’t get out of the apartment. I didn’t want to stay inside on a gorgeous spring day and stare at the walls. I had to get out. Maybe I could go for a run or do some paddle boarding. I hadn’t done that in a while.
But not yet. First, I had to satisfy my curiosity. I pulled out my laptop and quickly Googled Mia’s name. Within seconds, her beautiful face was staring back at me. There were pictures of her posing with famous designers at various fashion shows and out and about in the city. I clicked on the professional picture of her and was taken to her biography page at the fashion magazine she worked at.
I smiled as I read about her accomplishments. My Mia had made it big. I felt an unwarranted sense of pride as I stared at her picture. Damn, she was gorgeous, and from what I could see, single. The years had changed her little. She looked a bit more mature, but hot as hell. I was only pissed the picture was a head shot and not a full-body shot. I went back and scanned the images of her that had been posted on the society pages. I didn’t see any of her with a man on her arm. That had to be a good sign.
I enlarged a few of the pictures and looked at her wedding ring finger, searching for a ring or signs of a tan line. Nothing. That made me a happy man for no real reason. I should have felt a little bad that she was alone and single in the world. I didn’t. I was a terrible person because it made me happy to know she was somewhere out there waiting for me. Well, she may not have purposely been waiting for me, but I wanted to take advantage of the situation.
We would both be thirty-five in a matter of months, and a promise was a promise, right? If she was single, I was ready to call and remind her of our pact. We had said we could have affairs in our marriage if the sex was bad, but that wasn’t going to be a problem. The sex had been amazing. It had become the yardstick all other women were measured against. No one could compare to Mia.
Closing the search engine, I felt a bit like a stalker and headed for the shower. I had to call her. I had to know. I cut my shower short and looked up the number for the offices of Mia’s magazine. It was Saturday morning and it was unlikely she was in, but I had to call. I had to do it before I lost my nerve and carried on with my miserable life while wondering what if.
I waited, pacing around my living room in just my swim trunks. As expected, her extension went to voice mail. I left a message. I doubted she checked her messages. I didn’t check mine at the station. There were a lot of crazies in the world. I had an assistant who filtered the messages, passing along those that meant something or were worth hearing.
I had done all I could, and I still had plenty of time to hit the beach before I had to head into work myself. I worked Saturday nights. It was one of my most popular nights on the radio. Dinner with Brad had jumped to the top of the syndicated radio shows.
Tonight, I was going to be doing dinner with a newcomer to the music scene. I avoided the hip-hop guys and most of the teeny bopper singers. I needed to keep my audience happy, and nobody wanted to hear what those manufactured people had to say. I certainly didn’t.
After a long day on the water working out all the old frustrations that came along with the realization that I had lost Mia, I was starving. Thankfully, part of the Dinner with Brad format was that various restaurants and food truck owners catered the show.
“Hey,” I said, greeting Tina as I strolled into the office.
“You’re going to love the dinner for tonight. It’s right up your alley: healthy cardboard-tasting something or other.”
I laughed. “I love me a good piece of cardboard. A little ketchup makes it all taste good.”
She rolled her eyes. “It’s disgusting you look as good as you do, but I am not about to give up steak and potatoes just so I can have a smoking-hot body,” she said.
I winked. “Tina, you already have a smoking-hot body.”
She laughed. It was a joke between us. The woman looked amazing. No one would ever know she had three little kids at home.
“Is my guest here?” I asked.
She nodded. “In the green room. He wasn’t real excited about the low-carb, gluten-free, dairy-free bullshit you are serving for dinner. He’s in there eating a real pizza.”
I cringed. I was not a dairy-free guy. I did like to keep my carb intake low, but after the workout I put in today on the paddle board, I could have used some carbs.
“I think I’m going to see if he’ll share with me,” I said with a grin.
“Want me to order you something?” she asked, stepping right into the role of doting mama.
“I’ll be okay. Is the catered dinner pizza?”
“If you can call it that,” she mumbled.
“I’ll eat a slice like a dutiful host and then grab something to eat on my way out. I think I have a protein bar in my office.”
She nodded. “You got a new case in today from some company up north.”
“Awesome!”
I loved the freebies I got from various healthy and natural food companies. Part of my shtick was my healthy eating. I tried out a lot of the latest health-food trends and gave my honest opinion. Companies wanted me to give their product my seal of approval. When I did, they would see spikes in sales. If I didn’t like a food, I didn’t say it on the air but instead had my assistant send a note explaining I didn’t feel comfortable promoting the item.
Sadly, that happened a lot.
“How are the kids?” I asked as we walked down the hallway toward my office.
“Brats. Cutest brats you will ever meet, though.”
I laughed. I knew how much she loved her kids. She had brought them to the station a few times. The little wrecking balls were definitely energetic. I had decided that was how she managed to stay in good shape. Chasing the little monsters would be very good exercise.
“I’ll admit, they are pretty cute.”
“When are you going to settle down, Brad? You’re not getting any younger. Unless you plan on being one of those old rich guys who buys a trophy wife.”
That hit home. That was exactly the way my life was headed if I didn’t make some changes. I couldn’t let her know that though. I had an image to uphold.
“I can’t settle down. I’ve only conquered about half of Los Angeles. I’ve still got the outlying areas!”
“You’re so full of shit. Why do guys always have to pretend like they enjoy being players? Jaxon is an exception to the rule. That man is shallow and can’t handle more than three weeks with the same woman. You’re different, Brad,” she said sincerely.
“Thank you. I’m glad you think so. I’m not there yet. Maybe someday.”
She grinned. “I could let you babysit one day, give you a little taste of the parenting life.”
I grimaced. “Uh, I’m going to say no. Love your kids, but no. Three is three too many. I need them tiny and unmoving.”
She laughed. “Brad, I hate to tell you, but those tiny ones grow into those adorable little balls of fire I have.”
I groaned. “Do they have to?”
“Get ready. You’re on in thirty.”
I changed in my office, scarfed down one of the protein bars, then headed to the green room to meet my guest. Dinner with Brad had started out as a show that played during the five to eight dinner hours. It grew and evolved into what it was today. I loved every minute of it. I loved talking to millions of people, knowing they were hanging on my every word. I had the power to make them laugh or make them think about issues they may not have even known about. It was a heady feeling to know you could influence people with such ease without ever having met them.
Shit. I was becoming an egomaniac. Hell, maybe I already was.