BRITTANY
The ringing of my cell phone in my clutch purse on the floor of Jason’s bedroom wakes me up. I jump out of bed as I recognize my agent’s ringtone.
As I take the phone out of my purse, I see Jason yawning and stretching. “Hello, Reece,” I answer the phone.
“Hey, Brittany. I forgot to tell you this, and I know you’re going to be pissed at me, but you’ve been nominated for the ABCD Award for the best book cover of the year for the one titled, ‘Killing the Rainbow,’ so I need you to be at that tonight,” she tells me, igniting a spark of sheer terror in me.
“Damn it, Reece! What time and where?” I ask, as I try to find my clothes.
“The Plaza, at six this evening. Bring a date. I’ll see you there.” She hangs up and I go back to finding my clothes.
“What time is it?” Jason groans.
I look at my phone and see we’ve slept until three in the afternoon. I have no damn time!
“Three! Fuck!” I can’t seem to find anything. “I have to run. I’ll catch a cab.”
He sits up, rubbing his eyes. “No!”
“Baby, I don’t have time to argue. That was my agent. I have something to do in three hours that I knew nothing about and am not at all prepared for.”
He looks confused and I stop my search to go sit on the bed next to him as he says, “But, what about what I said? You stay here and that kind of thing?”
“You really want that?”
He nods. “Yes. I know you have work to do, and I promise not to get in your way. I’ll get my driver to take you to your place and when you’re done with work, you come back here. I can have him pick you up.”
“That won’t be necessary. He can take me home. I need to get there fast, anyway. Since Reece didn’t tell me this, I’m in a super rush. But I’ll have my driver bring me back here afterward. I want to get a few of my things, since you want to keep me here. Or would you like to spend the night at my place? It overlooks the East River. You might like that. We could have a late supper. I could call you when I get back and you could come over then.”
He looks like I’m talking too fast and he seems shell shocked for a second. Then he nods. “Yeah, I’ll come to your place tonight. I’ll bring dinner. I want to see how you live, anyway. You know, if you’ve turned into a sloppy housekeeper, that kind of thing, I might have to retrain you.” He smiles and pinches my cheek.
“You goof. I have a staff who keep my place up to the perfection you demand, master.” I kiss his cheek and he takes my face in his hands and makes me give him a real kiss.
The kiss makes me want to climb right back into that bed and get all over his gorgeous ass, but I have to hurry. One look into his blue eyes and I have to cut mine away.
“Damn, baby. I’m sorry. I have to go. I’ll call you as soon as I get back home.”
He lays back with a smile on his face. “I love you, precious potato head.”
With a laugh, I say, “I love you, too. And lose that little gem of a love name, will you?”
He nods, and I can’t believe how much my heart is already swelling with love for him.
I just hope he doesn’t make me regret it!
JASON
After waiting for hours, my cell finally rings at ten o’clock. I see it’s Brittany and I can finally breathe a sigh of relief. I thought she was going to stand me up, and I’d have to become a stalker to get through to her.
“Hey, baby. That was a very long meeting.”
“I know. I’m home now. Do you still want to come over? Or is it too late for you?” she asks, as I hear a lot of shuffling around in the background.
“I want to come over. You want me to, right?” I ask, feeling a little odd about things.
“I do want you too. So come whenever you’d like. I’m going to take a shower. So if you make it here before I get out, just come in and make yourself at home. I’ll leave the door unlocked.”
“No, don’t leave your door unlocked! That’s so unsafe. I’ll be on my way and will wait in the car until you call me. You can make me a key tomorrow. I already had one of mine made for you. I want you to come here any time of day or night. I want you to know you can trust me.”
“Wow! You never gave me a key to your little apartment back in the day, Jason. That’s a really big step for you,” she says, and I hear the shower start. “I’ll call you then. See you soon. Bye.”
Pulling on a jacket, I call my driver and get him to bring the car around. I’ve already eaten, and most likely she has, too, but I take a bottle of white wine and a takeout plate of sweet and sour chicken I got for her, as I thought she’d be done by dinnertime.
I suppose the book cover business is a little more involved than I thought it would be. Who would think a meeting would go that long over the cover of a book?
Then it occurs to me that it wouldn’t. She may have had a date afterward. Maybe to let one of her men down easy. But still, she didn’t tell me about it at all and now my hackles are up.
I think she and I need to make up some kind of plan on how we’re going to let our other parties know we’re out of the game. And one on one, in person, meetings with any of them are a no go.
Taking the elevator down to the waiting car, I give the driver a nod and get inside the car. My mind is kind of a racing mess with the idea she may have been alone with one of her boy toys.
I find I’m tapping my foot incessantly on the floor. To calm my nerves, I pour myself a drink from the car’s bar and sit back, taking a little sip. I close my eyes and mentally prepare myself to accept things if she tells me she met with someone.
She was never untrustworthy, but I don’t know about now. And I don’t know if she’s above retaliation for all the times I messed around on her. She could’ve been reeling me in so she could hook me and hurt me like I hurt her so many times.
Fuck, I’m stupid!
The phone rings and I see it’s her. “Hi,” I answer.
“You about here, baby? I’m out of the shower now.”
The sound of her voice sends all of my negative thoughts away and I relax. “Yes, I’m nearly there, I think. We’re getting much closer to the East River.” I lean up and ask Donovan, “About how much longer until we get there?”
“Fifteen minutes,” he answers.
“I heard him,” she says. “Can’t wait to see you, Jason.”
“Me too.” I hang up and feel a ton better.
I’m letting those insecurities resurface, and I have to learn to stop doing that. Turning on the television, I try not to think about bad things.
That’s always been my problem. I remember thinking a lot about Britt going off to college and forgetting about me. So much so that I sabotaged things with her before that even had a chance of becoming true.
In the end, she did go away to college and forget about me, but it’s because of what I did that made that happen. It’s funny, and not in the ha-ha sort of way, how the things we’re most afraid of happen to us, anyway.
Flipping through the satellite channels, I find nothing that captures my attention. I’m more than a bit preoccupied with thoughts of me and Britt and our future.
It didn’t occur to me to ask her if she got that morning-after pill. I hope she didn’t, to tell the truth. It wouldn’t hurt my feelings one bit to see her all chubby with my baby.
Some would think me a terrible man who would want that so fast. But where this one woman is concerned, I’d like nothing more than to settle her down with me and start raising a bunch of little me and hers.
Something on the television catches my eye and I go back several channels and see the words on the bottom of the screen. It’s some kind of awards, it seems, and there’s a little blurb about it on the local news station.
I turn it up and listen as the reporter says, “Earlier this evening, some of New York’s top people in the publishing industry had a low-key awards ceremony. Authors, illustrators, and even book cover artists were there to receive awards for all of their hard work this last year.”
I find it interesting, as Brittany should have been involved in this awards thing. I Googled her and found out all there is to know about her work and she is very impressive. She’s won all kinds of awards for her book covers and to know she was left out of this is appalling.
The camera pans around the room of dressed up people and in the background, I hear an announcer saying, “And the book cover of the year goes to Brittany Caldwell, for her work on the cover of the book Killing the Rainbow.”
My eyes are glued to the screen as the camera pans around and, suddenly, Brittany is filling the screen, wearing a gorgeous gold gown and in the arms of some fucking man. Their lips touch for a horrifying moment and he says, “I’m so proud of you, darling.”
She cups the back of his neck as they gaze into each other’s eyes. “I couldn’t have done it without you, my love.”
The reporter is back on the screen, as I seem to have lost the ability to take in air. “That was a bit earlier tonight. By the look in those two’s eyes, I’m sure some intense and intimate celebrating is probably still going on with them even now. Meow, they’re one hot couple!”
Fuck me! She’s done it to me this time!
To be continued …