Sydney
Weeks. It’d been weeks since Emi’s first date with Sabian. At least three weeks. It could be four. Over a month already? Fuck. Sydney’s efforts to stop obsessing about the length of time she’d been talking to the guy now—almost every night—had finally begun to work because he’d actually lost count. Until that moment, that is, because she’d just texted him to say good night, something she’d only started to do recently. More and more nights they weren’t spending together, partly because of the amount of time she spent on the phone with Sabian now—usually in the evenings—but mostly because Sydney had been keeping himself busy.
These last three nights were the first he’d spent not hanging out or even chatting with Emi in a row. He hadn’t then, but he might now have to admit that he’d been keeping himself distracted. Ever since he’d broken things off for good with Cheryl a few weeks ago, hearing about how things were progressing between Emi and Sabian had become increasingly harder to stomach. The only solace he had was that Emi was still saying she wasn’t ready for anything serious. With Sabian’s schedule, it was nearly impossible for them to see each other unless he was playing in town, which he wasn’t scheduled to do until a month from now.
Sydney wasn’t even sure why he’d need solace. Sabian was a good guy. At least from everything she’d told Sydney about him so far. If anything, he should feel happy for Em—his best friend.
Sabian was far more put together than Darren. This guy didn’t do any of the things rich celebs his age usually did. No drugs, he hardly drank, and all the stories in the tabloids about him and all those celebrities and models he dated were bullshit. Since their first date, Emi had since seen him one time. He was just too busy for all the partying the tabloids said he did. Emi knew this firsthand. She’d told Sydney from the very beginning it was the bittersweet thing about her brother achieving his dream of making it to the big leagues. She hardly got to see him during the regular season and not much during the off season either. The career pretty much kept them busy on and off season.
As much as Sydney hated to admit it, there were no two ways around it. Sly Sabian was a good guy. Not only did he do a ton for charity, as if his career didn’t keep him busy enough on the off season, he spent weeks sometimes longer at the youth camp he and his parents had founded for underprivileged kids. Something he told Emi he wished there’d been more of when he was growing up.
So far the only negative thing about Sabian, if Sydney could even call it that, was his reaction to Emi’s best friend and neighbor. Like Angel, Sabian didn’t buy that any man and woman could be that close without there being anymore going on. At least in one of their heads.
Sydney had thought it ironic when she told him that Sabian, too, had thought she was speaking of a girlfriend the first few times she’d mentioned Sydney. The moment she realized it, she said she was not about to do the Sarah-in-high-school thing and not clarify. Sabian had also wasted no time in making his feelings about their friendship clear.
He didn’t like it.
Sabian hadn’t said it in so many words, neither had Emi. But from what she had told Sydney, it was pretty obvious. When she first told him, it was meant to be a sort of a funny “Oh, guess what” type of anecdote.
“Sly did the Angel tonight,” she’d said, a week after that first date with him.
The evening she’d told him, she’d come by Sydney’s place later than her usual evening time because once again she’d been on the phone with Sly. But she’d texted Sydney earlier to tell him she was bringing him dinner and for him not to eat. So Sydney had waited for her. It took him a second to figure out what she’d meant by did the Angel then realized she was talking about Lynn’s husband. As they sat at his kitchen counter eating the delicious meal she’d prepared, she explained further.
“I mentioned that I was making baked ziti for dinner. When he asked how I make a dish like that for one person, I told him I didn’t—that most of the time when I made these kinds of dishes I was cooking for two. For me and Sydney.”
Sydney had glanced up at her casually as he chewed his food, doing his best to hide the exultant feelings that last sentence stirred up. He already knew where the rest of the story might be going.
“I’d mentioned making stuffed crepes on Sunday then spending the rest of that day lazing around and watching movies at your place, so he asked if you ever cooked or if it was always me. Only he used the word she.” She’d laughed softly, clearly thinking this wasn’t a big deal at all. “At first, it didn’t even register, but when it did, and I thought of the misunderstanding that nearly broke Sarah and Angel up—”
“It did break them up,” Sydney reminded her.
“Oh, yeah,” she said without a flinch. “Anyway, I clarified as soon as I realized, and he was surprised at first. I just thought it was funny that he’d think the same way as Angel.”
Sydney had peered at her that evening, waiting for more, but she didn’t offer much else. He hadn’t asked for more either but wondered if by that she meant that he didn’t believe a guy and a girl could be just friends or that he assumed the friend she spent so much time with was a girl.
Sydney figured she hadn’t said more for either of two reasons: Either Sly had said something she’d decided was better she not share with Sydney or that, at the time she clarified, Sly thought it too soon to say too much about it. The latter seemed more realistic. He couldn’t imagine why she would keep anything from him, so Sydney let it go.
The following weeks, especially after Sabian came by to see her for the first time since their first date, the guy had made a few other telling comments. One of them Sydney had the pleasure of hearing for himself. The day Sabian was picking her up for a second time Emi had gone up to Sydney’s place again to get his opinion on her outfit just before Sabian arrived. Just like the first time the guy had texted her to tell her he was there. In her anxiousness to get Sydney’s opinion, she’d forgotten she’d told Sabian to ring her at her apartment when he showed up. He texted her to say he had and she wasn’t responding.
Security in the building was set up so that only someone in the apartment you rang or buzzed could buzz you in. So she texted him back with Sydney’s apartment number again and told him to buzz her there instead. To her surprise, he rang not buzzed, meaning she had to answer. She did and his first sentence was “Did you forget I was coming?”
The inflection in his tone was undeniable. It’d been a challenge to not smirk and to appear as confused as Emi had when she turned to Sydney with that adorably puzzled expression then responded. “No. I’m ready. I’ll buzz you in.”
Sydney wanted to laugh because she obviously hadn’t picked up on why Sabian had asked if she’d forgotten about him.
She’d since made a few more comments about her thinking Sabian was a little like Angel when it came to Sydney. Only unlike Angel and Lynn way back, even when they first started dating, Emi insisted she wasn’t officially seeing Sabian. She sounded as unsure about wanting a relationship even with Sabian as she had with Darren.
“It’s only been two dates,” she’d said after the second date with Sabian. “We haven’t made any promises or even discussed it. For all I know, he could be seeing other girls at all the other cities he stops at.”
That seemed highly improbable to Sydney, especially considering Sabian’s time restrictions. But again Sydney was doing his best to not obsess about it. Frowning as he did often these days, he glanced down at the text he’d gotten earlier.
I’m going to sleep like a baby tonight thanks to you! =)
Even before Emi had gone on that first fateful date with Sabian, an old friend had begun to text and call Sydney again, one he’d lost touch with for a while: Scarlet Brendon. During her television show’s season’s hiatus, she’d been on location overseas filming a movie. She’d been back for months now. She’d explained it all, but if Sydney had to be honest, he’d barely noticed her gone that past year. It wasn’t until Emi’s free time was no longer all his that he realized just how much time he’d devoted to her on almost a daily basis. How reliant and content he’d become with her being the person he spent most of his down time with. He still had his regular go-to acquaintances that were in full agreement that what they did together was just to fulfill each other’s needs and nothing more, but he’d completely neglected his usual friends and all but lost touch with them.
Except for Scarlet. With her career in high gear, she, too, had mentioned how a social life was nearly impossible. It was why she liked the convenience of having a friend in the same building. With that said, he’d decided, after several evenings of waiting to hear from Em to no avail, to respond to Scarlet’s texts. When he told Em about reconnecting with Scarlet after not mentioning her for so long, she’d been surprised though not nearly as excited as the first time he’d told her about knowing her. Apparently, being with a celebrity herself and rubbing shoulders with more because of him, had worn out the novelty of it.
Scarlet had been his company again tonight, and he’d been standing there staring at himself in the mirror for a while. The distraction he’d thought would alleviate his growing anxiousness was doing nothing of the sort. If anything, it made him feel like an asshole.
“Alright,” his reflection said to him, “time to man up and admit it.” Sydney stared at the unrelenting irritated face that stared back at him. “Congratulations. You’ve done it again. You’ve fallen for your best friend, a girl who’s been saying over and over that she’s in no way ready for any kind of relationship. None. Not even with Mr. Fucking Perfect. And why would she be? She’s not even twenty-one yet. So now what, you idiot? You continue to avoid her so you don’t have to hear about her little flings but drive yourself nuts thinking of her even when . . .”
Shaking his head in frustration and full of shame, he pressed his lips together, thinking about that. Each time he’d been with Scarlet these last three nights he’d thought of Emi the entire time. Tonight he’d nearly grunted out her name as he drove into Scarlet with a purpose. “It’s not the same as with Lynni,” he muttered. He picked up his phone and read the other text he’d gotten earlier from Emi.
You’re probably still busy. But if you’re up by chance give me a call. I’ve been having trouble falling asleep lately, so I’ll probably be up for a while. If not, good night, my friend. I’ll see you in the morning at Foams. =)
No, he wasn’t busy anymore. He was tempted to tell her to come up because, after only three nights of not having her there to hang out with, it was alarming how much he missed her. She’d been at his place later than this, but she’d come up way earlier, and the time just got away from them. But not once had he asked her to come up this late.
Since he was done brushing his teeth, he took an aspirin to relieve the tension headache he felt coming on. Then he walked out of the restroom without responding to his annoying reflection. He put his phone on the charger next to his bed and got under his down blanket. He’d bought Em one earlier that year because she mentioned how soft and delicious it felt after sitting on it one of the few times she’d stepped into his bedroom.
But he’d only purchased it because they were on sale at Macy’s and because Emi said she never knew how to pick out that kind of fancy stuff. Not just because seeing her entire face light up did things to him now he couldn’t begin to explain.
“You lying sack of shit,” he muttered as he attempted to get comfortable under his blanket.
After a several minutes of tossing around in his bed, the impatience turned into exasperation, and he was beginning to feel like a kid throwing a hissy fit. He finally kicked the blanket off, sat up taking a deep breath, and ran his fingers through his hair. Squeezing his eyes shut for a moment, he took another deep breath then glanced at his phone. So he’d call her and chat for a little bit.
Big deal.
If neither of them could sleep, what was the point of both them lying in bed tossing and turning? The only times he’d spoken to her in the last few days were at Foams in the mornings. But their talks had been short, and she hadn’t mentioned Sabian much. Even when he’d seen her reading out by the pool yesterday, he’d refused to go out and hang with her. Hearing her mention the guy had kissed her had been grating as shit, and Sydney wasn’t so sure he’d managed to hide it because she changed the subject quickly enough.
Still, how bad could chatting with her for a little before hitting the hay be? He tapped the speed dial button before he could give it another thought. She answered just after the first ring.
“Hey, you’re up,” she chirped.
Sydney glanced at the time on his phone, already smiling just from hearing the sweet sound of her voice. He hadn’t realized it was almost midnight. His evening with Scarlet had gone on a bit longer than he’d planned.
“Yeah, I’m having trouble sleeping myself.”
“Work stressing you out?”
“Nah,” he said, lying back down on his bed, “just one of those nights where I can’t seem to get comfortable. What about you? Something on your mind?”
“Hmm,” she said, making Sydney curious.
He hadn’t actually expected her to say she was stressed. It was more of a courtesy follow-up to her question.
“I wouldn’t call it stressing out. Just trying to decide if I made a mistake or not.”
“About what?” he sat up against his headboard, pulling a pillow behind him.
“Sly.”
Sydney froze, not sure what to say, so he didn’t say anything. He just waited, gripping the phone a little tighter.
“He’s my boyfriend now.” She said it so simply and matter-of-factly Sydney hadn’t even had a chance to wrap his head around that before she continued. “Long story short, he said his publicist had been inundated with calls ever since he brought me with him to that charity ball game. He said since he considers himself to be seeing me he wanted to know if I’d be okay with his publicist confirming that he’s in a relationship with me. I said okay because, considering how often I get to see him, what’s the big deal? The season is well underway, and unless I fly out to see him, I probably won’t see him for at least another month. I think I can commit to that without it affecting my life too much.”
Sydney was speechless. He’d told her once if he was ever going to judge her she’d know it. So he had to be careful to choose his words right. He’d only seen her pissy side once, and while it was amusing, he didn’t want to upset her. It wasn’t so much that he was judging but that she didn’t often sound as naïve as her age suggested. But at the moment, it was exactly how she sounded: naïve as shit.
“You really think having Sabian as your boyfriend isn’t going to affect your life?”
“He’s not giving them my full name, just my first, and he’s not mentioning A.J. is my brother. My brother’s pretty famous, and being his sister hasn’t affected my life much.”
Sydney didn’t miss the air of defensiveness in her voice. He’d never forget the cute little arched brow in his car on the ride home from La Jolla when she’d accused him of being judgy. He could practically picture her expression, and it almost made him smirk. But before he could think of a proper response, because he knew he needed to tread lightly, she continued.
“Actually, I think this works out perfect,” she said, her tone still packing a punch.
If she were talking about anything else, Sydney might’ve even been smiling by now, but she wasn’t, and what she was saying flattened any trace of a smirk as she went on.
“The way I see it, it’s a win-win situation. I may not be ready for a full-blown commitment, but I do enjoy dating and going out and having fun. What girl wouldn’t enjoy time with Sly?” She laughed, but it wasn’t her usual genuine laugh. He knew her too well now to know the difference. This was forced. “Seriously, I’d be crazy to pass this up, especially since this relationship fits perfectly into my schedule.”
For a minute, it almost felt as if she were trying to convince herself as much as she was trying to convince him. The only comfort this gave him was that this still meant she wasn’t all that into the guy. At least he knew, despite who this guy was, she was in this for the same reasons she’d been into Darren. Just for the fun of it—nothing more.
Deciding it’d be better if he just let it go, he said something he knew would surprise her. “You make a good point.”
She was quiet. Speechless? If visions of how else she’d be having fun with the guy once he had a little more time to spend with her weren’t still assaulting his brain, Sydney might’ve smiled. Instead, he ground his teeth so hard he had to remind himself how much he’d been doing that lately. He was bound to break a tooth, at least do some serious damage to his enamel if he didn’t stop.
“You still there?” he asked, closing his eyes and pinching the rim of his nose.
“Yeah,” she said, letting out a frail laugh. “I’m just surprised. I guess I was expecting more of a debate.”
“No,” he said as nicely as possible. “It makes sense. Maybe a long-distance relationship is something that’ll work for you.” He took a deep breath and tried to get the next words out as genuinely as possible. “I’m happy for you. This is exciting. Your sister must be going nuts.”
“Not really,” she said with the same feeble laugh as before. “You’re the first person I’ve told.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know. It’s just so . . . It hasn’t sunk in yet, I guess. I’m just gonna let it simmer for now because you’re right. My sister will make a big deal of this and it’s not. Not yet anyway.”
Just as it had happened almost the entire taxing conversation, before he could say anything, she spoke again.
“So what’s been keeping you so busy? You and Cheryl work things out?” she asked.
Thankful for the change in subject, Sydney inhaled before answering and sat back against his headboard again. “No,” he said, letting his head fall back, and stared at the ceiling. “That’s pretty much a done deal. I’d never really felt anything for her from the beginning, and like you with Darren, I was beginning to feel like I was stringing her along.”
“Oh,” she said, sounding a little surprised. “So what has been keeping you so busy? Work?”
“Yeah, work’s been a little grueling lately,” he admitted then added something he hadn’t planned on telling her until after her new boyfriend declaration. “Scarlet’s been in town lately. I’ve hung out with her a few nights this week.”
He wasn’t sure why he hadn’t planned on telling her. It was just one of the few things, even as close as they’d become, he wasn’t comfortable talking to her about now. For whatever reason, talking to her about Cheryl seemed okay, easy enough. Maybe it was because Cheryl had never taken up so much of his Emi time. Like Sabian’s, Cheryl’s schedule was tight, especially when she was working on a particularly tough case. He also did a whole lot of canceling with her to hang around Emi instead. It was how he knew she wasn’t the one. That hadn’t been the case with Scarlet these past couple of weeks.
Sydney hadn’t even noticed Emi had gone silent until she spoke again but not before another forced-sounding laugh. “It’s weird to hear you call her Scarlet. She’s so Scarlet Brendon to me. Like Channing Tatum or Jennifer Lawrence. You don’t just call them Channing or Jennifer.”
Doing his own impression of the forced laugh, Sydney ran his fingers through his hair. “Yeah, well just like Sabian, once you get to know them, referring to them by both names sounds weirder than using just one.”
“So I take it you two are getting serious? I mean I haven’t hung out with you in days. I’m assuming she’s who you’ve been busy with?”
“The last three nights, yeah, but I wouldn’t call it serious. She just wants to lie low for a while,” he explained. “She was gone for so long, and the promotional tour for the movie that releases later this year is going to be grueling one. She’ll be gone again in a few months, so she said she wants to enjoy being home right now. Having someone in the same building she can hang out with is convenient for her.”
It was the truth. Scarlet was glamorously beautiful, sweet, and fun, but no way was Sydney getting any ideas of anything serious with her. If he thought Emi naïve for thinking her relationship with Sabian wouldn’t be complicated, Sydney would be downright stupid to think a relationship with Scarlet outside of what they were doing now would be anything but complicated.
His other line beeped, and the alarms in his head went off the moment he saw it was his mother. She never called him this late unless something was wrong. “Listen. I gotta take this call, Em. I’ll call you back if I’m not off too late.” He barely waited for her to say okay before clicking to the other line. “Mom,” he said as soon as he clicked over. “What’s going on?”
“Everything’s fine,” she said, though her shaky voice said just the opposite. “It was just a little fire.”
“What?” He stood up immediately. “A fire?”
“Yes, but it’s out now. It was just a small fire in the garage,” her voice suddenly broke. “No one got hurt,” she continued even through her crying. “The firefighters had it out in ten minutes flat and there was minimal damage. They said it could’ve been a lot worse. But I’m fine.”
“So why you crying, Mom?”
“It just scared the bejesus out of me,” she said then took a trembling breath. “But I’m good now. I promise. I wasn’t even going to call you until tomorrow.”
“Did they check your vitals?” he asked, already rushing to his closet. “You could be going into shock, Ma.”
“No, no,” she said, sounding a bit more composed. “They checked everything. It’s just that it happened so fast, and I’d held it all in all this time. Hearing your voice made me emotional. That’s all.”
“I’ll be there in a few hours,” he said, already tapping away at his tablet. “But don’t wait up for—”
“Sydney, honey, no! You don’t have to come down.”
He’d traveled so much he had booking flights down to an art. With another tap to his laptop, he was done. “Already booked my flight.” He glanced down at his arrival time with a frown. “I’ll be there about two-forty in the morning. Do not wait up for me.”
Of course, his mother tried to protest some more, but he convinced her there was no way he could cancel his flight now and he was coming whether she thought he needed to or not. He could feel the onset of that tension headache he’d felt earlier really coming on now.
He’d been so lost in thought it barely registered when the elevator doors opened and he saw a teary-eyed Scarlet clutching her purse.
“Hey?” he said, puzzled as he stepped in with her. “What’s wrong?”
The second he was close enough she leaned against his chest and cried but didn’t explain. When they reached the lobby, they got out, and she inhaled deeply and began to tell him about her ongoing feud with her celebrity mother.
“I turned my phone off when I got to your place earlier tonight. So when I got home I got the news, and it’s all over TV and the Internet.” She sniffled some more even as she wiped at her eyes with a tissue. “She’s written a tell-all. Advanced copies are already out, and in it, she talks about a lot of the private things about my life: My therapy growing up. My dad’s affair years ago that she forgave him for, but now that he’s dead, she’s going to run his name through the mud! An incident I had with a family friend when I was in my early teens and he tried to rape me. Very personal things she had no right to share with the world. It’s not even out yet, and it’s all anyone’s talking about. It fucking trended even. I can’t turn on a television or check the Internet and not see something about it.”
Sydney shook his head, feeling for her, but he wasn’t sure what he could say to try and console her. “Don’t worry about the trending crap. That’s only until the next big story comes along, and you know that’ll be in about an hour.” He pulled a strand of hair away from her eyes. “Where you going?”
“I don’t even know,” she said. “I just feel like I need to get away. I’ve already called my producers and told them I’m not coming in for the next few days. I was planning on having my driver just drive and we’d stop and get a room when he’s too tired to keep driving.”
“Why don’t you come with me?” he asked without hesitation.
He explained about his mother’s fire and how he was flying out to check on her and to make sure all the insurance crap was taken care of.
“She’ll probably need a new washer and dryer since it was what caught fire,” he said even as they walked out together. “She said there’s minimal damage, but it’s still gonna require tending to. I don’t want her dealing with all that on her own, and she hates for me to send strangers to handle things for her. I’ll probably be there for a few days, but you can fly back whenever you want. She lives in Flagstaff, perfect small town to get away to.”
“Oh my gosh, it does sound perfect,” she said, smiling for the first time since he saw her in the elevator tonight. “But are you sure you don’t mind? I could get my own room. I wouldn’t want your mom to feel like—”
“She’s a big fan of your show,” Sydney said, shaking his head. “She’d kill me if I didn’t insist you stay at her place. And there’s plenty of room.”
Since her driver and car were already there, they got in, and Sydney looked up his flight and saw that, as expected, a flight at this hour had available seats. Scarlet insisted on paying for her own flight, though she said she wished they could drive. “It doesn’t matter what time of day it is, paparazzi are always at LAX.”
Sydney smiled at her sympathetically without saying anything, and she leaned her head against his shoulder. Of course, he’d never tell her this, but this was just another reason why he’d never consider a relationship with someone this famous. Instinctively, his thoughts were once again on Emi.