Chapter 16

Ethan

Something about Riley's tension on Thursday night over the Amber thing continued to bug me for the next few days. By Saturday morning... I was rather pissy, which was a good thing. I had lunch plans with Deza. She could either make me feel much better, or I'd unload a boatload of shitastic joy in her lap.

"Why are you smiling?" The tight expression on her face was almost comical.

I took the seat across from her at one of our favorite restaurants on Rodeo Drive. Famous people filled the streets on Saturday mornings, which was the only time I'd come down that way. It meant there were more of us and less of them. Good odds that I'd only get ambushed and fondled once or twice instead of the usual twenty.

"I like smiling, and if I recall," I leaned toward her and put my forearms on the table, "my agent likes it when I smile. Remember?"

"Yeah, but that's not a normal smile."

"No?" I leaned back. "No clue what you're yakking about, but let it go. I'm not in the mood."

"Oh great. You're pissy."

"I was trying to not be, but you pointing out that my smile is fucked up doesn't help the mood shift, if you know what I mean."

She let out a long sigh. "I can't fight with you right now. I have enough to deal with."

"Same." I picked up my menu and tried to breathe the tension out through my nose as quietly as possible. Deza and I had to clear the air between us, but it wasn't going to be easy, namely because there wasn't that one thing we could look toward to resolve. It was a lot of small cuts that had us bleeding to death.

"Ethan," she spoke at the same time I looked up and said her name.

"Me first." I lifted my hand and sighed. No sense in holding back. "You know you mean the world to me, right?"

"Yes." She leaned back and clasped her hands in her lap.

"So let's figure out how to stop back-biting each other and get back to being us. I miss you. Like really fucking bad." I pushed at my plate softly, needing something to fidget with. "I know you're going through some shit, and I'm sorry for my part of it, okay?"

"Yeah. I wanted to say the same. I'm sorry too." She reached across the table and brushed her fingers over my hand. "I love you too. We need to pull together and figure all of this stuff out."

"Well, I'm probably going to piss you off, unless my dip-shit lawyer finally called in the test and scheduled the date with you, but I'm not settling with this Amber girl out of court. I don't even fucking remember her face. I might be bad, but I'm not that bad. Come on, D."

"I agree." She shocked the hell out of me.

"Come again?"

"I have to come the first time to come again. Silly boy." She winked and picked up her menu.

"What?" I snorted. "That's my line, you old beautiful bat."

And there it was. Resolution between us. She bent a little and I did the same, and life was beautiful. No matter what went wrong in either of our private lives, we still had a business to run together and a friendship that would sustain us through tough times.

"Hey. Weird questions." I leaned in a little. "Riley asked me if you and I had ever been a thing."

"Really?" Deza shook her head. "She sort of asked me the same thing. You think she's jealous?"

"No. Why would she be? You're like a sister to me."

"Are you guys getting closer? Like starting to talk about dating?"

"I don't know." I picked up my menu, needing an out. I had no clue what the fuck we were doing. Pretending to play house? I had the good sense to make her sit down and define it with me, but every time I got around her, I softened and just wanted to enjoy our time, no matter what it looked like or where the hell we were.

"What do you mean, you don't know." She reached across the table and pushed my menu down.

I brought it back up. "Like, I don't know. We're sleeping together, but she seems to want a friends-with-benefits relationship. I'm in love with her. It doesn't exactly bode well for me."

"And what if she's in love with you?"

That got my attention. I dropped the menu on the table and lifted my eyebrow at my oldest friend.

"Are you trying to say she told you that she was?"

"I don't kiss and tell, but what if she was?"

"Then a certain someone, like you, would need to tell me that."

"Not happening." She pulled her menu up in front of her face.

"D. I need to know. I'm getting closer and closer to telling the woman that I love her. I don't want my heart handed back to me in pieces."

"So start with friends with benefits and move into it."

"So she doesn't love me?"

"Did you know that Trish and her husband filed for divorce? She's so broken up over it that her newest project has been put on a one-month hold." She narrowed her eyes. "A one-month hold. Do you know how much money and time they are losing? This isn't just about her, but everyone that works on her crew at Eon. Some of those people get paid hourly. It's a fucking mess."

She didn't shift the subject like I thought she was. She threw a lesson in my face. If Trish, the sweetest, most loyal of women couldn't make a relationship work because of our profession, I sure as fuck wasn't going to be able to do it.

But funny enough, love didn't give a shit if you were capable of maintaining. It wanted what the fuck it wanted, when it wanted it. Choice was an irrelevant term in the face of falling in love. Period.

"Deza."

"No. Riley has talked to me a little about you, but the woman just lost her mother, scored the job of her dreams and is graduating college in a few weeks. There's a lot going on with her, Ethan. Tread carefully."

"I know that, and I want to be there for her, but I need something, shit. A guarantee that I'm not just pulling out my dick to have someone stomp on it."

"Always goes back to your dick."

"No, it doesn't." I smirked. It totally did.

"Start out slow with her. You guys have a lot of years together of making movies in this series if you play your cards right. She's going to be as big as you are before too long. You need to focus on that. Not whether you guys can go to the chapel in Vegas and exchange rings."

"Ouch." I huffed and turned my attention to the waitress who approached.

"You guys ready?" She smiled and looked between me and Deza.

"I'll take three eggs, bacon, toast and a beer. Budweiser, please." I handed her the menu as Deza ordered the same thing.

"I'm sorry." Deza ran her hand down her face before her expression shifted. Her tanned skin shifted to red and her eyes grew wide. "No the fuck he didn't."

"What?" I glanced over my shoulder to see Darren at a table with a pretty white woman with huge tits. He was leaning toward her, smiling and laughing. I turned back to Deza as she got up. "D. Now wait a minute. You don't wanna-"

"Stay out of it," she mumbled as she stormed past me.

"Oh fuck." I got up and followed behind her, but got stuck in the middle of the restaurant as the waitress stepped in front of me and questioned the order.

"Two eggs or three?" She gave me a sweet smile as I stared at the drama just behind her. It was going to get ugly.

"Three would be good." I moved around her as Deza's voice filled up the small cafe.

"How dare you tell me you were busy this morning? I see what you're busy doing. You know what? Take your fucking promises and stick them in your ass. Deep in your ass where you used to love for me to play with you." Deza glanced down at the girl. "Did you know that? The man is dirty. I mean like, fucking nasty dirty."

I pressed my fist to my mouth as Darren went from black to white. I almost felt sorry for the guy, and yet it was a bit of a turn on to know that Deza would do anything her man wanted. Was Riley like that? Not that I wanted someone's fingers in my-

"Unbelievable." Darren seemed to come alive. "You come over here, talking shit to me while I'm working with a client. What the hell is the matter with you, and not only that, you bring your fucking shrimp-dick boyfriend."

"Now hold up." I lifted my hand. "I might be a lot of things, but it isn't a-"

"Hush." Deza glanced back at me before whipping back around to Darren. "This is it. I'm done with you. Don't you call my damn number ever again. I hate you."

"Good. Now you and Ethan can come out of the closet. Everyone fucking knows you're in love with each other anyway."

She turned her back to him and glanced up at me. So much anger.

"Are we in love?" I whispered, trying to make her smile.

"Just kiss me."

"What?" I didn't have time to react. She pulled me down and laid a hard kiss on my lips.

I wrapped my arms around her and let her have it. There was no passion between us, but if it fucked with Darren on her behalf and supported her... I was in. And as long as it was just a kiss.

She moved back and I smiled like the happiest man in the world. "About time," I mumbled.

"Exactly." She wrapped her arm around my waist and walked back to the table with her middle finger in the air. "I hate that fucker so much."

I sat down, my heart racing from the drama far more than the kiss. "So you are in love with me?"

"What?" She kept a flirty grin on her face, but her voice did not at all, in any way whatsoever, match her expression. It threw me off. Like drinking a Jones' soda that was turkey and dressing flavor. That shit messed me up so bad. Deza was doing it now too.

"I'm lost." I threw my napkin on the table as her eyes filled with tears.

"No. I'm not in love with you. I'm in love with him. I hate him so much right now."

"Let's get outta here then. We can have breakfast at your place. You love cooking for me, remember?"

She laughed as a few tears rolled down her pretty cheeks. "Shut up already."

"The kiss was good, no?"

"Yeah. Like kissing my mother on the mouth." She smirked.

"What? No fucking way." I leaned in and wiped away one of her tears. "Did you really finger fuck him in the ass?"

She laughed and let her head drop. "No, but I would have. I'd do anything for him."

"Hot. So damn hot." I leaned back and cupped my hands over my stomach. That's the devotion I wanted from Riley. If I could have that... I'd do anything to get her beside me, living as the queen of my castle.