Chapter 6

“So how did the movie premiere go?” Samantha asked when Drake finally made it down to the office.

“It was good.”

Drake wasn’t about to admit to Samantha that he had just kissed Cynthia at every interview, and he didn’t actually participate in any questioning. It wasn’t necessary to fill her in on all the details. He knew that his plan had worked because everyone laughed and enjoyed it. They would have thought he was defensive with practically any comment he made, but actions spoke much louder than words.

“What kinds of questions did you get asked?”

“They asked if I was gay? If I had more than one boyfriend? How many years I’ve been a homosexual? If it bothered me, that people thought I was gay? Was I just experimenting? They really asked a ton of questions.”

Samantha’s face went pale as she listened to all the questions Drake said he had been asked. She had not prepared Drake at all to deal with those types of questions, and he wasn’t that good at fending people off when they were attacking him or his character. She flinched as she listened to everything he was asked and then braced herself as she asked another question.

“What did you say?” Samantha said as she held her hands up to her face to prepare herself for his response.

“Nothing.”

“What do you mean nothing?”

“I mean I didn’t answer them.”

“Oh, crap, Drake. They are going to hate you. You seriously didn’t answer any of their questions?”

Samantha grabbed her phone and made her way into the kitchen as she called Robert to discuss what they should do next. Drake just laughed at how serious she was taking everything. He thought the kissing had gone over very well and couldn’t wait to see what the tabloids had to say later that evening on their shows. Hopefully, Samantha would feel a little better after seeing some positive stories.

“I’m going to go grab some dinner with the ladies, let me know if you need anything else,” Drake said, making his way into the living room.

Cynthia had come downstairs, much to Drake’s surprise, so he went directly to her first. It was her time with him, and he wanted to spend it as much with her as possible. But he was also starving and couldn’t head back upstairs until he got some food in his stomach as quickly as possible.

“I need food,” Cynthia said as she relished the fact that Drake had his arm wrapped around her in front of everyone.

“Me too.”

They entered the dining room, grabbing a plate each as they sauntered down the line of food that had been set out. The other women were surprisingly polite and left Drake and Cynthia alone while they ate their meal. It was highly unusual, and Drake quickly felt like something was going on. He didn’t know exactly what it was that was happening, but something was for sure occurring.

“Why aren’t the women fawning all over you?” Cynthia asked, practically mimicking what Drake had been thinking.

“I have no idea.”

They finished their meal and then looked into the living room before they went out there. The women were sitting quietly together and talking to each other. The usual high level of excitement was nowhere to be found.

“Where’s Sophia?” Cynthia asked.

“I don’t know.”

“Scarlett, where is Sophia?” Cynthia asked as she walked right out into the living room.

“She wasn’t feeling well. I think she’s still in bed. We decided to just let her sleep and have a relaxing evening.”

Drake smiled at the thought of all the women feeling a sense of relief because Sophia wasn’t there. It was probably nice for them not to have to compete with her. Sophia was certainly intent on winning Drake’s attention any time he was around.

“I hope she isn’t feeling too ill,” Drake said.

“No, I don’t think she is. I checked on her just a few minutes ago, and she doesn’t have a fever but said her stomach was hurting. Don’t worry, I’ll check on her again before bed,” Scarlett said with a smile.

Scarlett was like the mother hen of all the women in the house, yet she really wasn’t much older than any of them. There was just a sense of calmness about Scarlett that Drake suspected made the other women feel like she was there to help and care for them.

“That’s so nice of you, Scarlett,” Cynthia said as she hugged her. “You are the sweetest person ever. When this is all over, I want your number. You seem like you would make a really great friend.”

“Okay, Cynthia, now you two go have a good night.”

“We were going to spend a few minutes down here,” Drake added, not quite willing to leave Scarlett yet. “Do you all want to play a quick game?”

Drake looked over at Cynthia to make sure it was alright, and she smiled while nodding her head. Cynthia wasn’t about to try any sex with her stomach full of dinner, it would be fine to hang out with the rest of the girls for a little bit while they relaxed. Plus, having Sophia in bed sick was a bit of a blessing. Cynthia didn’t mind her all that much, but she did tend to monopolize Drake’s time when she was in the room with him.

“I have an idea,” Emily said as she overheard the conversation. “How about we play Cards Against Humanity?”

“Oh, yeah, I’ve heard about that game. It’s supposed to be a lot of fun,” Cynthia said.

Cynthia was actually excited about the prospect of playing the game. She hadn’t had much of a chance to play games with her friends. None of them were into having dinner parties or anything like that. Instead, her friends wanted to go out for drinks and talk about stocks.

“Let’s do it,” Drake said as he grabbed a seat in the chair near the couch and pulled Cynthia down to sit next to him. “I don’t have the game, though.”

“Oh, I brought it with me just to keep us all entertained if we needed it,” Emily said as she made a mad dash upstairs to her room.

“I’ve heard it’s really fun to play,” Victoria said as she sat down next to Scarlett and Lauren.

“Me too. All my friends say it’s so fun. I’m excited to play too.”

“What’s the basic concept?” Allison asked.

“Basically, one person is the Czar of each round, we rotate that position. Then everyone else gets ten white cards. The black card might say something like ‘Detroit’s new tourism campaign says it eliminated blank’ and we all turn in a white card to fill in the blank. The person with the funniest answer wins a point,” Emily said as she came back down the stairs.

“That doesn’t seem very fun,” Allison said, looking totally unimpressed with the game idea.

“Oh, it’s a lot of fun. Just trust me,” Emily assured her.

It took Emily and Cynthia a few minutes to reorganize the furniture how they wanted and get the game set up, so Drake took the opportunity to talk with Victoria and Scarlett a little bit. He really hated just how quickly the whole week was going; before he knew it, the week was going to be over, and he was going to have to pick one of the women. He genuinely had no idea which one he was going to pick.

When he was with each of the women, he felt like they were the right ones for him, but the moment he was around the other ladies, he started to second guess himself. A sudden sense of dread rushed through Drake’s body.

How was he going to choose just one of the women?

Obviously, he couldn’t have them all, but how was he going to let six of the wonderful women leave his life forever? It made him feel ill just to think about it.

“Drake, do you think the news will keep talking about you being gay?” Victoria asked as Drake seemed to be staring off into space. “Drake?”

“Oh, um, no. I think they will get over it rather quickly. Are you ready to play?”

Emily dealt each person a stack of ten white cards and then put the black pile of cards in front of Drake.

“You are the Czar,” Emily said. “Draw one black card and read it.”

“During sex, I like to think about blank,” Drake read from the black card in his hand.

“Okay, now each of us needs to look through our white cards and pick the funniest answer. Then turn it upside down and slide them all over to Drake in a pile. Drake will read them out loud and then decide which is the best one.”

The women followed Emily’s lead and each picked a card and slid it over to Drake. By this time, Samantha was standing in the doorway watching them and seemed amused by the game as well.

“Okay, here we go. During sex, I like to think about Shaquille O’Neal’s acting career,” Drake read the first card and everyone started to laugh, even Allison. Drake continued to read the rest of the cards.

“During sex, I like to think about Toni Morrison’s vagina. Oh, my God.”

Again the group burst into laughter.

“During sex, I like to think about All-you-can-eat shrimp.”

“During sex, I like to think about sanding off a man’s nose.”

“During sex I like to think about free ice cream,” Drake read the last of the cards.

“Okay, now Drake, you need to decide which one of those cards was the best. Then the person who turned that card in will get one point,” Emily said.

“Oh, for sure, it has to be Toni Morrison’s vagina,” Drake said as she laughed.

The room erupted in laughter as all the women looked at each other to see who had put that card into the pile. Then Scarlett raised her hand slightly and all the women continued to laugh. She was so prim and proper, yet that answer had been anything but proper.

“Scarlett gets the point. Now let’s rotate the black cards to the next person and this time, Drake gets to play the round and Scarlett will decide which card is best.”

Samantha had just finished a long conversation with Robert about what they could do to help Drake, but she couldn’t help sitting down in the living room and watching as everyone played Cards Against Humanity. It wasn’t a game she had planned ahead of time, but it did seem like lots of fun.

“Where’s Sophia?” Samantha asked.

“Upstairs, she had a stomach ache,” Scarlett answered. “Do you want me to go check on her?”

“No, that’s alright, I’ll go up. Drake, will you come with me?” Samantha asked.

Drake decided it wasn’t a good idea to fight with Samantha in front of all the women so he obliged her and followed her up the stairs. At the top of the stairs, Samantha stood with her hands on her hips looking at Drake like he was in trouble. It was all he could do to keep a straight face when he saw how serious she looked.

“Did you seriously just kiss Cynthia in front of every news reporter instead of answering their questions?”

Drake tried to keep himself from smiling as he responded, “Yes, are the news stories starting to come out? How are they?”

“Drake, you are like a public relations nightmare,” Samantha said, storming off toward Sophia’s room.

“You love me and you know it,” Drake said as he hurried quickly after her.

He didn’t mean to really say ‘love’ but he wasn’t about to correct himself. She knew what he meant. Drake was a lot of work, and he paid Samantha a very good salary to deal with him.

“I’m not in love with you!” she yelled as she stopped in the middle of the hall.

“Oh, that sounded very defensive,” Drake said, goading her on.

He didn’t think she was in love with him, up until that very moment when she got so defensive at the idea of it. Up until that moment, Drake had thought Samantha was amused by him and perhaps even attracted to him, but never attracted enough to give in to his advances.

“I’m not in love with you,” Samantha said more calmly as she leaned up against the wall.

Drake moved in close to her but kept about a foot of distance between the two of them. He looked into her eyes, and they looked like the eyes of a woman that was in love with him. Instantly, Drake pulled away and took a step backward.

What was he thinking?

He had a house full of women who had traveled from around the world to be with him, and he was chasing after the one woman who didn’t want him. Drake couldn’t do it anymore. He was tired of chasing Samantha, and he was ready to move on. One of the women who was there with him was going to be his girlfriend, and he wasn’t about to mess it up by trying to start something with Samantha again. He didn’t care what their connection or history was, he couldn’t go there anymore. It was time to move on.

“We should check on Sophia,” he said quietly as he walked away.

Samantha knocked on the door first and then peeked her head inside. “Sophia, how are you doing? It’s Drake and I. We’ve come to check on you.”

“Oh, Drake is here? I look so horrible, oh my gosh,” Sophia said as she tried to sit up in bed.

Both Samantha and Drake noticed that she was extremely pale and had winced as she tried to sit up. It caused them to worry that she might need to see a doctor.

“I’m going to get the doctor to come over here,” Drake said right away.

“Oh, no, I’m fine. I’ve just got a stomach bug or something. I’m sure I’ll feel better by morning,” Sophia said as she grabbed Drake’s hand and pulled him down so he was sitting next to her on the bed. “I’m glad to see you. How was your day?”

Samantha took a few steps back to let Sophia and Drake talk and sent a text message to the doctor they used for house visits. She arranged for him to come first thing in the morning. There was no reason to rush her to the emergency room if it was just a stomach bug, but Samantha would feel much better after Drake’s regular doctor took a look at Sophia.

“You should rest; do you want me to have them bring you some soup?” Drake asked as he brushed Sophia’s hair out of her face.

“No, I don’t feel like eating. Thank you, though.’

“I’m going to check on you first thing in the morning,” Samantha said. “You sleep and drink some water. I’m going to have someone bring you up some Gatorade too, just to make sure you stay hydrated. Alright?”

“Thank you, Samantha, you are really the best assistant in the world,” Sophia said. “Drake, I think I want to steal her away for myself. But I would want my assistant to sleep in my bed with me.”

Drake and Samantha laughed at the sexual innuendo that Sophia managed even when she wasn’t feeling well. It was certainly part of her personality that she constantly made such comments, and Drake felt a little better about leaving her knowing that she was feeling a little like herself.

“I’m going to come with Samantha in the morning and check on you, you listen to her and get some rest,” Drake said as he kissed her forehead.

She wrapped her arms around his neck and held onto him tightly for almost a full minute before she let go. Drake didn’t mind, though, Sophia wasn’t the kind of girl that handed out a lot of hugs, and she didn’t seem to be used to people worrying about her or offering to care for her. It was nice to see she appreciated their worry for her well-being.

“I promise, I’m going right back to sleep. As soon as I finish this glass of water,” she said with a smile. “Thank you both for coming to check on me. I’ll see you in the morning.”

Samantha and Drake watched as Sophia winced again when she tried to lie back down. It was sad to see such a vibrant woman feeling so sick.

“Hopefully, she will feel better in the morning, but I have the doctor coming anyway,” Samantha said as they closed the bedroom door behind them.

“Great, yes. I was just about to say that. Thanks,” Drake said as he stood there and an awkward silence took over between the two of them.

“Alright, well, I’m going to go for now. I’ll see you in the morning,” Samantha said, starting to walk down the hallways.

“Love you, darling, good night,” Drake teased as he waved at Samantha.

She just turned around and gave him an evil glare before turning to go downstairs.