CHAPTER TWO
Max had suggested lunch in a cafe not far from Nate and Paige’s home and Carrie found herself agreeing, despite knowing he was only being polite. The handsome actor fascinated her with the way he could change his personality at will. One minute he was friendly and sweet, the next icy and remote. She couldn’t help the curiosity that kept her in his company, trying to see beneath the facade he wore. The mystery? Which was real and which was fake? Perhaps they both weren’t true.
Carrie and Max were wrapping up a quiet lunch when her phone rang. One look at the screen and she groaned. It was her brother Greg and since he rarely called her now that his second child had been born, nothing good could come from this conversation. She almost hit the Decline button but thought better of it. It was going to happen sooner or later so it might as well be now.
“It’s my brother. I have to get this.”
Max nodded and pulled out his own phone to check his messages, effectively giving her as much privacy as their proximity would allow.
“Hi, Greg. What’s going on?”
“Hey, Sis, is there anything you want to tell me?”
Hmmm…it sounded like he knew something was up.
“Frankly, brother dear, I never want to tell you anything. You’re like a worried old woman most of the time. What’s on your agenda today?”
“I talked to Mark.”
The words came out as a snarl and Carrie’s heart fell to her feet. She hadn’t been given much time to come up with a really good explanation. Maybe the truth wasn’t the worst idea.
“Then you know the engagement is off.”
Her statement caused Max to pull his attention from his phone and to her call, listening intently. No pressure there.
“I do now but I’m wondering why I didn’t hear if from you.”
“Because I didn’t want to discuss it with you. I thought you might do something stupid and beat him up. Why did you even talk to him anyway?”
“He had a few things of yours that he wanted to give back – well, actually he said he wanted to get rid of them – but you didn’t answer your door so he stopped by here and left the box. As for punching him, should I? Has he done something that deserves a smackdown? Because I’m just the guy to do it. I never liked him in the first place.”
“I know,” she sighed, checking out Max who appeared to be pretending that he wasn’t listening. He might be staring at his phone but he hadn’t changed the screen in way too long. “You told me so repeatedly.”
“So what happened?” Greg demanded. “Did you guys have a fight?”
Several of them. None that made a damn’s worth of difference.
“Not a fight,” she finally said. “Things have been going south for quite awhile and we’ve been growing apart. Eventually he decided he wanted to get back with his ex-wife and I’ve moved on as well. No hard feelings. I’m just thankful we realized that we weren’t suited before we got married.”
She’d been practicing her explanation and she thought it sounded damn good to her own ears.
“His ex-wife?” Greg exploded and she had to hold the phone far away from her still ringing eardrum. “That sniveling little shit went back to Tina? What an asshole. What a fucking asshole. I am going to beat the shit out of him. He deserves it, breaking your heart like that.”
She couldn’t let that happen. Greg was a husband and a father that didn’t need an assault and battery charge to complicate his life. She had no doubt that Mark would press charges, the prick.
“He didn’t break my heart. I told you, we’d been growing apart. I was actually relieved when he left and I truly have moved on.”
There was silence on the other end of the line.
“Greg? Are you there?”
“I’m here. What do you mean by moving on?”
Smiling widely, Carrie hoped that old saying was true. That people on the phone really could tell if you had a smile on your face.
“I haven’t had a chance to tell you but I’m in London.” She took a deep breath. “Paige is moving here, you know, and they’ve offered to rent me a flat. I was thinking I would see the sights and have some fun. Go see Paris, Berlin, Dublin, Edinburgh, Rome, or even Venice. It’s the chance of a lifetime.”
“London…as in London, England? You’re on another fucking continent? Jesus, Carrie, what are you thinking? You don’t even speak the language.”
Giving up the pretense of not eavesdropping, Max was scowling at the phone as if he’d never heard someone say something stupid before. Carrie loved her brother but sometimes he made her want to smack her own forehead. Greg was a sweetheart but he was far too protective. “Greg, I’m in England. They speak English here. I know that language just fine.”
“Yeah, but that’s Europe and they speak French and German and other languages. You took high school French, Carrie. You only know how to ask where the bathroom is.”
She knew slightly more than that but not much. “They have an app for that on my smartphone. I’ll be fine. I’ll take pictures and send them to you.”
“And Paige is okay with this?”
Greg worshipped Paige as if she were a goddess on Mount Olympus. “She does and she wholeheartedly approves. She wouldn’t steer me wrong, now would she?”
“No, she’s a smart one.”
Christ on a crutch, was he saying Carrie was dumb?
“Everything is going to be fine,” she assured Greg in her most soothing voice. “I’m here to do a job and on my off-time I’ll see Europe.”
She couldn’t see her brother’s face but she could almost hear his frown through the cell phone. “I think you should come home, Sis. I don’t like the idea of you wandering around a foreign country by yourself.”
Time to get tough with him, otherwise he’d talk to her until she was worn down to a nub.
“Greg, I think we both know that I am more than capable of taking care of myself. Of the two of us, who is the more organized person?”
“You are,” he grunted.
“That’s right. I am. I’ll be fine.”
“But you need your family with you at a time like this,” Greg protested. “Jeannie said that her yoga instructor has a brother who teaches high school math. Real handsome and about your age. Just got a divorce. We could invite you both over for dinner–”
Yikes. Not a blind date with a brother of an acquaintance who was looking for a rebound. She hadn’t sunk that low. It was time to end this call before she agreed to something she would later regret.
With her fingernails she lightly scratched the surface of her phone while blowing puffs of air loudly into the microphone. “I think I’m losing you, Greg. You know how these international connections are. I really do need to go. Love you. Kiss Jeannie and the kids for me, okay?”
She hung up and Carrie heaved a huge sigh. “I think he bought the explanation. I’m assuming you could hear all of that.”
Max nodded. “I did and you were good. Very convincing, especially that international connection part. I never thought about scratching at my mobile but I think it added a realistic touch. Although I have to say I might have let your brother kick Mark’s arse. He deserves it.”
“No,” Carrie shook her head. “I want people to think I’m fine and the breakup doesn’t bother me. Besides, Greg doesn’t need an assault and battery charge. He’ll get kicked out of the state bar.”
It did give her a fun-filled preview of what the future was going to be like whenever she spoke with anyone who didn’t know about the breakup. She’d be fake smiling and pretending not to be heartbroken. It wasn’t going to be easy. She was a lousy actress.
Stroking his chin, Max didn’t look convinced. “I suppose so but I still think Mark is getting off lightly. Sometimes karma is too slow.”
Chuckling, she tucked her phone back into her bag. “You haven’t met Mark’s ex. If even half the crap he told me about her is true, she’s a psycho. A real crazy lady just like Alana. I think a lifetime with her is punishment enough.”
Frowning, Max signaled for the check. “If he knows that’s what she’s like, why would he go back? It doesn’t make any sense.”
It made complete sense to her.
“I think it’s like my friend Auggie used to say. Auggie was a real womanizer. He went through them like Kleenex so of course every now and then he’d get the crazy ones. He’d still date them and when I asked why he said the crazy chicks were exciting. They had no inhibitions and were completely unpredictable. So if I were to venture a guess? Mark wants a little insanity between the sheets.”
It hurt to think he hadn’t been happy with her and their sex life but if the truth be told, she hadn’t been thrilled either. He’d been rather staid and formulaic from the first time. She and Paige had had a drunken talk one night and decided he had a Madonna-whore issue.
Carrie was a nice girl, so she couldn’t want dirty sex.
Except that she totally did.
Mark wouldn’t even curse in front of her. She would bet cash money that he swore like a sailor in front of his ex. Carrie had tried bringing a sex toy into their relationship but he’d flipped, accusing her of thinking he wasn’t enough. After that, she’d stopped trying. Sex had never been that important to her, and she’d assumed things would improve as they became more comfortable with each other. That hadn’t happened either.
Max fidgeted in his seat, his face tinged red. Her statement must have hit close to home. His ex was a psychopathic bitch too.
“Sorry. I just realized how that probably came out. I’m sure Alana has some wonderful qualities and it wasn’t the wild sex that drew you to her. You wouldn’t be that shallow.”
He looked out the window, then at the bar, then back to her.
“Sadly, Carrie, you would be wrong.”