The Role
Page 22
Michael tore out of the room like a whirlwind, followed by the choreographer. The door slammed shut and Markus and I looked at each other with huge eyes.
The door crashed open again, springing back on its hinges. “Oh, and I didn’t mention it because I don’t want to encourage this shit, but goddamn, you two. If you made a sex tape I’d pay top dollar.” He winked and scuttled away, shutting the door gently behind him this time.
Markus laughed so hard he had to sit down. I threw my script at his face and pouted. My clothes were soaked, we couldn’t be professional even off camera and I felt like we’d completely embarrassed ourselves.
“Sorry, that was totally my fault. Are you okay?” His voice shook as he tried again to unsuccessfully stifle his laughter.
“Can we not keep it together for five seconds? To be honest, I’m not sure who to be mad at. Mostly Michael, because my clothes are all wet and I don’t have any others here, but—stop laughing! This isn’t funny.”
“Aw. Come on. It is a little. We’ll have to keep practicing, which sounds like a perfect deal to me.”
“Ugh. You’re impossible.”
“And you’re pouting.” He hooked his index fingers into my beltloops to tug me over to him.
I sighed and wrapped my arms around his shoulders.
He kissed the top of my head. “I’m sorry. I know this means a lot to you—and to me too. Come over to my house tonight. We can go for a swim, sit in the hot tub. I’ll call David and he’ll be here in a few minutes.”
“Fine, Markus, but we’ve both got to be better. There’s a lot more riding on this for me than for you, and you know it.” I pushed off him and started rummaging through my purse to find tissues to mop up my face. “Do you mind if I invite people over? I haven’t seen Candace since the Premiere and was thinking we could have her, Rory and Ethan over.”
“That sounds great, we’ve got wine and food—maybe ask if they want to come around nine-thirty?” I nodded and pulled out my phone to text Candace.
He grabbed the leftover tissues and wiped his own face. “You’re right, you know, we do have to take this seriously. But you’re doing amazingly with the scenes outside of the romantic ones. I can’t believe how fast you’re picking it up. Tomorrow will be better.” He stood and stretched, then headed for the door, where he grabbed the top of the frame and swung through like a gymnast.
I followed him dutifully out the door with my feet firmly planted, plodding along completely earthbound.
He squeezed me tightly as we walked down the hall and whispered, “It’s going to be okay. I promise.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Markus
Ethan, Rory and Candace met us at my place and helped devour pretty much everything my housekeeper had bought over the last week. It was so different, so normal to have a night like that. Friends hanging out, getting a little wine drunk and playing stupid games. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d done anything like that. I’d been in the public eye for way too long and my life had literally been red carpet to club to red carpet to club. That or hiding at home, trying to catch my breath and maintain my sanity. It had never been me, but I’d handed the reins of my life over to Kate a long time ago.
At one point, Candace and Alina disappeared for girl time in the hot tub, leaving me inside with Ethan and Rory. They gave me shit for a solid twenty minutes about inviting Alina to meet my family after knowing her for approximately three seconds.
“Seriously, Markus? What the fuck were you thinking?” howled Rory as he rolled on the ground. Ethan hauled him upright while wiping a tear from his eye. I’d given the story of my brother Matti meeting Alina for the first time.
I rubbed my own eyes and grinned sloppily. “I don’t even fucking know, man. I’m not even the same person I was four months ago. Not even the same person since that first day in Georgia. Everything is changed.”
“Aw, kissy-kissy.” Rory made fish lips at me, and Ethan, ever the mature one, socked him in the gut.
“He means,” said Ethan self-importantly, “that we’re fucking happy for you, man. This is good stuff. Alina is special and I like her a lot. She’s kind of a sister to me and I’m glad she has you.”
“What’s this? I’m your sister?” Alina, followed by Candace, strolled back into the room with towels wrapped around their bodies.
Candace held out a hand at Ethan and Rory like she was training a pack of unruly puppies. “Stay, boys. Let’s get ready to head home.” They were inches from panting after her, but she stuck her tongue out at them as she ran upstairs to change.
Ethan rolled to his back and looked up at Alina with wide eyes and said sweetly, “Yeah, like my sister. The one who will never judge me for liking guys and girls, or both at one time. The one who keeps my secrets and helps me run lines when everyone else is busy. The one who sends me flowers when I’m sick, the one who—”
I cleared my throat loudly and Rory laughed. As Candace came down the steps, Alina yawned and said, “I’m heading up to bed. Michael’s got me booked for a boot camp session at eight. Thanks, everyone, for coming over.”
The whole crowd got up and sort of oozed their way to the entry. Candace was still sober and would drive them all home. Everyone hugged, kissed and promised we’d do it again sometime and, finally, the door was closed and they were gone.
I leaned back against the door and watched her ascend the stairs, thanking everything that was holy that I’d found her and that she wanted to be part of my life.
* * * *
The next morning, I woke her up with breakfast at six, complete with flowers that I’d run out for at five o’clock. This early bird caught the worm and her ‘thank you’ resulted in stems on the floor, a few broken plates and crumbs in odd crevices as I pulled her up from the island where she’d lain only moments before. We were both sweating and she was laughing as she kissed me.
“What do you have going on today?” I asked once I’d caught my breath.
“Training in”—she pulled out her phone and checked the time—“thirty minutes, so I’ve got a little time. It’s a beach workout today and you, my friend, are more than welcome to join me in the torture session.”
I shook my head adamantly and helped her down from the island. She waltzed to the coffee machine and poured for each of us.
“And after that I’ve got a session with Diana, plus we have something with Mic—”
Her phone rang, the arpeggio of chimes interrupting her reminder about our shared session with Michael. She drifted out to the pool area as she said, “Hello, Alina speaking.” She was using her boss voice, and it was doing wonders to revive my dick after its morning workout.
I finished my coffee and peeked out the window, where I saw Alina walking back and forth across the patio, gesturing wildly with an enormous smile on her face. She paused and clutched a hand to her chest, nodding furiously as she listened. Finally she dropped her hand and spoke again, briefly, into the phone and started walking purposefully back to the door. I backed away and heard her say, “Sure, yes, Sherilyn, I’ll talk to him and hopefully we’ll see you later today. Yes, thanks again for the call. Bye.”
She carefully placed her phone on the counter and turned to me. Her eyes were electric. “You’re not going to believe this. Sherilyn Holmes wants to meet with me. Well, us. She wants you to come too, to discuss a project. She never responded to my scheduling suggestions, so this is incredible.” She launched herself at me and I barely caught her, swinging her around.
“Congratulations! I’m so proud of you!” I kissed her soundly on the lips.
“I know, it’s so cool. Today, though? Can you make it?” she asked anxiously.
“Sure, when? I have to call in for a few radio interviews later this morning and early afternoon, but we can work around that,” I said easily and shrugged.
“How about three-thirty or four o’clock?” she asked with one eye on her phone, her trembling fingers hovering over the screen.
“That works for me—let me know what Sherilyn says and I can pick you up at the studio and we can drive together.”
She hummed happily and ran upstairs to my room to change into workout gear while I cleaned up the remains of our breakfast.
* * * *
“Alina, wait!” She was charging ahead of me, down a narrow, uneven path through a gorgeously landscaped yard. “Please, be careful!”
I caught up with her at the car. She’d already climbed in and buckled up. Her arms were crossed across her chest and her foot was tapping on the floormat. “Well, that didn’t go so well. David, please take us back to my place.” He nodded silently and we pulled away from the curb.
“Didn’t go so well,” was a gross understatement. Our meeting with Sherilyn Holmes had been a massive dud. A massive, manipulative dud. Apparently, she’d heard from Michael that Alina and I were together, and since Alina had called to see if she could schedule a meeting, Sherilyn had attempted to kill two birds with one stone. She’d ignored Alina almost completely, instead directing her comments largely to me. At the end of it she’d handed me a script and offered me a job. Alina received a limp handshake.
Alina pinched the bridge of her nose, closed her eyes and leaned her head back. Her chest rose once, twice, three times as she sought to regulate her breathing. She blew out a hard exhale and opened her wide green eyes again. No longer shooting sparks, they were banked to a low burn. “What a fucking bitch.”
I nodded. “I’m so sorry about that.”
She shrugged and stared out the window as she plucked the cross-body band of her seatbelt. “It’s not you or your fault. It’s not even Michael’s. She’s an opportunist and saw an opening. Honestly, if you want to take the job, I don’t blame you. Sounds like a great role.”
“Fuck, no,” I said vehemently. “I have enough on my plate right now and I don’t like how she handled that. She could have called Will and requested a meeting. I don’t like being ambushed.”
Alina sighed and rested her head on my shoulder.
“I know it’s disappointing,” I said as I stroked her hair. “But not everyone is like that in this industry, and it sounds like you and Carolina really hit it off.”
“We did, and she sent me the script the other day. Thank you, by the way, for helping to convince Michael that we can wrap my part early so I can do pre-production with her.”
It was the least I could do. I felt like all of the pressure she was under was my fault. If I hadn’t waltzed into her life, she’d be working for Michael, moving up on her own. Instead her life was under a microscope as conjecture swirled around her. Yesterday her address had leaked, and photographers had been there waiting after we’d left the studio. We’d done an illegal U-turn and driven straight to my house instead of stopping to pick up a change of clothes.
She complained about feeling trapped into moving into my house because of the increased security, that we were breaking our ‘casual’ arrangement. I wanted to tell her that we were well past casually dating at this point, but she never seemed open to discussing it. Both of us were feeling the pressure, snapping at each other and falling all over ourselves to apologize. It was an exhausting cycle.
“Should we stop off at your house, see if the crowd has died down so you can pick up some stuff?” I asked. “I can ask David to detour.”
“No, no. That’s okay, I want to have a drink in the bath. It’s been a long day.” She sighed.
“Whatever you need. I had Claire pick up some things for you—clothes and toiletries—and they should be at the house. I wasn’t sure if you’d like me to do that, but I also want you to feel at home there.” I felt terrible for her privacy being violated.
“Thanks, that’s really thoughtful,” she replied and stared out of the window. A moment later, she reached back for my hand and squeezed it tightly, but it wasn’t as soothing as it perhaps could have been under different circumstances.
* * * *
The proverbial shit hit the fan, for real, a week later when we barely scraped through a rehearsal scene with Michael. Alina was at her limit, completely wiped out from training, struggling to remember lines, and we were both running up against a brick wall trying to balance our romantic scenes together. They were either too much or not enough. We were in the back seat of my SUV and David was driving us back to my place from the studio, her place now being off-limits until the attention died down.
She was texting furiously with Candace, pausing every now and then to snort and shake her head, probably letting her know how awful tonight had gone and getting pissed when Candace tried to calm her down. Alina was never one to back down when she felt trapped, and we were both feeling like we’d been painted into a corner with no way out. I wondered if Ethan or Rory would want to meet up for a drink soon.
“You know? It’s probably for the best he let us go early, seeing as how the last time we ran a scene with him we barely made it through without him throwing water on us. Again.” Her voice was husky as she tried to maintain composure. She looked up at me and gave me an exhausted half-smirk.
“But we’re getting so much better!” I reassured her with a sympathetic twist of my own lips. Neither of us were able to fully smile after that long a session.
Alina closed her eyes and laughed. “You’re right. We haven’t gotten water thrown on us in a few days. I’m done. Can we watch a movie or something tonight?”
“Stole my idea, sweetheart. You go shower or whatever and pick the movie when we get home. I’ll go grab some food.”
But it wasn’t meant to be. Because Alina fell asleep on my shoulder in the car and I couldn’t bear to wake her. I carried her into the house and brought her up to my room, laying her gently on the bed and tucking a blanket around her.
I realized it was a little cliché to watch my lover sleep, but I couldn’t tear myself away. My mind started to race as I began to outline a plan for the next five days in which we could maybe escape the rat maze we were stuck inside.
My call to Michael must have been a little bit of a shocker given the hour and the fact that we’d gotten done dealing with him in-person less than an hour ago, but his greeting was only mildly affronted. “Markus, to what do I owe this late-night honor?”
“My ‘get out of jail free’ card option in my contract about rehearsals. I’m exercising it now and taking Alina with me. She needs a break,” I stated so firmly that there could be absolutely no possibility of compromise.
Michael gave me a long sigh. “I know. She’s at her limit and improvement stopped a few days ago. I’m sure the press isn’t helping you two either. Go get yourselves on the same page and recharge.”
“Thanks. And I’m sorry for dropping this on you, but you understand.”
“I get it. Thanks for exercising that one-time-only option, though. I was about to recommend a change of pace for you two and call for a five-day break—now I don’t have to.” I could practically hear the smirk in his words. “Give me a call in a day or so, okay? Maybe bang a few times. Really try to get that out of your systems.” He laughed wildly and hung up without saying goodbye. Asshole.
Feeling lighter, I rushed back to our room and threw a bunch of random clothes into my leather duffle bag. I took my time in the bathroom, showering and shaving, finally wearing myself out enough to sleep, and slid into bed, sighing with relief as Alina’s body released from its tight fetal position. She snuggled back against me and I draped an arm over her middle. Everything was complete in that moment.
* * * *
The next morning, I reverted to my usual asshole ways and woke Alina up with a wet finger in her ear. She did not disappoint with her ungodly shrieks. Her retaliation tackle, however, took me completely by surprise, and the force of it rolled both of us out of the bed. We crashed to the floor, winded, with her on top of me.
“Hey,” she wheezed. “What was that for?”
I lifted a finger, indicating the need for a moment.
She didn’t respect it and started
to poke me in the ribs. “Nuh-uh, you brought this on yourself.”
“Hey! Stop that!” I giggled like a little girl at a sleepover.
“Only when you tell me why you chose to wake me with saliva?”
“Okay, okay, stop.” I flipped us over, grabbed her wrists, held them tightly over her head and paused to enjoy her squirming beneath me. “I woke you because we’re leaving. Everything is arranged. You need to pack a bag and we’ll be off. We can get breakfast on the way. So— What? Why are you looking at me like that?”
“You weren’t planning to ask me how I feel about ditching my job? What did Michael say?”
“Michael called a five-day break. We’ve both been worried about you. I probably should have asked but, since it’s already organized…let’s do it?” I gingerly let go of her wrists and sat back.
She struggled up to a seated position and got in my face, index finger tapping my cheek. “Never do that again. You’re lucky you’re so handsome and thoughtful. Give me five minutes in the shower, fifteen to pack and we’re out.”
I leaped up and pulled her along with me. Bowing deeply, I murmured, “As my lady wishes, so shall it be.”
She snorted and rolled her eyes. “Not bloody likely. Ass.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Alina
I may have been irritated by the alpha move, but I had to admit that Markus had nailed his kidnapping maneuver. We stopped for breakfast at a little roadside rest area, then piled back into the Land Rover he’d rented for the long drive to Ojai, a small town north of L.A., where he’d somehow swung some VIP nonsense and booked a fancy suite at a luxury spa resort with security measures fit for paranoid royalty. Our view of the national forest was stupendous and the solitude and privacy were top-of-the-line.
“Alina?” he asked as we finished eating dinner. “What do you want to do tonight? If you want to head to bed, that’s fine. Orrr…maybe we could revisit the soaking tubs on our balcony?”