by Marni Mann
“If you agree to sign on, we’ll be looking for you to start in two to three weeks,” Enzo said. “We’ll give you a few days to get settled in your apartment, and then we’ll get to work.”
My own apartment.
In Milan.
This wasn’t really happening.
It couldn’t be.
“I would just like to remind you of something,” Alberto said. “We don’t expect you to pause the business you’ve created here or to lose everything you’ve worked so hard for. That’s why the position offers plenty of flexibility, so you can spend a short amount of time with us and the rest of the day doing what you need for your clients.”
An assistant can pull from the showrooms based on pictures sent to me the day before. Outfits photographed and approved through email. A second assistant to help with fittings.
My brain was going so fast.
It was solving problems that would arise while I wasn’t here.
It needed to stop and breathe for a second.
And I needed to say something.
I tried to fill my lungs with air while I scanned each of their faces, all of them so encouraging, all of them wanting me to say yes.
“It’s the offer of a lifetime,” I admitted. “And it’s something I never thought would ever come my way, and I’m still completely speechless over it.”
“It’s a lot to consider, Eve.”
“It is,” I said, agreeing with Maria. “I promise I’ll weigh your suggestions, and I’ll come up with an answer within a week.”
“Wonderful,” Alberto said.
“I’m very pleased to hear that,” Maria replied.
“Now, won’t you please stay for lunch?” Enzo asked. “We hear this restaurant is quite tasty.”
I wanted nothing more than to run to my car and scream as loud as I could and call James so that I could freak out with someone over this.
But that wouldn’t be smart.
I needed to stay and get a better feel for the people I could potentially be working with.
So, I grinned and nodded and said, “Yes. I would love to.”
Twenty
Eve
James: Did I dream the conversation we had earlier today, or did it really happen? Because, if it really happened, that means my best friend really got asked to codesign a designer’s summer collection.
Me: Pinch me, girl. Please. This is my second bath of the day, and besides being really fucking clean, I’m waiting to just melt into the water.
James: Have you made a decision already, or are you still screaming?
Me: No decision. It’s too soon. But, every few minutes, I scream. Just because.
James: You deserve it.
Me: I have so much adulting to do right now.
James: I wouldn’t want to be you.
Me: I know. Plus, I still haven’t returned his text. So, there’s that…
James: At least give him a one-worded response by tonight. If not, I’m sure he’s going to get worried and then he’ll track me down through Brett and I’ll have to tell him he’s a fucking asshole for going out to dinner with that bitch last night. You don’t want me to do that.
Me: I’ll respond to him.
James: Are you going to tell him about Italy at the same time?
Me: I don’t know, but I know it’s a conversation we’ll have to have over the phone because he’s not planning on seeing me for another few weeks, and I’m going to have to make a decision before that.
James: Good God.
Me: I’ll call you in the morning.
James: You’d better.
Twenty-One
Max
The ringing of my phone woke me up.
I glanced toward my nightstand and saw that my cell wasn’t there, so I sat up and looked for it on the bed. The movement was what caused me to feel it. I was clenching it against my palm, fingers squeezing the hard plastic cover.
I didn’t remember passing out.
I only remembered checking the time on my phone, and that had been over two hours ago. At that point, I still hadn’t heard from Eve.
Now, her name was lighting up my goddamn screen.
“Where the fuck have you been?” I said as I answered.
She said nothing, but I heard her breathing, and it was loud enough to know she was there.
Seconds passed.
And then, “I needed some time.”
I kicked off the sheet and blanket, rubbing my hand over my bare abs. “For what?”
“To think.”
It didn’t even sound like her.
Her voice was flat, like all the emotion and excitement had been drained from it.
“What’s going on with you?”
She sighed, and that was when something finally came through.
Pain.
“How much do you care about me, Max?”
How much do I care about her?
What kind of bullshit is that?
The Eve I knew would never need to ask that kind of question.
“You know how much.”
I heard her breathe several more times.
“Enough to give me more?”
“More of what?” I reached for the remote and turned off the TV, which I must have forgotten to do before I’d fallen asleep. “What’s gotten into you?”
“I know you’re comfortable with the way things are between us, and I know it’s worked for a long time. But I need more from you. And, every time I drop a hint, trying to tell you what I want, you respond in a way that disappoints me.”
“Like what?”
I heard her laugh, but I knew she didn’t find this funny.
“When I told you that you should come run the LA office, you said nothing in this world could make you move back to California.”
“What’s wrong with what I said?”
“Everything is wrong with it.” I could tell she was fighting back tears. “I want you to move to LA, so I can spend more time with you. But I’m not even enough for you to consider it.”
I didn’t understand where this was coming from.
I’d never said that.
Eve was good.
She was better than fucking good.
“That answer had nothing to do with you,” I said.
“That’s the problem, Max. I wish it had. I wish all your answers had more to do with me.”
Sure, she’d been a little different lately. Tenser. Even a little less sexual than normal. But I’d just assumed she was distracted with work.
I never thought it had anything to do with our relationship.
“Eve, what do you want from me?”
She didn’t respond right away. “I want more.”
“How? I’ve already given you everything.”
When she exhaled, the pain in her breath was even more distinct. “I know you don’t mean that. You couldn’t possibly. Because, if you think that’s everything, then I’m terrified to know what you think is nothing.”
“Eve—”
“Max, I see you only every few weeks, and now, it’s down to once a month. And, most of the time we’re together, you’re working and always on your phone. I get late-night calls when you’re minutes away from falling asleep. I get the code that lets me inside your house. That’s it.”
That was more than any girl had gotten since Kristin.
And, now, it wasn’t enough.
“I thought you loved what we had.”
“God, I wish you’d do less thinking.” Her voice was turning sharp. “Every time you do, you come up with an idea of what you think I want, and it couldn’t be further from the truth.”
“Now, I really don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“A family, Max. Why would you ever assume that I don’t want one?”
I swung my legs over the bed and dropped my feet onto the floor, and then I walked over to the wall of windows. The glass was freezing against my bare skin.
I fucking needed the cold right
now.
It was the only thing keeping me calm.
“I’ve been with you for two years,” I said. “Never once have you brought up having children. Therefore, I assumed you didn’t want any. Unless you tell me otherwise, how am I supposed to know, Eve?”
“This isn’t my fault.”
I shook my head, tugging at the ends of my hair. “No one is blaming you.”
“I want more.”
There was that goddamn word again.
“What’s more?”
“Move to LA and take over that office.”
My eyes flicked through the glass to the backyard where the moon was lighting up Biscayne Bay. “No.”
“Then, what you’re saying is, if I want to take our relationship to the next level and spend more time with you, I have to give up my clients? My business? Everything I’ve built here?”
My other hand moved to the window, and I pressed my palm against it. “I didn’t say that.”
Silence ticked between us, and then her voice got extremely quiet as she said, “I was offered a job today that would require me to move to Italy for six months. I’d be working with a designer to create their summer collection.”
“Sounds like something you’d want to do.”
“But what I want is you, Max. I want to wake up next to you every morning. I want to eat breakfast with you when we get home from the gym. I want to jump in the shower with you as you’re getting ready for work. I want to see your face over candlelight. I want your lips to be the last thing I kiss before I close my eyes.” She took a few more breaths, and I heard so much emotion coming out of her. “Tell me not to go. Tell me not to take the job in Italy. Tell me you’ll figure out a way to give me more.”
I pounded my fist against the window, hitting it until the skin turned raw.
There was so much need in her voice.
So much sadness in each sob.
One word would take it all away.
But I couldn’t fucking say it.
I wouldn’t do that to her.
I wasn’t the kind of guy who would ever tell her to give up her dreams.
Because I had ones of my own that I still needed to accomplish, and I would never want her to take those away from me.
“I won’t do that,” I told her.
“Then, tell me you’ll meet me in the middle, so I won’t be the only one sacrificing. Tell me you’ll consider LA.”
I pressed my forehead against the glass. “Eve…”
“Tell me you’ll come to California to be with me.”
My eyes closed.
My heart fucking pounded against my chest.
I released a long, deep breath. “I won’t do that either.”
“Then, I know what I have to do.”
I didn’t hear another thing because she disconnected the call.
Twenty-Two
Max
Me: It’s been fucking days since I’ve heard your voice. Why won’t you call me back?
Eve: I’ve been busy.
Me: I need to talk to you.
Eve: I’ll call you tonight.
Me: I’ll be flying, so I’ll call you. Answer your phone this time.
As I sat on the couch on the plane, I stared at the messages Eve and I had exchanged earlier today. Texting was the only way we’d been communicating, the only way she’d fucking talk to me since she phoned me in the middle of the night to tell me she wanted more.
That was four days ago.
And, every day, her texts had become a little more distant.
The conversation we’d had that night still didn’t make any sense. I didn’t understand when she’d suddenly become so unhappy. I’d never felt the change. I’d never known she resented my comments or that she was hinting at wanting more out of our relationship.
I wasn’t a fucking mind reader. I wasn’t the kind of guy who picked up breadcrumbs.
If she wanted something, she should have told me.
Because, for the last two years, I’d thought things were good between us. I’d thought we had the most unbelievable time whenever we were together. We never fought. There wasn’t any jealousy. Our chemistry was off the fucking charts.
But she obviously didn’t think things were as perfect as I did.
She wanted more of everything—more time together, more attention, a goddamn family, things I just couldn’t give her right now. And the one thing I could possibly bend on, which was us living in the same city, I couldn’t give her either because there was no way in hell I would move to LA. I hated everything about that place. I’d left it for a reason, and there was no way I was going back.
She had to understand that.
But, shit, I had a feeling she didn’t understand anything at this moment.
Just as I shook my head, trying to clear out some of those thoughts, the sound of a zipper caught my attention. My eyes dragged to the other side of the plane where Brett was sitting.
He’d opened his computer bag, and he was putting his laptop inside it. Once he got it in there, he put his feet on the chair in front of him, grabbed his scotch, and turned toward me. “What the hell is going on?”
“You want to be a little more specific?”
He took a drink, keeping his stare on me. “James told me that Eve got a job offer in Italy.”
I nodded.
“What are you going to do about it?”
I pointed at my chest. “What am I going to do about it? Nothing. The decision is on her, not me.”
“You could tell her not to go.”
“You know I won’t do that. A move that big will change her whole career. I have no right to chime in on something like that.” I crossed my foot over my knee and extended my arms over the top of the couch, gripping my scotch in my hand. “If James got an opportunity that would take her away, you’d do the same fucking thing. Because we’re business people, and that’s what we do.”
He seemed to ponder that thought for several seconds before he responded, “I wouldn’t fucking like it, but if it would take her career to the next level, then you’re right.”
“I know I’m fucking right, and I’m not saying I like it either.” I took a drink, letting the burn settle over my tongue before I swallowed. “You want to know something? When I found out Kristin didn’t want to go to Miami, I almost stayed in LA with her. I was just going to tell you guys I couldn’t leave her, and my plan was to do everything I could to win her back.”
“What made you change your mind?”
“The thought of not becoming the highest-earning music agent in the country. No way in hell was I going to let myself stay in second place, and that’s right where I’d be if I didn’t get away from our old company and start The Agency with you guys. Plus, I’d have so much regret if I watched you fuckers build the business of my dreams, and I wasn’t a part of it.”
“We would have handcuffed your ass and put you on a goddamn plane if you had told us you were staying in Cali.”
“I figured that, too.”
He leaned forward in his seat, his elbows now resting on his knees. “You’ve got to handle shit with her.”
“I know.”
I looked at my phone, pulling up the calendar to check the schedule my assistant had put together. “I’m on the road for the next four days, but I’ll be seeing her at the end of the week. We’ll get things figured out then.”
“Good.”
I took a few more sips of my scotch, and then I said, “I’m going to give her a call.”
He pointed toward the back of the plane. “Go take the bedroom. I’ve got some work I need to finish up here.”
I grabbed the satellite phone that we kept near the cockpit and went to the back of the plane, shutting the bedroom door behind me. The room was small as hell. A bed, TV, and a tiny table that was built into the wall were all that was in here. But it was perfect to nap in and even better to fuck in.
And Eve’s bare ass had touched almost every surface in here.
I climbed onto the bed and dialed her number.
She answered after the second ring, “Eve Kennedy.”
Her voice sounded nothing like the last time we had spoken. It was alive, full of energy, and there wasn’t a tear anywhere near that gorgeous face.
God, I’d missed that tone.
Because the satellite phone showed up as Unknown on caller ID, I said, “It’s me.”
“Max, I don’t have that long to talk. I’m heading to a fitting right now, and I have a conference call in about three minutes that I have to take in the car.”
And then the sound that I loved so goddamn much was gone.
In its place was a voice that couldn’t fucking be bothered.
Where the hell was the girl who would have told me how much she wanted me instead of how busy she was?
I needed that girl back.
“Hi,” I said.
She took a breath. “Hey.”
“Why has it taken so long to get you on the phone?”
“There were some things I needed to think about, and I couldn’t do that if I was talking to you every day.”
“Eve, you live on the other side of the country. How much space do you need?”
“You don’t need to remind me. I know how far away you live.” She sighed, and I could feel the tension in her body. “Where are you flying to?”
“Nashville. Talia is going to start recording, and I’m going to be there for the first few sessions. Then, I’ll be swinging by Vegas for a photo shoot and then a show at Red Rocks. Finally, I’ll be in LA for The Agency’s soft opening.”
“And to see me.”
“Yes, and to see you. I think we need to talk.”
“We do.” I heard movement in the background—the sound of a car door closing and a quick blast of music before it was turned down. “My conference call is going to start any second. I have to go. I’ll see you in a few days.”
I closed my eyes.
There was nothing I could say to make this better. I just had to wait until I saw her in LA.
But I had to say something, goddamn it.
I raked my hand through my hair as I opened my eyes. “I’ve missed you like hell.”