Actually Love - Jessie & Zach (The Crossroads Series)

by Melanie Shawn

  “What have you got?” Jessie prompted when Maxi didn’t continue.

  “A politician’s wife, whose husband was just caught in a hotel room with an underage girl and cocaine, is alleging that Zach was a male escort and she paid him for sex over five years ago. Obviously, this is a ploy to divert attention away from her husband’s scandal, and I hate to admit it, but it’s a good play. With the amount of media attention that’s on Zach right now with the Reynold’s fight tomorrow night, it might actually work.

  “So my plan is to release the story first. Bob Ley from ESPN is already in Vegas covering the fight, and he has agreed to do a live-feed sit-down interview with Zach tonight so he can explain his side—”

  “Hold on!” Jessie held up her hand. The room was spinning and she felt like she was going to pass out. Sit. She needed to sit.

  Lowering down on her chair, she flattened her hands on the cold surface of the desk and took in a deep breath. She heard the hum of the heater. Smelled the lilac scent from her candle. Felt the solid oak of the desk beneath her hands.

  “Are you saying this accusation is true?” Jessie couldn’t believe that Zach, her Zach, had been a male prostitute. Superman was not a male prostitute.

  “Not exactly.” Maxi looked at Jessie with a strange expression on her face. “She was a regular client when he was a stripper, and they did have a sexual relationship, but there was never any money exchanged for it.”

  “Zach was a stripper?”

  Maxi’s eyes widened as her phone buzzed. “I thought you knew.” Holding it up, she showed Jessie the display. “It’s Zach,” she said before answering. “Hey.” Maxi’s voice sounded strained. “Uh, huh. Yep. Right. I did.” Maxi nodded her head with each statement she made. Then, getting a very sheepish look on her face, she looked up at Jessie and said into the phone, “Um…too late.” After a few seconds of looking like a deer in headlights, Maxi held the phone out to Jessie, “He wants to talk to you.”

  Jessie couldn’t think. She couldn’t speak. She couldn’t breathe.

  Facts. What were the facts?

  Zach had taken off his clothes for money. He’d been a stripper. A stripper who’d slept with his clients. Zach. Her Zach.

  She felt numb and in pain at the same time. Her chest felt like it had an entire family of elephants sitting on it, but she couldn’t feel her arms or her legs. Her face tingled and her stomach felt like it was a dryer that had a load of towels in it.

  She scanned her office to try and center herself again, and a very important fact hit her like a Mack truck: Zach was her client. This was business. This wasn’t personal. She needed to disassociate herself from the situation and handle this like the professional she was. Staring at the phone in Maxi’s manicured hand, she knew she couldn’t do that if she heard his voice.

  Ignoring the aching pain of her breaking heart, Jessie sat up straight, looked directly in Maxi’s eyes, and did what she had to do. “Tell Mr. Courtland you’ll call him back after our strategy meeting and let him know what the game plan is.”

  Maxi nodded and placed the phone back to her ear.

  Jessie had no idea what she said to Zach because all she could hear was the crash of the other shoe dropping.

  * * *

  Jessie collapsed on the couch. This had felt like one of the longest days of her life. She was so thankful that she had Maxi and Martin on her team. Honestly, she wasn’t sure if she would have gotten through it without them.

  After hearing all the details, they’d been able to release teasers for the interview that portrayed Zach in a positive light. They hadn’t even needed to do anything to spin the story. It was fairly straightforward, and all they’d had to do was stick to the truth.

  From ages eighteen to twenty, before his boxing career had taken off, Zach had been a stripper to earn money to pay for his mother’s medical bills. He was a young man, and sometimes he’d engage in relations with the women who’d come to his shows or had been at private parties. There had never been any monetary exchange for the consensual, sexual relationships he’d had.

  Jessie had approved six press releases and the interview questions for the broadcast they’d shot tonight but would be airing tomorrow at five before his live fight at seven o’clock. They decided against a live feed. Maxi was already on a flight to Vegas to go over the final edit before it aired. Jessie had set up several follow-up interviews to take place in the following weeks—one with Bob Costas and one with Jim Lampley. Maxi had briefed Zach on what the talking points were, and now all Jessie had to do was wait for the backlash, if there was any, and diffuse it.

  Her phone buzzed and her entire body reacted, just like it had all day when she’d gotten a call or a text, thinking it was Zach. Looking down, she saw that, once again, she was no Nostradamus. It was her mom calling, not Zach.

  Jessie did not feel like talking to her mom, but she did feel like she should prepare her for all the attention that was about to be on Zach once the press releases and interview came out tomorrow.

  “Hey, Mom,” Jessie answered, trying to sound as normal as possible.

  “Hi, sweetie. Your dad just told me that he saw a commercial for an interview that Zach is giving and it didn’t sound like it had to do with his fight. We just wanted to make sure that you are okay.”

  Jessie had to smile at her mom’s diplomacy and tact. She’d handled that a lot better than saying, “Hey, we heard your kind-of-fake, kind-of-real boyfriend might be a prostitute and is definitely a stripper. How you holding up?”

  So Jessie told her mom the same information she’d approved to go out to the AP. She detailed the years and reasons that Zach had been an exotic dancer. Explained that he’d never accepted money for any services other than dancing. That it was unfortunate that someone would try to capitalize on his success this way, especially as a ploy to divert attention away from a real scandal that should be getting the lion’s share of media attention. But he’s not ashamed of his actions. At the time, health care was not an option. His mom had been turned down by several insurance companies.

  When she started on the talking points of why this coming to light might mean it’d get people discussing affordable health care for every American, especially the ones who were sick and needed it the most, her mom stopped her.

  “Jessie, I wasn’t calling to talk to the VP of public relations at SPC. I was calling to talk to my daughter who I know must be having a hard time with the fact that her boyfriend is going through this.”

  “Mom, he’s not my—”

  Jessie stopped herself. She was about to say what she’d been repeating for the last two months to her mom. That Zach was not her boyfriend. But the truth was that, as of five days ago, he was. Neither of them had changed that arrangement, so she guessed that, yeah, he still was.

  “I’m going to take care of this. You don’t have to worry. When Zach gets back, I’ll get this straightened out. I’m sure he wouldn’t mind moving out, and if he does, then I can—”

  “You guys are breaking up?!” Her mom sounded horrified.

  She would have expected that horrified reaction after Jessie had confirmed that Zach had been a stripper, but maybe that was just her.

  “I haven’t spoken to him yet, but Mom…” Jessie wanted to make sure that her mom knew the facts. That just because Zach hadn’t been a male prostitute, he’d still taken off his clothes for money. “Zach was a stripper. He’s not denying that.”

  “I know.” Her mom’s tone shocked Jessie. Sandy Sloan was one of the sweetest, if not the sweetest, people in the world, but when she got ticked off…watch out. “So?!”

  Okay, did her mom really not understand what Jessie was saying? “He took his clothes off and danced for money.”

  “Yes. Because he had a sick mother and escalating medical bills. Not that he owes anyone an explanation, but I think that’s a pretty good one.”

  Jessie could hear her mom gearing up for a full-blown lecture. Jessie was about to stop her and point ou
t that she hadn’t done anything and should not be the one getting a lecture, but then her mom dropped the three words she and her sisters had always dreaded hearing.

  “Listen, young lady. I know that, in your world, things are black and white. That you compartmentalize everything in its place neatly and efficiently. But real life is messy. In real life, there are a lot of shades of gray, of purple, of pink. Love is messy. Love isn’t about finding the perfect person. They don’t exist. Love is about finding the person who’s perfect for you and then being there for each other when life gets messy.” Her mom let out a forced laugh. “Because believe me, it will get messy. And you want to have the person who’s perfect for you on your side when it does.

  “Before you do something that makes that impossible, you need to think about the fact that it’s really easy for you to look down from your high horse when you’ve always had a family, love, support, and resources at your disposal. Why don’t you think about what you would have done if it were just me and you, or you and your dad, or you and one of your sisters? No cousins, no hometown to help, and we got sick, and as a teenager, it was your responsibility to figure out how to get us treatment and you had zero resources. What would you do?”

  She could hear her mom getting choked up. “Or a better question is: Would there be anything that you wouldn’t do to take care of one of us?”

  Oh God, Jessie felt like the worst person in the world. “No,” she answered quietly as tears filled her eyes.

  “No,” her mom repeated, sounding happy with Jessie’s answer. “I didn’t think so. I was already happy about the thought of welcoming Zach and Anna into our family. This just makes my arms open wider for them.”

  “I love you, Mom,” Jessie said through tears. Sandy Sloan seriously needed to be nominated for sainthood. “Thank you.”

  “I love you too, sweetie. And thank you for being a daughter that listens,” she said sweetly. “Hold on. Your dad wants to talk to you.”

  “Okay,” Jessie said as she wiped her eyes.

  “So, did your mom get you all squared away?” her dad asked with love in his voice. “You’re okay, baby girl?”

  “Yep,” Jessie answered. She just needed to talk to Zach. Then she knew she’d be okay.

  “Good,” her dad said firmly. Then, with laughter in his voice, he added, “I’m just glad I wasn’t the one getting in trouble this time.”

  Jessie let out a sigh of exasperation. “Dad, I gotta go.”

  “Okay. Tell Zach we said ‘hi’, and we’re here if he or Anna need anything. Anything at all. I love you, baby girl.”

  “I will. I love you, too.”

  Jessie hung up and looked at her watch. She had a little over an hour to make her flight. She could do it. She had to do it.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Zach sat on the table, legs hanging off the side. Lloyd had just finished taping his hands, and he’d left Zach alone so he could get in the zone. His earphones were blasting music in his ears. He closed his eyes to tune everything around him out. This was the time that he needed the rest of the world to disappear.

  But it wasn’t.

  In the past, even when he’d been worried about his mom, once it had gotten this close to a fight, he’d been able to erase the world and just focus on getting his mind right. This time, nothing he could do erased the sound of Jessie saying, “Tell Mr. Courtland you’ll call him back after our strategy meeting and let him know what the game plan is.”

  He knew he should have told her about his past the first night they’d made love. It wasn’t fair that she’d been blindsided like that. She needed control, not surprises. And in Jessie’s world, both professionally and personally, knowledge equaled control. He’d taken that away from her when he hadn’t disclosed his past.

  Zach lived on his instincts. But right now, his instincts were telling him to get on a plane, find Jessie, and somehow make her understand everything. He’d only gotten about three hours of sleep, but when he’d woken up, he’d seen that he’d missed four calls from her. She’d only left one voice message and it had simply asked him to call her. That was it.

  She hadn’t sounded angry, just upset. Zach had been trying to get ahold of her all day even though he knew that he was probably just going to be broken up with when he did. The eternal optimist in him still held on to the hope that, if he could just see her face to face, he could make her see that none of his past mattered. All that mattered was her. Them. Now.

  That wouldn’t be easy over the phone, so his plan, although he’d never been able to execute it because she never answered, was to convince her not to do anything or make any decisions until they could sit down and talk about it face to face. It might be a long shot, but Jessie was a reasonable person. She dealt in logic, facts. He just needed to make her see what his logic had been. What the facts of the situation were from him, not from Maxi or someone else. From him.

  A hand waving caught his eye, and he looked up to see Maxi, dressed in a black pantsuit, standing in front of him, looking like she needed to talk to him.

  He removed his earphones. “Hey.”

  “Hi,” she smiled brightly. “Okay, I know you need to focus, but I just wanted to let you know that the interview just finished airing and Twitter is going crazy with support for you. You’re trending on Yahoo and Google, and we’ve been flooded with interview requests. Also, you did so well on camera that we’ve had several network offers for correspondence gigs.”

  Damn. Deep down, that had always been where he’d wanted his career to lead after he was done fighting. He just never even allowed himself to go there because he tried not to look too far into the future. Until he’d met Jessie.

  “Anyways, I’ll let you do your thing. I just wanted to give you an update.”

  Maxi turned to leave.

  “Have you talked to Jessie today?” Zach asked. He knew that he wasn’t even being kind of subtle, but he didn’t care. That was the only update he wanted.

  When Maxi turned slowly back around, she was still wearing a smile, but this one did not ring as true as the original. “Not today,” she said slowly. Then, speeding up her speech, she added, “But she’s probably still asleep. I would be surprised if she got to bed before six a.m. Yesterday was crazy. She didn’t just multitask, she multitasked squared. I was there and still don’t know how she kept everything straight. She’d be sending an email while talking to someone on her headset and reading copies of press releases for approval. Martin and I were throwing questions at her left and right and she was lobbing them out of the park. I mean, she is seriously incredible.”

  “I know,” Zach agreed. If she’d said all that to make him feel better, it hadn’t worked.

  Maxi sighed. Reaching out, she touched Zach’s shoulder. “And she was doing all of that for you.”

  Zach nodded and put his earphones back in. Jessie had done all that for Mr. Courtland, her client, not Zach, her boyfriend. Not that he didn’t appreciate it. He did. But it didn’t make him feel better about where he stood with her. Until he talked to her, nothing could make him feel better.

  * * *

  Zach could still hear the crowd cheering, “Playboy! Playboy!” as he made his way through the tunnel of hallways, back to the dressing room. His breaths were coming in short pants as adrenaline still pumped through his system. He usually didn’t come down for about four hours after a fight. Hopefully he’d be headed home by then.

  He knew that he had interviews he was obligated to do and that getting out of Vegas would be a nightmare on New Year’s Eve, but he didn’t care. Maxi could reschedule the interviews and he would rent a car and drive back to Chicago if he couldn’t get a flight out. He’d come here and done what he’d needed to do professionally. Now he needed to get back to Jessie and do what he needed to do personally.

  “Congratulations!”

  “Way to go, champ!”

  “Man, that was a good fight!”

  “Playboy!”

  Every person he
passed called out to him with congratulations. Lloyd was walking quickly beside him. Charlie was on his other side. The fight had ended in the sixth round by knockout. He’d landed a clean right on Reynolds’s jaw in the fourth round and Zach had seen that it had shaken him. He stayed up for two more rounds, but Zach had just been wearing him out so that, when he saw his opening, he could deliver the final blow. Which he had.

  Reynolds threw the left he was feared for. Zach juked it and landed another right. This time, it took Reynolds down to his knees. When he couldn’t stand back up, the ref started counting it. When he got to one, the crowd erupted in cheers and Zach retained his title and belt. He could now pay off a good chunk of his mom’s medical bills and make sure his mom was paid up at Avalon for a few years.

  His accountant had given him the numbers for either scenario, win or lose. He couldn’t remember exactly how far ahead this put him, but he knew it was a lot further than if he hadn’t gotten the ‘W’.

  Turning down the hall where the dressing room was, he stared down at the reflection of the overhead lights on the linoleum as he came up with his exit strategy. He knew that Maxi would be waiting inside, wanting to brief him on interviews, appearances, etc. He knew she wasn’t going to like his plan to take a quick shower and get out of dodge. But that’s what was happening.

  Lloyd pushed the door open and Zach lifted his head, ready to let Maxi know from the jump that he wasn’t sticking around. But instead of Maxi, he found Jessie standing in the middle of the room. She was wearing a blue t-shirt and jeans, and her hair was up in a ponytail. She looked adorable.

  “Give us a minute,” he said to Lloyd and Charlie, who had both walked in beside him.

  “Sure thing,” Lloyd said, already on his way out.

  “You got it.” Charlie tipped his hat to Jessie as he followed behind Lloyd.

  The door shut, and Zach knew he should say something to her, but he was having a hard time believing that she was actually here. In the flesh.