“Not everyone, said Jessie. I’m the one who tapes the pieces back together when she’s falling apart.” Jessie stood up and managed to get a one armed hug.
“Who’s the guy staring dagger eyesat me?” Chris whispered to Marietta.
“What do you mean?” Marietta looked around, unsure why someone wouldn’t like Chris when they had just met him. That was when she spotted Tobias and true to what Chris said, his eyes looked murderous.
Before Marietta could process what the look was supposed to mean, McKenzie came out with the birthday cake. It had twenty six lit up candles on it and a script design on the top. She bore through the singing and then blew out the candles. She read the words on the cake but got hung up on one, ‘birth’. Marietta swallowed hard and tried to remember when her last period was. But she had been too busy and her poor diet meant her period fluctuated. She looked around and no one seemed to have noticed her panic. McKenzie was busy sharing the cake with the group and Chris seemed to be taken with whatever Jessie was telling her. Marietta moved around the dining room looking for Tobias.
When she finally found him, he was in a corner watching her once more. And Sarah was there, hanging on his arm like a forgotten sleeve. Trying not to get irritated, she walked across the room.
“Hi, can I talk to you for a second?”
“Sure,” he muttered.
“But—” Sarah began to protest.
“Let go,” Tobias said sternly.
“You didn’t have to snap at her,” Marietta said once they were out of the dining area.
“What did you want to tell me? Before that, who is that guy?” Tobias looked imposing. His hands were tucked in his pockets as if he was keeping himself from doing something. He rocked back and forth on his heels and his eyes burrowed holes in her skull.
“He’s a close friend of mine. He used to be my boyfriend.”
“Why is he here?”
“Listen, I don’t owe you any explanations. I just wanted to ask you one thing.” She took in a deep breath. “Earlier during—”
“When we had sex,” he finished.
“Yeah, when that happened. I was a bit preoccupied, I didn’t notice if you had a—” She found herself choking on the word. She glanced at Tobias but he didn’t seem to know where she was going with her question.
He shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t read minds.”
“Did you have a condom on?” Marietta let the words spill out of her mouth the whole time looking at his chest and not his eyes.
“No, why? Don’t you use birth control or something?” Tobias shrugged like it wasn’t a big deal.
“No I don’t. I don’t go popping pills, hoping that someone is going to burst into my room and have their way with me. I am not dating any one and I haven’t had sex since—” She fell silent. She didn’t want Tobias to know that he had been her first in almost nine years. “I don’t have a reason to be taking birth control.”
“Are you worried?” He stiffened then combed his fingers through his shaggy hair. “Don’t you have some map or calendar safe day thing.”
Marietta scratched the back of her head at odds as to what to say.
“If you get pregnant we can raise the baby together. It’s not a big deal.”
Marietta was taken aback at how calm he sounded. Talking about a baby the same way he would refer to a dog. “My father left when I was nine and my mother killed herself just after my brother died because she couldn’t bear to raise only one of her children and the guilt of... What makes you think I would make a good parent?” She hissed at him, the anger taking her over and forgetting her filter.
Tobias’ calm demeanor disappeared and he stared at her as if she had suddenly grown a new head. He made an attempt to hug her, but she stepped out of his reach. Tobias made a sharp exhalation then asked, “What do you want me to do?”
“I need to get one of those pill things.” Marietta begun to itch. It was a nervous tick and she wouldn’t stop itching until she was able to solve her problem.
“Pill things? If you don’t know, how am I supposed to figure it out?”
“Cards on the table.” She waited until Tobias nodded his head. “Chris was my first then…you.”
First Tobias looked doubtful, convinced she was joking. But when she didn’t laugh and held her serious glare, he knew she wasn’t joking. “Are you serious?”
Tobias had never borne the responsibility of being the first, he made sure of that. He mainly kept to the well-seasoned women, those who knew the rules of the game. But being a second and the first in nine years he felt the weight of responsibility on his shoulders.
“I’ll figure it out.” He gave her a weary smile.
“Thanks. I’m going to go back in.”
“Sure, enjoy your birthday.”
Tobias didn’t go back in until he had given express orders to Peter to hunt in the hotel for the magical wonder pill. When he walked back into the room, it was filled with people but his eyes searched for only one person. He spotted her leaning into Chris’s arms laughing harder than he had ever heard her laugh the past three months. She looked happy and part of him wished he could have been the reason for that happiness. Just as he stared at her, her head lifted and their gazes locked. She gave him a quick smile then directed her attention to the small crowd around her.
*** *
It had taken Peter a couple of hours before he found the emergency pill amongst the female crew. Tobias headed down to Marietta’s room. On his way there every couple of seconds he almost convinced himself not to give Marietta the pill. But then he remembered the way she spoke about her parents and he felt guilty. His life had been totally opposite from her. He never seemed to be able to get far enough from his parent’s hugs and couldn’t imagine growing up so lonely.
He knocked on her door and waited nervously. And when the door opened he heard laughter that wasn’t Jessie’s or Marietta’s.Chris opened the door and at first he seemed excited about meeting Tobias Harden, but Tobias Harden wasn’t excited to meet him.
“Is Marietta in?” Tobias asked in a stern voice.
“I’m here.”
Tobias followed the sound of her voice into the room. He gently took her arm and dragged her to the corner of the room. “Why is he here?”
“Are you crazy?” she hissed, “Do you have what I need?”
“It’s here. I want to see you take it.”
“Sorry what?” Marietta felt accused and she immediately became defensive, “I don’t want to have your baby just as much as you don’t want to have mine.”
“That’s not the point. If you aren’t having mine, you are sure as hell arenot having his.” Tobias gestured towards Chris who watched them with a puzzled look on his face. “He’s leaving tomorrow right? That pill works for the next seventy two hours.”
“What’s wrong with you?” He watched as Marietta studied him.
Feeling self-conscious, he pushed the pill into her palm and dropped her arm. He was about to walk out the door, when Marietta called out after him. He watched as she put the pill on her tongue and washed it down with a glass of water.
* * * *
“What was that about?” Chris asked once he closed the door behind Tobias.
“I’m not sure.” Marietta replied honestly. “I have never seen someone feel so insecure.”
“Are you guys’ friends?”
“Not really, we only started talking today.”
“What was that he gave you?” Chris stared at her suspiciously, “It’s not drugs is it?”
“No, don’t be stupid.” She obviously didn’t want Chris to know what happened, but she couldn’t have her one true friend thinking badly of her, “It was…birth control. We had an encounter.”
Chris covered his ears with his hands like he was a little boy and shook his head. “I don’t want to know.”
Marietta watched her friend and laughed. It was understandable that he wouldn’t want to know the intimate details of her sex
life, especially since they were each other’s firsts, but it bugged her that he wasn’t jealous. “So what are you doing on this side of the Sahara?”
“I’m on a photo safari. I got a call from my mom and she told me you were here. So I thought I would come and see you.”
Marietta knew Chris well enough to know when he was hiding something or trying to protect her from some truth. It was the same look he gave her when they first discovered her mother’s body. Chris was the first to see her. He closed the bathroom door and wouldn’t let her through. Marietta had to resort to threats before he agreed to let her see her mother’s lifeless body. She didn’t have any more family to bury, so she assumed it wasn’t death, unless?
“Are you dying? Because if you are, you need to tell me right now?” she said as her voice quivered.
“I’m not dying. I am as healthy as an ox,” he reassured her.
“Then what’s the problem?”
“There is a developer who wants to buy your old family home. He already bought all the houses on that block. He plans on tearing them down and building a complex.” Chris pulled her to the bed and made her sit. “I think it’s time to let go of all the memories and nightmares.”
“Those nightmares got me to where I am now.”
“I get that, but you need to move on.”
Marietta didn’t sleep that well the rest of the night. Apart from Chris’s elbow digging into her back, she was disillusioned at the idea of selling her family home. But she knew she couldn’t hold on to it any longer. There was nothing left for her back there. She had left that little town to build a new and happy life for herself, and so far she had been successful. Keeping that house was like that little dark spot on a white canvas. But even with the cons outweighing the pros she still couldn’t come up with a definitive answer.
* * * *
Marietta woke up midafternoon, hours after she had sent Chris off and the rest of the cast and crew had reported to the set. She decided not to take the jeep to the new location that was only blocks away from the hotel. She walked hoping that the fresh air would help her think. When she got to the small café, Tobias and Sarah were brainstorming with McKenzie. Marietta stayed out of it, sure that her jumbled mind couldn’t come up with anything of substance. But even when she sat aside, it didn’t stop McKenzie from calling her into the discussion.
She barely heard the ideas being thrown around. And when they asked for her opinion she would always lean toward what the director said. He saw the vision and was in a better position to offer an interpretation than she was.
“What’s wrong?” Tobias pulled Marietta aside.
“What?” Marietta hadn’t realized that it was just the two of them or that he was talking to her.
“I asked what’s wrong. You seem dazed and out of it.” He put his palm against her forehead feeling for a fever.
“My body isn’t sick, my mind is.” She pushed his hand away and ran her fingers through her braids.
“Did he spend the night?”
“Yes, but we didn’t—” She paused for a second, abandoning what she was saying then asked, “Would you hold on to a past that has been a part of your life, events that shaped you, no matter how dark they were, or would you just get rid of them in an effort to forget.”
“You never forget, you learn and move on,” he said his soft eyes offset by worry. “You never forget what made you but you don’t have to hold onto the darkness or any symbol of the it.”
Marietta nodded and blinked back the tears threatening to spill out in gallons.
“I’m going to go.”
* * * *
There was a knock on her hotel door later that night. Marietta sat on her bed andsighedinto the phone, agreeing with her lawyer. She needed to know just how long it would be possible to hold on to her childhood home before the developers strong armed her. She watched as Jessie got up to open the door and she was certain she knew who was on the other side of it.
As Tobias stepped into the room Jessie stepped out. Before she left, Jessie made a phone gesture asking Marietta to call her whenever. Marietta nodded and watched as Tobias sat next to her on the bed. She moved closer to him and snuggled into his side, letting him hold onto to her before she fell apart.
“Thanks, tell them I just need a month to consider this.” She mumbled, “I will be back in the states in the next two weeks, we can talk then.”
Marietta tossed her phone on the bed, breathing out and trying to release the tension that had been building up in her. She looked up at Tobias and a smile passed over her lips. He responded by squeezing her tight against his body but he never smiled. Instead his face was seamed with lines of concern.
“You want to talk about it?” he asked as he placed a kiss on her temple.
Marietta shook her head and snaked out of his grip. She crawled into bed and invited him along. Tobias lay next to her, curling his arm around her, he pulled her tiny body against him. She appreciated the gesture, with Chris gone and Jessie unable to take anything serious for two seconds, Tobias’ comforting hug was all that was holding her together. She could slowly feel herself unraveling at the seams. She was a ball of wool and fate was a kitten stringing her along.
Silence settled around them like a cloak. Fifteen minutes into the silence, Marietta heard Tobias’ slow steadybreathing and she knew he was asleep. Bringing her head forward she stared at him, the hard planes of his face, his strong and stubborn jaw but what tugged at her the most were his pink plump kiss me lips. She rose and supported herself on her elbow. With her free hand she combed her fingers through his hair. She pulled back when he moaned, but once he went silent she planted a kiss on his lips.
Marietta laid her head on his chest and wondered if she could have a lifetime of this moment. It seemed so easy, effortless, to lie next to him like this. He would help her through her tough moments and she would do the same. They would have sex, or graduate to making love. They would be at each other’s sides as their careers grew, when tragedy struck and when they just wanted to be. She had never had something so stable before. Her most stable relationship had been with the characters in her books, her scripts and the creative voices in her head. She needed human contact before she finally lost her mind, although it was her mind putting food on her table.
Human contact, maybe one day she would be brave enough to have a baby. Someday maybe she could build a family with someone and maybe that someone could be Tobias Harden.
Marietta erupted in laughter at the thought. Tobias Harden, monogamous. She had better luck witnessing a fish walking on water. Bad boys, players, they never changed. The only place a bad boy reformed was in her stories and that was because she forced them to take an unnatural path to life. She couldn’t see Tobias change nappies, or wake up for two am feedings or even drive a station wagon. It just wasn’t natural.
She closed her eyes chuckling to herself before Tobias’ steady breaths and heartbeat lulled her to sleep.
Chapter Four
The next couple of days she woke up and slept at his side. Rumors had flown around about their coupling but people always seemed to shrug them off. They all said, ‘Marietta wasn’t the type to fraternize with the actors.’ In a way the reputation she had managed to build for herself protected her from the actual truth.
Marietta read through the penultimate scene of the movie. It was a sex scene and now that she and Tobias had formed such a strong bond, she regretted writing it. She read the description of the scene ‘animalistic, ravaging, and teeth shattering romp.’ She whined as she saw her own words turn against her. Tobias and Jessie had, in equal measure, tried to discourage her from being present for the filming, but she had always put her professional face first, this time wasn’t going to be any different.
She bit down on her finger as they took their places in the suite. Tobias stood over Sandra his pants undone but still hanging from his waist. His shirt was undone and his hair tussled.Sarah was in the bed naked with her perfect leg peeking
out of the bed sheet. Marietta watched as the set seemed to fill more than she had ever seen it in the past three and a half months. They had all gathered to see him, her guy and there was nothing she could do. She was especially annoyed by the makeup artists who were giving Tobias a touch up. She hated the sound of their giggling as they rubbed whatever it was, on his sturdy torso.
What she hated more was that he encouraged it. She didn’t expect Tobias to swat their hands off his body. But she didn’t appreciate the devilish grin he shot at them. However, she should have expected it. After all the years he had spent carousing such a reaction was ingrained in him, it wasn’t going to suddenly stop because she was having an untitled relationship with him.
“What is that on his neck?” Marietta heard McKenzie ask.
“We tried covering it but—,” A makeup artist shrugged.
Marietta moved closer and leaned in to take a look at the monitor. Tobias had a bite mark on his neck it was red and visible to a blind man. She felt herself shrink away and when she looked up she saw Tobias wink at her and flash her a devilish grin. She wanted to sneak away before the CSI were called in and matched the bite mark to her teeth.
“Ladies please, it has been brought to my attention that Tobias Harden is an amazing lover, but please can you not chew on him. Especially on parts that have to be seen on camera.” McKenzie announced.
Marietta bit down on her finger.
“I see you like human flesh.” Jessie giggled at her side.
“Shut up.” Marietta hissed at her.
“Marietta!” She jumped when she heard her name called out, “Give me a scenario where this bite mark works.”
Immediately she thought about what they had been doing when the maiming occurred. They were on the bed and she was straddling him. Tobias’ hands were firmly gripping her buttocks as he rocked her back and forth against him, his manhood diving into her and his scrotum hitting up against her. The tightness in her belly and tingling in her toes was a telltale sign that an orgasm was about to crash into her. It was as if Tobias sensed it too as he moved faster, deeper harder. Her hands were locked around him, and she could feel a scream start to rip out of her. But she didn’t want to make any noise and since the pillows were out of her reach, she bit down on the flesh at the juncture of his neck and shoulder. A smile lifted on her lips because Tobias seemed to take pleasure from her sinking her teeth into him. Seconds later they drove each other to the edge and collapsed in a sex heap on the bed. Her eye brow hiked as the pleasure she felt from the previous night aroused her.
Denouement Page 5