“It’s easier this way.” Sienna could barely hear Ivana’s whispered reply. “Besides, why should I bother?”
She loved her sister and wanted to reassure her, but Sienna did not have time to worry about Ivana’s insecurities tonight. She had enough of her own issues. And even though trying to find the best way to make Aria Jordan the next big thing should have top billing, it was not Sienna’s number one concern. The problem causing the most conflict was figuring out how she would work so closely with Toby without going crazy.
This should have been so easy. At one point in her life, there was not a single person she was more comfortable with than Toby. Yet tonight she had been on the verge of coming out of her skin. What pissed her off even more was the fact that Toby could not have been less affected. He was, just as he’d said, strictly professional. It was time for her to be the same where Toby was concerned.
Maybe she should make a play for Jonathan. Mr. Campbell was definitely pleasing to the eye. And he was a go-getter, like her. But there was no spark between them whatsoever. Sienna had had a fun time hanging out with him last night, but she could not foresee anything other than friendship between them.
If Sienna had sensed correctly, Jonathan seemed more than a little interested in Ivana. Several times over dinner she had looked over to find him staring at her sister under the hood of his dark eyes.
Sienna glanced at her sister.
Ivana had never showed much interest in men after her jerk of an ex-husband, Michael, had broken her heart. She’d dated once in a while, but nothing serious. For all the talk about the Culpepper girls’ beauty, they sure didn’t get around much.
Sienna pulled up to the walkway in front of Ivana’s house.
“Do you want to come in for a bit?” her sister asked.
“No, I need to get to Toby’s. We’re going to go over Aria’s schedule with a fine-tooth comb and try to find as many spots for her to perform.” Sienna dropped her head against the steering wheel. “It’s going to take a miracle to pull this off.”
Ivana covered the hand Sienna still had on the steering wheel, and gave it a reassuring squeeze. “You can do this, Cee Cee. Don’t let anyone tell you differently. You are a smart, strong black woman. With enough perseverance and faith, you can do anything.”
Sienna raised her head and smiled. She leaned over and gave her sister a kiss on her cheek. “Thank you, honey. You always know the right thing to say.”
“Just fulfilling my big sister duty.”
Ivana reached to open the door, but Sienna stopped her. “Vonnie?” She had not called her sister that in forever.
“What is it?” Ivana asked.
“Do you really think I’m ready for this?”
“Without a doubt. You have nothing to be afraid of, Sienna. Go out there and do what you do. Show Sylvia that her baby girl is good for more than stacking the shelves of that high-priced shop.”
Sienna smiled. “And dribbling a basketball.”
She patted Sienna on the hand. “Get to work. I’ll see you next week.”
“Love you.”
She waited until Ivana entered her house, then took off for Toby’s apartment. Sienna spotted his Acura as soon as she pulled into the lot surrounding his apartment complex. She parked two spaces down and got out of the car. Toby was waiting for her at the entrance to the building.
“Come on up. I’m on the second floor,” he said.
Sienna followed him up to the third apartment on the right. He opened the door, reached in and flipped on a light. Then he stood back, letting her walk in ahead of him.
“Give me a minute to fire up the computer and print down the schedule,” he said, heading down the short hallway and disappearing into a room.
Sienna put her purse down on a small table next to the door and looked around. The apartment wasn’t all that big, but she supposed it was enough for one person. It made her appreciate having an entire house to herself. She had more space than she could ever need.
The furniture was sparse, but new; not even the slightest dent marred the cherry red sofa cushions. Count on Toby to have a bright red sofa. It worked well with the muted gold and soft earth tones throughout the rest of the open living and dining room.
Foraying deeper into the apartment, she walked to the huge flat screen television that hung on the wall opposite the sofa. It had to be at least seventy-two inches wide. What was it with men and tech toys?
Two display shelves that ran from floor to ceiling flanked the television. The one on the right was packed with hardback books. Toby had always been a closet nerd, afraid to admit he liked reading for pleasure. Apparently, he no longer cared if anyone knew of his love of crime novels.
Sienna moved to the other shelf that housed a DVD collection that had to number over a thousand. She smiled at the rows of Kung-Fu movies, remembering how they used to “play” Bruce Lee.
Tomboy. That’s what Jonathan said Toby had called her.
Her eyes moved toward the top shelves and stopped short.
“Oh, no he doesn’t.”
She plucked a slim case from the shelf. The Candy Strippers of Horny Hill Hospital. Sienna’s eyes bucked as they roamed the other titles. A quarter of the top shelf was devoted to porn.
“What are you doing?”
Sienna jumped at Toby’s question, guilty at being caught just looking at the cases for this smut.
Wait a minute. He should be the one to feel guilty.
Sienna waved the Horny Hill DVD under his nose. “I cannot believe you have this crap in your home, Tobias Anthony Holmes.”
“Great. And I thought Mama and Jasmine were the only two I had to worry about finding these. Give me that, Margo.”
He reached for the DVD, but Sienna switched it to her other hand. “Why do you even watch this?”
He shrugged, an incredulous look on his face. “Why does anyone?”
“My point exactly.”
“What? It’s just a movie.”
“With people having sex.”
“Actually, there’s not much sex in this one. It’s just a bunch of girls dressed as nurses who strip for elderly patients.”
Sienna twisted her nose in repulsion. “You are disgusting.” She pointed at the girl on the DVD cover who looked as if she had enough silicon in her breasts to fill the Grand Canyon. “Do you realize this girl will be someone’s grandmother one day? How would you feel if you found an old video cassette of your grandmother in a porn movie?”
Toby stared at her for a full five seconds. Finally, he said, “Thank you.”
“For what?”
“Ruining porn for me. I’ll never be able to watch another skin flick without fearing that my grandmother will show up on the screen.” Sienna smiled triumphantly as he snatched the slim case from her hands. “Now, can you get your nose out of my DVDs before you find fault with something else?”
“Well, those Jean Claude Van Damme movies do have a lot of gratuitous violence.”
“This from a girl who had pictures of Van Damme and Steven Segal plastered over her notebook back in junior high.”
“I do have a thing for men who can kick ass,” Sienna said with a rueful smile. “So, you have the schedule?” she asked, motioning to the document he held.
Toby waved the sheet and cocked his head toward the sofa. “I’ll give you the run down.”
“We need to get her in front of as many people as possible before the show starts taping; not only for the exposure, but she needs to be more comfortable in front of crowds.”
As they poured over the list of open dates and compared them to what Toby already had lined up, Sienna mentally tried to recall as many of the clubs she knew that held open mike nights. Not being much of a club-goer, she was woefully lacking in suggestions.
“I could give you a list of the clubs in Houston off the top of my head,” Toby said. “But I haven’t been back in New Orleans long enough to have a good feel for the club scene.”
Rising from
the sofa, Sienna stretched. “Well, let’s do what everyone does when they need to know something. Where’s the internet connection?”
“The computer is in my bedroom,” he answered.
Toby led her to the back of the apartment. After the collection of porno movies in the living room, Sienna was afraid of what she would find in Toby’s bedroom. Her stomach gave a slight drop and a tingle traveled down her spine at the thought of being in his bedroom at all.
It was stupid. She’d spent hours in the room Toby and Eli shared as children. But that had been years ago. And the feelings she’d had for an eight-year-old Toby were completely different from those she held for the twenty-eight-year-old.
He took the seat in front of the chrome and glass computer desk, motioning for Sienna to sit on the edge of the king size bed that took up most of the room.
“Try Digital City dot com,” Sienna suggested. “There should be a list of all the clubs in the city, searchable by music type.”
Toby tapped on the keyboard and Sienna moved in closer as the page slowly loaded.
“You need to step into the new millennium and get a high-speed connection. Dial-up went out about five years ago.”
“I’m not on here all that much,” Toby replied.
“That’s right, you get all your porn from DVDs, not the Internet,” Sienna snorted.
“Is that where you get yours?”
Sienna’s voice froze in her throat.
Toby laughed out loud. “You should see the look on your face. You look as if I accused you of murder.” He shook his head. “You’ve probably never seen a porno flick before, have you?”
No, she had not. And for some reason, it made her feel naïve and unworldly. Since when was it considered not cool to refrain from watching two complete strangers going at it in front of a camera?
“You should watch one,” Toby said. “You can learn a lot.”
Was he out of his mind? “There is not a single thing one of those movies can teach me,” Sienna spat.
“Really?” Toby’s brows rose. “You know everything there is to know about that particular subject?”
This conversation had plummeted to the eighth level of Hell in less than a minute. This was not something she planned to discuss with Toby.
“It’s none of your business what I know about…that.”
“I’ll bet the guy you were going to go out with last week would appreciate it if you borrowed a few from my collection.”
“Could we please get back to what I came here to talk about? My love life” —or lack thereof, Sienna thought— “is not open for discussion. Save the sex talk for when Aria’s here.”
Toby’s expression instantly turned serious. “There is nothing going on between me and Aria.”
“What?” Sienna asked.
“You mentioned that last night and I didn’t get a chance to correct you. Aria and I have nothing other than a professional relationship.”
“She’s not…”
Toby shook his head. “You’re not the first person to make the wrong assumption. I’m her manager and producer, that’s all.”
Oh, my God.
Sienna’s heart started to beat triple time at the implication of Toby’s statement. He was unattached?
“So, who are you seeing?” she asked, unwilling to believe Toby was actually available. He had never been without a girlfriend draped over his arm.
“Nobody.” His face was devoid of emotion. He had no idea his simple declaration had just turned her world upside down. “I don’t have the time,” Toby continued. “Maybe once this show is over and things calm down, but not right now. It wouldn’t be fair.”
“Fair to whom?” Sienna asked. It was the least probing question she could think of at the moment. There was so much flowing around in her mind. How long had it been since his last serious relationship? What type of woman was he looking for? Was he looking for just a good time, or was he really ready to open his heart and genuinely commit?
“I guess to both of us, but more so for the woman,” Toby answered her question, and Sienna had to think a minute about what she had asked. “It wouldn’t be right to start something up with someone when I know my time will be limited. How do you do it?” he asked.
“Do what?”
“Make a relationship work when you’re always so busy with your career?”
Yeah, like she had that to worry about. Of course, Toby still believed she had this imaginary boyfriend. Unsure that it was the smartest thing to do, Sienna decided to come clean.
“I’m not in an actual relationship, Toby.”
He was quiet for a moment, then nodded and said, “After the flirting you and Jonathan did last night I figured you were not all that serious about the guy.”
“I was not flirting,” Sienna said. Okay, so maybe she had flirted a little, but her idea of flirting was tame compared to most women. “And there is no guy. I made that up.”
At that, Toby turned fully to look at her from where he sat in front of the computer and chuckled. “Why?”
“Because you automatically assumed that I didn’t have anything to do on a Friday night, and I didn’t want to admit you were right.”
He shook his head. “Cee Cee, I don’t know what to say about you.”
“Say that I’m good at what I do. That’s all that matters,” she said, trying to bring things back to a safe level. She needed time to mull over the revelations that had just been brought to light.
Toby was unattached.
“You are extremely good at what you do,” Toby said. “And, since you are so good at your job, why don’t you take over the task of finding some clubs while I fix us something to drink. I’ve got lemonade, beer and chocolate milk.”
“Lemonade,” Sienna answered.
“Here,” he said, rising from the rolling chair in front of the computer. He slid open a drawer and extracted a steno pad and ink pen. “Why don’t you jot down the numbers of some of the R&B and Jazz clubs from here to Baton Rouge? I’m going to start calling first thing tomorrow morning.”
“You do realize this will cost extra, right?”
Toby pulled at her hair as he headed for the door. “Add it to my tab.”
***
Toby grabbed two glasses from the cabinet over his microwave and filled them with ice, and had to force himself not to slam the freezer door shut.
He should have guessed that Sienna had gotten the wrong impression about his and Aria’s relationship. Everyone did.
It was frustrating as hell to constantly have to defend his professionalism. Not that there was anything wrong with Aria. If they played their cards right, she would soon be on the minds of every teenage boy in the country. But Aria didn’t do a thing for him, and Toby did not want to score a reputation of messing around with the clients he managed.
One thing he did find interesting was the fact that Sienna was not dating anyone. Even more interesting was the knowledge that she had made up an imaginary boyfriend. Why would she do that?
Well, she had given him a reason. She didn’t want him to know that she had nothing to do on a Friday night. But why should it matter to her what he knew of her dating situation?
Toby could admit he had been thinking about that very thing. Her love life had been on his mind a little too much lately, especially after last night. He could not get the image of Sienna in that clingy dress out of his mind. It was her legs. Why had he never noticed how long her legs were?
There were a lot of things he had not noticed about Sienna when they were back in high school that he undeniably noticed now. Like her hair, and the way it fell just past her delicate shoulders. And her smile, the way it naturally appeared just when he needed a bit of reassurance.
Sienna had always had a lot going for her in the looks department. How many times had he been seconds away from decking one of his teammates for making some lewd comment after Cee Cee had come to congratulate him after a game? At the time, it felt as if he were protecting hi
s little sister. But she didn’t fit the little sister mold anymore. For the first time, Toby was beginning to notice what his friends had probably seen all along.
Sienna was fine as hell.
God, that sounded strange. But Toby could no more deny his thoughts than he could deny the fact that she was sitting in his bedroom right now.
Something pulled tight in his stomach, and a deep, throbbing pain that was sure to cause him to think too damn much about all of this later on, gripped an area south. An area that had never reacted to Sienna’s presence before.
Well, except for that long ago liquor cabinet incident. But he’d been a horny sixteen-year-old teenager back then. He would get that particular reaction when the city bus passed by.
So what was his excuse now?
Oh, yeah. Sienna was in his bedroom. On his bed.
Toby shook his head in frustrated confusion. Was he seriously having these thoughts about Sienna? She was his friend. His best friend. A person did not imagine their best friend naked and on their bed. But now that his mind had brought it up, the image was there in big, bold, Times Square-at-night living color.
“Oh, hell,” Toby muttered to the kitchen, as if the empty room could offer answers to the dozens of questions floating around his mind.
Frustrated, he went to the freezer and took out a package of microwavable pizza snacks. Maybe the time it took to cook them would be sufficient enough for him to get his body under control.
Toby placed the two glasses of ice cold lemonade and the plate of pizza snacks on the only tray he owned, and tried not to think about what it would be like to have the tray laden with breakfast, and a lusciously satisfied Sienna waiting in his bed to receive it.
“You have got to stop this,” he warned himself.
He made his way down the short hallway balancing the tray in one hand as he reached for the doorknob. The door opened and Sienna stepped forward, bringing their bodies in brief contact.
“Oh,” she screeched, jumping back as if he had burned her. “I’m sorry.”
The current of electricity that spiked through his body nearly knocked Toby to his knees, tray and all. He had a hard time swallowing past the lump of instant desire holding him paralyzed.
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