by Ella Brooke
May had, with some complements and kisses, chosen to wear a long, silky blue gown with a delicate layer of lace over the silk skirt and a tasteful accent of Swarovski crystals just below the bustline. And so, Louis took her into the party on his arm with pride.
Sugar floated over to them in one of her trademark crimson dresses. “I’m glad you made it, May,” she said warmly.
Far more warmly than she’d ever spoken to Louis, even back in school.
“This is really nice,” May said. She looked around at the large hall with vaulted ceilings. “I appreciate the invite, even under the circumstances.”
Sugar sighed. “It’s the tabloids. What can you do? It’ll be part of your life soon, too.”
“It will?”
Sugar winked at the both of them. “It will after we’ve got you connected with some big names.”
She reached for May’s hand and led her toward a group of well-dressed people, leaving Louis to follow them.
“Hey!” Sugar opened her arms to hug an older man. The two of them chatted for several minutes before turning to May. “Oh, Eddie, this is May Grace. She’s a up and coming director. I’m absolutely in love with her web series. And she’s in town working on an indie film that I’m auditioning for.”
“You? An indie darling?” Eddie turned to May. “Give me your pitch.”
Louis felt a stab of anxiety, but May immediately rattled off the synopsis of what her movie would be about, from the ghost aspect to the noir aspect and which themes to expect and the potential audience.
“That sounds . . .” Eddie stroked his beard thoughtfully. “I’ve not really seen anything like that.”
“I don’t know. Suspense as a genre has been trending down, but horror is getting really popular,” Sugar pointed out. “If you had something that tapped into that trend but was more for a general audience than for the hardcore supernatural fans, it would have a shot. Maybe not in the mainstream, but it could start a trend, and it would certainly be cheaper than the movies that demand so much CGI these days. I think May’s script sounds like it has the kind of heart that film festivals really go for.”
May lit up. “I didn’t realize you’d read my script so closely.”
“Louis sent it over last week so I could take a look. I really enjoyed it. I had my agent set up an audition with James.” Sugar squeezed May’s shoulder.
Louis eyed her and frowned.
“Well, let me know if you end up in the movie, Sugar,” Eddie said. “I might be able to secure some additional funding.”
May’s eyes grew almost comically.
“Sure thing, Ed.” Sugar gave him a parting smile and then turned to lead them to another group of people.
This group was bustling with men and women of various ages, producers and actors and directors. Within two hours, every one of them knew the name May Grace. Louis accepted that Sugar hadn’t spent much time telling anyone who he was. Usually, it came down to mentioning that they used to go to boarding school together. If there was a rumor going around about the two of them, it hadn’t reached this crowd.
Eventually, Sugar led them over to a table where another older man was sitting with a few attractive young actresses around him. Louis raised a brow at his broad frame and graying stubble, as well as the way he was looking at the young women around him.
“Hey, Jacob.” Sugar gestured to him. “This is my agent, Shane Jacobs.”
Shane’s eyes raked up and down both May and Louis. “Any friend of Sugar’s. My best client here.” He pointed at her. “Top earner. I get thirty scripts a day for this one!”
“I don’t know if that’s true.” Sugar shrugged at them. “He doesn’t make me read all of them.”
“I have assistants for that.” Shane pointed to the chairs beside him and one of the girls excused herself, giving Sugar a faux kiss on the cheek as she left.
“Talk to you later, Claire,” Sugar said.
“Sit!” Shane ordered. He raised a hand and snapped his fingers at one of the cater-waiters.
“This is May Grace. You read her script this week. And this is my old friend from school, Louis.”
Shane took a glass of champagne from a waiter and told him to bring some hors d’oeuvres for the table. “Ah, the ghost script. I’m not sure what’s got Sugar so hot for this one, but it couldn’t hurt to have her do something on the indie circuit.”
“Or he said he read it,” Sugar said a bit snappishly. “If he remembers that it’s a noir and she’s being gaslighted?”
“I read most of it.” Shane waved his hand at her. “Tell me, Louis, what are you doing lately?”
“Me? Mostly enjoying my time in Southern California.” Louis sipped his own champagne, which was a bit sweet for him, but he did quite like it otherwise.
“I mean, what have I seen you in?”
“Nothing, as far as I know of.”
“Really? You should start trying out for parts immediately.” Shane narrowed his eyes and visually dissected Louis again.
“I don’t even know how to act,” Louis laughed.
“That hardly matters. With that face? Forget it.” Shane pulled out a card. “Let’s have a meeting. I bet I can get you a walk-on in something within the week.”
May looked up at him with a barely restrained grin. She pinched his cheek. “He’s right about that face!”
“You could as well!” Louis objected.
“No, she’s too short,” Shane said. “You couldn’t use her in films. TV, maybe. She could probably still pass for high school.”
Sugar shook her head. “I apologize for him.”
“I’m not interested in being on the other side of the camera, anyway,” May said.
The waiter came back around with a few fresh plates, let them take some lobster puffs, and promised to send the other servers around.
“I appreciate it,” May said. “I’m starving, all of a sudden.”
Louis slipped his puffs onto her plate. “Have mine, then.”
“I’ll live for another few minutes.” She nudged him with her elbow.
“I’m just trying to look out for you. Since I’m apparently not doing anything else with my life.”
“I could put you in the movie, but I need good actors, and I’ve literally never seen you lie.”
“That’s true,” Sugar said, pointing at him. “He’s a weirdo. Even back in school he was disturbingly honest.”
“There’s really just no point to lying,” Louis objected. “You make me sound like a head case or something.”
May patted his leg.
“So, if you’re not here on business, why are you here?” Shane pressed. “Just wanted to come to a fancy party?” He leaned forward. “Are you and Sugar together? One of my PR guys said—”
“That’s not true,” Sugar said. “Someone got confused. I’ve been spending time with them because of the movie May’s working on.”
“A pity. Imagine the candids of you and this guy walking around town.” Shane shook his head. “We’d squash those other rumors pretty quick.”
Red began to creep up Sugar’s face.
“I’m Victoria Ryde. Do fans really care if I’m dating someone?” she snapped.
“If you and Blake had been willing to do a few pictures together—”
“He’s with someone,” she argued. “No one wants to support a home-wrecker.”
Louis frowned, and May turned to him and whispered, “Her co-star.”
“People don’t care about the nobody girlfriend,” Shane scoffed. “They care about hot people hooking up.”
The heated back and forth continued for an uncomfortable amount of time, during which Louis snagged a few more hors d’oeuvres for May and took her hand under the table while she nibbled on them. The sparkling lights that adorned the setting glistened over her hair.
“Fine. Have it your way, Sugar,” Shane grumbled finally. “You will, anyway.”
“Yeah, I will. Because I employ you.”
�
��You do. But I’m the one with the connections here, so I’d take a step back, young lady. I’ve been in this business a lot longer,” he countered.
“Thus,” Louis interrupted. “I’m absolutely certain you can find other means to boost Sugar’s popularity. Since you’re so incredibly well-versed in everything in the industry . . . and because you’re so good at talking to people.”
Shane pursed his lips and held his drink up as he stared back at Louis, who only gave him a smarmy grin. May covered her mouth to hide her laugh.
“So, what are you doing in L.A. again?” Shane pressed.
“He’s my assistant and P.R. expert,” May said quickly. “He’s also doing the musical score for our movie.”
“Seems a waste, keeping a guy like that behind the scenes,” Shane said.
“We were thinking about using him as stripper in the background of a club scene,” Sugar added.
Louis smirked and reclined, draping his arm behind May’s chair. “What can I say? The girls just love to see me sans clothing.”
“They do. He’s very symmetrical.” May rose, smoothed the front of her dress, and caught Louis’s eye. “I’ll be right back.”
Louis watched as she slipped away discreetly, but he knew all that water was probably sending her scurrying. He gave Shane a wink (which the man did not appreciate) and reached for Sugar’s hand.
“Well, it was absolutely lovely talking to you, Mr. Jacobs, but we have a few other people to pitch to, I’m afraid.”
Sugar’s expression softened as she looked at him, and she nodded to Shane before saying her goodbye and following Louis. A moment passed with Sugar on his arm before she spoke.
“I really appreciate your sticking up for me,” she said, her accent softening back into the one he recognized.
“I wouldn’t, but May seems to like you. Did you really make an appointment to audition or was that more ‘acting?’” Louis needled her.
Sugar snorted. “I actually have an audition. Her script is pretty clever. Are you actually going to do the music for her, or is she a better actor than you are?”
“She made that up! I do like to play, though.”
Louis chuckled as they passed by the live band playing. However, the piano player wasn’t there. Instead, there was a violinist and a cello player still standing there, providing a somber ambiance. Louis let Sugar go and walked up to the two players as he slipped out his wallet.
“How would you two like a break?” he said with a winning smile. They looked at him curiously until he slipped out several hundreds.
“Would you like to hear something else?” the cello player asked.
“Yes. Me.”
Louis handed the players the bills, and the two of them exchanged a glance before setting down their instruments. Looking up at Sugar with a grin, Louis slid onto the piano bench.
“Any requests?” he asked.
“Why are you like this?” she asked, crossing her arms.
“Born this way.”
Louis thought a moment, then chose Chopin’s “Nocturne in E Flat Major,” trusting that the elegant waltz-like beginning would suit the room well enough. After a few minutes of letting himself focus on the keys and each sequence of notes building to a trill, he lost track of the room around him and let the music pour out of him. Chopin had been difficult for him to learn, at least certain pieces, and therefore, he’d poured a lot more effort into perfecting those works.
As his fingers vacillated on the high notes heading into the final chords of the piece, a scintillating flash of blue caught the corner of his eye. When he finished, Louis looked up to see May and Sugar watching him, arms crossed and whispering between themselves.
“Come, now. I can’t have the women in my life joining forces,” he said.
“We were just commenting on how if there’s a piano within five-hundred feet, you will find it and end up there,” May teased.
“True enough.” He patted the seat next to him. “What’s next?”
A wicked glint in her eye told him exactly what she was thinking: This party could use some more energetic music to liven things up. Louis had other ideas, though. He took to the keys and began working out a piece he hadn’t touched in years. One he’d begun composing in a fit of pique—with the tempo and complexity to match— but had finished in a deep state of grieving. Through the first part, May was smiling, her eyes curious and full of the adventure, taken over by the music. Then, as he approached the second movement, she leaned in, frowning at the shift in tone, each mournful chord following the last as his left hand plucked out a meandering, lost melody.
Her hand was on his shoulder as he finished, and a few people had gathered around to listen.
“I don’t recognize that one,” Sugar said.
“You wouldn’t. It’s original,” Louis said casually.
“I recognize it,” May murmured.
He met her eyes.
“There’s a video of you playing it. In Astra’s upstairs lounge. The last time you were in L.A.”
He only had to look in her eyes to know she understood the circumstances under which that music had come to exist. And in that moment, it occurred to him that he had stopped composing for the very same reason he’d put away all his other passions. It had just been so much easier to avoid all of it, rather than wade through the deluge in order to keep all the pieces of himself.
“I could compose for you, for free, if you’d like,” Louis suggested quietly.
It was all he could do not to kiss her, with the way she was looking at him. Inexplicably with pride, for some reason.
“That would be pretty cool, man.” She squeezed his shoulder and then leaned onto him.
Since no one had stopped him yet, Louis picked another, older piece and began to play again.
Chapter Twelve
May
That night had been so long and so full that by the time they made it back to the hotel, May had been completely dead on her feet. Louis had slipped her out of her dress, and she had curled into bed with him in nothing but her panties. She’d slept so soundly that she didn’t wake until Louis was pressing kisses to her forehead and murmuring that her alarm had gone off.
“You should call in again,” he urged. “You need more rest than this.”
“I know, I know. But I can make it through the first trimester, I’m sure.” May rubbed her eyes as she looked at her alarm. “God, how long was it going off before you noticed?”
“Long enough. You weren’t drinking for two last night.”
“You didn’t have to do that!” May laughed and got up to grab her clothes and uniform.
Louis leaned back on his elbows. “I had enough to entertain the masses.”
“I don’t think it actually takes that much to get you to do that.” May frowned as she tried to zip up the back of her uniform. It was only going to be another week or two before this was too tight to work comfortably in.
“Maybe not.” Louis came up behind her and got the zipper for her. “Give me a ring if you want some company for lunch. I’ll probably head out later, if not.”
May turned and gave him a kiss. “You can go out. No point in waiting around for me.”
Louis stretched out long like a cat and went back to bed, and May took the elevator down. She knew how eager he was for her to take some time off, but May had worked all her life, and while she was starting to really looking forward to shifting into this new stage, for now, the mundane act of just going to work was helping to steady her amidst everything going on.
She made it down to her post within a minute of her start time, but her supervisor was already there waiting for her. Mr. Johnson loomed by the station where the maid carts and cleaning supplies were kept, crossing his arms and looking as though he was waiting to boil someone alive in bleach.
“Ms. Grace,” he said in a clipped tone.
“I’m running a bit late this morning, Mr. Johnson, but I’m still on time,” she said in a calm voice.
“You’re on time today, and you may be tomorrow, but after your friend up in the penthouse suite checks out, Ms. Grace, you can do the same.” Mr. Johnson’s lip curled. “We don’t have sex with guests here. Your behavior is well worth immediate dismissal, but if you’d like to keep up with this charade until he moves on to the next easy companion, by all means.”
May stood there speechless. Mr. Johnson clicked his tongue, glanced around at the other women coming in, and breezed past her. Before he reached the door, May stripped off the apron of her uniform, with her face burning hotter than it ever hand, and quickly went to hand it to him.
“Forget the two weeks’ notice,” she said sharply. “I have better things to do with my time.”
May glanced back at Ronnie and Gabriela, who glared in shock and a bit of anger at Mr. Johnson, and hurried out again. Tears were threatening. Not that she was sad, just angry, and more than a bit humiliated.
“May!” Gabriela came running after her and grabbed May’s arm. “Are you okay?”
“Unemployed. Sort of.” May wiped a traitorous tear away. “I still have the job at the bar.”
“Right.” Gabriela looked back in the direction she’d come, then pulled out her phone. “There’s something you should see.”
May could hear the blood surging in her ears. Whatever her friend was about to show her would be no good.
“Gabby . . .”
The small woman sighed as she played the video. May took it in, her throat tightening and her stomach beginning to churn. The garish headline, the gleeful reporting of the scandal:
Playboy Prince’s Affair with Pregnant Maid!
“It’s been picked up everywhere. I’m really sorry.” Gabriella bit her lip. “Is it at all true?”
“Most of it, yeah. Not . . . Not the part about him having a fiancée. That’s not true at all, but . . .”