“Yeah, but…” My voice trailed off. I was stunned by his suggestion.
He kissed me on my head again and said, “I’ve been thinking about what I’m going to do when I stop producing. You know I just want to write. That’s what I’m going to do. But I’ll need an assistant, someone who will read all my stuff and not bullshit me with empty praise. Just like you did the other day. You were brilliant, Olivia. Your ideas made the story so much better.”
I moved so I could face him. “You’re serious.”
He nodded and reached up to touch my cheek. “Don’t worry about anything. And I know you by now—you’re thinking I’m doing this just to help you out. I’m not. You impressed me from that first meeting. I’d hire you even if you weren’t sleeping with me.”
My smile must have stretched across my entire face, and Max returned one just as big, then said, “Of course, we’ll have to be careful how we proceed.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’ll pay you as an independent contractor, not as a direct employee.”
“Why’s that?”
“Because then you can’t turn around and sue me for sexually harassing you on the job every day.”
I laughed and leaned forward to kiss him. “Every day? You promise?”
“Try to stop me.”
On the boat ride home, I told him my parents would be coming for a visit. “And I’m worried.”
“About what?”
Max was driving the boat and I was sitting on his lap. I put on one of his baseball caps and put my hair through the hole in the back, a makeshift ponytail to keep it from whipping him in the face.
“My living situation, for one thing,” I said. “They’re going to wonder about Krystal. Remember, she was my sister’s friend growing up?”
“Right. Well, maybe she won’t be around if she takes us up on the offer to help and checks into rehab. Then you can just say she’s out of town or something.”
“True.” He had a point. It was a justifiable lie. I’d be protecting Krystal’s confidentiality. My stomach churned with nervousness as I considered how to tell him I wasn’t sure about having him meet my parents.
We hadn’t been together very long, but several times during our time together, it seemed as though Max knew exactly what I was thinking. I knew he wasn’t literally reading my mind, but it was still odd at times.
Just as it was when, without me having said one word about it, Max said, “You’re worried about telling them about me.” He said it flatly, as though he didn’t like the idea at all.
“My family can be complicated. It’s not that I don’t want you to meet them. Just not right now.”
Max slowed the boat down as we approached Marina Del Rey. “It’s up to you. I’ll just miss you while they’re here.”
SEVEN
Krystal was vegging out in front of the TV when I got home Sunday afternoon. She looked like she’d gotten some sleep, and actually smiled when I walked in the door.
She muted the TV. “Good weekend?”
“Yeah, pretty great. How about you?”
“Oh, so good,” she said, letting out a huge sigh. “I slept most of yesterday. Turned my phone off and turned the world off. It was heaven. Actually, it’s still off.” Her previously happy expression turned to frowning worry. “I keep dreading turning it on and seeing the missed calls and texts.”
I guessed that now was as good a time as ever to tell her what Max had offered, so I did, with no beating around the bush. I just said, “Max wants to pay the twenty grand and get you out of trouble.”
She stared at me. “You told him?”
I nodded, then shifted uncomfortably in the chair, waiting for her to recoil as Max predicted she would do at first.
And she did.
Krystal threw her head back on the pillow. “I can’t do that. I’ll never be able to pay him back.”
“You don’t have to. He said—”
She sat to an upright position. “The hell I don’t. I’m not a charity case.”
I slowly shook my head. “You’re right, you’re not. But think about this. It’s an easy way out.”
“And then what? I’ll be right back in it up to my fucking eyes before I know it.”
This is the part that would be the hardest, I thought. Offering that kind of money to someone was a potential blow to their pride, but the rehab part of the deal could be a lot worse.
I moved next to her on the couch and put my arm around her. “No, you won’t. Hear me out, okay?”
I explained it to her, and she took it surprisingly well. By the time we were done, she had promised me that she’d think about it.
“One thing, though,” I said. “Let me know soon, okay? And in the meantime…”
“I know, stay away from that crowd.”
Jesus. I felt like her mother, but I knew it was the right thing to do. She needed help and Max’s offer was a once-in-a-lifetime chance to get her life back on track. She’d take the deal. I just had to give her a little time.
“Oh, hey,” she said as I was getting up from the couch. “What did Max say about the Kevin thing and you leaving your job?”
I didn’t want to tell her that Max had offered me a job as his assistant. It might have only made her feel worse about what lay ahead for her. While she was facing rehab and getting her entire life back on track, my problem had seemed to work itself out in a matter of days.
So I just said, “He called Kevin a ‘fuckwit’.”
“A what?”
“That’s what I said.”
We enjoyed a good laugh over the word and it saved me from having to tell her the rest of the story.
Later that evening, I talked to my parents and found out they’d be arriving that Friday. Grace was coming, along with her kids, but my brother-in-law was staying home.
I felt a mixture of happiness and dread about the whole thing. Maybe it would go well. Or maybe it would just go fast. After all, they’d only be here for a couple of days.
I had to warn Krystal about it. She had known my family for years and I didn’t want them to see her in the state she was currently in. Part of that was for her own good—she’d be totally uncomfortable, especially around Grace. Part of it was for mine—if my parents found out I lived with someone who was into cocaine and did porn, I’d never be able to deal with their fury.