“Is Grace around?”
“She’s just put the baby down. Let me get her,” Mom said.
I really needed to talk to my sister. I’d been putting it off all weekend. I knew if I had called her Friday night, I would have been so angry I probably would have said something I regretted. But now, enough time had passed where I could probably have a rational conversation with her.
When Mom and Dad dropped off the line and it was just Grace, I said, “Did you tell Chris where I was?”
“What? No! I told you I just said LA.”
“Then he stalked me.”
“He what?”
I said, “Chris showed up at my apartment door Friday night.”
“Holy shit.” The surprise in her voice was genuinely fearful and then changed to regret. “I’m so sorry.”
“Yeah.”
“It’s my fault. Oh my God. I’m so sorry.”
Over the next full two minutes or so, she must have apologized a dozen times as I explained what happened. I knew she was truly sorry, but I told her to stop apologizing. I got to the part about how someone saved me, but I didn’t tell her who it was, specifically. I just said it was a neighbor.
“I just need you to do something for me,” I said, trying to bring this conversation to a close for now.
“Anything. I’ll do anything.”
Monday morning. I got to my desk without seeing Kevin, thank God. The last thing I needed was my boss asking about my weekend and detecting from my blushing or body-language that I’d been up to something. Of course, he would have no idea I had been with Max. But the ramifications of my dating and sleeping with someone we were working with could have been disastrous for me and my future.
I did finally see Kevin around 11 a.m. He stopped by my desk and said I should pack up my things.
My heart sank. Did he know? Had he found out I had breached his trust by being with Max? I felt my throat go dry and the beginnings of that little stinging you get before you cry, as the tears well up.
“You look like you’re going to pass out,” he said. “Don’t worry. I was joking. Or trying to, anyway. But you do need to pack up your things and come with me.”
I stood. “What’s going on?”
“Just do it.”
He put a box on my desk and started putting things in it. I joined him, and it wasn’t long before we were done. There wasn’t all that much on my desk. I did make sure to pack up the drawer I used to stash my many packages of sunflower seeds—a snacking habit that caused Kevin to refer to me once as a bird.
He led me down the hall to an office that had been serving as a storage room. He opened the door. All of the extraneous stuff he had been storing in there was gone, and now in its place was a desk, a big leather chair behind it, and two nice visitors’ chairs on the other side of the desk.
“I think you earned your own office space,” he said, standing aside so I could walk in.
An office of my own. With a window! And out of that window was a view of a good part of Los Angeles. There was a lump in my throat as the realization hit me that I was already moving up in the show business world. Just a few months ago, I could never have dreamed of doing the things I’d already done, and now, with my new office, I felt like I was on my way.
“Wow. Thanks, Kevin.” I put my little box of belongings on my new desk.
“You deserve it. Now get settled in and back to work.” He smiled and turned down the hallway.
An hour later I was doing yet another interview of an aspiring actress who was seeking representation. Her real name was Madeline Ostrosvky but, like so many others with names that were hard to pronounce, she planned to use a different last name professionally.
“Redford,” she said.
“Redford,” I repeated flatly.
“It sounds elegant. Like a rich, successful sounding name.”
I handled it as gently as I could. “People will think you’re trying to capitalize on Robert Redford’s name.”
“Who?”
Oh, Jesus. Did she really not know who Robert Redford was? I mean, sure, he was of a different generation and it was entirely possible that she hadn’t seen any of his movies, even the more recent ones. But what kind of aspiring actor or actress hasn’t even heard the name “Robert Redford”?
So I told her who he was, how big a name that is in Hollywood, and repeated my previous warning about it—people would see it as a cheap ploy using Robert Redford’s name to make her more recognizable.
“We’ll have to work on the name,” I concluded, and started to look through more of her resume and photos.
“We? Does that mean you’re taking me on as a client?”
I paused. This wasn’t how we did things at Kevin’s agency.
She must not have liked the pause and seen it as bad news, and said, “I really need this. I got these just for acting.” She started to lift her blouse. “They’re still a little sore—”
“No, no,” I said quickly. “You don’t have to do that. Really.”
That’s the kind of afternoon I had. Oh well. At least I had it in my new fancy office.
“I have to go out of town for a few days.”
The words from Max coming through the phone disappointed me. It was just before five o’clock and I was sitting at my desk, surveying my new surroundings and wondering what I could do with the walls.
I had become accustomed to seeing Max so often, or at least talking to him every day, I knew I would miss him and it would just make the workdays drag on even more until I laid eyes on him again.
“When?”
“I’m leaving in a couple of hours. Got a couple of people scouting locations for a shoot and they can’t seem to agree so I’m going to do it myself.”
“Oh, such a take-charge man.”
“Do I sense a little sarcasm in your voice?”
I laughed. “No, you sense a lot.” I loved our banter, and decided to be playful to relieve my disappointment.
“And you,” he said, “better watch your mouth or I just might spank you.”
My eyebrows rose up my forehead. Thank goodness he couldn’t see them. “It’s about time you brought that up.”
“You like that, huh?”
“My favorite,” I said in a hushed voice, trying to sound sexy. The truth was, I had never been spanked. Never even really thought of it. But there was something about the idea of Max doing it that made my insides stir a little. Okay, a lot.