In any case, we walked into the building together, intended to part ways on the elevator. When the doors opened to let us on though… Anthony walked off. His face lit with a grin as soon as he saw me and there was no hesitation in his step as he headed straight for where Des and I were standing.
“Ms. Byers,” he greeted and I tried to ignore the subtle nudge Des was giving.
“Mr. Cottrell, how are you?” I asked. “I was in your part of the building most of the morning and didn’t see you.”
“Trust me, I have been disappointed about that since I found out. I was honoring your wishes to not finagle another meeting, but I was certainly hoping to catch you sometime. So that I could do as you suggested, and simply… walk up and ask you out.”
“She’ll go,” Des spoke up before I could even answer. She held out a hand to him, which he accepted. “I’m her cousin, Desiree. And she’ll go. Dinner, this Friday.”
“Wow,” I sputtered, as Anthony laughed.
“Okay then, this Friday,” he agreed. “Of course assuming you are saying yes as well?” he asked, looking to me.
For some reason, the image of Pierre and Sienna looking extra cozy on the couch flashed in front of my eyes. Quickly, I blinked it away and nodded.
“Sure,” I told him, earning another of his beautiful smiles. “I would like that.”
“Excellent.” The genuine excitement coming off him was very endearing, which made it easy not to be too mad at Des for meddling. He was charming and handsome, and… if I was really going to just date, without taking it too seriously… those were really the only two things he needed to start.
“She likes tulips,” Des yelled out of the elevator after we’d finally gotten on and I’d already given Anthony my private contact information. This time, I swatted her ass about that shit, which only made me laugh as she eased away from me. “I’m trying to help him win, that’s all,” she insisted. “That man looks good. Why didn’t you tell me about him?”
“Because I don’t know him! We only met because he manipulated me into a pointless meeting, just so he could talk to me privately.”
“Okay effort.”
I rolled my eyes. “Fine. It was cute. It was also annoying, because it was a waste of my time, and I told him so.”
“But being frank with him about your disappointment didn’t send him running in the other direction? He’s still interested? I’m… waiting to hear the problem?”
“There isn’t one,” I laughed, as the elevator stopped on my floor. “Yet. I’ll let you know after the date you agreed to… unless this fool chops me up or something.”
“Don’t worry, I’d hunt his ass to the ends of the earth,” Des called, as the elevator closed to take her up to whatever executive she was about to get out of trouble.
At the door to Pierre’s office, I hesitated a bit, then knocked – I didn’t think he was actually in there, but I wasn’t trying to get another surprise. When no answer came, I let myself into the empty office, taking the time to regroup and check my schedule and emails before moving on the next step.
According to the daily itinerary, Pierre was down on the studio lot, reviewing set designs; something I was supposed to be joining him for. At first, I waffled, thinking it would be easy to just… stay here in the office and work on something else. But I didn’t want to be the one making things awkward.
So I made my way back down, with a brief stop at the desk so Freddy could make sure I knew he noticed I’d been in and out a lot. Once I got away from him, it was over to the space that housed the loft that had been built out for Jason, his parents’ home, and his father’s office, since those were the settings we’d been using most – we’d scouted and secured real locations for everything else.
Pierre did smile at me when he saw me, which made me feel a little silly for being so – internally, at least – awkward. As soon as it was just us again – no Sienna – we were right back to our normal vibe, with no friction.
Or… so I thought.
Everything was good, we were laughing and joking, making notes on what to add to and take away from the set. And then, I heard my name, and turned to find Anthony walking toward me yet again…
With a huge bouquet of tulips.
“I’m nothing if not able to take a hint,” he said, moving to put the flowers in my hands. I didn’t know what else to do, with several sets of eyes – including Pierre’s – on me, so I just… accepted them.
“Thank you. These are beautiful,” I admitted, because they honestly were. “Um… how did you know where to find me?”
Anthony grinned. “Freddy, at the security desk,” he laughed. “He ribbed me quite a bit for trying to steal his girl, then said he couldn’t hate on another brother, so he had to help. You’d told him where you were heading.”
Yeah, for my safety, not… this.
“Right,” I nodded.
“I’m gonna let you get back to work,” Anthony spoke up – maybe he could actually take a hint. “I know you’re a busy woman, and I don’t want to keep you. And… I will actually take these back with me, and leave them at the security desk for you, so you don’t have to lug them around.”
“That would be lovely, thank you.”
“You are quite welcome, Ms. Byers. I’m looking forward to our date.”
I smiled. “Right. Me too.”
He went on about his way then, and I… shit. As much as I truly, truly hated displays like this while I was trying to be taken seriously at my job, after the last year or two of inattention from Les… I couldn’t front.
This was sweet.
It felt good.
“So… you’re seeing him or something?” Pierre asked, breaking into my thoughts.
I wiped the smile from my face, but didn’t nod, since that wasn’t exactly true, but if it was… “Would that be a problem?”
His eyebrows shot up, and he made this scoffing sound that let me know he’d likely taken that in a way that wasn’t how I meant it. “Nah, you’re more than free to do you, shorty. I was just… whatever. Can we get back to work now?”
O…kay.
“Of course,” I nodded, wondering what I’d done to cause such a reaction. Or… maybe it wasn’t me at all. Maybe it was nerves about the script, or the issues we’d discovered with the set, or maybe something else entirely.
Pierre was a grown man though.
If he had a problem with my work, I trusted that he would tell me.
And apparently… there was nothing personal between us for that to be the cause.
So… I did what I always defaulted back to, instead of trying to dig for deeper meaning that may not even exist.
I did my job.
16
Pierre
Now that my head was clearer, I understood better why I’d needed to distance myself from Sienna.
At first, I’d been able to just chalk it up to the process of recovery.
With the exception of a very select few, I didn’t hang with any of the people I’d been around during the parts of my life where addiction had hold of me the worst. Those people reminded me of old habits, brought them way too near the forefront for me to be able to do what I needed to do, so they had to be cut. Now that it wasn’t so urgent, now that sobriety was my default rather than an occasional thing, it was blatant.
Sienna was… a lot.
Some of that was in a good way. When she was happy, she was happy, and could light up the whole room with her bubbly, vivacious energy. But when she was low… she sucked all the fire out, in a way that felt damn near supernatural; that’s just how intense she was.
I was aware enough of myself to recognize I could only handle the constant rollercoaster with her for so long.
The thing was… she’d already been around longer than expected.
Last night, at a later hour than most would find polite, she showed up at my door, very excited about what she’d done with the last episodes of my script. Even though she was unannounced, even th
ough I’d been just a couple hours into the first good sleep I’d had in the last couple of weeks, of course I let her in.
It was about my script.
Ignoring the fact that she smelled like a distillery, I simply kept some distance from her as she talked everything out. And it was… It sounded different. It sounded like her, though I suppose I should have expected that when asking her to consult on it. But… when I wrote with Nick, the script still felt like me.
So maybe I was bugging. Maybe this was just some type of paranoia, since I was so in my head about the script anyway.
Instead of giving her any pushback in the moment, when she was very clearly not completely sober and I was tired, I offered to order her a ride back to the Drake hotel where she was staying. In the morning, I would talk to Logan about where any breaks in my schedule might be so, Sienna and I could really dig into everything in daylight hours.
“Huh?” Sienna slurred. It was subtle, but I caught it because I was just hyper-aware of it, looking for it. “I don’t need a ride, I drove. What would you call me a ride for?”
Okay.
“Aiight… so, Elodie is supposed to be coming to stay with me during shooting, but she’s not here yet. The guest room is set up for her though, so you can use that. How about you just stay over, sleep… whatever this is off? And then we can look at this with fresh eyes, first thing in the morning before I even go to the office?”
Sienna grinned, approaching where I was standing to press her body into mine as she tipped her head back to look me in the face. “Or… I could just spend the night in your room… Like old times. Upstairs, last door on the left… right?” she giggled, and I shook my head, taking a step back and putting my hands between us so she couldn’t get back in my face.
“I prefer the other way,” I told her. “I think we could both use a good night of sleep.”
“And I know the perfect thing to burn some energy off. We could put each other to sleep…”
“Sienna… seriously…”
Right in front of my face, Sienna’s mood visibly shifted. The flirty smirk she’d been wearing swung almost frighteningly into a wounded scowl. “Oh right. You’re too good for me now, I forgot.”
“That’s not even what I’m on,” I said shaking my head. “I don’t mean any offense, seriously. But I can’t fall back into the same stuff that had me out here bad just because you want to recapture old times. I’m not judging you for doing you, I just can’t be a part of it. Do you understand that?”
She just stared for a moment, then rolled her eyes. “Whatever,” she huffed, grabbing her bag and laptop to head up the stairs. “I don’t need any directions,” she told me, with a glance over her shoulder. “You fucked me in the guest room before, too.”
Yeah.
This was a mistake.
There wasn’t any other way I could feel about it, no excuses to wrap my head around. This was just flat out a mistake.
Luckily, I was already almost finished making it.
* * *
The next morning, I woke to banging on my locked bedroom door. I knew Sienna a little too well to not have taken that extra precautionary step to prevent any shenanigans with her. Once I peeled my eyes open, a glance at the clock told me it was already nearing ten in the morning.
Well past the time I would typically have been in the office.
Shit.
I flung myself out of bed to get to the door, where I found Sienna on the other side. I was only vaguely surprised to find her in nothing but a tank top and panties; presumably what she’d had on under her clothes when she showed up last night.
Actually… the tank top was a surprise.
“You locked your door?” she teased. “Really? Did you think you’d wake up with my hands down your boxers or something if you hadn’t?”
“Honestly? Yeah. What is it? I need to get myself together and get to the office.”
Sienna smirked. “Oh no, the office has already brought itself to you. You have a guest waiting downstairs.”
Instead of playing into whatever game of riddles Sienna was trying to get me to engage, I moved past her. Downstairs, through the kitchen, and out into the living room… where Logan was waiting.
“Good morning,” she greeted, with her same reliable let’s get to work energy as always. “Did you forget we had a meeting this morning? About press for the show, marketing plans, your photo shoot for Sugar&Spice, all that?”
I knew when it came to Logan that was just a question; not an accusation. I wasn’t being chastised. She was just honestly curious and my answer would inform what her next steps were in terms of the information she would give me and in what volume.
Sienna did not.
I didn’t even realize she’d followed me down here, but before I could reply to tell Logan that yes, I’d definitely forgotten, she opened her mouth.
“Have you always talked to your bosses like that? It’s hella familiar. You should stop.”
Logan smiled at her. “I’m my own boss, actually. And yes, as a matter of fact, I do speak to myself that way, with pointed questions and direct offerings of information. Pierre, as my client, if there’s some issue you need to discuss with my methods of communication, I’m absolutely open to that conversation. We can build it into your schedule for the day if necessary,” she said to me, effectively dismissing Sienna.
I was surprised it had taken this long, and that Logan had been this nice about it.
I’d already put a stop to any outright disrespect Sienna tried to level at Logan, but that hadn’t stopped her from doing any little needling she could get away with. I’d even apologized to Logan about it, which she took in stride, insisting that Sienna was no more of a bother to her than a mosquito who wouldn’t actually bite.
“Just buzzing around, hoping someone will notice and give it some attention.”
“Client,” Sienna repeated back, in a derisive, childish tone before she sunk off somewhere.
Hopefully to get dressed and go about her business.
She’d effectively drained all the patience I had for her in any particular twenty-four hour period. Especially since she wasn’t just looking at the script for me as some friendly favor.
She was getting a check for her work.
Market rate, not some friends and family discount either.
The fact that she was not just here out of the kindness of her heart made me feel less guilty for being annoyed and ready for her to take her ass on.
“I’m sorry,” Logan said putting down the notecards she was so partial to when it came to this type of meeting. As she did, I noticed a bracelet on her arm; a new, disparate addition to her typical wardrobe. She approached me slowly, like she was hesitating about whatever was about to come out of her mouth next.
That bracelet was fucking with me though.
I didn’t know what it said about me that I knew Logan only wore a watch. She might put on a few rings or something, but when it came to her hands and wrists, I had only ever seen a watch on Logan.
Today there was a bracelet.
A skinny band with a heart charm hanging from it. It looked exactly like the type of corny shit that wack ass lawyer from the network would have bought her.
Did I have any evidence other than my own suspicions that it had come from him?
Nope.
I just knew because I did, and the fact that she was in my face this morning looking as good as she did, wearing another niggas jewelry… it was pissing me off.
“I know this is none of my business, but… I’m a little worried about you. You’ve been stressed about the script, and it’s been worse since she popped up. Now you’re forgetting important meetings. So I have to ask… what’s happening, here? Are you sleeping with her?”
She’s really asking me that with this motherfucker’s bracelet on.
Wow.
“You’re right,” I told her, wearing a blank expression. “It’s not your business. I’m just your client.”
Then she smiled.
“Of course. I apologize for overstepping. It won’t happen again,” she declared, with an eerie sort of calm that left me feeling… unsettled. “How about I order you and Ms. Sparks some breakfast – assuming you’ve not eaten yet. A nice boost of energy should give us what we need to get this planning and prep work done. Then I’ll get out of your hair so you two can enjoy your day.”
The way she shifted her attention to her laptop then made it clear she wasn’t looking for an actual answer from me. She was informing me as to what was about to happen. I couldn’t verbalize why, but I could just feel the fact that maybe… I’d kinda fucked up.
But why should I explain shit when she was making assumptions about what I was doing, while some other motherfucker was bringing her flowers and jewelry?
So… whatever.
Instead of hanging around, I left the living room to go get myself together and of course Sienna had her ass in my shower, instead of just using the one in the guest room. She must’ve heard my footsteps leading me in that direction because as soon as I hit the door of the bathroom, she stepped out, wet and naked and… beautiful.
Honestly.
“See something you like?” she purred, not bothering with a towel before padding up to me. “I’ve gotta get out of here, and I know your taskmaster down there is probably waiting, but… we could make something happen in a short amount of time. You always did know juuust the right buttons to take me from zero to a hundred in an…” She snapped her fingers, then slid her wet hands up my bare chest. “Instant.”
It was tempting.
Very tempting, in the face of the unfamiliar, absurd urge I suddenly had to get under Logan’s skin in the same way that bracelet had gotten under mine. Just give Sienna exactly what she wanted with the bedroom door wide open so every moan, every scream, could travel through the house. To drive home a false impression that I’d moved on too.
Behind the Scenes Page 16
