by Cynthia Dane
“Don’t get involved with her, Jake. She’s gonna be your stepmother. It would be wrong. Not the cool kind of wrong, either. Just be nice to her. No hard feelings.”
Claire wasn’t psychic, but she swore she heard that in Jake’s heart.
“Wait.” She stopped him before he opened the bathroom door. “Okay. I’ll have lunch at your place… if you promise it will be light.” She put her hand on her stomach. “Not sure what’s going on in there.”
His eyes suggested he was about to rescind the invitation. Except the words coming out of his mouth said, “My car’s right out front in the parking lot. I’ll let you finish putting yourself together and wait for you out there… after I let everyone know how you’re doing.”
Claire watched him go. Gone was the concern and the warmth. All she felt now was the impending sense of dread – of things she did not yet understand.
Hell, she might never understand them. Few women had been in her position, after all.
***
Jake ordered from a soup and sandwich shop a block from his apartment. Claire had her choice of clam chowder or tomato basil. The thought of putting something with the texture of clam chowder into her stomach made her want to hurl again, so she went with the safer bet. Instead of a sandwich, she opted for a Caesar salad.
At least Jake didn’t make any dieting jokes, like some of Claire’s old boyfriends. Not that Claire felt any worse after getting in Jake’s car and driving ten minutes to his high-rise apartment downtown.
It’s smaller than I expected. Jake’s primary residence was a luxury one-bedroom apartment that was big enough to offer a separate office nook, but still a pauper’s chambers compared to his family’s mansion. Claire had always preferred the small and cozy apartments as opposed to sprawling mansions full of rooms she would never enter. Yet that’s where I’m living starting this summer. Maybe Arthur would let her have an apartment in the city. She could make the claim that it would save money in drivers and gas to get her around to functions and work. While insinuating he’ll have that much more time to spend with his mistresses…
She glanced at Jake from where she stood next to the living room window. I wonder how far the apple falls from the tree. Claire turned to him, but waited for an invitation to sit down before joining him at his small dining table. This impeccably kept bachelor pad did not scream that he spent a lot of time at home, let alone throwing dinner parties.
“Thank you for doing this.” Claire reached to fix up her own salad, but Jake had already arranged it on the plate and slid it toward her. “When I think about it, I really don’t want to go home yet.”
“Is your mother anti being sick?”
She is, but that’s not why I’m avoiding my house. “If I go home, there will probably be another ridiculous present from your father waiting for me. Did you know he sent me a giant portrait of me the other day? I never even posed for it! I have no idea what to do with that thing. I sent it to the house for him to hang up.”
Jake dropped the empty container that once held his salad. The fork that jumped up from the impact clattered and clanged on its grand journey down to the hardwood floors.
Claire bent down and picked up the fork that had landed next to her feet. “You okay?” she asked, handing him the dirty utensil.
“Yeah…” Jake tossed the fork into the kitchen sink and opened the plastic fork that came with their food. “Must’ve slipped.”
Claire studied his careful movements as he finished preparing his lunch and sat down across from her. “Anyway… the thing was huge. I guess I got creeped out because it reminded me so much of that portrait of your mother that’s hanging up in your father’s office.”
Jake placed his hands on either side of his plate and stared at the greens and tomatoes tossed together into a plastic carry-out box. “I often forget he still has that thing in there.”
“It’s so weird going in there and seeing his ex-wife hanging up in plain view.” Claire shuddered. “Sorry. No offense to your mother.”
“No,” Jake agreed, “it’s weird. My father is a strange man.” He sipped his water, but his face conveyed that he found it wanting. “I don’t say this to deter you from anything, Claire, but I’m often of the opinion that the man’s an idiot and still in love with my mother.”
Claire had half-bitten into a cherry tomato. “He never talks about her, unless he’s trying to impress someone.”
“Trust me. I can tell.” Jake bristled. “My mother is the one who divorced him, not the other way around. He was convinced the whole thing had been a joke until the lawyers shoved the papers beneath his nose and told him he really did have to sign them. She hasn’t talked to him since. She doesn’t want to, either.” A sigh rattled the table. “Sorry. You don’t want to hear this. Like I said, I’m not trying to convince you to dump my father. You have your reasons for marrying him.”
“Don’t worry. I know he’s a cheater. He was fooling around with some woman at the engagement party. I heard them in the office bathroom.”
Claire couldn’t bring herself to look Jake in the eye. Why did I even tell him that? He’s Arthur’s son! After we… I’m no better than Arthur.
Jake cleared his throat. “No wonder you were so brazen.”
Damnit. He brought it up. Jake had seemed reasonable, especially after discovering that Claire hadn’t known who he was the other day. I thought we were on the same page, Jake. Don’t bring it up again. Ever.
He must have sensed her sudden discomfort, for he got up and went to his fridge, where he fished out a bottle of beer. He held up another. “You want some too?” he asked.
“No, thanks.”
“Right. Not feeling well.”
That wasn’t why Claire forwent beer, although it was a good excuse. “I’m sorry,” she whispered.
“Don’t be. Took two, right?”
Claire shrugged. “I guess.”
Jake sat back down. “You don’t want to talk about my father. I get it. I don’t really want to either.”
“So then why are we?”
“Because he’s the only real thing we share.”
She looked up at him. “Is he?”
Was it unbelievable that she brought up the attraction continuing to reverberate between them? Or would it be more unbelievable to continue to ignore it, as if they had truly gotten it out of their systems and were now content to only see each other at Carter family functions. What about when Claire continued to think back on it? What about when she woke up in the middle of the night, fondly reliving those five minutes in a closet?
What was she supposed to do when that happened?
“We need to sort this out. Now.”
Jake nodded. “I don’t disagree with you.”
“It’s awkward as fuck.”
“It’s fine. I get it. It made sense after we met at the house and you were shocked that I was your future stepson.”
“Don’t put it that way.” Claire was going to be sick. Again.
“What I mean is that I understood that you weren’t being purposely problematic.”
“Purposely… problematic?” Claire laughed. “What kind of buzz words have you picked up in this business?”
“A lot. They’re the best words for me to use. Because you were reacting to my father’s behavior and retaliated by fucking the first semi-attractive guy you saw.”
Claire put her utensils down. Maybe she wanted that beer after all. “Semi-attractive? Give me more credit than that. Please.”
“Fine. Damn fine and diabolically handsome.”
Was he being facetious? Because Claire couldn’t tell when he kept that same serious tone. “You’re right,” she finally admitted. “I was retaliating. It pissed me the fuck off, and I wanted to prove that I could at least still get some ‘damn fine’ man to bone me at a moment’s notice. You have no idea what position I’m in. That man holds all the cards, and if I break off the engagement, my career is tanked.”
She expected him t
o laugh. He didn’t. Jake maintained that same dire countenance he had been courting since they met.
“You’re right,” he said. “If you broke it off with my father, he could very easily blacklist you. You would never work again, or at least not in any projects worth mentioning. You’d be better off moving to Bumsville, Iowa, and being the star of the local community playhouse.”
Claire snorted. “At least you’re honest with me. Like that audition today. I don’t have a chance, do I?”
“Well, puking on the lead male actor is not going to help you any, no.”
“Even without that. I could tell that the casting and movie directors weren’t feeling my performance.”
“It’s ultimately not up to me to decide. They might consult me since I’m one of the producers, but beyond that, I’m the screenwriter. Whoever plays the lead female only must fit a fixed set of parameters I wrote up months ago. All four of you auditioning today did that, which was why you got the callbacks. After that? It’s up to the directors and the head producer.”
“You’re not making me feel any better.” Here came the nausea again. Instead of being sick, however, Claire was convinced that she might simply pass out for a nap instead. What better way to pretend that this conversation had never happened? “Because it’s not only about that one movie, you know? It’s about my whole career. It’s not enough to ride on the name of Ronald Finn.”
“I believe it. I grew up in this town, too. Nepotism is a powerful thing, but it can only get you so far if other powers are at play.”
“Do you know about the powers at play with me?”
Jake leaned forward, most of his food and drink untouched. “Don’t you know them?”
Claire hated how much she shivered to have him so close again. Because they weren’t shivers of discomfort – they were shivers of arousal, anticipation, and bad, bad ideas. “I’m the granddaughter of a famous Hollywood legend who made bad deals and made the wrong people angry before he died.” Ronald had clung to a past that no longer existed by the time his twilight years caught up to him. Every time someone dared to suggest to Ronald that he take his company in another direction to keep up with the times and making money, he retaliated by doubling down and making terrible business decisions. The only reason the family hadn’t gone broke was because the company was sold at a pivotal moment, and the royalties for Ronald’s most famous movies were still decent.
Claire sighed.
“I’m not the best actress in the world. I’m good, but I don’t hold any grand delusions that I’ll win a ton of awards and have directors fighting over me to be in their billion dollar franchises. That’s not even a little bit realistic. I want a decent career to enjoy for the rest of my life.”
“It’s good to be realistic.”
Oh, shut up. “I thought that by getting engaged to your father I could secure myself. Not just my career, since I doubt your father is going to be gung-ho about letting me do whatever movie I want. You know what? I also wanted to secure myself financially. There, I said it. I don’t trust my own inheritance or my ability to make enough money on my own. Do you know how much money I’ve made from my career so far?” Claire didn’t wait for Jake’s guess. “Sixty thousand, and that’s since I was eighteen seven years ago. Most of that money was for modeling and a couple of reality shows about kids of the rich and famous.” Sometimes Claire stumbled upon clips on YouTube. What a wonderful way to relive her youth as a dumb teenager.
“I don’t envy your position.” Jake didn’t say anything beyond that.
That wasn’t good enough for Claire. “What about your position? Do you find it enviable?”
“What in the world do you mean?”
Claire shook her head in disbelief. “You’re the son of Hollywood royalty. Recent royalty. You were given everything. Your mom’s good looks, your dad’s head for business… and every opportunity they both could afford to get your foot in the door. I know what my grandfather’s name has done for me, but even I can’t fathom how good you’ve had it with your parents. I’m not saying you’re a bad scriptwriter at all, Jake, but do you think you would’ve broken into the business at such a young age if you didn’t have you parents’ connections?”
“No,” he quickly said. “I don’t. If you don’t think I’m thankful…”
“It’s not about what I think. It’s about what you think. Because you still have the hots for me, which is why you whisked me away from the audition and are now tormenting me!” She pushed away her half-finished lunch and leaped up from her seat. Before Jake could say a word, Claire rushed to the windows, where the LA landscape sprawled before her.
She glanced over her shoulder. Jake remained in his seat at the table.
“You’re right,” he admitted. “I do still have the hots for you, as you put it. You’ve put me into an impossible position. I’m trying to make it right.”
“How?”
Jake stood. His carefully controlled movements made his dress shirt wrinkle against his shoulders and chest, and his trousers crease across his thighs. Damn me for noticing that! Claire tapped her forehead against the window.
“You’re wrong if you think that party was the first time I ever saw you, Claire.” Jake remained a respectful distance, but the pull between them intensified, as if the more passionate they became, the stronger the connection between them grew. “I knew who you were before we met. Before my own father announced that he was marrying you.” He tapped his fingers against his table. “You remember Love in the City, right?”
“Of course I do? It’s the only real lead role I have.” Five years ago. Her stint on the reality show earned her the lead role in a B-movie about bumbling teenagers falling in love in New York. Claire had been convinced that it was the official start of her acting career. Instead, the movie was universally panned and her agent almost dropped her. Claire didn’t have a real movie role again for two years, and it was as a woman who only appeared in flashbacks, totaling ten minutes out of a ninety-minute film.
“I love that movie.”
Claire scoffed, her arm rattling against the window and her sweaty hair sticking to her cheeks. “What? Don’t be silly. That movie was crap.”
“That’s what the reviewers said after it was released, but you really enjoyed making that film, didn’t you?”
“Only because I thought it was the start of something great.”
“You can see your happiness in the film. You can feel it. I’ve watched that movie so many times, that I’ve used characters like yours as inspiration for the ones I write.”
He’s got to be kidding me. It was almost insulting, really. How stupid did he think she was to believe that? “You’re only saying that. There was nothing special about the character. She was stock. A trope. Like all of them.”
“Maybe so, but it was your performance that made me think of it so highly. There’s something special about the right talent and the right character coming together. I always wanted that to happen with my own movies.”
“You make it sound like you kept writing characters like that in the hopes I would audition for them.”
Jake shrugged. “Maybe so. A little. Watching you on screen so many times may have opened my mind to how lovely you are.”
“Please, stop.” Claire curled her fingers against the window. “You keep making it sound like that you already…”
He was right behind her, his voice hitting her in the back of the head. “I was already attracted to you when we officially met in the flesh, yes. Trust me, I wasn’t a big fan of our situation either.”
“Our situation, huh?”
“You marrying my father. Us clearly being attracted to one another.”
Claire slowly turned around. “How did you feel when you heard about it?”
“I was the first person he told after you accepted his marriage proposal. I was… confused, to say the least. Not only how you two knew each other, but why… I felt… damn.” He laughed. Did he find this funny? Was he mo
re interested in making fun of Claire than clearing up this polluted air? “I felt conflicted because I wanted you first. I saw you first. Didn’t he realize that? Was my father punishing me for something? How had he even known that I watched your movie repeatedly? How could he possibly have known that I would’ve asked you out in an instance if I ever had the chance to meet you? I wished every day that you would have a better career, so we would have an excuse to meet. To think, today could’ve been my big chance, assuming we hadn’t met like we had.”
“Just admit it, Jake.” Claire crossed her arms. “You were already in love with me.”
“Perhaps so. Now you’re to be my stepmother.”
“And you’re to be my stepson.”
“The reasons for an affair are innumerable, yet the big reason to avoid it overshadows them all. I think this will be the plot of the next movie I write.”
“Who said anything about an affair? It was a onetime thing, Jake. It shouldn’t have even happened.”
“You’re right. It shouldn’t have. Yet it did. So here we are.” Jake took one step closer. “You’re throwing up during auditions, and I’m still thinking you’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.”
“It’s wrong.” Claire couldn’t bear to look at him. Not his own shame on his handsome visage, and not his sizzling aura that was hotter than the Californian sun beating against the apartment windows. “No matter how you look at it, it’s wrong. I could break up with your father right now, and it would still be wrong.”
“You know how it goes in the movies, Claire. Sometimes what’s the worst thing ends up being the hottest and most unavoidable.”
“Don’t you dare.”
“Dare what?”
Kiss me. Claire sucked in her lips to prevent them from searching out his. Yet how could she deny how much she wanted to kiss him again? This man had all but admitted to being in love with her, and they barely knew each other! Was that story about my movie true? Or is he some kind of sociopath sowing discord with his own father? Claire hated how conflicted she was. This should have been cut and dry. She should have had the spine to turn down Jake Carter’s advances. This whole time, I thought that I was the one advancing on him. Wasn’t she the one who seduced him, not the other way around? Why oh why hadn’t she gone after some other man at the party?
