Mr. Ruin

by Maya Hughes

“I thought it was because of close quarters and spending a lot of time together.”

  “Come on Gabe. Once you ate that tuna sandwich right before one of our kissing scenes, you were completely off my ‘possibly sleep with’ list, plus Alex is super sweet.”

  He chuckled at the mention of the tuna fish sandwich kiss and groaned as he thought about Alex.

  “I have completely fucked things with Alex in a serious way. She stormed out of here last night and it was all my fault.”

  “Tell me you did not tell her about the relationship clause.” She gaped at him.

  “Yeah, I did,” he groaned.

  Lesley moved behind the bar and started to pour a drink, “Would you like one?” she asked, tipping a glass toward him and unscrewing the cap on a bottle.

  “It’s really not a good time. I have to start the press tour prep tomorrow and I’m still nursing a hangover from last night,” he grumbled plopping down on the couch.

  “Gabe, it’s not going to be a big deal. We just have to make sure we’re seen together, flirt a bit, and that’s all. Don’t worry, I’m not going to try to jump your bones,” she said, putting the top back in the bottle.

  “It’s not about that. I know there’s nothing happening with us. I don’t think I should drink right now. My stomach is a mess.”

  “I think maybe you need a little hair of the dog.” She sat next to him on the couch and held out the glass to him.

  “You’re not going to make me drink alone, are you?” She rattled the glass and the ice clinked against the sides.

  “You know what they say … the best way to get over a hangover is to get blitzed all over again.”

  “Who the hell says that?”

  She shrugged.

  “People,” she said vaguely. Gabe grabbed the tumbler from Lesley’s hand and chugged it, hoping that it would get her out of his hair sooner. “Ta-da, finished my drink, now you can go.”

  And in that moment, he knew that hair of the dog was not the way to go. The drink immediately came right back up with burning bile and everything else he had tried to choke down last night and this morning. And it all landed all over Lesley’s hair, chest, and lap.

  “Oh shit.” He stood quickly and glanced around for something to fix this. Since he didn’t spot a time machine, he grabbed the towel he’d used to dry his face earlier that was lying on the floor. He attempted to use it to wipe up the mess that was all over Lesley, but he was only smearing it and making it worse. She stared at him, completely aghast and trying not to throw up herself. She stood with her arms out at her side.

  “Wow, I guess that’s what I get for trying to cheer you up, huh?” she said, chuckling and gagging at the same time and pinching her nose to avoid the horrific smell that was coming off her. At least it all seemed to be contained to her body and hadn’t gotten all over the room.

  I’m so sorry, Lesley. So sorry,” he said, standing there like an idiot, not knowing what to do. She needed to clean up. “Here, come in the bathroom and we’ll get you cleaned up,” he said, guiding her back into the bedroom bathroom.

  *

  “He wants to break things off.” Alex had to video call Jen after the taxi crushed her phone while she was getting her bags out of the trunk last night. It was the perfect ending to the perfect day. Add that to her list of expenses that she hadn’t anticipated.

  “Gabe? Gabriel Stevens, the guy who is absolutely ga-ga for you and who you’ve spent pretty much every day with for the past couple of weeks? That Gabe broke up with you?”

  “Well, no, he didn’t break up with me, but he pretty much told me that he was embarrassed to be seen with me in public and I had to pretend I wasn’t his girlfriend anymore, if that’s what I even am.”

  “He what?” Jen shouted, jumping up from her chair. She had to turn the volume down on her computer or she was going to lose her hearing. “Wait, did you say he ‘pretty much’ told you? What exactly did he say?” Jen glared into the camera like she was ready to tear someone apart.

  She recounted their conversation and went over how he’d reacted.

  “So, he didn’t say he was embarrassed to be seen with you?”

  “No, not in so many words.”

  “Alex, you know maybe the LSAT has Swiss-cheesed my brain, but I think you need to go back there and talk to him. You need to figure out what the hell happened at that meeting with Aaron. Yesterday, everything was fine. Today, he has a meeting and suddenly he can’t be seen with you.” Jen sighed.

  “Jen, I’m not going to go groveling back to some guy who doesn’t want me. I refuse to be that kind of woman.” The tears she’d managed to keep at bay since she woke up were threatening to spill over.

  “Alex … Alex, I know what you’re thinking, and you’re not like her. How many times am I going to have to say that? You’re not and I’m not saying that you should keep seeing him or should beg him for anything. What I’m saying is you need to talk to him. Find out the whole story, whatever it is, and then make your decision.”

  “Yeah, you’re right. I hate it when you’re right.” She cursed.

  “No matter what happens, if you walk away without getting a full explanation, you’re going to regret it. You need to go back there, be calm, and figure this out. If he’s being an asshole after you talk to him, then you kick his ass and come back here and we’ll eat ice cream until our stomachs explode.”

  She gave her a watery laugh and nodded her head.

  “I’m scared, Jen,” she said, confessing the truth.

  “I know sweetie, I know. But every choice you make when it comes to a guy does not go back to your mom. You can’t live your life in a safe little bubble,” Jen reasoned. “Do you want to stay in that bubble forever?”

  “No, I don’t. I’m just really scared. I’m putting myself out there and it’s hard.”

  “I know, but anything worth having is worth the risk.”

  “Right once again. When the hell did you become so wise?”

  “I guess you’ve been rubbing off on me. Now go and talk to him.”

  “On my way,” she said, ending the video call, grabbing her bag, and hailing a taxi.

  Chapter 11

  The pattern on the bedspread was suddenly incredibly interesting as Gabe ran his fingers over it. He was lying on the bed, staring up at the ceiling and feeling a lot better, physically at least. The bed spins were gone and that churning sea in his stomach had died down to a small, lapping wave. The fumbling and groans coming from the bathroom let him know that Lesley was having a tough time getting herself cleaned up.

  “What the hell did you eat, Gabe? This is so gross!” she shouted.

  “I’m really sorry. I don’t really remember. I think I might have ordered some room service spaghetti or something last night,” he shouted back.

  “Oh sick! It’s all over my freaking hair, Gabe.” She sniffed and then wretched, but thankfully there was no tell-tale splattering sound. “I’m going to have to take a shower. I will end up puking if I have to smell this all the way back to my place. Do you have some clothes I can wear or something?”

  Standing up, he walked over to the dresser and picked out a pair of long boxers he thought she might be able to fit and a t-shirt. He knocked on the door and Lesley’s hand shot out, grabbing for the clothes. He put them in her hand and stepped back as she closed the door in his face.

  “Seriously? This is all you have? What about some of Alex’s stuff?”

  “She left me, remember? She packed it all up and headed out last night.”

  All the fumbling stopped and she cracked open the bathroom door, “I’m sorry, Gabe. I wasn’t thinking. It will be okay. We’ll get through this.”

  “What do you mean we?”

  “These press tours are brutal and if they are loving this series and getting great feedback, it means we’re going to have to be on the road for months on end until this thing comes out, and then onto filming and then the tour starts all over again. Having one another to lean
on will make things so much easier,” she said with her face mushed between the door and the doorway.

  “Lesley, I’m in love with Alex,” Gabe said, sitting on the bed, holding his head in his hands, thinking about how much he had screwed everything up.

  “Well, duh. I wasn’t talking about in that way. At least us pretending means there will be less people asking you dating questions that might be hard to answer. I know it sucks. It really sucks,” she said with her gaze drifting off. “Have you told her yet? I’ve seen the way you look at her.”

  “No, I haven’t told her and, by what happened yesterday, I don’t think she’ll really care about how I feel about her,” he groaned.

  “I highly doubt that, Gabe. We will keep things strictly business, but we’re going to be together a lot. I can talk to Alex, if you think that would help,” Lesley offered.

  He thought about Alex and how he screwed up. She was not someone who forgave and forgot. He knew she was never going to take him back, especially after getting no response to all those calls and messages.

  “I don’t think she would go for that. I’ll try to think of something.” He lay back on the bed and covered his eyes with his arms.

  “I’m going to take my shower now. I think I’m starting to get used to the smell and that can’t be a good thing. I need to make sure all of this is off me before I leave this place. I’m sure the photogs would have some pretty interesting names for me if I was wandering around smelling like puke.”

  “Knock yourself out. I’m just going to lie here and try not to think about how I have absolutely screwed things with Alex.” She popped out of the cracked open door and sounds of the shower turning on filled the room.

  “Don’t be so hard on yourself. I’m sure things will work out eventually. And if they don’t, I know not to offer you a drink when you’re feeling down.”

  Gabe draped his arms over his face, dreading everything that was to come. This was supposed to be one of the best days of his life, and he hadn’t even called his family to let them know about this yet. All he could think of was Alex and that look on her face just before she’d left the room. Devastation. He’d done that to her. Maybe it was for the best, since he kept fucking everything up. Maybe she’d made the right choice; he was a mess.

  *

  Alex left her bags down in the lobby and headed up to his suite. She stomped down the hallway, determined to talk things out with him, just like he wanted. Feeling sheepish for running away after her talk with Jen and a good night’s rest, she was determined and ready to hash things out.

  It was time to face things head on, let him know her fears and let him know that she loved him, but she wasn’t going to let him treat her like crap. She grabbed her key card out of her pocket and waved it in front of the door. The light turned green and she slid into the room, careful not to make any noise in case he was on a call or something. The shower was running and she made her way back toward the bedroom. The scene in front of her stopped her in her tracks. He was lying down on the bed in nothing but his boxers. His muscled chest was bare and he had his arms flung up over his head.

  “Gabe, can you call down for some more towels? The ones in here are all dirty,” Lesley called from the bathroom. It was like time froze in that instant. Her mind went blank before a rushing roar filled her ears and she stumbled back into the living room. She held her fist up to her mouth—biting it—to keep her cries back. Her eyes were overflowing with tears and she choked back a sob as she backed up across the living room.

  “Yeah, sure,” Gabe called out from the bedroom.

  He had lied to her. She wondered if the relationship clause was even real or if that had been his way of breaking things to her. Sorry Alex, but I’m going to be a movie star now. You couldn’t really think I’d want to be seen with you? So stupid, she’d been so stupid to make this mistake. She needed to get out of here.

  Alex backed up until she hit the table in the living room, causing one of the glasses to fall over. Not wanting to see a look of pity from Gabe or Lesley, she ran for the door before anyone could come out. She broke down in the hallway half way to the elevator, sliding down the wall and bringing her knees up to her chest. She held onto them and rocked herself back and forth. She sobbed against them, trying her best to keep the noise down.

  In less than twenty-four hours, he was already bedding down with Lesley. He’d said how they were just friends and there wasn’t anything more to it. He’d also said how much he cared about her and would never hurt her. Lies, it was all lies!

  Someone from hospitality was walking toward the room with towels in their hands. She knew she had to get out of there now before Gabe—or worse, Lesley—opened the door and saw her there. She scrambled up and sprinted down the hallway, pressing the elevator button and hoping it opened before the towels made their way to the room.

  Thankfully, the elevator doors opened just as the staff person rang the doorbell for the room. Alex pressed the close button and leaned her head against the wall of the elevator, her tears dripping off the handrail. She wiped her eyes with the backs of her knuckles and tried to compose her face. She looked at her reflection in the elevator doors; she looked like she’d been hit by a two-by-four right in the face, which seemed appropriate because that’s the way everything was hitting her at that moment. A total gut-punch had her sprinting into the lobby looking for the nearest trash can, where she promptly lost the entire contents of her stomach.

  She went to the lobby bathroom to rinse her mouth and try to compose herself a bit before retrieving her bags, then made the sad trek back to the hostel she’d seen earlier. Buying a last-minute ticket back to the East Coast was probably going to cost her a quarter of her semester savings, but what were her other options? Dragging her bag down the street, she stood completely paralyzed as she thought about how much things had changed over the past twenty-four hours. At least now she knew that things couldn’t get much worse.

  Chapter 12 - Seven Years Later

  Gabe stood outside, his hand gripping the dark wooden fence so tightly he feared he might snap one of the planks in two. In his other hand, he was holding seven years’ worth of envelopes that contained a huge piece of his life that he never even knew existed. When he suspected Aaron of withholding scripts and indie projects and went to his office to investigate, Gabe never could have imagined that he would find so much more than that.

  Two days ago, he’d walked into Aaron’s office and told his secretary that they had a meeting that day. She’d seemed flustered that he had arrived without being on the schedule, but he assured her it was no problem and that he’d wait in the inner office. Years of success granted him a considerable amount of latitude.

  The corner office with its floor-to-ceiling windows that overlooked the city was practically the poster design for an egomaniac’s lair. Pictures of Aaron hobnobbing with a who’s who of Hollywood lined the walls, all with Gabe front and center.

  Closing the door behind him, he’d made his way to Aaron’s large glass desk and flipped on the computer. It took him three tries at the password “Dollars.” He only had to guess the correct number of dollar signs at the end—no shock there. Once he was logged into the computer, he went to the email and started checking through messages and folders.

  He found the email from Matthew Short with the script he’d said he would send, along with a shitty reply from Aaron stating that Gabe just wasn’t interested. He wondered how many other projects he’d missed out on due to Aaron’s indiscriminate filtering. After years of blockbusters, it seemed odd that there was only one type of film studios were willing to consider him for. Now it made a little more sense.

  Switching agents was the only way he was going to be able to have the kind of career he wanted … a career that provided him with more fulfilling projects. He had made more than enough money to last him a hundred lifetimes; he was a hair’s breadth away from quitting altogether. Being in the spotlight was something he always thought he wanted, until he’
d gotten to live the life. He’d given up Alex for it, but now he knew that behind the camera was where he was most comfortable.

  He’d told Aaron that he wanted to get into producing, and maybe even directing, and had instructed him to seek out projects that might offer the creative leaps he wanted take. Instead, script after script modeled so closely after the Stargazer films that they could be sequels were the only things Aaron sent him. It made his blood boil to think that Aaron had been the reason these types of projects never made their way to him.

  In the email, Matthew mentioned that he’d couriered over the script for him to look at. He checked Aaron’s desk and didn’t see anything. Looking for the Matthew Short script, he started going through the filing cabinet in the corner. It was locked, so he gave it a few hard tugs to break the lock. If Aaron had a problem with it, he’d have to suck it up.

  Running his fingers over the tabs, he stopped short when he found a file titled “Alex.” Memories of deep brown eyes and pouty lips flooded him, and he grabbed the thick folder out of the filing cabinet. Why did Aaron have a file on Alex? He crossed the room in swift strides back to Aaron’s desk and flipped open the folder.

  Inside were seven card-sized envelopes, each packed full. He grabbed the first one. It had a big six drawn on the front and it was stuffed with a letter and photos. He pulled out a letter titled “Emma Year 6.” In it was a handwritten letter from Alex.

  Emma’s started first grade this year. It’s amazing how quickly she’s growing. I bought her a bike with training wheels and she’s already whipping around the block without them as I chase after her. She’s also reading easy-reader books; she’s quite the little book worm and usually asks me to read at least four books to her at night before she will go to bed.

  She hasn’t started asking too many questions about you yet. I guess that’s a godsend. I’ve told her that her daddy is far away. I told her that maybe when she’s older she’ll be able to meet you and that we loved each other very much. Even with everything, at least she knows that her mommy and daddy loved each other when they made her.