They’d been called back to film in Chicago, even though they’d done this segment months earlier, but someone had accidentally wiped the tape from the earlier shoot. It was exactly a week since she’d come home to her soggy apartment, and things hadn’t really improved. The prognosis on her apartment had not been good, so now all of her furniture and most of her clothing was now bagged up and in storage, as were all her precious books and kitchen appliances. She knew insurance would cover it, but the thought of being homeless again had almost been too much to deal with on top of a grueling work schedule. And now this.
The weather today was atrocious. They were filming beside a famous food truck, and her pizza kept practically blowing out of her hand.
“Cut,” Alvaro the director called. He was a hot-headed Argentinian with a huge crush on her. He was good at his job, so the crush was an annoyance she put up with.
“We’re going to need to put your hair in a ponytail, Georgie.”
“What about continuity?” She’d had her hair down all day. It was early evening, and the show was shot to look like one day in Chicago. The truth was they usually took more than one to get it all done, but a tourist could do it in one.
“Can you say the line while pulling your hair into the pony?” He looked at her, his face furrowed with concern.
“Seven years on Summer Times High and I can say my lines tap-dancing, pulling my hair back, and twirling a baton,” she said with absolute confidence, and it wasn’t a lie. Heck, the baton could be shooting fire and she could still make it happen.
He gave her a sexy South American smile. “Then let’s get this done.”
A small crowd had formed to watch them film, which was usual. As always, she smiled politely but didn’t make real eye contact because that just freaked her out. She’d never really gotten over her stage fright, which was why mostly the cooking show was perfect for her. She loved to cook and travel, and there was no live audience. It was also why she’d made some studio albums but didn’t tour them, she just couldn’t.
“Take twelve.”
She whipped her hair into a ponytail as she stood behind the high-top table. “They don’t call this the windy city for nothing.” She picked up the pizza and lifted it toward her lips. “And there’s a reason it’s famous for its pizza.”
She took a bite.
“Cut.”
And then from the crowd she heard his voice. “Hey, Hollywood, are you going to eat that pizza or talk to it?”
Liam Stone, the best and oldest friend she had in the world, was calling out to her between shots. She’d avoided calling Liam all week, even once she knew she was coming to Chicago, and now he was here. Somehow, he always found her. Georgie felt a smile spread across her face, and this one was real and not just faked for the cameras. It was the first real smile she’d experienced in weeks.
Liam watched as Georgie’s face registered not just his call but who he was. He’d been in the crowd for a while watching them film. It had popped on his social media feed that she’d been spotted filming a few blocks from the office of the advertising agency where he worked. Naturally, he’d left work a few minutes early and come down to find her. The minute he’d laid eyes on her he knew he’d made the right decision. He needed to see her, and even from a distance he could tell something wasn’t right with her. She was smiling for the cameras and being the consummate professional as always, but something was off, he just knew it, and it bugged him that he didn’t know what it was.
There’d been a time she would never have come to town without letting him know. He’d once spent two days on a train to spend the weekend with her and done the reverse journey home. It had been so hard and it had still been worth it. Another time they’d met for an hour at an airport in Charlotte between overlapping flights, they’d overlapped in Vegas for a night once, and just two years ago they’d managed thirty-six hours in Nashville when she’d been recording an album. Something had changed between them since then, and he didn’t like it, not one little bit.
He’d worried that maybe he’d said something to put her off him, maybe something that showed his real feelings for her, but the way her smile spread across her beautiful face told him that wasn’t the case and the way she leapt into his arms as she said his name reinforced that.
“Hey, Georgie.” He inhaled the sweet citrusy smell of her hair as he pulled her in close. “How come I had to rely on the internet to let me know you were here?”
The crowd around them was watching with interest. He was sure a couple of people had pictures. He was sure his girlfriend would see them online and freak out. He was certain he didn’t care one bit.
“Oh, I’m so sorry. We only decided to come yesterday. And oh my goodness the week I’ve had.” He believed her because when he pulled back and looked at her face, beneath the concealer and TV makeup she looked tired, but Liam also knew that was only part of the story.
A tall man with a shock of dark hair and an exotic Spanish accent approached them. Liam had worked on enough sets of TV commercials to know he was the director.
“Okay, we got it,” he said to Georgie.
“Fantastic. Alvaro, this is my oldest friend Liam. Liam, Alvaro our director.”
He shook the other man’s hand and tried to look friendly. He knew it was crazy, but he was always a little jealous of the men who got to work day in and day out with Georgie. They exchanged the usual pleasantries before she chimed in.
“Are we done? Any chance I can steal a few minutes to catch up with Liam before we head to the airport?”
“We have to pack up.” He checked his watch. “You’ve got half an hour, maybe.”
Liam grabbed her hand. “We’ll be at the bar on the corner. Come get her when you’re done.”
He didn’t wait for an answer, he just led her to the bar on the corner where he happened to know the barman would serve them quickly and leave them alone.
“I don’t even have my bag,” she said breathlessly as he dragged her along.
“You don’t need it,” he said, holding the door open for her. “You have me.”
And now that they were alone, he was going to get to the bottom of the reason she’d been avoiding him. She stopped just inside the door, adjusting her eyes no doubt to the darkness, a contrast to outside. The bar had small booths and low lighting that came through yellow shades. Behind the bar was a wall of spirits backlit by white light.
“Grab a seat, I’ll order.”
He knew Georgie loved cocktails, so he ordered her a cosmopolitan and himself a beer from the bartender and tipped him extra to deliver the drinks fast.
“I’m so happy to see you,” she said as he took a seat across from her. She had pulled out her ponytail, and her long silky hair was pulled forward over one shoulder. It was darker now than it used to be. She gave him a sweet smile. “I miss you.”
“Me too. Which begs the question, why haven’t I seen you? And don’t give me the ‘too much work’ story,” he said, making air quotes. “I think I deserve the truth.”
Jack Nicholson’s famous movie line ran through her head. She was pretty sure he didn’t want the truth, but she couldn’t lie to him.
“I just felt you needed some space.” Not entirely anyway. A half lie was okay, surely. His brow was furrowed. His gorgeous smile gone, replaced by pursed lips. His dark eyes searched her face for answers. “I needed space? Why? I didn’t need space. I mean, really, that’s the story you’re going with right now?”
“Look, it was pretty obvious at Thanksgiving that Cara wasn’t a big fan of mine.” She let her voice trail away hoping that he’d put the pieces of the puzzle together without her actually having to tell him.
“Cara?” he said as if her name was foreign to him.
Seriously? “Yes, you know Cara, the woman you’re living with.”
“I know who she is. My question is why have you avoided me because of her?”
“Liam, I’ve been giving you space because you two are together
and at Thanksgiving it was clear our friendship made her uncomfortable, so I thought I’d give you two time.”
“Time.” He said the word slowly. “And when were you planning to close the space? When was the time drawing to an end exactly?”
“I guess soon. I just thought once you two were more settled in your relationship she’d warm up to me.”
She didn’t tell him that she’d pulled her aside and told her that Liam was in a relationship now so she needed to let go and let him be happy. Georgie didn’t say that because she got the feeling by the set of his jaw that he wasn’t going to like that one little bit, and even though she wasn’t exactly Team Cara, if Liam loved her she wanted it to work out. Or she should want that, so she was trying to do the right thing and be a good selfless friend, even if it was painful for her.
He raked a hand through his dark hair and clearly was struggling with this information. The waiter brought the drinks, and he took the interruption as time to compose himself she could tell.
“Okay, firstly, that whole trip was a nightmare start to finish, as usual. The only bright spot was you and your mother dropping in with a meal, so there’s no way you could have gotten that idea from that encounter.”
“We did all go out that one night as well.” They’d hit a local bar where everyone had treated Liam and Georgie like local heroes returning home, and Cara hadn’t liked being on the sidelines. Not at all unusual for a model like her who was unused to not being the center of attention.
“I still don’t think there was anything from that night. Unless . . .”
“Unless what?”
The puzzle piece clicked into place. Cara had been jealous, as usual, and she told Georgie to back off. For a beautiful woman, Cara was ridiculously insecure.
“She said something to you, didn’t she?”
“Look, that doesn’t matter. I wanted to give you two a real chance at success, and you didn’t need me to be butting in all the time.”
“Yeah, well, we broke up.” The words were out of his mouth before he had a chance to regret them.
“Really, when did that happen?”
“Just happened. Very recent.” In truth what he meant was he’d be breaking up with her this evening. If it was a choice between Georgie and Cara, there was no choice at all. He took a sip of his drink, trying to compose himself. He was mad, but not at Georgie. He was mad at Cara, and he was mad at himself for having been too dense to work this out earlier. He’d backed off when she’d been seeing someone in the past, but not like this. They were older now, and maybe she really wanted his relationship to work, but how could he have a life with anyone who didn’t want Georgie in it? That was simply impossible. It bothered him that Georgie didn’t seem to know that already.
She leaned over and squeezed his hand. “Oh, I’m sorry to hear that, Liam. She was really into you.”
“Yeah, well, she was clingy, and you know me, I do like my space.”
“That’s the ultimate understatement,” she said on a laugh. “Oh well, I guess eventually you’ll find the right woman.”
She sipped her cosmopolitan and let out a sigh. Was it relief about him and Cara? He didn’t know.
“What about you, are you seeing anyone?” He hoped the answer was no, and he was happy when she shook her head.
“You know I’ve sworn off men to focus on my career.”
She was still serious about that? Well, that wasn’t the worst news ever. “I thought that was a phase.”
“No, and the show is chaos and my apartment flooded, so I’m living in a hotel with Tapioca, and right now I do not have time for a man.”
“You’re living in a hotel? Why didn’t you call me? Why didn’t you let me know?” He knew, of course, because she’d just explained it. She gave him the short version of her last week, and it was not a happy tale.
“I’m going to find a place this week. I just haven’t had time yet, and I was hoping maybe it wasn’t as bad as it seemed and I could go back home,” she said, and he wasn’t sure which of them she was trying to convince. “It’s been hard with filming. I need the perfect place to do the show.”
And then it hit him, the best idea he’d had in a long time. “We should share a place.”
“Kind of hard when you live in Chicago and I live in New York,” she said with a small smile before her perfect pink tongue licked some cocktail off her bottom lip. She was so beautiful it was almost painful to look at her and not be near her.
“I’m moving to New York,” he announced. Sure it was a spur of the moment decision, but the New York branch of the agency had been begging him to make the switch. The team wanted him there, but Cara had wanted to stay in Chicago near her family. No more Cara meant no more reason to stay. Apparently, tonight was the night for uncharacteristic, impulsive decisions. Liam had barely made an impulsive decision in his entire life, until now.
“Really?” Her eyes popped wide with excitement, and she bounced on her seat like a happy child. “How did I not know that?”
“Remember the bit about you avoiding me?” She blushed. He gave her a warning in his stern voice. “Don’t do that again.”
“How can I avoid you if we’re roommates?” she asked. “That’s if you were serious, Liam.”
Her eyes were round with hope. This was either the best idea he’d had in a decade or the worst. The bar door flung open, and the tall director called to her.
“Babe, taxi’s here, we have to go if we’re going to make our flight. Sorry.” He didn’t look that sorry. He looked like he wanted Georgie as far away from Liam as possible.
“Deadly serious. You go. I’ll call you on the weekend and give you the address of the place. Just send me the specs you need for filming so I can get it right.”
“Really?” Her eyes bugged. “You’re going to find the place as well?”
“Definitely. Now go. I’ll be there next week.”
She leaned over and kissed his cheek. “Okay, wow, this is so exciting. It’s going to be like the good old days, only better.”
Well, it would have to be better because the way he remembered it not much about the old days was good, except Georgie.
And then she was gone, and Liam was alone with his beer wondering why in the space of a half an hour he’d committed to breaking up with his girlfriend, moving to New York, and sharing an apartment with Georgie. He knew exactly why. Georgie, anything for Georgie. He’d been in love with her his entire life and now he was finally going to do something about it.
Chapter 3
Georgie wasn’t sure that a hard hat was her best look, but she wasn’t allowed in to survey the damage to her apartment with the building crew without it, so she was wearing it and not complaining as usual. It was a shame because she’d been having a good hair day until now.
“You look adorable,” Alvaro said beside her, tipping the brim of her hat.
“I look ridiculous, but I look better than this place.” The plaster ceiling was peeling away, the floor was water damaged as were her handcrafted wooden cabinets. She ran her hand over the marble countertops, which were about the only thing that could be salvaged. “How will this affect the shooting?”
“The scriptwriters are going to do a script and we’ll have you walk through it and then we can have you house hunting for a temporary place with a perfect kitchen,” Alvaro said.
“I don’t need to house hunt. I have a place to go.”
“What?” Alvaro turned in surprise as did Marnie, her friend and co-executive producer on the show.
“I’m moving in with Liam.”
“The dude from Chicago?” Alvaro looked surprised.
“Yeah, he’s moving to New York, so he’s found us a place to share. The kitchen is amazing.” It had only been three days and he’d already signed a lease on a brownstone that she adored in her favorite neighborhood. As well as the ground floor where all the living space was, she and Liam would each have their own level with a bedroom, bathroom, and study. The man did
not beat around the bush. She pulled out her phone and showed them the photos of the kitchen. “I gave him all the specs so that wherever he leased the kitchen would be big enough and designed so we’d be able to film there. It’s half the reason we chose this one.”
“You’re moving in with him?” Alvaro’s voice was high and reedy. He was clearly not too thrilled by the idea.
“Tapioca and I hate the hotel, and I can’t cook there. This is perfect.” She didn’t owe the man an explanation, but he got one anyway.
Marnie was focusing on the pictures. She was all business all the time, which was why even though they were friends, they were more business than friendship, which suited Georgie just fine. “It’s a great location for the vans and for street shooting, good markets and farmers’ markets nearby we can probably do external filming for credits.” That meant permits and all sorts of paperwork, but they were used to that.
“My absolute favorite wine and cheese shop is two blocks away as well. I know that’s good for filming. We were really lucky to get this place,” she added. It was true, if she’d picked a new part of New York to live in, this would have been it. Of course, Liam knew that because she’d taken him for wine and cheese and walked the area with him on one of his visits to the city.
She was interrupted when Captain Campbell knocked on the open door. Today he was just Zach, however, in a white T-shirt that hugged his fine chest, jeans, and loafers.
“Hey, Georgie, just wanted to check in to see how you’re doing.” He took in the apartment and that should have answered that question. Things here were not great, but knowing she had the new place with Liam meant she didn’t care nearly as much as she had a few short days ago.
She walked over to him. “Well, all things considered not bad. The TV crew and I are just seeing how we can work this into the latest season. A few disaster shots will be needed seeing as last season was a lot about the new kitchen and my excitement about it being done.”
No Time for Temptation: No Brides Club, Book 4 Page 2
