Swinging On A Star

by Olivia Jaymes

  Frowning, Max signaled for the check. “If he knows that’s what she’s like, why would he go back? It doesn’t make any sense.”

  It made complete sense to her.

  “I think it’s like my friend Auggie used to say. Auggie was a real womanizer. He went through them like Kleenex so of course every now and then he’d get the crazy ones. He’d still date them and when I asked why he said the crazy chicks were exciting. They had no inhibitions and were completely unpredictable. So if I were to venture a guess? Mark wants a little insanity between the sheets.”

  It hurt to think he hadn’t been happy with her and their sex life but if the truth be told, she hadn’t been thrilled either. He’d been rather staid and formulaic from the first time. She and Paige had had a drunken talk one night and decided he had a Madonna-whore issue.

  Carrie was a nice girl, so she couldn’t want dirty sex.

  Except that she totally did.

  Mark wouldn’t even curse in front of her. She would bet cash money that he swore like a sailor in front of his ex. Carrie had tried bringing a sex toy into their relationship but he’d flipped, accusing her of thinking he wasn’t enough. After that, she’d stopped trying. Sex had never been that important to her, and she’d assumed things would improve as they became more comfortable with each other. That hadn’t happened either.

  Max fidgeted in his seat, his face tinged red. Her statement must have hit close to home. His ex was a psychopathic bitch too.

  “Sorry. I just realized how that probably came out. I’m sure Alana has some wonderful qualities and it wasn’t the wild sex that drew you to her. You wouldn’t be that shallow.”

  He looked out the window, then at the bar, then back to her.

  “Sadly, Carrie, you would be wrong.”

  CHAPTER THREE

  The first day of rehearsals for a new play was always hectic. Most of the people he already knew but there had been a few new faces. One blonde actress who was playing a small part had stared at him for most of the day, making him wonder if she was planning to seduce him or stalk him. He was becoming rather cynical when it came to females but then he had good reason.

  “Here’s your mobile, boss. You have a message from Nate Mason.”

  So he wouldn’t be disturbed, Max’s assistant Gemma had been holding his phone for him while they were doing the table read. Constantly at his elbow and anticipating his needs, she was one of the better assistants he’d had. Most didn’t last long in the position. The long hours, bountiful travel, and lack of personal life took a toll and the average span of employment was about six months.

  Quiet and efficient, Gemma had lasted seven and appeared to be happy in her job although Max had been fooled before. He remembered one named Candace who had written her resignation on the Do Not Disturb sign that he’d hung on the hotel room door. He’d gone to sleep employing an assistant and woke up without one. She’d called him an asshole. She was probably right.

  “Thank you. I’ll give him a call back.” He accepted the bottle of water she held out. “I think we’re done for the day. I’m heading home and you should too.”

  “Should I order you some dinner and have it delivered? Also, what should I pick you up for breakfast tomorrow? The usual?”

  He’d been thinking about that. Her day had consisted of watching him work and fetching him water bottles. There were more important tasks that needed to be done.

  “Actually, I’m glad you mentioned tomorrow. The new furnishings for the house are going to be delivered in the morning about ten. I’d like you there to meet them and the designer. She’ll show up about nine-thirty. She said she’d be there most of the day so you should plan to be also. I’ll stop by after rehearsals and see the progress. I’m hoping to move back next week.”

  The walls had been painted, the floors scrubbed, and the decor ordered. All that was left was to put it all into place. It was amazing what money and fame could buy him. What would have taken anyone else months had only taken him a week, as long as he wasn’t too fussy about the decor. Luckily his favorite color was blue and that made designing around it easy.

  Gemma tapped a note onto her tablet, her thick glasses sliding down her snub nose. “Sure, absolutely. I’m on it. Anything else?”

  “That will be all. Have a good evening.”

  The assistant nodded, still glued to the screen. Max shrugged into his coat and headed out into the chilly rain. When he was in London he tried to keep a low profile and live as ordinary a life as possible. That meant there was no private car to whisk him out of the dreary weather and back to the hotel. He had to hoof it to the nearest Tube station just like everyone else. He always marveled at how he blended into the crowd when he wasn’t dressed in a tuxedo. Nobody expected him to be wearing faded denims and a t-shirt but just in case, he wore his hat low so half of his face was obscured. Waiting for his train, he checked his phone and found Nate’s cryptic message.

  Call me when you can.

  Max waited until he was back inside the hotel room, shedding his outer warmth and dialing the number at the same time. Nate answered on the second ring.

  “How was the first day?”

  Max settled onto the settee and stretched out his long legs, propping them on the coffee table. “Good. Long. Like they always are. I want a hot shower, room service, and bed. How’s Los Angeles?”

  Nate was starring in a new movie and his bride Paige had traveled with him. They’d be out of the country for at least two months, maybe more.

  “Sunny and dry.”

  “How’s married life?”

  “Fucking fantastic. I highly recommend it, mate.”

  Max was just getting out of a marriage and wasn’t looking to dive back in any time soon.

  “Good for you. So, did you call just to hear about my first day?”

  “Hardly,” Nate chuckled. “I called to ask you to check on Carrie for us. Invite her out to dinner or something. Take her to a movie and get her out of the house. When Paige talks to her she says she’s fine but she doesn’t sound it. My beautiful wife is beginning to get concerned that Carrie isn’t happy in London. You know I offered to buy her a flat so she and Paige can work closely together but if she misses Florida that entire plan isn’t going to work.”

  It was hard to keep secrets from his best friend. Max was well aware of why Carrie sounded out of sorts but she’d made it clear she wasn’t going to ruin the first few weeks of her friend’s married life by telling them her fiancé had run off with another woman.

  “I’m sure she’s fine. She’s only been here a week. It takes time to make the transition.”

  “You were on a plane with her for eleven hours. How did she act? Did she seem sad or upset?”

  He didn’t know Carrie well but she seemed like the type who didn’t wear her heart on her sleeve. Except for the night before the wedding. She’d been crying and upset then but she hadn’t expected Max to find her out there. She’d been quite mortified at being found but her reaction to her faithless fiancé had been natural. He still was of the opinion she should let her brother beat on him until he learned his lesson.

  “She was quiet. She read and slept mostly. So did I,” Max replied. “We were both knackered after all the wedding festivities. We had lunch together when we got to London and she seemed fine. She even talked to her brother.”

  Max could hear Nate talking to Paige in the background. “You had lunch with her? That’s great. So you wouldn’t mind taking her out again? It would put Paige’s mind at ease.”

  He wasn’t going to get out of this. Nate and Paige were his best friends and this was what friends did for each other.

  “Of course I will. I’ll call her today and set something up.”

  “We owe you one. Paige says to tell you that she really appreciates this. She just wants to make sure that Carrie sees how great London can be.”

  For Carrie, the best thing about London probably was that her ex wasn’t here.

  “I’ll do my b
est to sell its charms and report back.”

  He and Nate chatted a few more minutes before hanging up. Max scrolled through the contacts until he found the one he was looking for. Might as well get this over and done. Spending the evening with a woman who was privy to his greatest failure – and then turned him down when he’d proposed a business relationship – wasn’t an activity he was anxious to do but he’d promised.

  He’d take her to a movie. They wouldn’t have to talk.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  To Carrie’s shock, Max had asked her to have dinner and go to a movie with him. She hadn’t expected to hear from her favorite pompous actor but here she was knocking on the door to his hotel suite. They were meeting here to decide where they were going to eat. She was hoping for Italian but he’d mentioned steak.

  The door swung open and a scowling Max beckoned her in. “I just need to put on my shoes.”

  “No hurry.”

  She stepped into the hotel room but stayed by the door as he searched in the closet, tossing a few random things out as he went. So far, Max had rejected a pair of tennis shoes and brown boots. Organization must not be a thing for him and she found herself itching to get ahold of his clothes and possessions to bring order to chaos.

  Shifting restlessly on her feet, she tried to make conversation. “So I was surprised to hear from you.”

  He took so long to reply she didn’t think he was going to but he finally did, his voice muffled by the closet. “I talked to Paige and Nate. Apparently she’s worried about you. You’re not doing a very good job of acting like nothing’s wrong. They asked me to take you out and show you how great London is.”

  Loser. I’m a fucking loser.

  The breath whooshed out of Carrie’s body and she had to grab hold of the doorjamb to keep her knees from giving out. Her best friend was so concerned about her she’d asked Max to take Carrie out. It was deja vu all over again. Just like Greg had thought she was too pathetic to find herself another man, Paige thought Carrie was too pitiful to find friends.

  To add insult to injury, Max didn’t look or sound like he was relishing this task. He had the job of taking the plain girl to dinner. Someone give the man a medal for altruism.

  He crawled out of the closet holding a pair of ugly black shoes that were only slightly better than the awful gray ones Nate used to wear before Paige threw them away. What was it with these two and their godawful shoes?

  She didn’t intend to stick around and find out. She was no one’s pity date.

  “I had no idea she was worried. You know, you don’t really need to do this. I’m fine and I’ll make sure she knows that next time I talk to her.”

  Looking up from tying his shoes, Max shot her an irritated look. “You’re here so we might as well go. Are you hungry?”

  “Of course I’m hungry. I’m always hungry, but I’m sure you have better things to do than squire me around. We both know why I’ve been down and an evening out isn’t going to cure this.”

  Max stood and shoved his hands in the pockets of his black trousers. “If you’d seen your way to accept my business proposal, Paige wouldn’t be worried about you at all.”

  Really? He was going to whine about that again? He didn’t know when to let things go.

  “Possibly, but then she’d be worried about me spending the rest of my life in jail.”

  “Jail?” he asked, frowning as he picked up his keys and cell phone.

  Carrie smiled brightly. “For murdering you, probably in your sleep, although I’m not sure a jury of my peers would find me guilty.”

  Those icy blue eyes settled on her, making her inwardly shiver. “Funny. Now are you ready to go? I promised Nate and Paige I would take you out.”

  Shaking her head, she edged toward the door. “I’m no one’s mercy date but thank you anyway. I’d rather eat a Lean Cuisine for one in front of bad reality television than have you take me to dinner and remind me every five minutes why you had to be pushed into this evening. And thank you for that, by the way—a real gentleman would never have let me know that this wasn’t his idea. But not you. Not the famous Maxwell Hayes. You made sure I knew right off the bat. I wasn’t even here two minutes before you ensured that I knew how pathetic and sad I was. Classy move.”

  For a moment, she almost thought she saw regret flicker across his features but if it did it was quickly hidden beneath that frosty, patrician demeanor. He’d missed his calling. He should have been the headmaster at a snotty boarding school.

  “I do apologize. I didn’t realize you were sensitive about the subject. As I said, if you had accepted–”

  “For the love of all that’s good and holy,” Carrie broke in, not letting him finish again. “Let it go. You don’t take the word ‘no’ very well, but then I guess you don’t hear it much. As for dinner, I’d rather starve.”

  How could Maxwell Hayes look that good and be so unpleasant? Paige had said he was a difficult man to get to know but this was ridiculous. Truly the only thing that kept Carrie from losing her cool with him was that he was a friend of Paige’s. There had to be more to him than what she was seeing if her boss liked him so much.

  Hidden depths. Way down. Buried like Atlantis, more like it.

  He shoved his keys and phone into his pocket. “Stop acting like a child. Paige and Nate want us to spend time together so that’s what we’ll do. We’ll have dinner and then I’ll call her and tell her you’re doing wonderfully. You love London and everything about it. You’ve made lots of friends and barely think about Florida at all. Then we never have to see one another again except to make polite conversation at social engagements.”

  “I am not a child,” Carrie said through gritted teeth. “Just tell her we went to dinner. She’ll never know whether we did or not.”

  That impeccable eyebrow quirked up. “Do you lie to your employer regularly? Perhaps this is something I should let Paige know about.”

  Letting her mouth drop open, she widened her eyes in mock surprise. “Please don’t tell her I’ve absconded with the family silver. Little Tommy needs an operation.”

  He almost smiled. Almost. “Your secret is safe with me. If you go to dinner. We’ll call them from the table and they’ll be thrilled that we’re out together.”

  They could have eaten already in the time it took to argue about it.

  “Fine, but do you mind if I freshen up in your bathroom before we go? I’m still getting used to this wet weather.”

  Giving her a small bow, his arm swept toward the back of the suite. “Please be my guest.”

  Everything was a drama with this guy. “I’ll only be a moment.”

  Hurriedly she ran a comb through her long hair, damp from the London rain, pulling it back into a ponytail. She swiped a fresh coat of lipstick on her mouth and made a face into the mirror. This was as good as she was going to get. She was a businesswoman, not a model or actress shot up with collagen and Botox.

  Slinging her purse over her shoulder, Carrie headed out to the main area of the suite but she paused outside the bathroom as she heard two voices. Unhappy voices. Max had company and since he’d planned to go out with her, they were probably a surprise to the handsome thespian.

  “Max, we need to talk. It’s important,” a husky, feminine voice said.

  She knew that voice, had heard it in a few movies. Alana Crenshaw had tracked Max down and was now standing out there hoping to speak with him about heaven knows what.

  “For fuck’s sake, the divorce will be final soon. Anything you have to say can go through our representatives.”

  Carrie’s first instinct was to hurry to his side, a show of solidarity in the face of the enemy, but that little voice in her ear gave her pause. They’d just had a nasty exchange and there was no love lost between them. There wasn’t even a mutual respect. He disliked her and she wasn’t all that enamored of him at the moment, although she knew there was something redeemable inside of him. Paige was rarely wrong when it came to people.

>   “This is personal,” Alana said in her upper-crust British accent. “I need to speak with you right away.”

  Carrie could only see the back of Max but his shoulders had stiffened immediately. He was not amused by Alana’s sudden appearance at the hotel.

  “It’s not a good idea.” Max’s words were clipped and colder than usual. Even chillier than when he spoke to Carrie. But she could hear the underlying panic in his tone. He hadn’t been prepared for this especially after just fighting with her moments before. “You should go.”

  “I’m not leaving until you listen to me.”

  Carrie had seen divorce before. She’d had friends who had split up and it was an ugly, hurtful thing, especially if the two parties were at odds with one another. That there was more vitriol than normal between these two was clear after what Carrie had witnessed at Max’s home. Alana was a destroyer.

  Carrie had seen the type quite well during her college days. When something didn’t go their way, they made sure that no one else was happy either. As much as Max got on Carrie’s nerves, she felt for him in this situation. Living with Alana had to have been a nightmare.

  “Alana, go home. We have nothing to say to one another.”

  Carrie thought she heard the woman snarl. “I can make your life a living hell, Max. You’ll wish you were never born.”

  “I already do.”

  There was no good reason for it. Later Carrie would probably question why she was doing it but dammit, she hated to see someone who was hurting so badly be emotionally wrung out like a sponge. Gliding to his side, she wrapped an arm around his lean waist and gazed adoringly – or as close as she could get to that – up into his face. Whether he would play along was the question of the day. After the words they’d flung at each other there was a good chance he’d openly question what the hell she was doing.

  But he didn’t. He placed his arm around her shoulders and dropped a kiss on her forehead. “Darling, I thought you were on the phone.”