“Actually, I got them already,” she says. “They were in front of my door when I got home. Very pretty. But what’s it all for?”
“Dinner tomorrow night,” I tell her. “It’s sort of a work dinner but only for a little bit. My friend and colleague Mackenzie and her husband Tommy are in town and I need to talk a little business with Mackenzie. You’ll like them both. Mack and I will talk shop for a little bit and then we’ll all relax the rest of the evening. Good?”
“I guess,” she says.
“And the gown is for—was there a gown too?” I ask.
“Yeah. Long black with little shimmery things all over it. Fits perfectly too.”
“Great. That’s for Friday night. You don’t have plans, do you? There’s a benefit I have to go to and I’d love for you to be my date.”
“Friday, yeah. I think I can do that.”
“Okay, great. So,” I say. “What did you do today?”
“I told you—I missed an audition,” she says.
“Right,” I say, feeling like a dick.
“I’m just tired and angry about the whole day. It’s totally wasted. I have another audition next week and I have to nail it. I need some good news.”
“Well, the good news is, we get to see each other tomorrow. I really do miss you, Addison,” I say, lowering my voice. “I feel like I let work get away from me a little bit so I need to get my head back in the game. There’s a lot going on with the company and a lot is at stake. I can’t slip up. I figured if I could see you and do a work meeting, then that would be a good thing.”
“I miss you too,” she says. “Too much. It’s only been one day.”
“Tomorrow,” I say. “One more day and I’ll hold you in my arms again.”
Just like I knew, Addison fits right in with Mackenzie and Tommy. It turns out that Addison and Mack both have a strange love of the same trashy reality show that neither had admitted to out loud until that moment. Tommy and I are horrified.
“I thought we were with intelligent women,” Tommy jokes.
“You don’t understand,” Addison says. “It’s not our faults. It’s addictive.”
“Yes, hate the disease, not the person,” Mack says.
Mack and I even get in a good fifteen minutes of shop talk while Tommy enthralls Addison with stories of life in Paris.
“It sounds like heaven,” Addison tells me in the car on the way home. She wanted to go back to her apartment to study lines but I convinced her to sleep in my big warm bed.
“I’ll take you some time,” I tell her. “I’ll take you anywhere and everywhere.”
She’s just as stunning at the event on Friday—stunning in looks and charm. Jesus, the dress Rachel got for her is outstanding. Everyone gives Addison an approving double take, and I couldn’t be happier to have her there on my arm. These dinners are usually the worst, but with Addison by my side I can endure anything.
“You looked beautiful tonight,” I tell her as I carefully unzip her at my place later.
“You shouldn’t keep buying me these clothes, though, Rex,” she says.
“Why not? I like doing it for you. Don’t you like getting them?”
“I mean, I love the clothes,” she says. “I just feel guilty, I guess. This stuff is expensive, and a dress like this I’ll only wear once. I can’t imagine going to another event that I’ll need such a fancy dress.”
I take her in my arms. “I know it’s trivial, clothes and jewelry and such. But it makes me happy to give you these things. Plus you’re helping me out by going these dinners and events with me. You charm everyone you see.”
I hold her in my arms. Her dress has been carefully laid out on the chaise across the room, and Addison now stands before me in a black bustier and thigh-high stockings.
“Although, when I see you like this,” I say, my dick reacting appropriately to her half-naked body, “I wonder what the dress is really for.”
“Maybe next time you’ll let me pick out the dress,” she says, wrapping her arms around my neck.
“Whatever you want,” I say. I kiss her, holding her close in my arms. Moments later we’re under the sheets, and I am once again exploring her delicious body. I also ask her to keep the stockings on.
I haven’t forgotten what Addison told me about her family. I’m not ignoring it—I heard her and took it all in. She and I grew up in vastly different situations but oddly similar too. We both know what it’s like to have parents who don’t really love you, at least not in the way parents are supposed to.
But I can’t talk to her about my family. I can’t talk to anyone about my family. It’s lucky I like working for the family business because frankly I’d like to have nothing to do with my brothers.
I hardly do, now that we’ve jointly decided to have as little to do with one another as possible. They can leave me alone to do my job out here. But talking about my family, to anyone, is just not something I’ve ever done. I’m not sure why, other than there being no point to it. I don’t want to lay out the soap opera of my family life to anyone. Not even someone I trust, like Addison.
I haven’t given up on taking over the company. Not by a long shot. I’d still like Addison to help me achieve that goal—I know she’d get a lot out of being married to someone like me, if I’m being straight-up honest—but right now I’m enjoying just being with her, every moment I can.
Any time she leaves I feel her absence. It rattles me. I’ve never met anyone that I feel I need to be with so much of the time. So having her with me at business functions is brilliant. I get her, and I get work. Best of both worlds.
The next morning Addison wants to head back to her apartment to go over lines for her next audition.
“How about I have Sheldon go get whatever you need and bring it back here,” I suggest. “We could go over them together.” I run my hand through her hair, pushing it back out of her face.
“You know I won’t get any work done,” she says.
“Come on, it’s Saturday,” I say. “I’ll even take the day off. I’ll keep my phone in the other room.”
“Tempting,” she says, “but impossible. I need to concentrate.”
“Addison, there are ten rooms in this house. You can go study, I’ll do some work in my office here, we’ll meet for lunch and dinner and it’ll be perfect. Come on.” I pull her into my arms. “Just stay.”
In the end she says yes. She always says yes.
Until one day, she doesn’t.
It’s another luncheon that’s the final straw.
“It’s just a lunch,” I tell her, getting frustrated when Addison declines. “You have to eat.”
“Rex, I have to prepare,” she says earnestly. “Don’t you understand? I have to book something. I didn’t move down to L.A. just to hang out with you. That’s not my job.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
She takes a deep breath. “It just means that I need to work. Just like you need to work.”