CHAPTER SEVEN
Nate
Honestly, I’m a little embarrassed. I had way too much to drink at the after-party and now I was paying for it.
The stress of the attempt on my life and my husband’s infidelity pushed me over the edge.
How much crap can one person deal with in twenty-four hours?
I guess I was on my way to finding out! Now I nursed the hangover from hell, lessened a little by Jack leaving Ibuprofen and a bottle of water by my bed before he’d returned to his room.
I’d arranged for a private charter jet to take us to New York and so we were at Charles De Gaul airport.
The Maritime studio staff was travelling direct to LA, and so Roz and Anja were the only other travellers with me.
I immediately went to private bedroom cabin on the jet.
I hate to bad mouth the architect of my career, but Rosamund Appelbaum doesn’t have an off-switch.
Roz is a control freak, and during this junket several things were out of her control and someone would pay!
She still raged about the fuck-up with our US security detail’s paperwork, and then the useless last-minute guards who didn’t seem like they could tie their own shoelaces!
I couldn’t cope with my agent chatting incessantly during the seven-hour direct flight.
Anja would have to bear the brunt of that…
I’d send her a gift basket as a thank you!
The security breach during the interview was handled, but it was the attack at the French première, that was the worst of it.
The attacker knew my real surname. No one in the business knew I’d changed my name after my father’s death.
I’d wanted a clean slate and didn’t want my career to be associated with the tragedy that had happened to our family.
But the attacker had called out my real surname and he brandished a knife.
My head swam with anxiety, fear, and confusion.
The police told me the man was named Yin Chow, he was a Chinese national in Paris on a student visa, studying Cyber security at Paris Tech.
I’d never met the man, didn’t recognize the name or have a clue why he’d wanted to attack me, but he’d failed.
I was on my way home now and determined to put the whole debacle behind me.
I caught a few hours of sleep, but as soon as I awoke my mind spun with intrusive thoughts.
I was travelling home to face Erik’s very public betrayal.
I should have been furious, considering ways to get one over on him, but revenge seemed too exhausting, too petty, and toxic to be worth my energy.
Instead I focused on thoughts of Jack. And once I let his gorgeous face affix in my mind, I couldn't stop myself from thinking about the best part of last night. We’d shared the hottest kiss of my life.
And even though I was a little drunk at the time I remembered every second of it.
I should regret making a pass at my friend but, sober, I didn’t feel a moment of guilt for taking what I’d wanted.
Jack wanted it too, wanted it with a ferocious, all-consuming passion that took the breath from me.
I’d revelled in the taste of him, the scent of his skin, the erotic sounds he made, the way his hands gripped my ass and roughly pulled me closer, his sensual body moving under me, grinding his cock against mine.
I was getting hard now even thinking about it.
It was satisfying to know there was definitely no physical issue with my junk!
My body was waking up from a time of dormancy and that in itself was a minor miracle.
****
We landed in New York at one-nineteen p.m. The jet taxied into a hangar to give me maximum privacy and security.
I realized immediately I was not happy to be home in America.
The air felt different in Europe. Here it was heavier in my lungs, weighted with feelings I resented being forced to examine.
Leaving the cocoon of my cabin, Roz revealed that she’d received a text message telling her there was a group of paparazzi outside the airport waiting to get shots of my return.
Luckily, Roz had pre-arranged a covert exit.
A member of the airport security staff checked our passports and then Anja went on her way alone.
Roz and I were driven to a rear exit where a black town car awaited with our luggage already on board.
Exhaustion ebbed and flowed like the tide waiting to bowl me over.
I’d used the travel time to the vehicle to fit the new nano SIM card that Roz supplied.
As the town car moved off Roz scrolled on her phone.
“The reviews after the Paris drama are great, very positive across the board. It’s begun a conversation about the dangers of fandom, and the need for boundaries to protect celebrities from unhinged fans,” Roz shared.
I rested my brow on the cold window and stared at the passing traffic as my device rebooted. Roz then announced,
“The studio wants you and Jack to do a live Zoom interview with Entertainment A-OK!”
“Ah shit! When?” I said, irritated. I reset the biometric finger print on my device and signed into the cloud, and then began deleting the phone numbers of Erik’s sycophant friends from my contact list. Could I not just get a few days of peace?
“You know I hate it when you throw interviews at me like this! I need to sort my marriage out…and my head,” I grumbled.
“It’s on Wednesday. You’ve got a couple of days to deal with your business,” Roz pacified.
“Look, we gotta ride the wave of the positive press coming after the attack in Paris. Jack is quite the hero, and focusing on this positive narrative takes the press attention off your marriage. This is a good thing.” Roz soothed, “I’ll discuss the strategy with Freiberg tomorrow and we’ll go from there. ”
I let out an audible sigh. It’s not as if I had a choice, but I guess a Wednesday interview meant I would at least see Jack on a video call.
The thought of his wide boyish smile and sparkling eyes soothed my irritation a little.
The town car pulled up in a quiet neighbourhood ten-minutes-drive from the airport, where both of our vehicles were parked.
We’d completely evaded the paps, and so that was one less thing to worry about.
The chauffeur opened the door so Roz and I could exit the car, then he moved our luggage to our vehicles.
Roz kissed me on the cheek before heading off towards her SUV.
“Sweets, get some sleep and don’t forget to call your shrink—get an emergency consultation and sort your head out!
Remember, I'm here for you,” she hollered as she walked, “I’ll call on Wednesday morning to prep for the interview.
” Roz palmed a hundred-dollar bill into the chauffeur’s hand and got into her car.
Then she pulled out into the street and was gone.
I let out a sigh of relief. Rosamund Appelbaum was a formidable agent but my god; she was hard work and I was emotionally worn out from spending so much time with her.
I tipped the chauffer too and headed to my SUV.
As soon as I closed the door I sat for a few minutes and listened to the blessed silence.
Finally, I was alone with my thoughts again.
I’d devised a code word that I shared with my friends and family so they knew I’d changed my phone number.
The first thing I did was sent text messages to my mom, and my sister Beth.
Then I messaged my closest friends, Marco, Edith, Hiro, and Dane.
Finally, I sent a message to Jack. He’d returned to London hours ago.
I wondered what he was doing, and who he was doing it with.
Didn’t he say something about a voiceover project?
He was probably working…or sleeping, while I was heading into a fight with my bastard husband.
A boulder of sadness lodged at my sternum.
How did it come to this? Roz was right; I needed a session with my therapist. And so during my drive into the city I dialled the office of Dr. Ira Kushmann to arrange an appointment.
****