Chapter 7
Rosa
“You forgot something when you left this morning,” I said. “Your wife .”
Noah scrambled to his feet just in time for me to slap the stack of annulment papers Reid had printed for me at the hotel’s business center before I left into his hands. Turned out, Noah’s note was enough for the lawyer to send over the preliminary papers.
He glanced down at the papers and sighed. “I’m sorry I left like I did. I just…” he thrust his hand into his hair. “I couldn’t miss my sister’s wedding today. I was going to call you after. I swear.”
“You didn’t think to wake me up before leaving?”
His apologetic expression shifted as he leveled me with a look that said Are you kidding? without even uttering a word. “Rosa, no offense, but a calgary of elephants stampeding through that hotel room couldn’t have woken you up.”
A laugh crawled up my throat. Even though I wanted to stay mad… and hell, I was still mad, he wasn’t wrong.
My smile cracked through my scowl and a very unsexy snort escaped along with it.
Anyone who’d ever spent a night with me knew I slept like the dead. And that I was grumpier than a wolverine when I first woke up.
Noah chuckled, too and reached out to take my hand. “I’m so sorry about last night. About all of it. I swear, I’m going to fix this.”
I shrugged, trying to seem casual even though my heart was oddly heavy. “Just one question,” I said.
Noah nodded. “Ask me anything.”
“Last night… in your room… we didn’t… you know . Did we?”
Somehow I had turned into a stuttering virgin asking that question… even though that virgin train passed a long time ago.
I didn’t think Noah and I had sex last night. I woke up still in my underwear and Noah’s tshirt. But still, it was worth asking just in case he remembered more than I did.
Noah shook his head. “I don’t think so… I think we just, I don’t know, lost our heads when we were drunk and, um?—”
“And got married?”
Noah winced.
Another laugh, this one even more uncomfortable bubbled up from inside me. “I can’t believe we drunkenly thought it was a good idea to get married. At a cheesy Atlantic City chapel! It’s my mother’s worst nightmare.”
Noah pointed a finger at me. “Easy. Don’t let Hazel and Reid hear you talk like that.”
I slapped a palm over my mouth. Shit. He was right. My best friend did just have her real wedding at that same chapel.
A dark cloud passed over his features, and his grin faded as he looked down at the annulment papers. “It’s too bad, you know?” The muscle in his jaw flexed and he raked his hand through that tousled dark hair once more.
“What is?”
Bright blue eyes regarded me carefully. “If I was married, even just for a few weeks, I could get out of this stupid bachelor auction Kristen wants me to do.”
Married. To Noah. My heart cinched at the thought. The only reason I was getting through this now was because I knew it was temporary. And as soon as those annulment papers were signed and filed, this whole thing would be over.
Because a tiny piece of myself didn’t want it to be.
I knew it was a bad idea.
It was why I said no to Noah time and time again when he’d ask me out. Not because I didn't want to, but because I didn’t ever want a relationship in the spotlight.
But when I was around Noah… I almost forgot that. Almost .
My phone buzzed from within my purse and I sighed, digging around inside. “Probably Hazel, making sure I made it here okay.”
I pulled my phone out and didn’t recognize the New York number blinking on my screen. It could be one of my clients, though.
Holding one finger up to Noah, I slid the other across the screen to answer it. Then, stepping away, I said, “Hello, this is Rosa Alvarez.”
“Dr. Alvarez? This is Edwin Gulliver calling,” The man on the other end of the call said, then paused as if I should know who he was.
I searched my brain, but nothing about that name was ringing any bells. “How can I help you, Mr. Gulliver?”
“I represent Lilly Cotte and Jason Myers… as well as many others. Lilly and Jason are looking for couples counseling. Do you offer this sort of therapy?”
My heart raced in my chest and I clutched the phone tighter, pressing it to my ear.
Spinning, I paced away from Noah, doing everything I could to keep my breath calm and my voice even.
“I do,” I said. “I specialize in anxiety and trauma surrounding media pressures. I think I could help them greatly.”
Mr. Gulliver sighed heavily. “Oh thank God. We would want to do a trial session first before signing onto any commitment.”
“Of course.”
“And they’re each filming different projects right now, making their schedules kind of challenging?—”
“I can set up a Zoom meeting at their earliest convenience, even if it’s an odd hour for me.”
“This is great, Dr. Alvarez,” Mr. Gulliver said. “Seriously. It’s been so hard to find someone they can trust and this morning, they were both excited at the prospect of talking with you.”
They trust me. Two huge, A-list celebrities trust me to help them!
The thought exploded through my chest. But the excitement was short lived as the little voice in the back of my head asked, why ?
Why and how could they possibly trust me so much?
I’d barely had any clients and they hadn’t so much as had an email with me themselves.
“How did you come across my name?” Unease itched across my skin, crawling like a thousand baby spiders up my neck.
“We just got very lucky,” he said. “Your name was on a list of referred therapists. And this morning when they saw that you were Noah Blue’s wife, they just knew they could trust you.
And that you would understand the stress of their lifestyles.
You know, because you yourself are married to someone in the business. ”
My throat knotted. “I?—”
“I know, I know, you two are newlyweds and probably hoping to have a few days off. Don’t worry. Lilly and Jason won’t be available until Tuesday at the earliest.”
Oh God. I needed these clients. Desperately. But not like this. Not because of a lie… although, technically, it wasn’t a lie… was it? I am technically married to Noah. And I did certainly understand the weight that comes with public lifestyles.
I bit my bottom lip. No. I couldn’t mislead them like this. “Mr. Gulliver, you should know?—”
“You’re looking for an exclusive, aren’t you?”
“A—a what?”
“A promise that if this works out, you’ll get all my clients?
Well, I can’t promise all of them, but certainly, I have about eight more clients who are looking for new therapists.
For a multitude of reasons. You know how these stars can be.
” He paused and laughed at himself. “Look who I’m talking to…
of course you know! Not only as Noah’s partner, but I dug a little deeper and learned you were also the daughter of legendary Francesca Reyes and Senator Victor Alvarez. ”
My words lock in my throat. For years I’d been trying to escape being the daughter of Francesca and Victor. Trying to make it on my own.
But this was also the break I’d been waiting for.
A tinny laugh cascaded from my throat. “Yes. Yes, I suppose I do, don’t I?”
Another fake laugh. Just like my fake marriage. No, the marriage was real. Wasn’t it? And he was correct… I did know how stars could be. Hell, I grew up alongside a whole different kind of stardom. Actress mother. Senator father. I was in the midst of it my whole life.
I pinched the bridge of my nose and before I could change my mind, I said, “I’ll email you the onboarding paperwork tonight. Just text me your info.”
I hung up and stared at my phone screen for a few breaths. What had I just done?
I glanced up at the dock to find it empty… no Noah. Where did he go?
I spun in a circle until I spotted him across the lawn, leaning the annulment papers against a post with a pen in his hand.
No .
Before I knew what I was doing, I sprinted the fifty feet across the lawn, closing the distance between us and clapped my hand down over the paper where he was about to sign.
“Wait,” I said, panting, trying to catch my breath.
“ Wait ?” he repeated. “As in… wait, don’t sign?”
Crap, how was I going to explain this? “I–I might have an idea. Or at least, a thread of an idea.”
“Okay,” he drew the word out, then waited for me to continue.
“You want a reason out of this bachelor auction,” I said. “But it’s more than just that. I’ve heard you talk for a year now about wanting to be taken seriously in your industry. To be seen as more than just a teen heartthrob.”
“Yeah…” Ice blue eyes coasted over me.
I swallowed, taking a long, slow inhale. Here goes nothing . “Well, you said it yourself. Being married would get you out of that. And it would probably help with a lot of your other issues, too. Especially being married to a psychologist.” I gestured to myself, lightly.
His gaze narrowed. “You want to stay married?” My body clenched at the raspy tone of his voice. God, that voice.
I tried to collect my thoughts as I stared at the papers, still pressed between the wood post and the palm of Noah’s hand to keep it from blowing away.
The panic in his eyes gutted me, freezing the blood in my veins, and I immediately regretted my plan. “Just for a little while,” I added quickly. “Long enough for you to feel like you got a stronger foothold as a serious actor.”
“And what about you? What do you get?”
With a gulp, I held my phone in the air and waved it. “New clients,” I said, quietly. “Apparently, people think I’m a better therapist to celebrities if I’m married to one.”
His gaze dropped to the phone briefly before whipping back to mine. “Who?”
I pressed my lips together and glared at him. “You know I can’t say who.”
“Not even to your husband?” A smile tilted his soft lips.
Not that I would know if they were soft. I was married to the man and had never kissed him. Or rather, I don’t remember kissing him if we did.