Chapter 68
68
SOPHIE
N ow and then Sophie would knock gently on Gavin’s writing room door to see if he would spend time with her or take a call from a friend, but he rejected all entreaties. He had sunk deep into himself, rejecting all of her efforts to help.
The press was a constant on the rare outings she made, including a visit to the grocery store. A tabloid even featured a photo of her coming out of the store alongside a list of the items she had purchased.
While Gavin brooded, Sophie occupied herself with house hunting in the Los Angeles area. She had various materials spread out on the dining room table and was concentrating on the beach areas of Malibu when Gavin shuffled into the room.
Bedraggled was the word that came to mind when she saw him. He wore boxer briefs with an open robe and while his hair was pulled back into a short ponytail it clearly needed a good washing. His face was covered in an unkempt beard and his eyes were red.
“What are you up to?” he asked, leaning down to kiss her.
She reached for his hand but he pulled away, slipping from her grasp. Stifling her disappointment, she managed a smile instead.
“I’m looking at properties in LA.”
“What for?” He took a chair and turned it around, straddling it as he sat down next to her.
“Remember we talked about buying a house there? I thought maybe we should go ahead and look now.”
“Well, I’m not fucking buying a house in Malibu, that’s for sure,” he said as he pushed aside the listings she had for that exclusive area.
“Okay,” she said slowly, put off. “If it helps any, I want to buy this house.”
He looked at her with surprise. “What do you mean? With your parents’ money?”
“No. With mine.” She was trying to be patient with him and understanding of the fact that he was going through a rough time, but it was getting more difficult to keep in mind.
Glancing at the listings again, he saw the price range she was considering. “You’re telling me you can buy a house that costs in the millions?”
“Yes. Baby, I’ve been modeling for a long while now and making good money. I can do this. I want to do it for us.”
“Fucking hell,” he said softly.
He sifted through the papers, coming to properties in Venice Beach, the eclectic beach town on the Westside of Los Angeles. There was a photo of a three-story, quasi-Mediterranean style house on Grand Canal, accompanied by a sales pitch boasting of an offbeat, artistic neighborhood. Canals fashioned after Italy’s famous waterways had been dug at the turn of the twentieth century to drain the area’s natural marshes, turning it into a tourist destination. After all these years, the beach still attracted gawkers for its eccentric Ocean Front Walk vendors, lively pickup basketball games, and Muscle Beach area for weightlifters in search of an audience, but the canals had been relegated to the wealthy few who could afford the real estate.
“How about this one?” he said, holding up the flyer for the Venice Beach house. “Sounds like this area would better suit us than Malibu.”
“Looks good,” Sophie agreed. “Okay. So, how about we take a trip? We can get away from here and look at some houses out there?”
“Yeah, let’s do it. Let’s go today.”
She smiled, relieved. Maybe the worst was over. “I’ll get us a flight right now.”
“That can wait a bit,” he said. He leaned toward her and kissed her.
“Baby, no,” she said, pulling away from him. “You need a shower.”
He laughed. “That bad, aye?” he asked, and she nodded with a small smile. “Ah, come on—you promised for better or worse, didn’t you?”
She let out a playful scream and jumped up when he reached for her again. He chased her all the way upstairs and trapped her in the bathroom.
“How about a dip in the tub first?” she asked with a laugh.
“Don’t you want to have dirty sex with me?”
It had been eight days since they’d had any kind of sex, so she decided it wasn’t the best time to put conditions on him. She went to him and wrapped her arms around his neck, kissing him deeply, urgently.