Page 10 of 7 Nights of Sin

Chapter 4

Kevin

Usually on a Friday night, I'd hit a bar or two, making the rounds with my friends and getting a little drunk to end the week on a high note.

But with the current shit I was going through, and Caro's stern words in my head, I called my best friend and asked him to meet me at my place instead.

I needed a drink, but the last thing I wanted was to have my picture taken and end up on the cover of another magazine. Kathleen would have my fucking balls.

Manny came over with beers and pizza, like a true friend, slapping me on the back as he came through the door.

"Women, man," he said, shaking his head. "I mean...women, right? You gotta love 'em. They're soft and pretty and most of them smell real good, but then they go and do shit like this, and it's like...women."

I snorted, breaking open the pizza box and helping myself to a slice. "Have you already been drinking?" I asked.

"Nah, I'm just saying. It sucks what she's saying about you."

"So you don't believe it?"

He shook his head again. "Of course I don't. I know you. You can get a little wild, but you're a good guy. You wouldn't step out on her."

"Thanks," I replied with a little sigh. "At least someone believes me." Well, that wasn't fair. Kathleen and Caro both seemed to believe that Christine was lying, but neither of them cared very much what the truth was. They just wanted to fix it.

It was their job to do that, but it fucking sucked to have there be that cast on my character.

"You holding up okay?" Manny asked, sitting down on one of the stools at the island in my kitchen. "You look worn out."

"Just been a long week," I said. "This shit's going on, and Kath's been up my ass about it. She hired a new publicist to take care of it, and...fuck."

"What?"

"I know her. The publicist, I mean. We went to college together."

"Oh," he said. "That's good, right? She knows you're not a scumbag, then. Unless you were a horndog in college or something, and then you might be fucked."

"She's..." I wasn't even sure where to start. "Clearly pissed at me. We haven't seen each other in six years, you know? We actually dated in college."

"Was it serious?"

"Kinda? I don't know. I mean. I guess so. But I had dreams, and so did she, so it didn't last. I broke up with her before graduation. I knew she was going to do the same thing, so I just did it first."

Manny raised an eyebrow. "You sure about that? If she's pissed at you, maybe you broke her heart or something?"

I snorted. "Trust me, she was just as driven as I was. I would have just gotten in her way."

"Fair enough."

"Thing is, I haven't seen her since then. And fuck, she looks good now. I mean. She looked good before, but now..." I took a swig from my beer bottle. "She's always had this kinda intense thing going on. She's really 'down to business' about everything, but sometimes she could be so sweet..." I trailed off, and Manny laughed, snapping his fingers in front of my face.

"Don't start going off down memory lane on me," he said. "She's your publicist. If you fuck your publicist, I'm pretty sure you can kiss you career goodbye. Unless she likes it or something, but it sounds like she won't."

"Yeah, yeah. I know." Didn't mean I couldn't think about it, though. "Anyway, the point is, shit's been a mess. I wanted to go out tonight, but I figured I shouldn't risk it."

"Good call. Don't wanna piss off Coach any more than he already is. Man, I don't know what crawled up Chris' ass and died to make her do this shit, but she fucked you over good."

I gave him a flat look because I didn't need to be reminded of that. "She's a bitch," I said. I could say it with no one there to call me out on it. "Plain and simple."

"Yeah, but. Why though? What did you do to piss her off this bad?"

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