Page 69 of The VIP Doubles Down
“I’ll reserve judgment until Gavin sees you,” Frankie said, but there was an amused note in her voice.
Allie walked beside her into another paneled room, this one containing a brass-topped bar that matched the brass-topped tables placed at wide intervals around the room. She scanned the scattered patrons and saw Gavin sprawled in one of the upholstered leather chairs, scowling at a waiter who offered a tray with a mug on it.
“Why the hell would I want coffee?” Gavin growled as Allie and Frankie approached. “I’ve worked hard to get this drunk.”
“Ms.Hogan ordered it for you,” the waiter said, nodding toward them.
Gavin followed the waiter’s movement and transferred his gaze to Allie. As he half rose from his chair, an expression she couldn’t quite read crossed his face, something vulnerable and maybe even relieved. The tension in her chest softened. “Allie!” Then he dropped back down into the chair, and a cynical smile twisted his lips. “Talked your way past the fire-breathing dragons at the gate, did you? I should have known you could do it.”
Allie wanted to take him in her arms and smooth down his wildly rumpled hair, like her mother used to do when she was upset. Instead, she perched on the chair beside him. “Ms.Hogan was nice enough to save me from pneumonia.”
“Frankie hasn’t got a nice bone in her body,” Gavin said. “She just doesn’t want to deal with me herself.”
“Or maybe I’m trying to help you win your bet,” Frankie said.
For a moment, Gavin looked baffled. “Oh, the drunken idiocy from last fall.” He surveyed Allie with a speculative gaze before he shook his head. “She’s my muse.”
“What bet?” Allie asked, glancing between Frankie and Gavin.
Frankie lifted one shoulder in a shrug. “Evidently, I was wrong.” Then she walked away.
“Would you like some coffee to chase away the chill?” Gavin nodded to the mug the waiter had left on the table. “Although it would serve you right if you got sick. I told you to go home.”
Allie wrapped her cold fingers around the steaming mug gratefully, even though she didn’t want the coffee itself. “Hugh told me what happened.” The slump of Gavin’s shoulders made her heart twist. “Movie people have the attention span of gnats.”
“They gave up on me, Allie.” He sloshed more liquor into his tumbler. “Abandoned me like rats from a sinking ship. And it was their goddamn idea to end that last film on a cliff-hanger, not mine.”
“Last I checked, you don’t write your books for the movies. You write them for your readers.” She moved the bottle out of his reach. “And your readers have not abandoned you. Look at the turnout last Thursday.”
“My readers. I’ve failed them, too.” The desolation in his eyes made Allie shiver despite the warm mug in her hands.
She put down the coffee and leaned forward to take his free hand between hers. He let her, which she considered a good sign, but his fingers lay inert. “Gavin, you have the Christmas book.”
“Ah, yes. I am exuding Christmas spirit right now.”
“That will make Julian’s point of view all the more emotionally compelling. Because you understand how he’s feeling.”
“It’s gone.” He knocked back half his drink.
“What is?”
“The spark. The idea. It was barely there to begin with.”
“Are you kidding? We discussed it for over an hour. You scribbled on your legal pad for another two hours.”
He withdrew his hand from her grasp. “Sweetheart, I appreciate your attempt to cheer me up, but you’re fighting a losing battle.”
“So you were just wasting my time and energy today. I call that mighty inconsiderate.”
“I’m paying you for it.” His lips curled into a hard smile.
That hit a nerve, so she snapped at him, “You insisted on that, not me.”
“You should leave.”
“So you can wallow in self-pity?”
“Because I’m going to say something I’ll regret.”
