Page 4 of Doc Showmance
“You know her,” Marianna stated. Not a question. “Please tell me you didn’t screw it up by sleeping with her at some point in the past.”
“We were never like that.” I swallowed, unwilling to give Marianna the ammunition she sought or to let her know the historical shitfest that raged between us. “We went to the same vet school. Can’t say we got along.”
“Perfect. I’ll ready your contract. We’ll pay you twice your normal per month, plus the hospital pays you on commission. We’ll pay your housing while in the area. Try not to make an ass of yourself. Or, actually, do.” She grinned. “That’d make great TV. You’ll sign a contract to exclusively be into her until Christmas, but no one other than you, me, the hospital director, and her will know it’s fake. You can’t publicly date other women during these few months.”
“I can’t do this. Not with Amber. She’s—”
“Sure, she’s a pit bull, which is why this is going to be so great. You’re eye candy, and she’s drama. Bonus if she hates your guts.” Marianna lowered her voice. “You can go find women to hook up with on the side. I remember back when I directed a few episodes of your show you had a need to scratch that itch a lot. Just keep it quiet and out of the media.”
I stopped hooking up with random women long ago. A few messy episodes left a bad taste in my mouth.
“This won’t work.”
I watched Amber undo her ponytail. All that red-streaked dirty-blonde hair cascaded down her back for a moment before she redid it into a messy bun. Her technician said something and pointed at a screen. A small smile lit up Amber’s face. So much strength in her jaw. Intelligence and stubbornness etched into her features as she read. The tiny hoop in her left nostril caught the light and glittered.
Just from her smile, my fascination shot up. I couldn’t identify if it was dread or excitement that licked down my spine. I wanted to know who Amber had become. Who was this badass ready to go to extremes for her patients? At least, the few episodes I’d watched of her ER show featured her fighting for her patients.
I didn’t want a fake TV dating scenario with her. I wished for a do-over, a chance to go back to that awful, stupid day and change what I’d done. I wanted something real, not a scripted farce. Sure, anything with Amber would be an uphill battle.
Her wide gaze found mine as if her sixth sense alerted her I was watching. The challenge in her gaze, the slight drawing in of her eyebrows… I recognized that as her pre-battle face.
Eagerness shot through my stomach.Bring it on, Goth Girl.
I hadn’t thought of the nickname I’d given her in years. She’d earned it from her love of wearing all black and odd Celtic pendants back in school.
“You’re going to pretend to like her and make it believable.”
“Why do you need this setup to work?” I asked. Marianna’s desperation made no sense.
“The network needs my gift to create kickass reality TV and breathe life into this ER show. Look what I did for your little show. When I took the helm, yours was a yawn fest. The network wasn’t sure about me bringing you on to do this. They don’t particularly care if your little wildlife show continues because they haven’t seen season two when I took over.”
The woman was nuts. I’d filmed important, thought-provoking,safeepisodes before she showed up. She’d locked me inside a cage in the back of a rickety Cambodian van without warning me the sedated tiger’s drugs were wearing off. It tried to attack me. Then she made me handle a Venezuelan forest pit viper to examine its injured eye. The snake’s strike missed my face by millimeters. Nightmares still haunt me about the snake. I could’ve died. Twice.
She said, “We’re going to up the drama here. Once they see I can deliver, they’ll green light you for more seasons with me directing. Can you imagine the things we can come up with? If they don’t like what we do here, they’re canning both of us.”
“I don’t know.” I had zero desire to continue working with her on my show. She’d probably plan to throw me into a malfunctioning shark cage next.
Her lips flattened and she hissed low, “If you don’t do this, I’ll release the shit from Colombia to the world. You’ll never work in TV, film, or the veterinary world again. You’ll be forced to tuck your tail and run back to Daddy, begging for a chance to join the family business.”
Blood roared in my ears as I slammed my teeth together. I’d rather rot in poverty than beg for anything from my father. “You wouldn’t dare.”
“Suck it up, buttercup, and pull out your best Romeo. If you fuck up my career, I’m destroying yours.” Marianna cackled, a disturbing noise that raised goose bumps down my arms, before she moseyed away.
I could probably pretend to like, even fake date, a woman, but not Amber. In the past, she’d ferreted out all my hot buttons, the ones that made me instantly cranky.
I hadn’t meant to hurt her when I pretended for that video in school. Things flew out of control when my roommate jumped out screaming, “Gotcha! Just kidding.” The rest of our class saw the video online. Back then, I considered Amber everything a woman should be: hot, brainy, and a smartass. I should’ve handled it differently. I should’ve stood up for her and said no to going through with the prank. I should’ve told her I’d meant what I said when I got down on my knee to offer her flowers. But I’d been a stubborn, immature jerk who was too concerned about what other people thought rather than fighting to keep the only thing in my life that I’d wanted. The only thing that meant something. Her.
Once Marianna left, I strolled toward Amber, waiting until her assistant moved away to murmur, “Guess you’re in on this crazy plan?”
“What plan?”
“They didn’t tell you yet?” Hot damn. I knew before her. Only she brought out this childish side of me.
“Stop grinning like a know-it-all,” she snapped. “What plan?”
“I’m going to be sticking around for a while on your show. You and me get to be costars.Specialcostars.”
She blinked at me.
