Page 70 of Doc Showmance
“It’s no wonder she and my mother hit it off. They’re cut from the same manipulative mold.”
We settled into uncomfortable silence.
“So…Maya.” Amber sipped from her to-go cup. “How about both of you fill me in on what happened there? From my perspective sure as shit looks like your mom has green-lit her to get her claws back into you. She got head table seating last night, and I got the loser table.”
“Are you jealous?” I asked.
She scoffed. “Oh my God, Ian. This whole thing is insane. How could I be jealous when all I know is secondhand gossip from the blonde twins about you and Maya? You and me aren’t…” She side-eyed the camera in the corner. “We’ve kind of been tossed together.”
I scrutinized Nabi, who didn’t seem to pick up any truth about us potentially faking all this. Nabi watched avidly like we were a live TV episode.
“I’m sorry,” I started. I took a deep breath and decided to tell her the truth. “I should’ve given you the heads up on Maya. She’s my mom’s choice for who I should marry. Earlier this year we dated for a short while. Six weeks to be exact. I came home on week six from a trip to China where I’d been filming for two weeks to find her and my brother fucking on my sofa. My sofa. That was my place. I hadn’t even given her a key. Obviously, Brock… He could never stand for me to show him up on anything. I think my TV celebrity drove him to a whole new high of competitiveness.”
“That’s… I don’t have words for it.” She tugged her lower lip through her teeth. She reached to take my hand. “You’re a real dillweed a lot of time, but you don’t deserve that. The sliminess of them at your place disgusts me. Does fidelity mean nothing in your family?”
“Not a damn thing.”
“You and me…” She worked her lower jaw. “I’m not that kind of person. If I decided we were going to try for something serious, something beyond a few fun times, then I expect you to be one hundred percent in, like I’d be. I’m possessive of the people I care about.”
“Me too,” I muttered.
“I can be driven to do horrible things to people who play with my feelings or screw around on the side.” She broke into a wide grin. “I know the sheriff pretty well.”
“How do you know him?”
“Seth? He sort of dated Joley.”
A lady bumped into me while trying to control her little dog coming in the door. She froze, staring at me and then at Amber. She took in Martin filming us. “I’m sorry. Hey, you’re…aren’t you…Dr. Todd and Dr. Hardin from the TV show?”
Great. Just what we needed was to be recognized.
“It is you two. Oh, wow. Dr. Todd, you’re even more handsome in person.”
“Thanks?” I rubbed my neck.
The lady asked, “Can I take a picture with you two?”
When I didn’t jump to reply Amber said, “Sure.”
Interest perked up among other customers who now looked our way. “I think we better take off.”
Nabi said loudly, “Yeah, let’s get you two a room before it gets any hotter in here.”
26
Ian
There were no hotel rooms at any of the places I wanted to stay. Who knew a holiday weekend made it virtually impossible to find a vacancy that wasn’t in a part of town I refused to house us? So I begged. I cajoled. And finally, I found a room at an insane price.
“I got us a room. Finally,” I told Amber in the car. I glanced to the driver, who was a pro at pretending he wasn’t listening to us. “They said it’s the last one they’ve got. I planned to get you your own room, but there’s only this one. It’s got one double bed. I suppose we can figure it out.”
“One bed?” she squeaked out. She lowered her voice to a whisper, “Listen, whatever might’ve or didn’t happen yesterday has to be a mistake, right?”
I didn’t reply. I remembered everything in vivid detail. I thought we worked pretty damned well together. Now she was moving us back to square one?
The car pulled in front of the downtown hotel. I jumped out and grabbed our stuff from the trunk. I glared at Martin, who sat in the front passenger seat. At least the camera wasn’t rolling. “I didn’t get a room for you, Martin. They don’t have any more. You’re not staying with us. You can either find your own place or stay at my parents’ house. I’m not a travel agent.”
“I’m following you in,” he said.
