Page 34 of Red Zone Realizations
Noah’s eyes stay downcast as he speaks. “Why are you doing this?”
“I’m protecting myself.”
“From what?” He stares into my eyes now, searching.
“Everything,” I whisper.
I gather my things, and stand. I turn back toward him one last time. His face is sullen and dejected. I hate that I put thatlook on his face. I hate being this way, but I feel like there’s no way to break these chains.
I’m pissed at Sarah for putting me in this position.
The universe.
Even Noah for being so fucking unflappable.
But most of all, I’m pissed at myself for being weak.
Chapter Fifteen
NOAH
“Hello?” Arie picks up on the very last ring. He’s always trying to finish whatever email or text he’s working on before answering.
“Hey, it’s Noah.”
“I have caller ID,” he says flatly. “What’s up?”
“I want to take on a manager for my social media sponsorships.”
I’m sure he can hear the dollar signs cha-chinging. “And why would that be?”
“It’s a business opportunity,” I say, though I don’t think I’m all that convincing.
“Try again.” Dammit.
“It’s about a woman.”
I can hear the creak in his office chair as he leans back into it. “There it is.”
“We’d hit it off and we’d been talking nonstop, and then all of a sudden yesterday she showed up for coffee with her briefcase talking about sponsorships.” I trail off… I don’t really know anything else.
“This is a weird way to gold dig.”
Anger pinks my cheeks. “She’s not a gold digger.” I try to calm myself so I don’t bite my agent’s head off. “She’s already pretty successful at this. I’ve checked her website, looked at her client list.”
“So if she doesn’t need your money, then what’s this about? She could have just let you down easy if she wasn’t interested in dating.”
I run my fingers through my hair. “I don’t know, Arie. But I’m going to find out, and to do that I need you to approve this and sign the papers.”
“I don’t know if this is a good idea…”
“I will give you double your usual percentage. I’ll take some from whatever I get, and I’ll double yours. Just don’t fight me.”
Arie heaves a dramatic sign as he’s wont to do. The man lives off of hysterics, but is ultimately controlled by cash. “Fine. But when this all blows up in your face and she leaves you high and dry, don’t come crying to me.”
“Oh, I won’t. I can promise you that.” Because this is the real deal, and this is how I’m going to prove myself to Audrey—and get to the bottom of whatever is going on with her.
I’m worried about Audrey. Not about her and my future, but in the sense of whatever happened to make her pull a one-eighty on me. I could see in her eyes that she needed me to go along with whatever this was. I almost asked her to blink twice if she was being held hostage because it was so unlike her to behave this way. The woman I was getting to know wasnot who was sitting across from me at Common Bond the other day.
