Page 8 of Game Changer

“Well I had a hand in that too. It was my idea to call you,” says Buckie flashing her his dazzling smile.

“I don’t care. This is the best day of my life.” She swoons on the screen.

“Well I’ll let you get back to your writing. Thanks for being a good sport.” Buckie winks at her.

He hands the phone back to Marcus — who mouths a silent thank you — and gets back to talking with his wife. She’s still giddy with excitement and it warms my heart to see the relationship they have.

As we make our way through to the bar, I turn to see Buckie smiling at me.

“What?”

“You’re fucking amazing Zar. I’m proud of you. This place is stunning.”

I smile back at him. “Yeah, we both kind of found our calling, didn’t we?”

We take a seat at the bar and chat about our lives. Him telling me all about his movies and me telling him all about my pubs and clubs. I tell him about the strip club and his eyes sparkle like I've told him Santa is coming.

“Oh you’re so taking me there woman.”

I roll my eyes at him. “This new movie what's it about?”

“Well, I play this Highlander guy who has to find a wife, or he can't inherit his title. It’s a romantic period drama based on a book. It’s set in the 1400s and the outdoor filming was very dirty and wet. But it was good fun to film. I’m sorry I didn’t get the chance to see you when I was here. Didn’t see my parents either. It all moved too fast. And then it was time to start filming the next one. Although the movies take a year or so to be ready for the cinemas, the filming is quite quick.”

“So does this film have a love scene too?” I ask winking at him.

“Don’t all my movies?”

“What's your co-star like in this one?”

“Annalise? She’s alright. Bit of a diva though. She's only done two movies, but she thinks she is something in Hollywood. Her first movie was a massive sci-fi thriller, and she was in it with a big star. She made an awful lot of money from it, and she went full nude, so she made a name for herself from that film.”

“God I could never do that. I don’t like myself enough.”

He raises his eyebrows at me. “Are you kidding. You have a killer body. Believe me.”

I don’t know why but, his words leave me feeling a little bashful.

“You have to say that you’re my friend.”

“I don’t have to say anything of the sort. I’d never lie to you.” He jumps off his stool and I’m startled when he wedges himself between my legs.

“You have no idea how much I’ve missed you babe. When I first went to America, I wanted nothing more than to get on a plane and come back to you.” He strokes my cheek with his thumb.

“I missed you too Buckie, but we can’t do this again. We have such different lives now. It will never work.” I’m lying through my teeth, but I can’t allow my heart to get broken again. It took me too long to fix it last time.

“I’m here for three months. We could pick up where we left off. No strings. Neither of us is attached, so why not have a little fun?”

Because I’m in love with you.

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