“I can find four, maybe five producers who would eagerly create a reality series around you and HottieFirefighter.”
“I think I could chat with the same five producers, Emilio, but I appreciate theoffer.”
I struggled to shake him off my tail, when I heard, “Oh,Dax!”
Carter wedged in between us. “Do you mind if I steal him, Emilio? Just for aminute.”
A minuteat an event like that meant nothing, as there wasn’t likely to be much time for us to reencounter one another in the sea of attendees. Lucky forme.
“Oh, lookie, lookie,” Carter said as he snatched two glasses of champagne from a nearby waiter’s tray. He turned and handed me one. Always eager to be fashionable at whatever hot event we attended, he sported a tailored navy suit with a matching vest, a white hanky tucked in his breast pocket. “That’s three times I’ve saved you tonight. Don’t make me have to grab you a fourth.” He winked, knowing very well his job was to save our asses when Elliott or I got held up for toolong.
“So have you seen Freyda Inc. yet?” he asked, angling his head and gazing at me with eagerinterest.
He was referring to Fred Maurren and Ayda Warner, the duo rivals of our company. Since I’d returned to Hollywood, I’d heard through the grapevine they were rumored to have hired the pap who got pics of Jace and myself to leak toGlitz & Glam. I wouldn’t have put it past them, of course, since surely they were as bitter as I would have been had the shoe been on the other foot. Although, neither Elliott nor I would have ever stooped so low as to have leaked those kinds of pictures to the press, but being that Fred and Ayda were friendly with the CEO ofGlitz & Glamand other unsavory media outlets—from which their own careers were born—it didn’t shock me when I heard therumors.
Carter and I made our way around the gala before I ran into a potential client, one Elliott suggested I offer my information to. We chatted for some time, and he asked if I’d be available when he returned from histour.
As soon as he went on his way, I pulled out myphone.
“Give that to me,” Carterinsisted.
“What?”
He held out hishand.
“I can put it in my calendar,Carter.”
“You’re going to put it into your personal calendar, but I can put it in our shared calendar and pull up the dates when he’s back in the States, so that we’re all on the same page. You can take ten minutes to do this, or I can do it intwo.”
I relinquished my phone, knowing perfectly well he could do itbetter.
“Spanks you very much,” Carter said. “Oh, wow. Still on Grindr? I would have thought your new boyfriend wouldn’t be okay withthat.”
“Oh shit. We did discuss we should not see others while this is going on. We’re exclusive, but only by necessity. You think I’m going to risk DMing some guy so that they can send my cock pics toGlitz &Glam?”
“I can see that headline now:Lil’ Donnie Gibson’s…not so little.” Hewinked.
“What would you know about Lil’ DonnieGibson?”
“Dax, I’ve seen you in jogging pants. Come on. But even before that, you know I’m a very good judge ofcharacter,” he said, stressingcharacterin a way that there could be no confusion about what he reallymeant.
“Whatever. Just go ahead and delete that app while you’re in there, willyou?”
“All over it,” Carter said. “Ooh, and your man just sent you amessage!”
“What does itsay?”
“‘Looking forward to seeing you,Hollywood.’”
“Oh, that popped up earlier. I just haven’t opened ityet.”
I was playing it cool, but the fact that Jace would be landing in LAX in a few days for his first major photo and commercial shoot of the campaign excited the hell out ofme.
“Playing hard to get, are we?” Carterasked.
“Carter, if you ever have a man like Jace Kruse interested in you, I suggest the only place you be hard is in yourpants.”
“As always, I like your style, Mr.Munro.”
