“Yes. You know about my family and now I at least have names and occupations for yours.”
“Was your dad very unpleasant today?” There was no disguising the concern in his voice.
“Hmmm.” She really wanted to talk about anything other than her father. “So, when shall we video call?”
“Forget that for now. What does hmmm mean?”
“Nothing really,” she said, just a little too quickly in an attempt to avoid this particular discussion.
“You’re lying Tasha. You could have said he’d shouted or swore or been drunk, but you didn’t, and I reckon he always does something, baby. So?”
“It really was nothing. He just got in my face and shouted.” She sighed, thinking this conversation just refused to be pushed away. Jim was as determined to discuss her visit home as she was to avoid it.
“Did he hurt you or touch you?” Jim sounded angrier now, but she knew his anger was only directed at her father, not her.
“He just grabbed and squeezed me.” Suddenly, with thoughts of her father’s hands on her, how he made her feel, physically and emotionally she wished she was back in L.A. safely wrapped in Jim’s embrace.
“What? Where?”
“Just my face,” she almost whispered, thinking she was incredibly close to tears and they might be more to do with missing Jim than the actions of her father earlier that day.
“What the fuck is his problem? He is a complete fucking bully. He has no right to touch you, never did. Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. He was pissed off when I said I hadn’t got five grand to give him, but I’m fine,” she repeated and she was, because compared to most of her encounters with her father, today had been nothing significant. “Can we talk about something else, please?”
“Of course, honey, but please avoid him if you can.”
“I usually do,” she replied and meant it. Avoidance was her usual tactic where he was concerned.
“Shall we talk about our video date?” He sounded happier, more relaxed. Even if it was slightly forced.
“Yes.” She grinned, totally incapable of hiding it and hoped he sensed it.
“We could do it tonight,” he suggested.
She laughed at his eagerness but quickly refused the offer. “No can do. I need to prepare for a hot date. What about Wednesday?”
“Wednesday? That’s four days away?”
“I know,” Tasha laughed at his apparent outrage at a four-day delay. “But I have my lingerie shoot on Tuesday so I will be perfectly preened and if we do it on Wednesday morning for me it will be Tuesday night for you. Now I am all for sexting in meetings, but I think our video date is a step too far.” She tried and most likely failed to sound outraged.
“You may have a point. Tuesday night it is then. I’m looking forward to it like you wouldn’t believe, honey.”
Tasha yawned as she climbed into bed.
“Baby, you should go to sleep and we will talk tomorrow. I love you.”
“Love you too,” she said with a grin as they both hung up and she felt sleep calling to her.
It was raining when Tasha left Angie’s office after lunch and as she looked at the list of auditions she had lined up, she frowned. Two for U.K. TV shows, two in L.A. and one in New York, but was she interested if they were going to mean time apart from Jim? Time apart and possibly a conflict of interests. She felt confused and thought she should sleep on them and maybe look at dates and time scales before discussing them with him. Angie had been excited that Jim was coming over to visit and insisted Tasha should introduce them. She had told her about the movie première he’d insisted she’d be attending with him and Angie had been equally insistent she should update Tasha’s portfolio in preparation and arranged another studio session for some updated shots.
She got into her car and smiled to herself as she thought about Jim. It was a little crazy to miss him as much as she did when she had only known him for a couple of weeks. Looking at the clock it showed three in the afternoon, which meant it was seven in the morning in L.A. so she took her phone out and started writing.
