She nodded her agreement.
“You said I’d been right on all things Howser. Does that include the fact that he was jacking off over you?” Jim was annoyed again.
Tasha nodded, unsure if words were necessary.
“And you know this how?” His annoyed expression had been replaced with one of absolute fury.
“Because he told me.” Her admission came in a near whisper.
“What did he say? Exactly.” Jim snarled, his anger coming off him in waves. His whole body tensed as he waited for her reply.
She looked down as she tried to recollect his exact words and then began. “He said:once I got to the men’s room it was you I was thinking about; those legs and that ass and it was real good.”
Jim said nothing immediately. He breathed deeply and looked contemplative, then quietly and seemingly calm, he spoke. “You made the situation, Tasha. As much as I would like to have a contract put out on the fucker, you did this as much as him.”
She had infuriated him again, his face alone said as much.
“And what if Lizzie had been there and heard it?” He threw her a curve ball she hadn’t expected.
“I’m sure he wouldn’t have said it in front of her.” As a doctor of children he would be disinclined to say such things in front of a child, wouldn’t he?
“Why? Because he is such a great guy? A great guy who thought of your legs and ass while he jacked off, or more precisely, my legs and my ass.”
Yes, angry James was back.
“You said you attempted to leave before Lizzie came back, what did you mean?” He seized upon another piece of information he wouldn’t like.
“I wouldn’t have left without her. I would have gone to her, but he was holding my wrist and I don’t do scenes in public.” She had witnessed and been in far too many public scenes with her family to ever want to be involved in one again, but she would never have left the restaurant without Lizzie.
“Did he hurt you?” His words were quiet and apparently calm again, his concern for her wellbeing his main priority.
“No, no. It wasn’t like that, really.”
”Okay. An actress who doesn’t do scenes, unfortunate.”
“Funny,” she said sarcastically, not wanting to explain or expand further. “Are we done with Howser?”
He nodded. “If he coincidently turns up anywhere else where you are I may take the contract out on him because he wants what is mine. So next, what are we going to do about us after Friday? I think we should sleep on it. It’s too big for over dinner, but there is something I have to tell you.”
She looked at him concerned, a hundred different possibilities of what he might say running through her mind, all of them resulting in this thing between them coming to an end.
“Go on.”
“I told you it was Jon who first mentioned your name to me. Me, Trisha and Marc. Well, in his attempts to recast for the knocked up leading lady Marc and Trish drew up a short list and he has called your agent today to discuss availability and interest.”
She scowled at him. “I told you I can’t do it. I’ve got work arranged and I don’t want work from you.”
“Which is what I am telling you. It has nothing to do with me, but I didn’t want you to get a call from your agent and think I was plotting behind your back.”
She was about to speak when her phone rang. She glanced at it on the top of her bag. “Your timing is unbelievable. It’s Angie, my agent.”
“Answer it, dinner is over,” he said with a cheeky half-smile.
She snatched her phone up. “Angie, how are you?”
“Knackered Tash, knackered. Some arsehole from L.A. disturbed my sleep.”
“Tell me about it,” she replied sarcastically.
