I smiled. “Not really. I can live here forever.”
He took a mouthful of steak. “How many offers do you have?”
“How do you know I have any?”
He chuckled. “Carolina, it’s me. I know what you wanna say before you say it. You wanna go home so you can take another project. And with your talent and the hype around you, I say you have more than one to choose from.”
My gaze drifted with the quiet waves, not happy with the tone of this conversation. He was smiling, but I, too, knew him. Something was troubling him, and he was hiding it as always.
Perhaps his nerves were getting the best of him because of the nominations. When I glanced back at him, he’d stopped eating, his eyes somber.
“Hey,” I said. “I’m not taking anything beforeDark Hopes. I don’t think I can take another four months away from you. I’m only asking if we have a shooting date yet.”
“I don’t think I can take it either.” A line appeared between his brows. “Maggie, I’ve been thinking…afterDark Hopes, I might quit.”
“What?” I asked in disbelief. “No fuckin’ way.”
“Well, those months when you were away sucked. I couldn’t bear it,” he muttered. “And I know that you’d never ask me to leave work and come with you wherever you go.” His fork clicked on the plate as he dropped it. “I don’t want a long-distance relationship. I wanna be with you every day. Something’s gotta give.” He shrugged. “I’ve had a career. You’re just starting—”
“Let me stop you right here.” I leaned forward. “Not going to fucking happen.”
“Maggie—”
“End of story, Mike.” I pushed my chair away as I rose, his phone ringing. “Answer the damn thing.”
“Where are you going?” His footsteps came heavy on the sand behind me.
“I’m not hungry anymore.”
He swore as I stalked to the house. Then my phone rang, too. I stopped to see who was calling. Samantha. In my peripheral vision, Mike was answering his.
I decided to ignore my manager’s call and go back to my room. Mike’s foolish idea had killed every positive thought and vibe in me. I slumped on the bed, took off my sandals, and bent my knees up to my chest. Then I cried.
“Maggie…” The French door opened, and sultry, salty air swirled into the room. “Are you crying?” He ran to me. “Amore?” His knees touched the floor as he made me look at him. “Why?”
My lips quivered. “’Cause you made me feel like shit.”
He stared at me in shock. “What? I don’t understand. What did I do?”
“You do everything in your power to make me happy, to make me better, to help me achieve all my goals and dreams, and what do I do?” Tears flooded out of my eyes. “Make you wanna sacrifice the only thing that you love. Make you miserable. Suck the life out of you.”
“No, vita mia. You got this all wrong,” he said. “When I said I’d quit I wasn’t making a sacrifice. I’m doing it because I know I’ll be happier that way.”
“How? How?!”
“Before you, all this, the success, the fame, the goals, the dreams, the ambition, was all I had. But now, it’s lost its value. It’s shit compared to how I feel when I’m with you, touching you, feeling you here next to me. That’s how happy you make me feel, Maggie. Everything else is nothing when I can have you.”
“I’m supposed to make you better, too. Not the opposite.” I tasted the salt from my tears as they dripped across my lips. “You’re finally starting to live up to your potential and you wanna…” My voice cracked.
“You’re not listening. You do make me better. A year ago, I was stuck in an endless circle, and you got me out of it. Without you, I wouldn’t have had the contest or Mondo M orBlack Sheep. From the day I told Andrea to bring me different movies to the night I declared my love for you on TV and stopped being a sleazy fucker, it’s all been for you and because of you.”
“Mike, please…”
“I am only a better man today because you’re with me.” A small smile tugged the corners of his lips. “Remember that night when you told me I needed therapy?”
I nodded. “And you never went.”
“Because I don’t need it anymore. You are my therapy, Maggie.”
