Personal Assistant (19 page)

       
“No.”
Frankie shook her head. “High school, he was the first, you know?”

       
“Yeah.”
He nodded. He didn’t like it, but he understood. “I
remember mine. I was thirteen, she was sixteen. She was in a movie my dad was
working on. Nice girl, really. I’m pretty sure I broke her heart, but I was
thirteen, you know?”

       
 
He looked from the train set to Frankie and
she nodded. He said, “Come, have a seat with us. You’re making me nervous
hovering around like that.”

       
“Here,
Fane-
kie
,” Buddy took her a train car. Frankie
immediately warmed her mood and thanked him for it. She followed him back to
the train track and took a seat across from Jonas. “Put it on the tack.”

       
He
was so cute missing that one sound. Being an uncle made him more considerate of
children. He was amazed at how quickly the kid was growing.

       
Frankie
put the train on the track in front of her. Buddy knew there were three more
cars in that box and he went searching for them. After the first visit when
Buddy had played with the train, then the second when he had it out of the box
in no time, Jonas began mixing the pieces throughout the mass of other toys in
there to give him something to dig for.

       
Jonas
watched as Frankie lit up every time Buddy talked to her. She laughed, smiled,
and talked about trains with the child. After they had played for almost two
hours, Buddy yawned. It was past his bedtime, way past. Jonas began putting the
train away, Buddy helped. “Frankie can you grab him a pair of pajamas from
Janice’s room upstairs? We’ll meet you there as soon as we get this box
secured.”

       
Once
at the top of the stairs Jonas let go of Buddy’s hand. Buddy ran right for
Jonas’s bedroom. Frankie had pulled out a pair of pajamas with trains on them.
The toddler made efforts to undress and then dress himself. His pajama bottoms
were on backwards, but they were on. “Okay, so let’s go potty and then brush
our teeth.”

       
“Where
does he sleep?” Frankie whispered as Buddy ran off to the bathroom. They could
hear as Buddy opened the cabinet door under the sink where the footstool was.
The plastic sound scrapped along the tile until it came to a squeaking halt.

       
“With me.”
Jonas took the moment to get closer to her. He
slid his fingers along hers and then tugged her forward. She complied easier
than he expected her to. In fact, she took his breath away by letting go of his
hand and embracing him on her own. She never hugged him first. He wrapped her in
a warm embrace and enjoyed every second of it, the smell of her hair,
the
grip of her fingers on his back, the soft sigh. He
propped his chin on her head and admitted to himself that he was smitten. He
was sure he felt something for her he had never felt before. He knew the moment
he saw his own reflection in those pictures, he was gone. If a picture was
worth a thousand words he had only two words to describe himself, in love.

       
“All
done,” Buddy said. Jonas let her go slowly.

       
“Good
job, dude.” Jonas smiled at the little rascal. He had toothpaste still on the
corner of his little mouth. His sister would likely clean the toothpaste up,
turn his pajamas around,
make
him put something on his
feet. Jonas knew Buddy was trying to do some things for himself. He was growing
up and proud of his small accomplishments. “Jump up.”

       
Buddy
jumped onto the bed. He made quick business of pulling himself up and getting
under the sheets and propping up on a pillow. It was time for his bedtime
story.

       
“I’ve
got to read a bedtime story now,” Jonas said. “He should be asleep in a few
minutes. He’s already exhausted, look at him. I’ll
come
talk to you after. Your phone is in the car.”

       
Frankie
nodded.

       
“Fane-
kie
kiss goodnight.” Buddy held up his arms and she
complied. She walked around the bed and went to place a kiss on Buddy’s cheek,
but the little rascal turned his head and kissed her square on the lips.

       
“Good
night, Buddy.” Frankie smiled at the little rogue.

       
As
she passed Jonas couldn’t help but say, “Jealous.”

       
She
laughed as she left the room.

***

       
Frankie
returned a few hours later to find both of them knocked out. Buddy was sound
asleep. By the look of it, Jonas was on his fourth book and midway through it.
Jonas had removed his shoes and his dress shirt already. He still had on slacks
and plain white t-shirt. Frankie moved closer, pulled off his reading glasses,
gently, slowly, and placed them on his nightstand. Jonas was such a hard
sleeper she could have smacked him with one of the books and he probably
wouldn’t notice. She gathered the books and placed them aside as well. Unable
to resist she leaned over and placed a kiss at the corner of his sumptuous
mouth. Why had she ever resisted kissing him? Who was she kidding? He had her
the moment he chose to hire her. Nothing about her life was the same now, most
of it thanks to him.

       
She
returned to her room. She wasn’t about to go home this late. She listened to
the rest of the messages on the phone. Texts from everyone who knew him and
those who wanted to know who the girl in the picture was. Texts came from
everyone who had met her recently. There were texts from his friends,
acquaintances, other celebrity assistants, drivers, etc. asking if she was
okay. It was nice to see that so many people were concerned about her eating
concrete. In truth they were all likely curious if the last photo was a new bit
of gossip they all wanted inside scoop on. The surreal effect of the situation
was almost comical.

       
She
moved on to look at the E-mails regarding real business piled up in the inbox.
He did a lot of things people didn’t know about. He donated to charities, he
invested in small businesses, and he found a lot of ways to give back to his
community. He was as overextended as everyone else she knew. The only
difference was the type of work being done. She yawned, finally moved on to the
voice messages. After a few typical calls, a few hope you feel better calls,
and a call from her dad saying how excited he was to meet Jonas and take the
studio tour, she was ready for the series of calls left by Shay.

       
Frankie, look. I know I was out of line
today. I freaked out okay. Finding that DVD just…look I know I’m a bitch
sometimes. You’ve always been there for me. You know shit about me no one else
knows. I know I shouldn’t have told you about…well you should know that I was
always jealous of what you had. To be young and in love is one thing, but he
kept coming back for you. I know I was the reason he moved on. He slept with
your best friend, how could he face you? How could I? I knew he didn’t tell you
so I just let it go…

       
The
message ended. The next message picked right back up…

       
I hate these fucking phones. Anyways, I know
you won’t talk to me so I can only hope you will listen to this and know that
I’m sorry. I’m sorry for everything. I’m sorry I said I was going to fuck
Jonas. I won’t even try. I know you said something to him. My agent called and
my appointment was cancelled, she dropped me. I just got that agent, Frankie.
Now what am I going to do? I mean, what the fuck, Frankie? I thought we were
better than that. I got you that job, I told you…

       
There
was the real reason for the apology. Frankie deleted the rest. She didn’t need
this anymore. Shay had been a great part of her childhood. She had helped
Frankie to toughen up, she taught her to act strong when she felt weak. Frankie
believed that people came into her life when she needed to learn something from
them. They left when the lesson was done. Frankie had outgrown Shay’s antics
years ago but felt loyal to her friend.

       
Frankie
always knew Shay had zero ability to keep secrets. Thankfully, she never shared
anything that could be detrimental. Shay, on the other hand, probably realized
how much Frankie knew. Frankie had defended her, hated who she hated, supported
her when everyone else let her down, she should have realized long ago that it
was never about friendship. It was always about Shay.

***

       
The
phone alarm woke her up. He had changed the music. Still Florence and the
Machine, but now it was
Dog Days
. She
wondered if it was an intentional message. She flipped through her ring tones
and looked at various ones assigned to people. His had changed. Apparently he
had taken a picture of himself to change the photo that came up, and instead of
a song it was his voice saying, “I’m jealous of this damn phone, except now, so
answer it and ask me why.”

       
He
was such a goofball sometimes. Frankie walked across the hall. As soon as she
stepped in the doorway Buddy popped up. He took a good look around, saw Jonas,
now in just his boxer briefs, and lay back down. Frankie waited another minute
to see if he was going back to sleep or just waiting for his uncle to wake up.
The toddler started singing the ABC song.

       
“Buddy,”
she whispered. He stopped. “Buddy, it’s me, Frankie. You want some breakfast?”

       
He
sat up and whispered, “Yeah.”

       
“Okay.
You go potty first and I will wait here for you, okay?”

       
He
climbed out of the bed and ran to the bathroom. Frankie could hear the step
stool move across the floor for his morning potty, and then it moved again so
he could wash his hands. He was an impressive little dude, even if he did have
his pajamas on backwards.

       
Downstairs,
Frankie was in the process of making another round of pancakes when a mostly
naked Jonas appeared in his underwear in quite a panic.

       
“Oh,
thank God.” He grabbed his chest, walked over to his nephew, and kissed him on
the top of his head.

       
Buddy
was on his knees in the chair because she couldn’t figure out where else to put
him and she didn’t feel safe letting him sit on a bar stool, though it would
have been easier for him to sit and eat. She had already made three little
pancakes for the kid, but he was still hungry so she kept making more. “He’s on
his fourth pancake.”

       
“I
think I’m on my eighth heart attack,” Jonas said. Frankie could hear his bare
feet pad across the tile on the kitchen floor. She flipped the pancake and
turned around to see him. He was already in her personal space. He put a hand
around the back of her neck and pulled her forward to place a kiss on her
forehead. “Thank you.”

       
“For what?”
Frankie looked up at him.

       
“For pancakes over there.”
He motioned to Buddy eagerly
shoveling in another bite. “I had the strangest dreams last night…this morning.
I woke up, he was gone, I started to freak out, but I noticed you were not in
your room, so I felt a little better, but I wasn’t sure if you stayed last
night so then I panicked again. It wasn’t until I got right outside the kitchen
before I could smell food.”

       
“You
want me to start some coffee for you?” She looked up into those liquid blue
eyes and wondered if she could ever start a family with him. The thought shook
her to the core and she gulped.

       
“I’m
good.” He took a deep breath, let it out. “I’m going to go get dressed. Janice
will be here soon to get the pancake prince.”

       
Frankie
watched him walk out of the kitchen more relaxed than he had arrived. His
shoulders seemed to have gotten bigger, his back more muscular, his whole body
seemed…more.

       
Janice
was there moments later, her and Buddy Senior.

       
Janice
shook her head at Junior, “I think he must be going through a growth spurt. I
swear he is eating and sleeping and then eating and sleeping with some major
bursts of play energy in between.”

       
“He’s
already pretty tall for his age, isn’t he? He looks tall,” Frankie said. She
was surprised when she met him that he was almost three when he looked more
like four going on five.

       
“He
is,” Janice said. Once Buddy had Junior on his way to get changed Janice said,
“It’s sad sometimes. We go to the park and the little kids think he’s too big,
and the big kids can’t figure out why he doesn’t talk like they do or
understand games the same way. I mean his dad is tall, my brothers are tall,
our dad is tall, but I was hoping he would slow down some. I mean, I’m not
tall. Shouldn’t he get something from me?”