Starstruck - Book Four (9 page)

I sighed. I didn’t want to lie to him anymore. I was tired
of the lies. I just wanted an open dialogue between us. I couldn’t move forward
without it.

“When I came home from brunch, you were gone,” I said. “And
Flor wouldn’t tell me where you were.”

“I don’t usually tell her where I’m going,” he said, growing
defensive.

“After the whole Ava thing…I just got worried,” I admitted.
“I had to see for myself.”

“Did you find what you were looking for?” He asked. His
voice was dry.

“Yep,” I replied. “Sure did.”

And then, with perfect timing, my navigation kicked back on.
It was as if it had never been broken in the first place. I hung up on Hudson,
fought back the tears, swallowed the dry lump in my throat, and typed Alec’s
address into the system.

“Brynn, what are you doing here?” Alec said as I stood in
front of the door to his condo. “Couldn’t get enough of me at brunch this
morning?”

I opened my mouth to speak, but I couldn’t. I couldn’t bring
myself to speak of what had just happened.

“Talk to me,” he said as he pulled me in and shut the door.
“Go sit down. Do you want something to drink?”

I shook my head no, still unable to verbalize a damn thing.

“Did something happen with Ava? Hudson?” he asked.

I nodded. We were now playing Twenty Questions.

“Did you and Hudson break up?” he asked.

I shrugged my shoulders as if to say I just didn’t know.

“Okay, you need to talk to me, honey,” he said. “I’m too old
for this guessing game nonsense.”

He crossed his arms and took a seat next to me, studying my
eyes.

“All men are pigs,” I sobbed. “No offense.”

“Oh, honey, none taken,” he smirked as he waved his hand.
“What happened though?”

“I just want to understand,” I said. “Nothing makes sense.”

“What? What doesn’t make sense?” I could tell he was growing
frustrated with me. My thoughts were a little all over the place, and naturally
so were my words.

“Everything was going so well for us,” I said as I reached
for a tissue from his coffee table and dabbed my eyes. “I came home from brunch
today expecting to see him, but he was gone. I drove out to Malibu – “

“You drove out to Malibu?” He interrupted me. “Don’t tell me
you went to Ava’s house…”

I nodded.

“And Hudson’s car was there,” I said. Just saying those
words made my lip tremble, but I managed to fight it off. “What was he doing
there, Alec?”

He looked just as perplexed as me, and I could tell he
didn’t want to say anything to make me feel worse.

“I just don’t understand,” I said.

“Don’t even try.” He put his hand on my knee. “Trying to
understand will only make you feel worse. Have you talked to him? Does he know
you saw him?”

“Yeah,” I said. “He knows alright.”

“And what did he say?”

“I didn’t even give him a chance to explain,” I said. “He
always manages to tell me what I want to hear, and I go running back to him
every time. I didn’t give him the chance this time. I just hung up on him.”

Alec pursed his lips and breathed loudly through his nose.
He felt sorry for me. Anyone else would’ve known better than to get involved
with someone like Hudson, but not the poor little naïve country girl from Iowa.
He probably saw this whole mess coming from a mile away.

“What am I supposed to do?” I asked him. “I don’t want to go
back home. But I can’t stay here either.”

“And why can’t you stay here?” he asked. To him, L.A. was
the center of the universe.

“I can’t afford to live here,” I huffed. “I don’t have a
single penny to my name. Hudson pays for everything.”

Alec pursed his lips again and looked deep in thought.

“You can stay with me for a little bit until you get on your
feet,” he offered after much deliberation.

It was as the sun had just broken through the clouds, and I
realized that things didn’t have to be so shitty. Nice people did exist, and
Alec was one of them.

“Are you serious?” I asked him. “You don’t have to do that
for me.”

“I want to,” he said. “Besides, I was thinking of hiring an
assistant.”

“An assistant?” I asked. “But I don’t know anything about
styling people.”

“Brynn, give yourself a little more credit,” he laughed.
“You’ve come a long way, and there’s so much more I can teach you. In the
meantime, you can sort of be my gopher. Steam clothes. Make appointments.
Accompany me to job sites. Be my little bitch.”

I smiled for the first time all afternoon.

“I don’t pay much,” he said. “We’ll start you off at forty.”

“Forty?” I asked.

“Forty thousand. A year,” he said.

“F-forty thousand dollars?” I asked, unsure if I’d heard him
right.

“Yeah,” he said. “Wish I could give you more than that.”

“No, no,” I said. “That’s perfectly fine.”

His salary offer was a far cry from the three bucks an hour
plus tips I used to make back home.

“I don’t have benefits,” he said. “Or paid time off.”

“That’s fine,” I said, still in shock from his salary offer.

“Brynn,” he said as he locked eyes with me. “We’re friends.
Don’t make me regret this.”

“Never,” I said as I threw my arms around him and gave him
the biggest bear hug.

Moving on without Hudson was going to be hard, but for the
first time in my life I was going to have a real career. I could make something
of myself. I vowed to myself never to become dependent on a man ever again. For
anything. I never wanted to feel that way again.

“Your phone’s ringing,” Alec pointed to my bag. I must have
tuned out the vibrating as I was lost in thought.

I reached in and pulled out the shiny, glass phone. It was
Hudson.

“It’s Hudson,” I said, shooting Alec a look of annoyance. I
pressed the “ignore” button and threw the phone back in my purse.

CHAPTER 15

Reality smacked me on the face the moment I woke up Tuesday
morning. With a headache reminding me that Alec and I had drank too much the
night before and a crick in my neck from passing out on the sofa, I knew my
life had officially veered in a completely different direction from just
twenty-four hours ago.

My stomach growled, but I was too afraid to go ransacking
Alec’s cabinets for something to eat. We were good friends, but we weren’t that
close. It didn’t seem right, and the last thing I wanted to do was be that
annoying house guest who makes themselves too much at home. He was the only
thing I had in that town. I didn’t want to go wearing out my welcome quite yet.

I ventured out past the sliding glass doors that led to his
little five by seven balcony. Below the jarring symphony of traffic sounds and
people starting their day was a sad replacement for the chirping birds and
waterfall sounds of Hudson’s back yard.

As I took a seat on one of the balcony chairs, I couldn’t
get comfortable. I leaned from side to side and repositioned myself before
realizing my phone was in my back pocket. I whipped it out, trying to talk
myself out of checking for messages, but I couldn’t not look. It was right
there. On the screen. Eleven missed calls and seven text messages all from
Hudson.

I smiled, though I shouldn’t have. I needed to move on. I
needed to close that chapter. I could never be with a man who wasn’t completely
honest with me, no matter how wonderful he treated me. Nice cars, fancy
clothes, and extravagant dinners were no substitute for the things that made a
relationship solid. Things like honesty, fortitude, and openness – those were
the things that were worth their weight in gold.

“Hey, what are you doing out here?” It was Alec. He looked
adorable in his silky pajamas and his messy bedhead hair. He slipped some black
sunglasses over his squinty eyes. “I didn’t see you on the couch when I got up.
Thought for a minute you went back to Hudson.”

“No,” I laughed. “Still here…”

“When are you going to go get your things?” he asked as he
took a seat next to me.

I half expected him to hand me a mug of tea or something.
I’d been spoiled. And I chided myself for forgetting my roots. I was so used to
being waited on hand and foot. It wouldn’t be long before that lifestyle would
be a distant memory. A small blip on my timeline.

“All those things,” I said. “They don’t belong to me. He
bought them. I don’t have anything over there that’s really even mine.”

“He bought them for you,” Alec argued. “Therefor they are
yours.”

“I don’t want to see him,” I said. “Not yet. He’s just going
to talk me into staying.”

“Stay strong, sister,” he said with a playful nudge. “Get
your things and get going. Don’t stay and chat.”

“Yeah,” I said. I didn’t see that scenario being that easy
though. I was always powerless around Hudson. Those lips. Those eyes. Those
hands. His words. He was my kryptonite.

“Can you do me a favor?” Alec asked.

“Of course. Anything.”

“Please don’t tell him I took you in,” he said. “I really
don’t want to lose him as a client.”

“He knows you’re, like, the only friend I have out here,” I
said. “He’s not dumb. He’ll figure it out.”

Alec’s shoulders drooped.

“He’s not going to sabotage your career if that’s what
you’re worried about,” I said. “He’s not a vindictive person. He’s not Ava.”

Alec shuddered. “Her name literally gives me the chills.
She’s such an icy cold bitch.”

I laughed and leaned my head against his shoulder.

“I guess I should head over there and get it over with.” I
stood up and stretched. My heart pounded at the mere thought of seeing him
again. Alec was right though. I had to be strong. I had to stand my ground with
him.

                                                              
***

The hot leather of the white Mercedes nearly burned my skin
as I headed back towards Brentwood. From stoplight to stoplight, I touched up
my makeup and slicked my hair up into a messy top knot. I chewed gum like it
was my job. I knew I looked a hot mess.

Nervousness and anxiety flooded through me as I approached
his street and pulled into his driveway. I pulled up to the key code box and
punched in the code. Nothing. I tried it again. Nothing. It hadn’t even been
half a day and Hudson had already changed the code to the gate and locked me
out of the house.

It seemed so unlike him. Hudson was usually so benign. Part
of me assumed he still wanted me back, so it didn’t make sense that he’d change
the code and essentially keep me away.

I pulled out and turned back down the street to head back to
Alec’s. I was going to need a pay advance so I could build up a new wardrobe.
Or at least get some toothpaste and clean underwear. The clothes on my back
were officially all I had.

I turned right at the stoplight down the road from Hudson’s
house, only to pass by Hudson himself. He was sitting at the light, waiting to
turn left, and he spotted me immediately. We made eye contact for just a split
second, but that was all it took. In my review mirror, I saw him pull a u-turn
in the middle of the intersection, nearly get hit by oncoming traffic, and
speed up until he was right behind me.

I couldn’t run from him forever. I was driving on of his
cars after all. I pulled off into a nearby parking lot of a pharmacy chain
store with him following behind me. I rolled my window down and remembered
Alec’s words from earlier. I had to be strong.

“Brynn,” he said as he ran out of his car and came to my
window.

He leaned down and rested his hands on the window ledge. I
couldn’t bring myself to look into his eyes. I knew it would be all over from
there if I did. Instead, I stared at the gold Rolex on his wrist and watched
the second hand tick by in slow motion.

“Look at me, Brynn,” he said. I still couldn’t.

“Do you want your car back?” I asked, still staring at his
watch.

“My car? Brynn, God, no,” he said. “We can worry about that
another time. Where did you stay last night?”

He wasted no time.

“With a friend,” I said.

“I was so worried about you,” he replied. “I know you don’t
know a lot of people here. Sorry I texted and called you so much.”

He was being so sweet. Hudson was always sweet though. His
sweetness was my biggest weakness. If I wasn’t so pissed at him, I would’ve
jumped into his arms then and there.