Player in Paradise (3 page)

“
You too.” I look away quickly, grab my keycard out of my purse, and unlock the door.

My heart pounds as I rush into my room. What just happened? Should I be flattered or disgusted? Is he just a typical pig or does he like me? Do I even want him to like me?

After I wipe off my makeup and brush my teeth, I hear voices coming from Austin’s room. I’m not usually a nosy person, but I chalk up this slight invasion of privacy to being a good employee.

It sounds like
Austin yelling. “No fucking way. I’m not doing it.”

“Well, we already bought the ring,” another voice says. She sounds li
ke an older woman. I move closer to the door.

“Think about it, we’ll be o
n every magazine cover, gossip blog and entertainment news show. I bet we can even get a TV special out of it. Think of how much money you’ll make,” a younger voice says.

“You’re insane,” he responds. “Seriously, you are both bat shit crazy if you think I’m going along with this.”

“Come on, Austin. My movie didn’t do as well as expected. I need this. Please,” she begs.

Then it clicks; it’s none other than Cassidy
Evans, and it sounds like she’s pleading for a marriage proposal. Did Priscilla put her up to this or did she come up with this grand scheme on her own? My shock turns to rage as I hear Austin continue to reject her plans. It’s one thing to fake date, but a sham engagement is on a whole other level. 

“Just think about it,” she says. 

He won’t agree to it…I think…I hope. Although Priscilla would probably love it; publicity for her clients is pretty much the only thing she really cares about, and this news would definitely cause a tidal wave of it.

“I’m impressed!” I yell to Austin as he meets me in the lobby right on time. He’s wearing black and white checkered board
shorts and a white t-shirt. His signature aviators are perched on top of his head.

“Couldn’t sleep,” he responds.

I’m pretty sure I know what was keeping him up all night, but I don’t bring it up. “The time change can mess with your sleep schedule for sure.”

He nods and runs a hand through his naturally highlighted locks. “So what do I have to do with the devil today?”

I try not to smile, but I do agree that she is the devil after listening to her scheme last night. “Surfing lesson.”

“I already know how to surf.”

“Well, pretend you don’t. It will look cuter if you’re both falling off your boards and helping each other out.”

“Is there a way to make drowning her look cute?”

“Stop it,” I respond, playfully slapping his arm. Just grazing those muscles makes my stomach flip.

“I’ll play along, but only if I
can teach you how to surf later,” he says.

“Uh
uh, no bueno.”

“Why not?”

“Because you’re supposed to be on a romantic vacation with your girlfriend, which last time I checked doesn’t usually involve other girls.”

“How about when we get back to LA?”

I freeze, unable to think a coherent thought. Is he asking me out? What do I say? I can’t date him. My mouth opens, but no words form.

“Hi baby!” Cassidy screams.

Saved by the devil. She rushes toward us and jumps onto Austin’s body, hanging her arms around his neck and placing a big kiss on his perfect lips. 

“Ok guys, let’s get to the beach,” I instruct. The hotel liaison guides us to the surf lesson area and I hang back on a lounge chair as the activity takes place. A hired photographer takes photos of every detail, from Austin taking his shirt off to Cassidy stepping into her skin-tight wetsuit. The two pose on their surfboards and kiss each other as they zip up their
suits. I have to hand it to him; he’s a damn good actor. Any average bystander would think they’re head over heels for each other. 

As I take in the view of Austin running through the surf with his wetsuit half-zipped I can’t help but smile. My attraction for him seems to be growing by the minute and I can’t figure out a way to stop it. All I can think about now is peeling the suit all the way off his body and throwing him down in the sand. I turn my head to block him out of my line of sight, but I still picture him in my thoughts. This is bad. I need to call Mandy.

“PWR Group, Mandy speaking.”

“Hey, it’s Olivia.”

“Hi! How are you? How’s everything going?”

“I have a confession.”

“What? What happened?”

“I can’t stop thinking about Austin
,” I whisper.

“No!” she screams. “Sorry, didn’t mean to give you hearing damage, but you cannot, I repeat, cannot fall for his super charming,
super hot self.”

“I know, but…”

“No buts! He’s a womanizing-playboy-possibly-sex-addicted-man-whore, and you’ll get fired for unethical conduct with a client if something happens between you two. I can’t work here without you!”

“Trust
me; I do not want to lose my job. That’s why I’m calling you to pump these negative Austin thoughts into my mind to outweigh the amazingly positive ones.”

“
I will text you with my words of wisdom every day to keep you on track,” she says.

“That sounds perfect.”

“So what are you doing now?”

“Watching him surf.
You don’t even want to know how good his ass looks in a wetsuit,” I squeal.

“No! Get that image
out of your mind! Don’t look at him.”

“Okay, I’ll look at Cassidy. I think she has fake boobs, do you know if they’re real?”

“Not positive, but I think you’re right. She’s pretty much fake inside and out.”

“Yep…” I contemplate bringing up the
engagement ring conversation, but decide that it’s too risky. “Thanks for bringing me back to reality.”

“
Of course. Good luck with the rest of your trip!”

“Thanks, talk to you later.”

The surfing lesson is over and I give them some time to relax and play on the beach. Austin waves me over, but I shake my head. His swim trunks are slung low across his hips and his ripped abs defy the laws of physical science. Is it possible to have a ten-pack?

I follow Mandy’s recommendation and close my eyes to block him out. The sound of the waves crashing and the warm breeze hypnotize me and I feel myself drifting off.

I’m woken with a shove to my side.

“Sleeping on the job?”

Tilting my sunglasses down, I open my eyes to see Austin standing over me. What a beautiful sight.

“What? No, I just closed my eyes for a minute.”

“More like an hour.”

I check my phone and sure enough, an hour had gone by. “I hope you didn’t get into any trouble while I wasn’t watching you.”

He grins. “Of course not, I’m an angel.”

“Yeah...right.” He helps lift me off my chair and I grab my bag.
“Time for lunch. Get Cassidy and meet me at the sushi bar in twenty minutes.”

“I love it when you order me around. Are you that way in bed too?”

I know he’s joking, but my face heats up involuntarily. “You are so inappropriate.”

“I know
.” He jogs back over to Cassidy and throws her over his shoulder. It looks sweet, but I really think he’s trying to make her so dizzy that she’ll puke. What am I going to do with him?

After lunch is over, Cassidy pulls me aside. “Hey, I need your help with something.”

I’m skeptical, but have to play nice – she is a client after all. “Sure, what’s up?”

“Can you work with the hotel to organize an elaborate, romantic evening for Austin a
nd me on our last night here?” She gives me a sweet smile, but I know what she’s doing. She’s trying to set the mood for the perfect proposal and it makes me sick.

“Of course.”
I want to vomit as the words come out of my mouth. I race to my room to call Priscilla. Maybe she can stop this before it goes too far.

Austin catches up with me as I make my way to the elevator. “What was that about?”

“Nothing,” I say, trying to avoid his probing stare. I’m a bad liar and I hope he can’t see how stressed I am. “I need to get some work done, let’s meet at seven for dinner, okay?”

He nods, but looks concerned. I leave him in the lobby and escape to my room.

I dial Priscilla’s direct line.

“Priscilla speaking.”

I feel faint
when I hear her voice. Why am I so nervous? “Hi Priscilla, it’s Olivia.” 

“How’s everything going over there?”

“Good…good. Hey, um, I wanted to run something by you.”

“Shoot.”

I take a deep breath and try to gather my thoughts into a logical sentence. “Cassidy came up with this crazy idea for Austin to propose to her on the last night of our vacation.”

“What?” she shouts
.

I sigh, relieved that she thinks it’s a preposterous idea too.

“Yeah, I heard her talking about a ring and she asked me to set up a fancy dinner for her on our final night…”

Priscilla quickly interrupts. “That would be amazing!”

Wait, what?

“Amazing?” I ask.

“Yes! Their engagement would be everywhere! Oh, and we can get them a reality TV show about planning the wedding, and magazine covers, and who knows what else.”

“But, I don’t think Austin wants to marry her…”

“That’s okay, they can get an annulment a few weeks later. That would cause an even bigger media frenzy! Then we can set him up with an even more popular actress. Perfect!”

I smack my hand to my forehand. This is not how I had
wanted the conversation to go.

“But if Austin doesn’t want to go through with it,
then how can this plan go anywhere?”

I’m hoping she doesn’t have a plan, but knowing Priscilla, she’ll figure out a way to work around it.

“He’ll do it, don’t worry. Contact the hotel’s wedding director today so you can get started planning their special night.”

She’s not going to reveal her plan to me, or maybe she hasn’t thought of one yet. All that matters now is that I need to make arrangements for a proposal without Austin knowing
about it. He’d probably jump on the next flight back to LA if he had a clue about what was going to go down.

I dial the front desk and have them connect me with t
he wedding director. She’s overjoyed for a celebrity to propose at her resort and offers a million ideas on what we could do; throwing around scenarios like fireworks, and something written in the sand with coconuts, or a private luau with fire dancers. This all seems pretty extreme to me, but I let her run with it since she’s the romance expert. I want to be as removed from the experience of ruining Austin’s life as possible.

There’s a knock on the adjoining door and I’m ready to check Austin’s wardrobe choice for the night again, but when I turn the knob he stumbles through.

“Hi.” His breath reeks of alcohol.

“Are you drunk?” It’s obvious, but I ask anyway.

He shakes his head left to right, and then nods up and down with a smile.

“You can’t go out like this!” I yell.

“Maybe that was the point,” he says, slumping down on my bed. He’s in dark jeans and a form-fitting, black t-shirt. No shoes.

“No, I don’t think so.” I offer a bottle of water and a granola bar to help him sober up. He swiftly grabs my hand instead of the water, pulling me down onto the bed with him.

Leaning on his side, he props his head up with his hand. “Come on, let’s skip dinner. We can just hang here.”

Gazing at me with glossy blue eyes, his lips turn up in a mischievous smile. No, his charm is not going to get me. Even though every bone in my body is telling me to stay in bed with him, my head says it’s a bad idea.

“You’re going to sober up and go out with Cassidy.” I grab his hand and pull him up to a sitting position.

H
e stares up at me, not budging, but I cross my arms. I’m not backing down from this fight.

He slowly slides his clingy t-shirt up and over his taught torso. “Stay,” he de
mands, tossing his shirt aside.

This trick might work with pretty much any other g
irl on the planet, but it’s not going to work with me. I made up my mind; I’m not risking my job and future professional reputation because of some guy. Although, staring at his ripped chest makes me want to change my decision. All the muscles in my body tighten, and I want so badly to reach out and touch his smooth stomach.

“
You’re drunk,” I repeat, holding my hand out to lift him off the bed. “You’re going to sober up and meet me at seven, ok?”

He takes my hand
and stands up, grabbing his shirt off the bed. Stalking out of the room, he slams the door behind him. I will chalk that up to drunken anger and hope he snaps out of his mood soon. Maybe he just doesn’t handle rejection well, that is, if he’s ever experienced rejection at all.

I knock on his
door at seven and he greets me with silence. I wasn’t expecting an apology, but an attempt would have been nice. He strolls to the elevator in a straight line. I was going to ask him to say the alphabet backwards, but he seems coherent, or at least able to pull off a sober appearance.

Cassidy runs over
as we make our way to the restaurant downstairs. “I spoke to Priscilla and she said you’re going to make everything perfect, thank you!”

Austin shoots me a questioning look as she
skips away. 

“It’s nothing,” I say, waving it off.

Did he buy it? I wasn’t sure. He’s going to find out what’s going on sooner or later, although I’d prefer later.