Real Time (8 page)

“Arianna wasn’t your daughter,” Kate whispered. She watched him light another cigarette.

“I didn’t say anything to Sharon at first; I was trying to digest what I had heard. Because if she wasn’t my daughter, then whose daughter was she? I stayed calm until we got Arianna back home and in bed before I confronted Sharon. After about an hour of lies, denials, and excuses, she finally owned up she had been sleeping with someone while I was gone. She tried to blame it on me for not being around but I was too angry to hear it. I didn’t contain my temper then as well as I do now – I yelled and ranted at her for a good hour. I packed a bag, left in the middle of the night, and filed the divorce papers the next day. I gave her the house and her lawyers managed to get a stake of the money I had made while we were first married, but it was a one-time settlement and she had no claim over anything I did after. And, because she didn’t want people to know we divorced due to her being unfaithful, Sharon didn’t say anything to the press when they came knocking. She just cited irreconcilable differences, same as what I had been saying. She married Arianna’s father shortly after the divorce was final and had a couple more kids, the last I knew.”

“I’m sorry, Nick,” she said softly, drawing light circles on his back with her fingers. “I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

“It doesn’t hurt as much as it used to,” he said. Putting out the cigarette, he slid back into bed and pulled Kate back to his chest. “With the other failed relationships, knowing they were all after my name and not me, I decided when the right woman came around, I would know. And you came walking into the studio set with Mickey and I knew. I wasn’t going to act on it, but I knew.”

“You never let on,” Kate answered. “You were as cool as they come.”

“I was frustrated out of my bloody mind is what I was. I was on day three of the auditions and there was nothing out there. I’d honestly thought I would have found my replacement the first afternoon.”

“I walked out of the waiting room three times,” she admitted to him. “I have never been scared to play in front of anyone, but my nerves kept telling me to leave.”

“I probably wouldn’t have auditioned you on the first day,” he said honestly. “I didn’t like to screen women for the simple reason I don’t like the press which seems to go with it. I try very hard to keep a low profile so the tabloids have nothing to report about. “

“I can see why,” she said, teasing him. “Look where it got you.”

He smiled, lifting her chin to kiss her. “No complaints here, love. It’s just been strange for me to be feeling this way.”

“Me too,” she said. “I am probably as relationship-phobic as you. At least you were getting something out of your failures – I didn’t get past the first date on most of them.”

“As pretty as you are, love? I find that hard to fathom.”

“Never said they didn’t try to share my bed, Nick. I wanted more than simple sex. I wanted something comfortable and close – not simply a wild time on a Saturday night.”

“How do you know this isn’t one of those?” he asked, his eyes dancing.

“You’ve had plenty of opportunities in the past six months if sex was all you wanted,” Kate answered. “You didn’t have to propose. And we don’t have to get married, Nick – I won’t force you into it.”

“I’ve never felt this way about anyone. Including my ex-wife,” he told her seriously. “The thought of not having you close invokes a terror I’ve never felt before.”

Nick pulled her into his arms, holding her against him. With little effort, he swapped places with her, looking into her eyes as his mouth came down to meet hers. She returned his kiss and there was no more talking. The language of love was what they spoke for the rest of the evening, before falling asleep in each other’s arms.

K
ate drove into the city with Nick in the morning when he left for the studio. Her car was there from Monday; she wanted to get it and go out to her house. She followed him into the building and they rode up together in the elevator to his office, as he’d put her purse in his desk drawer for safe keeping. Nick’s office was on the fifteenth floor, at the top of the building. It was supposed to be Jerry Santini’s office – Jerry was Nick’s partner with the studio – but Jerry said the view from the floor to ceiling windows gave him vertigo. Nick’s office and a couple other meeting rooms were the only spaces on the floor. Terry, Nick’s secretary, said she liked the view and had no problem working there. Nick introduced Kate then ushered her into his office, closing the door.

Nick pulled Kate’s purse out of his desk drawer and handed it over to her. “Sorry, I didn’t think to bring it to you, love. I was a little shortsighted on Monday.”

“It’s all good,” she told him. “Wasn’t like I needed it.”

“What are you going to do today?” he asked.

“Run a few loads of laundry, maybe go by my mom’s house and check in, since I’ve been gone for six months.”

Nick paused for a moment. “Come back to the house later?” he asked, hesitantly. “We can have the weekend together.”

Kate nodded. “It would be nice.”

Nick wrote a number on a piece of note paper and handed it to Kate. “Here’s the code for the front gate.”

Kate folded it up and put it in her pocket. “Call me when you leave?”

Nick came around his desk to stand in front of Kate. He pulled her close to him and kissed her. “I’ll call,” he promised. “It’s going to be a long day.”

* * *

K
ate left the studio and drove home. Once home, she retrieved both of her suitcases from her bedroom and took them into the laundry room. It took her fifteen minutes to sort everything into the proper loads and she started the first one in the washer. There was a nice breeze blowing outside and Kate opened the windows in her living room, letting the sea air permeate the stuffy room. She heard her cell phone buzz and saw she had a text message from Nick.

It’s official – it’s going to be a really long day.

That bad?
Kate asked.

The soundboard in studio three caught fire –that was entertaining. And if the fire wasn’t enough, the drummer and bass player for the group Mark Three got into a fist fight over a woman this morning. Bass player got his nose broken.

Kate started to laugh; she could picture the look on Nick’s face right now.
Sounds like you are having a fun, eventful day.

Any more fun and I’ll be in a nut house.

Once the laundry was finished, Kate called her mom to confirm she would be home, before driving out to Westwood where they lived. Kate pulled her car into the driveway behind her step-dad’s, glad he was home too. Allen had been more of a father to her than her own dad and she enjoyed spending time with him. She got a big hug from him when she came in the door and her mom whisked her away into the kitchen. Kate sat down at the breakfast bar, watching her mom pour two cups of coffee, and setting one in front of her.

“We missed you, baby,” Nancy, Kate’s mom, started. “Six months was a long time to be gone.”

Kate nodded. “It was a long time. But it was good – hard work, though.”

“So you’re going to continue working for Nick Marshall?”

“For now,” Kate confirmed. “It was a challenging experience. Nick’s a perfectionist and it shows when he’s on tour.”

“You didn’t have any problems did you?” Nancy asked.

“Nothing major. It took me about a month to get used to the pace. Sometimes I would hit the bed so tired at night.”

“But you like the job, right?”

“I do,” Kate answered, and paused for a moment to gather her thoughts. “Nick and I are starting to see each other.”

“You mean like boy-girl kind of seeing?”

Kate laughed at her mom’s description. “Yes, Mom, boy-girl kind of seeing. We didn’t start off this way – we’ve just found we’re attracted to each other.”

“Isn’t he a lot older than you?” Nancy asked.

“Not so much. Thirteen years – Nick’s forty-six.”

“He’s your boss.”

“I know,” Kate confirmed. “Nick’s having the same issue. He sees it not much different than a manager dating his secretary – we are working through the pieces slowly.”

Allen stepped up behind Kate. “I asked Michael Grayson about him when you first took the job. See what kind of man he was, reputation. He has a powerful name and tons of money.”

“They work at competing studios,” Kate said. “Did he have anything nice to say about Nick?”

“A lot actually,” Allen replied, surprising her. “He said it’s been Nick turning Empire Records around. They were starting to see a lot of losses and it was looking bad for a while. And his own popularity hasn’t diminished. Michael said you don’t see that often in singers who have been in the business a long time.”

“Most places were completely sold out. Nick even added a bunch of extra shows to try to meet the demand. And, the crazy thing is, most of the fans there are girls between seventeen and twenty-five, screaming his name like he’s some young teen idol,” Kate told them.

“Michael also said he didn’t know how Nick was able to juggle both. The studio business is demanding on its own.”

“He spent a good portion of his time on the phone with them when we were touring, so I think he’s pretty engaged. He was funny on the phone this morning – seems it’s been one of the ‘everything goes wrong’ kind of days.”

As if on cue, Kate’s cell phone started to ring. She saw it was from Nick and excused herself, walking away into the living room to answer it.

“Hello.”

“It’s me, love. I am heading home now – almost to my car.”

“I’m at my mom’s house. She lives in Westwood, so I’ll be a few extra minutes,” Kate told him.

“No problem. I’ll leave the front door unlocked – got a key made for you this morning.”

“Want me to bring anything? Pizza, Chinese?”

“I never turn away good Chinese takeout,” Nick said. “Just don’t get anything too spicy.”

“I’ll be there soon.”

Kate walked back into the kitchen. “That was Nick. Need to go get some food and then meet him.”

“Come for dinner on Sunday?” Nancy asked. “You can bring Nick if you want.”

“Let me ask him and I’ll let you know,” Kate said, moving to kiss her mom on the cheek then giving her step-dad a hug. “If not, I’ll be here for another two weeks. I’ll make sure to come by again before I leave.”

Kate left and stopped by her favorite Chinese food place in Long Beach. She had been going there for the past six years, ever since she started working at Satellite Records. Some of the studio guys recommended it and now it was the only place she liked to get takeout from. She opted for fried rice, beef and broccoli, and chicken chow mein. She also ordered some wontons and a couple of egg rolls. The biggest reason she liked this place was they packaged their food in the little boxes, rather than the styrofoam containers many restaurants like to use. Despite her age, Kate always found it more fun to eat it from the little boxes.

At Nick’s house, she punched in the four-digit code he had given her and the gate opened, allowing her to drive up the driveway. She parked next to Nick’s car in the large garage - he had left a space for her. She walked in through the front door, heading to the kitchen to put the food down.

“Nick,” she called.

“Be right there, love,” he answered from upstairs.

Kate started unpacking the food. She had the restaurant put everything in larger boxes, so you could add the rice and the other entrée and still eat out of the container. Searching the drawers, she found both the silverware and the serving spoons. Using one of the large spoons, she split both entrées into the rice boxes and pulled out a fork in case Nick wanted one - she had no issue eating the whole meal with the chopsticks, it was part of the fun. Looking in the refrigerator, she saw Consuelo had made ice tea and she pulled the pitcher out, putting it on the counter. Another search and she found where the glasses were kept, next to the sink, and she pulled two out. The ice dispenser was in the refrigerator door, and she made it a quick task, putting ice in both glasses then filling them with tea. Six months of eating dinner at the same table had told Kate he liked his ice tea without sugar, same as she did.

Nick came around the corner and smiled at the meal she had put together. He draped his arm over her shoulder to distract her as he tried to snatch one of the wontons. Kate laughed at the innocent expression he tried to adopt when he got caught red handed. “This is awesome,” he confirmed, finishing it in two bites. “And I’m starving.”

“Fork or chopsticks?” Kate asked.

“Chopsticks, of course,” he answered, and she handed him a box and a pair of chopsticks.

Kate also handed him a glass of tea, picked up her own food and drink, and followed Nick outside to the covered porch he had coming off the kitchen. Nick had a large swimming pool and there was a rock path leading down to the ocean. The porch was covered to help keep out the hot California sun.

“This is beautiful, Nick.”

“I bought it for the serenity,” he told her. “I needed somewhere I could go which was both pleasing to look at and secluded.”

“You definitely got it. Sounded like you needed it earlier.”

“Love, you have no idea,” he answered, rolling his eyes. “It didn’t help I flat out didn’t want to be there. How was the visit to your parents? “

“It was good,” she said, smiling. “They invited us to dinner on Sunday.”

“You told them about us?”

“I told them the truth. We are starting into a relationship – I can’t hide personal stuff from them. And I don’t know I would want to.”

“I’m not sure I’m ready for the parent thing yet, Kate,” he told her, his tone a little hesitant.

“It’s fine. I told them I would ask you – I didn’t commit you to anything.”

Nick was silent for a few minutes, eating the food expertly with the chopsticks. “It’s something you would like to do, though, isn’t it?”

Kate looked at him intently. “Nick, if you are uncomfortable about this because the whole family thing is new to you, I can be good with it. But if you are out of sorts because I told them about us, then we dealing with a totally different issue. And one I’m not sure won’t be detrimental to us.”