SHEIKH'S SURPRISE BABY: A Sheikh Romance (66 page)

Joe reached out and embraced her in a hug as well, “Any friend of Christopher’s is a friend of mine! Nice to meet you Monica.”

“The pleasure is all mine Joe!” Monica was in such high spirits, it was like she was living in a dream world.

“Monica here has written an incredible comedy that you’re going to buy.” Christopher said, passing over the script to Joe as he settled down in a leather chair in front of Joe’s desk. Monica sat down beside Christopher, and Joe sat down in his chair behind the desk, with the script in hand. He started flipping through the pages and reading it.

“Hey! This is gold!” He laughed a few times while reading the script. “You wrote this Monica?” Joe stopped and looked up at her.

“Yes, of course! The idea just came to me one day and I thought it would make a funny story. I’m glad to hear you like it, thank you!” Monica was beaming from the compliment.

“I do like it, in fact, I love it! How much do you want for it?” Joe said to Monica.

Before Monica could answer, Christopher spoke, “She’s selling it for $500,000.00 flat rate, with rights to royalties once the movie goes into theatres and after it’s out on DVD as well. Monica also has to be accredited as the writer on the credits of the film.”

“Well, lucky you Monica, you’ve got one tough dog in your corner here. Good thing you brought him here with you, he knows what he wants and he’s known for getting it.” Joe laughed and flipped through the script some more, thinking about the offer.

“Come on Joe, we don’t have all day.” Christopher was all business right now, it was seriously hot and seriously intimidating.

“Alright, you’ve got it. Done deal.” Joe stood up and shook Christopher’s hand and then turned to Monica and shook her hand as well. “Congratulations on your new film Miss Cambridge. I can’t wait to work with you on this project.”

“Thank you so much Mr Smith, you have no idea what this means to me.” Monica was overwhelmed with emotion as she shook his hand.

“Let’s make movie magic!” Joe smiled and laughed.

“We’ll discuss more details tomorrow Joe, we’ve got a date with this beautiful sunshine.” Christopher said as he turned to leave Joe’s office.

“See you tomorrow! Ciao Monica! Pleasure to meet you!” Joe said as they walked out of the office.

Monica floated back down to the car in a haze of happiness and disbelief wanting to pinch herself, but knowing full well that this was really happening. Her script was going to be turned into a movie, and she was $500,000.00 richer. Dreams really do come true…

THE END

Bryan woke slowly. His eyes like lead weights were pure effort to open. His mouth was thick with the aftertaste of a night spent partying. Running his tongue along the roof of his mouth, he tried to swallow and grimaced at the taste. His body felt heavy, his joints aching. A cool breeze coming from the hotel room’s AC blew across his body.

He lifted his head from the pillow and looked around him at the three women draped around him and the bed. One had found her way to the floor of the bedroom at one point, it would seem. Stupid bitch. Bryan grunted as he pushed himself to a sitting position and cradled his head in his hand as a headache woke itself up in his skull.

“All right,” he shouted and clapped his hands twice. “Everyone up. Get out.”

Two of the girls startled awake, looking around them confused and alarmed. The one on the floor didn’t stir. The need to urinate made itself known in a big way, so he pushed himself to his feet. Whistling he twirled his finger.

“C’mon, move it.”

As he passed the one on the floor he gave her hip a nudge with his foot. A nudge that, any harder, may have been classified as a kick, but it wasn’t quite there yet. “Hey, move.”

“Would you calm down?” one of the girls asked as she dressed herself. “We’re leaving, all right?”

Bryan waved a hand at them on his way to the toilet. “Not fast enough. You shouldn’t even have been here when I woke up.”

“Ass,” one of the girls said.

The third one was finally moving by the time he made it to the toilet. As he relieved himself he took a whiff at his armpits and made a face. He needed to shower for sure before meeting his publicist. He lingered in the bathroom, brushing his teeth and taking his time while the girls got their stuff together and left. One of them knocked on the door to use the bathroom.

“They have one in the lobby,” he called back.

He heard her scoff but didn’t bother responding. They weren’t worth responding to. When he heard the hotel room door close, he finally took a breath.

All this money and girls stuff used to be cool when it first started. When he first signed on with his team and became an official NBA player, he couldn’t have been happier. He’d finally made it. Life was going to be good from there on out. Everyone bowed to his every whim as long as he kicked ass every night. And he did. The other players didn’t have shit on him. Game after game, night after night, it was drinking, and girls, and then more b-ball the next day.

Thing was, it all started to blend together. Now he just saw another hotel room. More girls to sleep with and to then kick out. It just wasn’t worth anything, he realized. People weren’t worth anything. There was him, and then the rest of the world. Sighing to himself, he showered, dressed, and caught a limo to go meet his publicist for lunch.

When he arrived at the restaurant, hungover and groggy he was surprised to not see his publicist sitting at the table. Instead, it was a young, curvy woman. She was beautiful in her uniqueness with striking eyes, wavy flowing hair, and incredible features. He was instantly intrigued by her.

When she looked up and saw him approaching she put on a smile and stood from her seat. “Hello,” she said holding out a hand to him.

“Where’s Rachel?” he asked, shaking the new woman’s hand.

“She was unable to attend and sent me in her place. I’m Maggie, her assistant. We’re just meeting to give you a quick rundown on what we’ve been working on, and I’m very familiar with your profile so I’ll be going over it with you.”

“Well, I can tell I’m in good hands,” he said, bringing her hand up to his mouth and kissing the back of her hand sweetly. The unimpressed smile she gave him said she was a professional, but not dense like the chicks that left his hotel room this morning.

The pleasantries out of the way, they sat at the table and ordered drinks and lunch. She did just as she promised and gave him the quick readouts of the publicity campaigns they currently had going as well as a couple of sponsorship deals in play they were going to take up with his agent.

As she went through each piece he did his best to put on his charm, flashing his watches casually so she could see. If she did see, she gave no indication at all. Didn’t she get how rich he was? It was like she wasn’t interested at all, which was impossible. They always were, especially chicks in her position.

After they were done, he leaned back in his chair and sipped at his water, wishing it was some liquor. “You’re really giving me the brush off right now, aren’t you?”

She put on that plastic smile again as she put the papers away in her briefcase. “I’m sure I don’t know what you mean.”

“Oh,” he said with a laugh, “I’m pretty sure you do. You don’t like me?”

“You’re our client. I like you as much as I need to in order to get my job done.”

“What if I was to ask you out to dinner?”

“I’d have to decline.”

“Why’s that?” he asked, tilting his head.

She gave him a genuine smile this time and folded her hands on the table. “Because I don’t like you.”

Bryan burst out laughing and slapped the table. Others seated around them looked over, but he ignored them. Let them look. It’s not like they didn’t know who was sitting next to them. They were welcome.

“Well I like you. If you don’t come to dinner, come to one of my games, huh? Like a thank you. Bring a friend. I’ll get you a couple tickets.”

“Sure,” she said. “I have a friend that would like that.”

A friend. Bryan chuckled and sipped his drink. Oh yeah, this one was going to be fun to crack. A challenge. He’d have her by tomorrow.

“You’re lying!” Maggie’s friend Stacy nearly shouted the words at her. “You actually met him? Like met him met him? You talked, and he talked back and everything?”

Maggie waggled her brows mischievously and took a sip of her coffee. They sat in Stacy’s kitchen, nearly huddled over their coffee cups as they chatted about their day. “Get this,” Maggie said, knowing she had Stacy on the hook, “he was actually flirting with me.”

Stacy slapped her hand on the counter. “Get out! No! Are you serious right now? Bryan Stappler hit on you?”

“Right?” Maggie said, warming her hands around the cup. “That’s weird, right?”

Stacy tilted her head and stopped herself from sipping her coffee to ask, “Why would that be weird?”

“Well I mean, c’mon.” Maggie waved a hand down her side as if she was on display on some gameshow. “This? He could have anyone. No one chooses this when they could have anyone.”

Stacy leaned in conspiratorially. “Maybe that’s why he wants it?”

Maggie looked at her as though she couldn’t have been more bored with the conversation. “You’re kidding, right?”

“Hey, you tell me. You said he was flirting with you. Guys love a challenge.”

Suddenly Stacy gasped. “Did you give in? Did you have sex with him?”

“Stacy, no, would you get ahold of yourself? When would we have slept together? We had lunch. For work. At a restaurant. There were people around.”

“And a tablecloth?”

Maggie laughed and had to set down her coffee cup lest she spill it all over herself. “We did not have sex under the tablecloth.”

When Stacy opened her mouth to say something else, Maggie cut it off with a raise of her hand. “No! We didn’t have sex at all, anywhere. And I’m not going to. You know his reputation just as well as I do.”

Stacy gave a thoughtful frown and shrugged a shoulder. “Sure, but still. Could be fun.”

“You sleep with him then.”

Stacy laughed. “Right, when would I get the chance?”

Maggie had been waiting the whole conversation to spring it on her. She reached into her back pocket and pulled out the two tickets to Bryan’s next game. “How about two nights from now?”

“Shut up!” Stacy screamed and grabbed the tickets. “Oh, shut up! These are floor seats, are you kidding me right now? Are we going? Are we really going?”

“Hey, I may not sleep with the guy, but there’s nothing wrong with getting some free tickets, right?” Maggie said, not a little proud of herself. She ran her tongue over her front teeth and sipped her coffee. It tasted like self-satisfaction. It was delicious.

“Maggie,” Stacy said, holding the tickets to her chest.

“Yes?”

“I want to be you when I grow up.”

Maggie laughed again and once more had to set her coffee cup down.

The next two days went by quickly, yet somehow slowly at the same time. Maggie was swamped with work, but she kept finding herself thinking about Bryan. At first she was confused about why he would flirt with her. Stacy had a point about guys liking a challenge, but why would she be a challenge for him? She wasn’t anything, especially not compared to the girls she’d seen him with on TV or in the tabloids.

The man loved his women. Never stuck with one for more than a week. It was an ongoing joke in the office about his most long-term relationship was a model he saw twice in two weeks before breaking it off. It was ridiculous. He was a playboy that didn’t respect anyone, not even himself.

After that, she even doubted whether he had been flirting with her at all. By the time the game came around, she had convinced herself he hadn’t flirted with her at all. She’d somehow made it all up. She had the tickets because he was being nice, and she’d read too much into it.

Stacy was there in her team jersey, giddy like a little girl on Christmas. They found their seats, and Maggie couldn’t stop from feeling excited. She’d been to a few games before. Perks of the job. Nothing like this though.

It was surreal to be sitting there, level with the court. It was one of those things that was just never meant to be seen like that, like when she was stopped in traffic on the freeway. The pavement of the freeway was always seen passing as a blur. Whenever she could look out of her car window and see the freeway in all of its detail, it gave her this odd feeling of being out of place. Of not belonging where she was. Looking behind the curtain.

That was how she felt at the game, and it only got worse when the players ran out onto the court and started warming up. Stacy just laughed and giggled, stomping her feet quickly in her excitement. Maggie, though, just couldn’t get over how weird it felt.

When the game started, it was like being a part of it. She was there, could see the players in all of their detail instead of the slight blurs they were from far away. It was incredible.

After the second quarter, she had a surprise she hadn’t anticipated at all. Three men came down the aisle and stopped by their seats. One of the men asked to see their tickets. Maggie’s heart jumped into her throat. Were they in trouble? Somehow she instantly convinced herself that they had been sitting in the wrong seats this whole time. She knew it was unreal! Some things were just too good to be true.