Page 42 of False Promises

Carla’s hands hit the hard surface of her desk with a loud thud. “These weren’t just pictures of you two, Carter. These were pictures of you two eating each other’s faces in that bar.”

I pressed both palms to my head, my elbows resting on my knees. Could I get the press off my back for once? My life wasn’t even interesting. Why couldn’t they gimme a break?

“Who cares?”

Carla fished a pile of magazines from a drawer and dumped it on the desk before me. She showed me the covers of one, two, four of them. Then she typed something on her tablet and turned the device for me to look at the screen. One by one, she swiped images of Savannah and me. Hand in hand in a hotel lobby, smiling on the sidewalk, kissing in the shadow of a building, having coffee in the shop around the corner from her apartment. There were dozens of them.

And each projected the image of a couple in love.

Smiles. Hand on the lower back. Kisses. More smiles. Thumb grazing cheek. Stares.

My throat worked with some uneasy feeling.

I darted my tongue out to moisten my lips.

“See what I’m telling you, Carter? You guys look perfect together. You have a chemistry people envy. I don’t care if you despise each other or if she drives you nuts or can’t spell her own name. The fact is the camera loves you two together. I watched your reaction. You saw it too. Don’t pretend you didn’t.”

Why couldn’t she get the memo I was not interested in her stupid idea?

“I’m not looking for attention,” I said, lifting my eyes to hers. “Case closed.” If needed, would I be able to stop seeing Savannah? I still had to figure out if we could be an item.

Each time we hooked up, I felt the withdrawal once we parted ways.

Like the most powerful drug, she controlled my will power with her charming mannerisms and wicked mouth. And then she’d get vulnerable, and I would drop everything to give her a tight hug and promise her everything would turn out just fine.

I was a new version of myself when I was with Savannah Prince. One I’d never been before. One I had no idea even existed before we met.

One that let his body rule the game without analyzing anything.

Birds. Grasshoppers. Rotten tomatoes. Carla.

Fuck, I needed to think about something else, or I’d spend this meeting with a boner.

My publicist’s voice acted like a cold shower, dissolving the naughty images swirling in my head. And murdered my erection.

“Are you even listening to me?” she asked, doing nothing to hide her condescending tone. She brought her attention to Riley. “How can you deal with him? He doesn’t take anything I say seriously.”

My manager rose to his feet. “This meeting is over. And please do yourself a favor and stop insulting my artist. I understand you’re new to this job, and the label put you up to this, but you better research your subjects before throwing a bunch of insanities and thinking we’ll agree to your gossip rag scheme. It’s the first and last time you make me waste my hours, lady. Be prepared if you ever want us to meet again, or I’m charging you. And Carter does come with an hourly fee I’m sure exceeds your weekly pay. He’s not a pawn in your game, and neither am I. Thank you for your brilliant ideas, but we’ll pass.”

I forced my lips into an upward curl as I stood. “Like Ry said, we won’t do business together. Find yourself another guinea pig for your social experiment.”

Carla jumped to her feet. “Sit. Both of you. I’m not done with you. This meeting is only over when I say it is.”

I blinked. Was she kidding?

Riley and I exchanged a glance. He was as clueless as I was about the most ridiculous proposition I’d ever heard.

We both stood our ground, not motioning to sit.

Carla’s face turned bright red. “Ohmygod, why am I even bothering with you two?” She paced the room, flipping her hair again. “Why is your label paying me big money to work with you if you don’t even listen to anything I say?”

I straightened my position and crossed my arms.

Riley said, “Carter, if you wanna stay, your call, but I’m out of here. Don’t agree to anything without consulting me first.” He shook his head. “This is getting more ridiculous by the minute.”

I took a seat. “Let’s hear what you have to say, lady.” The last thing I needed was to have my label on my back. I turned my phone over. “You have thirteen minutes to convince me your ideas are actually decent. And smart. Go on, impress me.” Resting my ankle on my bent knee, I joined my hands and slouched back in my seat.

Carla went on and on about social media stats and how to reach new segments of the population with her infallible tactics as she called them. On her tablet screen, she displayed graphs and other data I couldn’t care less about. It was a snooze fest.