PLAYED - A BRITISH BAD BOY ROMANCE (18 page)

Chapter 16

Lex

I was standing on the upper floor, staring out over the grounds, when
the phone rang in my pocket. I checked the caller ID… and almost dropped it to
the floor when I realized who was on the line.

Staring at the name for a moment, I accepted the call and lifted the
receiver to my ear. “I didn’t expect to hear from you again.”

“I just met Gloria Van Lark,” Riley blurted breathlessly into the phone.

“Oh, did you?” I responded thoughtfully.

“Yeah.” She sounded on edge.

“Well… how did that go?”

“Turns out that she likes me, and apparently wants to represent me in
her museum,” Riley responded. “No thanks to my
investor
!”

“An investor, huh?” I asked, measuring my words carefully. “Didn’t know
that you had yourself one of those.”

“Cut the shit, Lex,” she finally snapped. “You tried to pay her off. She
came to the museum to tell me I couldn’t buy her!”

“Well it sounds like you worked through that… I
knew
you would, Riley.” I replied, smirking into the phone.

“Wait a second… You knew? You knew what?”

“Gloria Van Lark is piece of work Riley. She can’t be bought,” I said.

“Then why did you try to buy her?!? Did you seriously give her museum a
million freaking dollars?” Riley shouted over the line.

“I did it because I knew that was the only way she would see you
personally
. I did my research at great
personal expense. Gloria likes to hide behind her staff and she never gives
anyone
a second chance… But she lives
for the opportunity to crush someone’s dreams.”

“You manipulated her?” Riley asked, incredulous. “You knew she’d come to
tell me off?”

“It was worth a shot,” I commented. “So, what happens now?”

“Now?” Riley sounded pensive. “Like I said, she wants to represent me…
but she expects me to move to California with her.”

“I see,” I remarked. “Are you going to do it.”

“I have no idea,” Riley confided. “It’s a dream come true to be offered
representation, and I can barely fathom how much she’s considering paying for
my art… but it’s a lot to ask of me.”

“Right.”

“You didn’t have to do this, Lex.”

“I know that. But I wanted to just express some…
regret
over how things happened. I know that you’re moving on, but
I wanted you to understand that I’m sorry.”

“I’m sorry too,” Riley whispered down the line. “I was being selfish… Thinks
were just moving too fast… I should have been there for you. I shouldn’t have…
left you. And now you’re gone.”

“I miss you,” I quickly blurted out, unwilling to talk myself out of
expressing the sentiment. “I wish you were here.”

Riley remained quiet on the line.

“…Riley?”

Finally, she responded: “Oh god, Lex, I’ve made a huge mistake. I miss
you too.”

I closed my eyes and rested my face against the window, holding the
phone pressed against my ear. “I want you here, Riley. I haven’t stopped
thinking about you since we parted ways… and I’ve been a wreck. Losing you
devastated me… and I know I can’t have you, but I want you so badly.”

There was another piercing silence over the phone. I feared with every
passing second that I would hear the line disconnect.

In fact, I thought it did briefly, but that’s when I noticed Jess trying
to dial me on the other line. I ignored her call and continued to hold out for
Riley’s response.

“If I don’t go to San Diego… I’m walking away from the opportunity of a
lifetime.”

“You never needed Gloria before, and you don’t need her today. If you
want to go, you should go. Maybe I can visit next time I’m in the states…”

Another piercing silence… punctuated by the sound of soft crying.
Concern clouded my thoughts, and I felt my heart quiver with pain.

“Riley?”

“I love you, Lex.”

It was my turn to be stunned.

“…I love you too, Riley.”

“I can’t do this.”

“What can’t you do?”

“I can’t take her offer. She wants me to forsake any distractions…”

“Why is that a problem?” I asked.

“Because you’re a distraction. You’re a big goddamned distraction!”
Riley shouted.

 
“That was her condition:
move to California and give up
everything
else. Focus only on my artwork. She thinks that I need to work under a
different atmosphere and to give up my life in order to produce my best work.
She’s only giving me fourteen hours to decide, and then I’m gone…”

The phone buzzed against my ear again.

It was Jess again.

I ignored the call.

“Riley… you
have
to take this
chance,” I insisted. “You’ve worked so hard for this opportunity. All I could
do was get her to listen to you. You
have
your chance. You’ve got to take it.”

“I don’t care about that anymore,” she whispered sadly down the phone.
“I never told you this… But… The magic came back.”

“The magic?” I thought aloud. “You mean, your art? You’re satisfied with
your painting again?”

“I am,” she told me confidently. “After we met, I painted something… I
haven’t shown it to anyone yet. It’s different… It’s better. Being with you
made me better.”

She wasn’t the only one… Jess had been right. Riley was the best thing
that ever happened to me…

“I don’t need to be in some stuffy San Diego studio… I need to be with
you. You bring out my best creative side. You made me so happy, even if I
wasn’t willing to admit it to myself… or to you.”

“So, what do you want to do, then?” I asked. The silence was deafening.
I could feel the conflict through the line.

“Lex… I don’t know what to do,” she whispered.

“I’m coming back Riley. I’ll be on a plane tonight. Whatever decision
you make tomorrow, I want to be there…”

This was more than I could have ever hoped for. I practically hurled a
victory fist into the sky.

“Gloria Van Lark expects an answer from me around mid-afternoon… can you
get here before then?”

“I’ll be there for you,” I reassured her.

“Thank you, Lex…”

I could barely contain myself as I hung up the phone, but before I had a
chance to celebrate, it was ringing again.

Jess… Shit…

“I was on the other line,” I explained with a small grin as I answered
the call. “I have news for you. Are you ready?”

“You’re not the only one,” she replied, sounding incredibly
enthusiastic. “Who is the best fucking publicist in the world?”

“I’m going to guess
you
,” I
replied.

For some reason, something felt amiss.

“I expect more conviction in your voice the next time I ask that
question, buddy,” Jess chuckled. “Better put on your best fucking suit because
I’m already on my way. I’m going to be there in an hour.”

“What, why? I’m heading out the door. I’ve got a plane to catch.”

“No, you
definitely
don’t,”
she chided me. “Not when you hear
this
news:
Lex Lambert, you’ve officially landed a direct meeting with the Head of Public
Relations for the Patrovo Corporation himself. Cancel whatever you were about
to do, because no matter
what
it was…
it can wait.”

“…Brett Barker wants to see me?”

“You’re goddamn right he does.”

The phenomenally bad timing clicked in my head, and I groaned as my
forehead braced against the window again. My view incorporated the enclosed
glass stadium, the various gardens, and a river that ran across the estate… but
my eyes focused on the stadium, cruelly mocking me.

“…Lex, are you there?”

“I’m here,” I sighed.

“You sound a lot less enthusiastic about this than you should be. I know
that you’re beating yourself up over Riley, but c’mon. You’ve been waiting for
this for ages.”

“Why does he want to see me
now?
”

Jess’s tone grew agitated. “Because it’s the only time I could work you
in, unless you planned on waiting a week. By then, the decision would be made.”

“I don’t get it. I thought he was adamantly against offering me the
sponsorship?”

“Well… it just so turns out that your little bar brawl was recorded. Joys
of living in a time where everybody’s got a cellphone camera. And guess who
showed up on camera taunting you?”

“Alistair!”

“It’s all over the tabloids. Alistair tries to get his own teammate
arrested in the US. They have the whole thing on video. The guy attacking you,
the way you tried to defend yourself, and Alistair acting like a damn fool.
Barker won’t touch the guy with a ten-foot pole,” Jess said, laughing.

“That can’t be enough to entertain the thought of offering me the
sponsorship.”

Jess grew hesitant. “…I might have gone a little further. There’s some
rumors that you defended a young, vulnerable woman from a sexual attack…”

“I told you not to use Riley!” I shouted angrily.

“And I didn’t. The Patrovo Corporation asked me about it. Turns out
somebody got their hands on a police report. That’ll be front page news
tomorrow. What was I going to do, lie?”

“I told you under absolutely
no
circumstances
were you to exploit Riley’s trauma to benefit me,” I said, my
anger still bubbling to the surface.

“And I made that very clear as well, which seemed to impress Brett
Barker. Look, you can hate me all you want, but I’ve bought you your shot. He’s
willing to overlook the scandals and the attitude if you can convince him that
you’re turning over a new leaf… and your single rival has been taken out of the
picture. He’s left with you, or picking someone with half your personality and
pop culture draw. All you have to do is come with me and meet him yourself.”

“I can’t go,” I told her definitively. “Because–”

“The
hell
you can’t,” Jess
snapped. “I don’t give a
bloody sod
how
mad you might be over this. I get it. You don’t want to exploit the girl’s
trauma. Fine. But you’ve been working towards this for months. Everything
you’ve done has been to secure this multi-million contract. I am
handing it to you on a silver fucking
platter.
All you have to do is not fuck this up, yeah?”

“Jess.”

“Do
not.
I’ll be there in under
an hour. We can be meeting Brett in two more. Just put on your best fucking
suit and–”

“JESS!”

She instantly shut up, pausing to absorb the anger in my voice. While I
composed myself briefly, a moment of tension crackled between us. “What?” She
finally asked.

“I was on the phone with Riley when you were trying to call me earlier.”

“Yeah, and…?”

Her tone changed. “…Oh.”

“Yeah.
Oh.
Jess, we
reconciled. She knows about the donation. Gloria Van Lark decided to take her
in, but only if she moved to California and completely committed herself to the
craft.”