Page 31 of Without You
Charisse didn’t go back to bed. She walked into the kitchen and watched him on the monitor, ambling down the driveway with his delicious walk, like he owned the universe. He rounded the bend and disappeared from sight, where he’d parked so the kids wouldn’t know he was there.
Hands braced on the counter, Charisse bowed her head under the grip of strong emotion. Was she being too hard on him? She finally admitted to herself that she still loved him, too. She wanted so badly to tell him. She physically ached to say the words but worried about what such an admission would mean.
Capitulation. Giving in to emotion instead of listening to reason. Letting her heart control her behavior—a bruised and battered heart that seemed to be a glutton for punishment—instead of using her brain to direct her actions. If only she had a sign to tell her what to do.
Go right or go left? Take him back or not? Play it safe or take the risk? She didn’t know what to do.
“Send me a sign,” she whispered.
14
“Ican’t hang with y’all, man. I’m old. I’m going back to the hotel.”
Terrence spent the past few hours eating and drinking with the crew and some of the other actors at a local restaurant. After dinner, they split into two groups. One group left to hit Bourbon Street, while he and seven others migrated over to the bar and stood around in a circle chatting some more.
But it was getting late, they had an early day tomorrow, and he wanted to practice his lines before going to bed.
“That, I don’t believe. I know you party harder than this,” said one of the actors.
Terrence chuckled and clapped him on the shoulder. “I know you know better than to believe everything you read in the tabloids, considering some of the stuff I’ve read about you.”
Everyone in the small group chuckled.
“I’ma see y’all later. I’m out.” He waved goodbye to them.
Terrence tugged his cap low on his brow so he couldn’t be easily recognized and stepped out into the night with a little extra pep in his step. Charisse called earlier today and agreed to come see him late tomorrow. On his last two days on set, he’d have her with him, and he couldn’t wait to hold her—something he hadn’t been able to do for twelve long days. They agreed to stay a couple extra days to do some sightseeing and enjoy the nightlife.
Outside, the streets were packed, but he turned right and headed to his hotel. Soon he was walking through the doors of the Hilton.
Bo came rushing toward him. “Where you been? I called and sent a text. I been trying to reach you for the last hour.”
“I had drinks with the crew after dinner.” He pulled out his phone and saw the missed texts and calls. He never heard the phone over the din in the restaurant and bar. He tucked it into his back pocket. “What’s the matter?”
“Gossip Bomb says they’re printing an interview of your latest girlfriend, an Instagram model named JoJo. She said y’all are having an affair and you’ve put her up at hotels and flown her out to meet you.”
“Who?” His mind was genuinely blank, but this could not be good.
“JoJo. I don’t recognize her.” Bo held up his phone and showed Terrence a picture he probably texted him earlier. She was a pretty young woman with pouty lips posing on a bed in lingerie for the camera. “They’re going to print the interview without your comment if they don’t hear from you, but they want a comment. You now have thirty minutes to respond.”
Terrence cursed. He recognized her. “She’s a liar. I’m not seeing anybody but my wife, and I barely knew this chick. We may have hooked up once, last year or something. Here in New Orleans, actually. Wait, now it’s coming back to me. She was here for a concert, and I ran into her at one of the clubs. You weren’t with me that time. She hung out with us in VIP and then… I took her back to the hotel. But I never saw her again after that. I sure as hell never flew her nowhere.”
“Is that what you want me to tell Gossip Bomb?”
“Nah, you can tell them to go fuck themselves.”
Bo sighed. “Whatever you say, Charisse is gonna see.”
His stomach knotted up. He needed to think about her and how this could affect their already fragile relationship. He ran a hand down the back of his head. “Okay, I need to be careful. Call Hudson Lynch, tell him to prepare a statement for me.” Hudson was his official spokesperson. “How much time do we have?”
Bo looked at his phone. “Twenty-five minutes.”
“Let’s hurry up and do this.”
They rode the elevator to Terrence’s floor. While Bo called Hudson, Terrence kneaded his temple where a headache emerged.
This couldn’t be happening now, right when he saw the possibility of winning back his ex-wife. He’d have to do serious damage control. After he finished with Hudson, he’d call Charisse to warn her about the completely false story that was about to hit online.
The media storm with Kim would be nothing compared to the crap about to hit the fan if Charisse believed, even remotely, that he’d been secretly spending time with another woman while trying to woo her back into a relationship with him.
