Page 23 of Act Like You Don't Care
"He'd say we're making the client happy, and I'm not in a public-facing position anyway. Besides, it would only be a problem if the relationship was real. Hopefully, I'm gone in a week—it might even be better this way. He finds out I'm sneaking people into his place and kicks me to the curb. Perfect excuse to end things." A weight landed on my shoulder and something tickled my ear. I twitched and reached for whatever it was, ready to throw it across the room, until my hand met soft fur and a purr like a buzz-saw deafened me on that side. "Oh, cat."
The cat carefully slinked down my arm to lay claim to my lap, purring and kneading and making me grit my teeth, because she obviously didn't realize her claws were out and it felt like I was being sat on by a cactus. "Ow, ow, ow, ow," I hissed through clenched teeth, and carefully detached her from my leg. She didn't want to go, but I put her on the couch beside me and patted as if my life depended on it to convince her to stay there.
"You okay over there, little bro? That wild omega hasn't got you in his grip, huh?"
"Shut up, he's a client."
"Yeah. I saw the pictures of the two of you. Hot." Jim made a noise that sounded like a nine-year-old catching an older brother in a clinch with his girlfriend.
"They're out already?" I’d been half-expecting it, but it was still a shock.
"For a couple of hours, yeah. I didn't know you were that good an actor."
"I took drama in high school, remember?"
"I remember you saying you needed a bird course to balance all your AP sciences."
"That too. Doesn't mean I didn't learn anything." Not that I’d needed to draw on Mrs. Martinez’s decade-old lessons at the time. Tam knew how to kiss and I was as alpha as the next guy. "Call me when you get here, I'll come down and let you in. He's given me codes for the locks."
"You'll need to log those codes, you know. In case we need emergency access."
I thought about that. "Can it wait until morning? I'll ask him about it, whether he can get the firm a separate code." Tam wouldn't be happy about everyone and their dog having access to his home, but Jim was right. It was necessary.
"We're going to need something," Jim reminded me.
"Yeah, but he's a little touchy now. Let me talk to him."
"All right. I'll call Mom and see if she's got your stuff."
"Thanks." We hung up and I sat on the couch for another couple of minutes, patting the cat. "You sure do have a motor. Is that a V8?" She twitched an ear at me but otherwise didn't bother to acknowledge my words. I chuckled at the thought.Cats."Kitty, why don't you take me on a real tour of the place? What is this supposed boyfriend of mine really like?" She purred louder, so I picked her up and cradled her against my chest, fingers buried up to the first knuckle in her thick fur. "What kinds of movies does he watch?"
The wall opposite the couch was covered with a huge TV, surrounded by shelves and shelves of disk players, video game consoles, and so many movies and games that I suspected it would cost more than a year's worth of my salary to replace them all if something were to happen to them. "Damn, someone's got money to spend." Maybe this was where it all went.
After my inspection of the entertainment center, I took a trip through the dining area—again with the walls of glass—and into the kitchen. The refrigerator was nearly empty, holding bottled water, some eggs, a few different cheeses, and a couple of take-out containers. Some fruit. The freezer was full, though, stacked bottom to top with those disposable freezer containers, each one neatly labeled with the name of the food in it. I doubted it was Tam who'd filled the freezer; he’d said he didn’t cook. Most likely it was this Josefina woman who ‘ran his household’. I’d have to have the firm look into her background too—the suspect might be a member of her family who hadn't managed to get near Tam yet.
Cupboards were full of things that were easy to make. More fruit on the counter. More water. Coffee. Herbal teas. Pills—I rebalanced the cat and did a quick search on the Internet. Anti-anxiety. Well, it made sense—the movie business was bound to be stressful, and as far as I could tell in my research, Tam never took the easy way out.
The rest of it was ordinary, just pots and pans and plates and mugs. One mug in particular caught my eye and made me smile.Om-egg-a, it read, with an egg with arms and legs meditating cross-legged on a little fringed mat. It was in a spot that made it easy to grab and a chipped edge showed it was there to be used.
So my client had a sense of humor.
A third bathroom tucked away between the dining area and the living room was obviously for guests, and just as obviously rarely used. Full pump dispenser of soap, decorative towels that looked brand new, no watermarks or bits of leftover soap around the sink. The toilet paper had never been used either, the end still stuck to the rest of the roll as if it had just come out of the package. Not too many visitors. Didn't make a lot of sense, given Tam's well-known bed-hopping habits. Maybe he didn't bring them here? Which made my presence that much more of an invasion and explained some of the odd vibes I’d gotten from the star over the course of the past couple of hours.
I walked down the short hall and paused outside Tam's room, despite my previous promise not to peek. The curtains were still open, letting the light of the gibbous moon outside in to paint shadows over Tam's body. He was splayed out on his stomach, pillow on the floor, and the sheets pulled up so high they'd come loose at the bottom, leaving his feet exposed to the cooler night air. I slipped quietly into the room, intending to close the curtains and tuck the sheets in properly. The cat jumped out of my arms as I passed the end of the bed, landing on the corner farthest from Tam's head. She turned in a circle a couple of times, then settled down into a ball of gray fluff, her eyes peering ominously at me from behind her tail.
"Yeah, I get it," I whispered to her. "He's yours." I pulled the curtains closed and, careful of the cat watching me, tucked the sheets down over Tam's feet and shoved the ends of them haphazardly under the mattress.
I went back out to the living room and made myself comfortable on the couch. One email to Dad and one to Mom to set balls rolling, then I picked up the remote on the table next to me and thumbed through the TV channels until I found the news, then I settled in to wait for Jim to arrive.
Miles
It was getting close to midnight before my phone buzzed again. My brother, wanting in.
"Hey," Jim said when the elevator door opened. "You know, I expected something fancier."
"I did too. It's a nice place, though, but the windows are going to give you a heart attack once you see them from inside.”
"Looks like a lot from the outside," Jim replied, handing in one of several black duffel bags to be piled up at the back of the elevator.
