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His arms came around my waist, pulling me against him. My arms went around his neck—because what the fuck else was I supposed to do with a dozen cameras in my face? It was like being back in LA. Fuck.
“Hi, Marty,” I muttered into his ear.
He laughed. “That ridiculous nickname still, huh?”
“You know it! Come on.” I grabbed his sleeve and pulled him into the bar to escape the cameras. “We have our own room in here.”
“Excellent. Wouldn’t want to make a scene.” I shot him a look, and he cracked up. “What? You didn’t like the Maserati?”
“You never did know how to keep a low profile.”
“Oh, darling, I’ve missed you.”
I chose not to reply to that comment at all.
When I turned around, I came face-to-face with Maddox. My steps faltered when I saw him taking in me and Martin as we walked into Dub’s together. Well, shit. This didn’t look good.
I plastered on a smile on and strode the remaining few feet forward. “Maddox!”
He arched an eyebrow at my effusive behavior. “Josie.”
“You know Martin, right?”
“I don’t believe we’ve met actually,” Maddox said.
His face was neutral, but I knew he was silently seething. He was the one who had signed up for this movie. He was going to have to see Martin and me together for the next six weeks. Might as well get this out of the way.
“Martin Harper, meet Maddox Nelson.” I introduced them. “Maddox is the genius visual effects guy that Jimmy hired.”
“Right on,” Martin said, shaking Maddox’s hand. “Glad to have you on board.”
“Sure,” Maddox said. “Should be an interesting experience.”
“Working with Josie always is,” Martin said. He winked at me. “You still like a French 75?”
I laughed. “In here?”
Martin looked around, as if just realizing that we were in a sports bar. “Touché. I’ll see what they have. Maddox?”
Maddox held up a Creature Comforts beer, a local Georgia craft brewery. “I’m good.”
Martin headed to the bar.
Maddox took a sip of his beer and cleared his throat. “So, you and Martin …”
“No!” I said as defensively as Amelia had earlier today. I released the edge from my voice. “That ship has sailed. I ran into him as I was coming inside.”
“He seems to think it’s more,” Maddox observed. He’d always been able to see through other people like that. Even if he preferred not to interact with them.
“We’ve spoken for five minutes.”
“He got a divorce last year.”
I shot him a surprised look. “Are you following gossip rags?”
He grimaced. “Nah, I just … do my research.”
I laughed. “You looked into everyone before you got here, didn’t you?”
“Made it easier to deal with all of this,” he admitted.
It was so Maddox that it made me ache. I’d missed his relentless desire to learn everything he possibly could about things that interested him. How he used those resources to build bigger and better. Everything else would fall to the wayside as he dived deeper and deeper into his projections, surfacing only when necessary for air and to shower and eat and exist outside his thoughts. But also how he used that intellect to survive being an introvert in an extrovert’s world. I had no doubt the last year had been better for him than they had been for me.
Martin returned with my drink—a gin and tonic with a slice of lime. And then the rest of the party trickled in. I threw my arms around my favorite co-worker Iris, unable to believe I hadn’t seen her in three years. After all that time on Academy, having everyone back together felt like a high school reunion. Not that I’d know because I’d never gone to mine.
And then Amelia Ballentine was at the door. She strode in, wearing a silky pink minidress, with Ash Talmadge holding the door for her. He’d changed out of his suit from earlier today and into khakis and a blue button-up. He’d rolled the sleeves up to his elbows. They cut a striking figure.
Maddox took one step to my elbow and hissed, “What the fuck is that?”
“That is Amelia Ballentine.”
“Yeah. No shit. Is she dating Ash?”
I glanced at him with a shrug. “She says no. That he isn’t over Lila.”
“Duh. Anyone who has ever been around him and Lila knows that he’s never gotten over her. They had longer gaps than two years, and he still went back to her.”
“I know that.” I shrugged. “What can I do about it? Lila is in Atlanta and happy with Cole. She’s not going back to Ash. I won’t fucking let her. So, he needs to move on, right?”
Maddox snorted. “Does he?”
I caught his eye, and we both laughed for a second. That was something we’d always agreed on at least. Ash Talmadge was hardly either of our favorite person.
“You want to say hi?”
“Fuck no,” he said. “I’m going to get another beer.”
