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“And toast and an orange. Stop being such a baby. You need to face your problems instead of trying to eat them away.”
“So now you’re a shrink.” He pulled her arm from the wall and wedged past her. “You’re only twenty years old. What the hell do you know about anything?”
He never cussed, and she liked that she’d gotten under his skin enough to make him do it. She followed him upstairs. “So did you see Becky this weekend?”
He was out of breath by the time they reached the top. “I never should have told you about her.”
Becky lived in the apartment next to his. Aaron had a crush on her, but Becky barely knew he existed, like that was some big surprise. Apparently Becky was a brain like Aaron, and she was okay-looking, but not beautiful, which meant Aaron might stand a chance with her if he lost some weight, got a good haircut, bought some decent clothes, and stopped acting like such a geek. “Did you try to talk to her like I said?”
“I have work to do.”
“Did you?” She’d told him to be friendly, but not too friendly, which meant he shouldn’t do that stupid pig snort laugh. And he couldn’t talk about video games. Ever.
“I didn’t see her, okay?”
“Yes, you did.” She followed him into Georgie’s office. “You saw her, but you didn’t have the balls to talk to her. How hard is it to say hi and ask her how things are going?”
“I think I could be a little more original than that.”
“When you try to be original, you only sound weird. Be cool for once. Just ‘Hi’ and ‘How’s it going?’ Did you bring your swim trunks like I told you?”
He dropped his black bag on the chair. “You’re not my personal trainer, either.”
“Did you?”
“I don’t know. Maybe.”
She thought she was making progress. He let her fix him lunch now, and he’d stopped bringing junk food with him because he knew she’d find it and toss it out. It had only been three weeks, but she was pretty sure his gut was starting to shrink. “Laps for half an hour before you can go home tonight. I mean it.”
“You might think about working on yourself for a while instead of other people.” He heaved himself into his chair at the computer. “Taking care of your personality disorder for one thing.”
“I like my personality disorder. It keeps the creeps away.” She smirked. “Although right now that doesn’t seem to be working too well.” Aaron wasn’t really a creep. He was a decent guy, and she secretly admired how smart he was. But he was totally clueless. And lonely. If he’d only do what she said, she thought she could fix him up enough so he could get a girl. Not anybody hot, but somebody smart like he was.
“Lunch is at twelve-thirty,” she said. “Be on time.” As she turned to go back downstairs, she saw Georgie standing in the office doorway, filming the whole thing with her video camera.
Chaz slammed her hands on her hips. “That’s illegal, you know. Filming people without their permission.”
Georgie kept her eye glued to the camera. “Get a lawyer.”
Chaz stomped into the hallway and headed for the back stairs. Georgie was the last person she wanted to talk to right now. Yesterday, when Georgie got home with Bram, they’d both been acting weird. Georgie had beard-burn on her neck, and she wouldn’t look at Bram, who kept smiling at her in this kind of smart-ass way. Chaz didn’t know what was going on with them. They thought she hadn’t figured out they’d been sleeping in separate rooms—like Georgie knew how to make a bed so it looked halfway decent. So what had happened yesterday?
Chaz thought about how much money she could make if she went to the tabloids and told them about the famous newlyweds and their separate beds. Maybe she’d do it, too, if it would only hurt Georgie. But she wouldn’t hurt Bram.
Georgie trailed her down the back stairs. “Why do you give Aaron such a hard time?”
Chaz could have asked a few questions of her own, like why Georgie gave Bram such a hard time, and what had happened yesterday, and why Georgie had still slept in her own bed last night? But she’d learned to keep what she knew to herself until she had a reason to use it.
“I’ve got a better question,” Chaz said. “Why haven’t you tried to help Aaron? He’s a mess. He can hardly walk upstairs without practically having a heart attack.”
“And you like to clean up messes.”
“So what?” This whole camera thing was weird. She didn’t know why Georgie kept filming her or why Chaz didn’t just refuse to talk. But every time Georgie came after her with that camera, Chaz found herself blabbing away. It was like…like talking about her
self to the camera somehow made her important. Like her life was special, and she had something worth saying.
They reached the bottom of the stairs, and Georgie followed her into the kitchen. “Tell me what happened after you left Barstow.”
“I told you. I came to L.A. and found a place to stay off Sunset.”
