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“Uh–is Thad here?”
The woman turned and called over her shoulder. She was wearing the bed sheet. “Thad! Is a woman?”
There was grumbling from within the suite and then Thad appeared, buttoning up his blue jeans. When he saw Rhiannon, he blushed to the roots of his hair and looked crestfallen. “Come on in,” he said. “Ah–fuck–um, hey, sweetheart?” He addressed the sheet-clad woman, “This is business. I’m going to have to ask you to leave, okay?”
“Sure, sure. I leave you my number.”
“And your name,” Rhiannon suggested. “Write that down, too.”
Thad gave her a look of horror and she mouthed, “What?”
“You want some coffee?”
“It’s nearly seven, Thad, no, I don’t want coffee. Do you need some coffee?”
“Yes, probably.” He moved into the kitchenette and started the Keurig. “Piss poor excuse for coffee, but it’ll do.”
They made small talk until Thad’s date was dressed, thanked, hugged, assured she was fantastic, and shuttled out the door, and then Rhiannon raised an eyebrow at him. “What was that?”
“That was me getting over one of my best friends stealing the girl right out from under my nose.”
“Thad!”
“What?”
“Have you talked to her?”
“No. I tried to call, but just got voice mail. And before you say anything, I cut the ties with her before I brought my new friend back here.”
“On voice mail?” Rhiannon felt her eyebrows fly up into her hairline.
“What else was I supposed to do? It makes sense. They’ve got the rest of this movie to go, then Kline’s award season for Knight, then promos, then their award season for this movie. That’s almost two years of publicity romance. Does that sound fake to you? This is all just a game to them.”
“To him,” Rhiannon corrected. “Him. Jill wouldn’t have done this without telling you. She really likes you.”
“She tried to call a few times, but we just played phone tag. She texted that she was going to be out of pocket and wanted to talk before she went off the grid. She probably did try to tell me.” He had his hands around a strong-smelling cup of coffee by that point, bare-chested and unshaven, Rhiannon thought he ought to look like shit, but he actually just looked like an adorably rumpled lumberjack. “Anyway. I need to keep my head on until this shit with Monique is over. I don’t need the distraction of a relationship. Anyway,” he repeated, letting out a huge breath. “The thing with Jill is done. I never could compete with Kline.”
“I'm sorry, Thad," Rhiannon said finally. "I know you liked her."
"Yeah," Thad said, weaving a little on his feet. He was tired "I really liked her."
"I know.Maybe quit dating actresses.They all suck."
"Isn't that one of the things I like about them?"
Rhiannon patted him. "Probably. Now go find yourself a nice quiet girl."
"She was a nice quiet girl."
"One that doesn't act."
"I don't know any."
"We'll find you one. Better yet, lay off women for a while. Can't hurt you."
Thad tried to give her a hard look and failed miserably. "I guess it can’t.”
“Just focus on the work for a while. Yeah?”
