“You’ve got several offers on the table. Your publisher wants to do another cookbook. Or I have a couple of quick consulting offers. And of course, there are a slew of interviews available.”
“No interviews. Not right now.” She shook her head. She still had the promised exclusive hanging over her head. And her contract with
For the Love of Cake
included multiple press obligations as well. “What if I wanted to slow down for a while?”
“Ha. And do what? Bake cookies?” Wendy laughed, and then when she saw that Maya was serious, she gave her a disbelieving look. “Please, don’t tell me how sick you are of all of the fancy parties, amazing food, and free booze. Because I might have to punch you in the throat.”
“No. It’s not that. But I’ve been going nonstop for over a year now. And I know I set that pace. But maybe I need to slow down and think before rushing into the next big project.”
Wendy narrowed her eyes. “Where’s this coming from? Not that I think it’s a bad idea, but what brought it on?”
Maya shrugged. “It’s not like I need the money. Maybe I’ll do some traveling—finally take that vacation.”
“Are you thinking about traveling with anyone in particular?”
“Maybe.”
“So it’s serious with Soccer Mom, then?”
“I think I’m going to require you to call her by her name at least six times before I let you meet her. Then maybe you won’t call her Soccer Mom to her face.” She suspected Shannon might not think the nickname was so cute. She might even be offended. Maya worried that Shannon still thought, at least in part, that she was just another conquest.
“Oh, am I going to meet her?”
“Sure. Eventually.”
“This is serious.”
“Stop acting so astonished. I can be in a relationship.”
Wendy nodded, but doubt painted her expression. Maya turned her attention back to the wilting lettuce on her plate. She wouldn’t dwell on the fact that her closest friend didn’t think she was capable of being happy.
*
“Do you want to go again?” Maya asked, her eyes still hazy from her lingering orgasm.
“Again? I can’t believe you talked me into doing that the first time.” Shannon lay sprawled out on her sofa, weak from her own climax as well.
“It was fun, wasn’t it?” Maya sat up and leaned forward, bringing her closer to the camera on her iPad.
“It sure was.” Shannon didn’t have the energy to move, though she did manage to remove her hand from the front of her pants. She turned her head in the general direction of her own tablet, which was propped up on the coffee table beside her. “But I didn’t know this was what you had in mind when you suggested video chatting while we’re apart.”
“Why just talk on the phone when we can see each other?”
“Please don’t remind me that I fell for that.”
“Aren’t you glad you did?”
She really was. She didn’t know how she would have survived these past four weeks if it hadn’t been for their almost nightly chats. Tonight was the first time they’d added this new physical aspect. Until now, they’d just been talking, flirting, and making promises about when they were together again.
Though she’d been extremely busy at the bakery and working on her designs for the finale, Maya still managed to invade her thoughts. When she tried a new recipe, she wondered if Maya would like it. As she practiced her cakes, she imagined being back on set and having her work judged by Maya.
“I have that benefit tonight. But I really want to stay here with you,” Maya said.
“You’re going to get me in trouble with Wendy if you don’t show up.”
“Maybe. But wouldn’t it be worth it?”
“I suppose you have to get up and put on clothes, huh?”
“Things do tend to be less complicated when I put clothes on before I go out.”
“Okay, fine. Go.”
Maya reached toward the screen as if about to end the call.
“Wait,” Shannon demanded. “Call me back before you go. I want to see this dress you’ve been raving about all week.”
An hour later, she stared at Maya’s image on her screen. The black sleeveless dress hugged her body all the way to her knees before it flared out to drape to the floor. When she turned, Shannon drew in a sharp breath. The keyhole slit down the center of her chest gaped open just enough to reveal the curves of her breasts. The tight torso accentuated her toned arms and narrow waist.
“That is an amazing dress.” Shannon wanted so badly to be there with her, to touch her waist and know the texture of that fabric beneath her fingertips.
“You think so?”
“Oh, yes.” She would kiss her neck, then that sensitive spot behind her jaw. She would slip her hand inside the slit in that dress and caress her breast. “It’s damn near perfect.”
She wanted to rake her fingernails into the short hair at the back of Maya’s head and watch her shiver in response. “Have I mentioned how much I love your new haircut?” The edgy style contrasted nicely with her expertly applied makeup and the gorgeously feminine dress.
“I think you’ve mentioned it a time or two.” Maya frowned. “I really do have to go.”
Shannon nodded, taking a bit of solace in Maya’s reluctance to let her go as well. She didn’t want to be the only one pining.
*
“Maya, a minute of your time?”
She turned toward the familiar voice as she reached the end of the red carpet. “Charlie? You clean up well.” She guessed his classic-cut tuxedo had a designer label. Only his press credentials distinguished him from the rest of the VIPs milling about.
“Why, thank you. So?” He pulled a small recorder from the inside pocket of his jacket and held it up.
“You came prepared.” Maya shrugged. “Sure, why not.” After their last interview, she didn’t feel she owed him anything. But maybe she was feeling generous today. She stepped out of the way of the others still coming down the carpet to enter the building. Cameras flashed nonstop with each new celebrity to emerge from a limo.
“You look happy. This new gig obviously agrees with you.”
Maya nodded. “I am enjoying myself. The show’s great. And we have some very talented chefs on this season.”
“Have you finished filming yet?”
“Almost. We’re actually on a break while the rest of the episodes air, but the live finale is coming up soon.”
“Any hints about who’s in it?”
“You know I can’t do that.”
“Worth a shot.” He grinned. “What’s next for you after this?”
She tilted her head to the side. “I’m not exactly sure.”
They chatted for a few more minutes about the benefit and the charity it would serve. He asked predictable questions and she gave the expected answers.
“Thanks, a lot.” He clicked his recorder off. He’d acted graciously, though she suspected he knew as well as she did that his interview hadn’t yielded anything print-worthy. “I didn’t expect you to agree after our last interview.”
“It’s all business, Charlie.”
“It doesn’t have to be just business.” He wound his arm around her waist and pulled her close so quickly that Maya put her hand against his chest to brace from falling completely against him.
She stepped smoothly out of his embrace. “I think it does.”
“Are you seeing someone new?”
“My reasons haven’t changed since the first time we met.” While she admitted he was a good-looking guy, she had no chemistry with him. During their very first conversation, she’d been turned off by his conceit and apparent belief that she should fall at his feet.
“I’ve never seen you so relaxed and happy.”
“What do you mean? I’m always happy.”
“So, are you seeing someone? Or since I haven’t seen you on the society pages lately, before tonight that is, should I assume it’s work that puts that smile on your face?” He studied Maya closely, as if she might give away the answer in her expression. But she had plenty of practice at keeping her face neutral.
“I’ve been in Nashville, working. Not much time for the society pages down there.” She stepped around him and entered the building. She doubted he’d actually picked up on any indication she was seeing someone; he’d simply been fishing for a story. But his questions made her think about how much more she would enjoy this benefit if Shannon were here. She’d love to escort her down the carpet and wondered if she’d ever get the chance.
Though they rarely went a day without talking, they both seemed to be avoiding defining their relationship. And maybe it was best that they didn’t until after the show wrapped. But the next four weeks couldn’t pass quickly enough for her. Maybe she could get Wendy to rearrange her schedule so she could go back a little early.
*
Maya woke to the sound of her iPad signaling a video call. She turned over and blindly reached for the nightstand, knocking her iPad and the television remote to the floor.
“Damn it,” she muttered, half-crawling out of bed to retrieve it. The benefit had gone late and Wendy had talked her into a party afterward, although she suspected Wendy only pushed so hard because she wanted to go and Maya was her ticket in. A cab had dropped her at her place around five a.m.
She glanced at the clock as she flipped open her tablet cover. She didn’t feel like she’d gotten nearly seven hours of sleep. She’d also let Wendy talk her into a couple more drinks than she normally would have, and, combined with the secondhand smoke from the party, she had quite the headache. Had everyone at the party been smoking?
She accepted the call and lay back down in bed, propping her tablet up on her stomach.
“Good morning,” she said, barely containing a yawn until she was done speaking.
Shannon’s face appeared on the screen but she didn’t say anything. Her expression seemed distant, almost angry.
“What’s wrong?”
Shannon raised a magazine, if you could even call a tabloid rag a magazine. But that didn’t matter because there on the cover was a picture of Maya and Charlie looking way too close. The caption read M
AYA
V
AUGHN GETTING COZY WITH NEW GUY?
She flinched. Had she done something last night that she didn’t remember? She sat up and leaned forward, trying to get a closer look. Squinting, she finally realized when the picture was taken.
“That was not what it looked like.” She sure felt like she’d been saying that a lot lately.
Shannon’s doubtful expression indicated she didn’t believe her.
“Yeah, I’ve earned my reputation in the past, but not this time. He’s a reporter. I’d just finished an interview. He put his arm around me and someone snapped a picture.” She jabbed at the picture. “It happens all the time.” Maya shook her head. “Only a couple of weeks ago, that photo made you and I appear a lot closer than that.”
“You think that makes your case? We’ve slept together. You just said you’ve earned your reputation.”
“I also said that’s not what it looked like.”
“And I’m supposed to take your word for it?”
“Yes. When are you going to see me for who I am, instead of what
they’ve
made me out to be?” Panic had her raising her voice.
“When are you going to
be
more than who they’ve made you?” Shannon shot back, then sighed heavily. “Look, I know that’s not you—not completely. But do you? I mean, flirting and playing that playgirl role comes so automatically to you, and sometimes you don’t even realize you’re doing it. I don’t believe you’re even into it half the time. But it’s what people expect of you, so you just give it to them.”
“That’s not what this was. I didn’t even flirt with him. I’d just finished giving him an interview and he grabbed me. What you don’t see in that picture is that I pulled away less than a second later.”
Shannon didn’t seem to be listening to her explanation, as if once she’d started talking she couldn’t stop. “You start to open up with me. I know you do. But then, you—I don’t know, do you get scared? Because it’s like you realize what you’re doing and you shut down.”
“I don’t need to be psychoanalyzed,” Maya snapped. Shannon’s words skated too close to the truth.
She leaned forward and narrowed her eyes. “Or, worse, you give me a wink and a line that makes me feel like I’m no different than the rest of them.”
“Listen to yourself. The rest of them? Do you even really know how many others there have been? Or are you just taking the tabloids at their word?” Anger propelled Maya out of bed, and she fumbled to keep her iPad pointed in the right direction. She had opened up to Shannon. And this was what it got her? Accusations and distrust.
“Men, women, it doesn’t matter to you, does it? But I should have already known that.”
“Oh, so that’s what this is about? Because he’s a man? And you still have an issue with me being bisexual?”
“What? No.”
Maya didn’t believe her. “If you’re going to be so quick to believe everything that’s printed about me, maybe you
are
just like the rest of them.”
“If that’s the way you feel, maybe we don’t have anything more to talk about. Because I certainly don’t want to be just another one of many who only get your public persona.”
*
“Oh, sweetie.” Jori pulled Shannon into a sympathetic hug.
She’d called Jori after her conversation with Maya. Jori told her to come over to their house and she’d make them both lunch while they talked. She’d just finished recounting the exchange with Maya, which had ended on a tense note without the usual promises to call the next day.
“It’s just so frustrating, with her being there and me here. I know I’ll see her again in a month. But then what? We haven’t talked about our plans after the show. I have a home and family here. And she’s—well, can you see her leaving New York for Nashville?” Shannon settled on one end of the couch, and Jori sat next to her.
“You’re getting way ahead of yourself.”
“Am I?”
“Yes. You’ve just had your first fight, and now you’re stressing about who’s moving where? I know long distance is hard. Sawyer and I struggle to make time for each other and we’re in the same city. But it sounds like you guys have a lot to talk about before you even get to that point.” Jori put a hand on Shannon’s arm as if she needed to soften the impact of her words. “Honey, she’s not a face in a magazine anymore.”