Billionaire Flawed 2(53)

“I’m here, come on in,” Rae said, and she pressed a black button next to the white one that would unlock the front door. She held it long enough for him to open the door, and then she turned to Gillian.

“Rae, hun, why did that sound exactly like Casey Denning?”

“It is Casey Denning.”

“So you make a movie with him, and now he shows up at our door?”

“I guess so,” Rae said with a laugh, and then their conversation was cut short because there was a knock at the door right next to them.

“Best behavior,” Rae said, and Gillian nodded a solemn but silent promise. Then Rae opened the door, and Casey was standing there in a suit and tie, and Gillian screamed and threw her arms around the man she didn’t even know.

“Casey Denning!” she screamed. “I’ve seen every movie you’ve made!”

Casey laughed and patted Gillian’s back. “It’s a pleasure, Miss…” he said, trailing off.

“That’s my roomie, Gillian, and she said she was going to be on her best behavior.

Gillian backed off sheepishly. “That was my best behavior.”

“Relax, I’m used to surprise hugs,” Casey said. “I’m just glad this time it was a woman.”

The girls laughed, and Casey looked to Rae. “I was hoping you hadn’t eaten yet,” he said.

Rae glanced back to the pizza on their table, and then looked to her roommate and friend. She didn’t want to ditch her, but Gillian was pushing her out the door. “She hasn’t,” she said.

“Let me get dressed at least,” Rae argued, looking down to her sweatpants and tee shirt.

“Right,” Gillian said.

“Come in,” Rae said to Casey, and the man nodded, and the girls shut the door behind him. Rae turned and rushed into her small bedroom, pushing the door shut. Gillian stood staring at Casey.

They made small talk while they waited, mostly with Casey speaking and Gillian giggling and fawning. Before long Rae came out of her room, and Casey turned to her and his breath caught in his throat. She was absolutely stunning, he knew that already, but standing there in a dress with a floral print, the hem of which fell breezily past her knees, and black pumps, she looked like nothing he had ever seen.

Even Gillian appreciated it. “Wow,” she said.

“Shut up,” Rae whispered with a laugh, and then Casey whisked her out of her apartment. Parked in the small parking lot, taking up entirely too much room, was a stretch limo, gleaming and black.

“This is your car?” Rae asked before she could stop herself.

“One of them,” Casey said, and he held the door for her. As she climbed in, he laughed. “I’m just kidding, I rented it. I thought we could go to dinner, and then think of something else. A night out on the town.”

“You tease too much,” Rae said, hutting her bottom lip out in a pout, but she smiled when he sat next to her and leaned over and bit her protruding lip.

“It’s one of my many character flaws,” Casey said with a grin.

“Where are we going?”

“Where would you like to go?”

“Oh, I don’t know anything about this. I think your Los Angeles and mine are a lot different.”

Casey nodded softly. “I know just the place,” he said, and he leaned forward to speak to the driver. Afterward, the driver raised tinted glass between the back and the front, and Casey pulled a bottle of champagne out of a nearby bucket of ice and poured two glasses.

“I’ve never drunk alcohol in a car before,” Rae said, and Casey laughed.

“I don’t often, as long as you don’t pay attention to the lies they write about me in those rags.”

Rae smiled. “I didn’t think you’d come see me,” she said as she took her glass.

“I thought we had something special going on back in Toronto,” the movie star said to the young woman. And then he smiled and took a sip from his glass.

The restaurant Casey took Rae to was a posh place called Jackknife, a strange name Rae though, but once inside she knew it was the kind of place she would never be able to afford, even with the considerable sum she had made from the movie.

The lighting was dim, and the tables and chairs were dark, rich mahogany. They were seated right away, even though there was a long line at the door.

“Wow,” Rae said, and the night went on from there. The food was amazing, and the conversation telling, and non-stop. The two lovers really got to know one another. Rae told Casey about her struggles as a young actress and spoke of her mother. Her eyes slicked with tears when she spoke about her mom, and told Casey that they didn’t often speak, ever since her mother moved back to Cincinnati, and left by telling Rae she would never make it. She spoke of how hard it was to be a black woman in Hollywood, and how she lost so many roles to lesser actresses who were white.