“You have to stop her!” Sanders shouted, bursting through the door. Jameson closed his eyes for a second, took a deep breath.
“Life was so much simpler before her,” he sighed. Sanders stomped across the room.
“Excuse me?” he asked. Jameson finally looked at him.
“Nothing. What's wrong now? What do I have to do for her now?” Jameson asked.
“Mr. Hollingsworth called me. He talked to her earlier today,” Sanders said quickly.
“Yes. So did I.”
“You did!?”
“Yes.”
“When? What did she say? Is she here?” Sanders asked, glancing around the hotel room.
Sweet Sanders, always believing in that happily ever after.
“No. I bumped into her on the elevator. We talked. She is not happy. She wants all sorts of fairy tale promises, and she doesn't think I can give them to her,” Jameson explained.
“Can you?”
“I'm not sure. I'm not that kind of man, Sanders. I never asked her to change,” Jameson pointed out.
“No. But you will change, for her.”
“Probably.”
“Well,” Sanders took a deep breath, “you should probably start, right now.”
“Why? Where's the fire?” Jameson asked.
“Downstairs.”
“Excuse me?”
“She is downstairs, with Mr. Castille, at some event,” Sanders clarified. Jameson rolled his eyes.
“I know this, Sanders. I told you, I saw -,”
“He is going to ask her to live with him,” Sanders stressed. Jameson frowned.
“Well, she can't live in a hotel forever, I'm sure there will be time to -,”
“As his girlfriend. And she is going to say yes,” Sanders hissed. Jameson's eyebrows shot up.
“How do you know this? How can you be sure?” he demanded.
“She told Mr. Hollingsworth. Mr. Castille has been asking her for a while. Something happened a couple weeks ago. He has been trying to get her to move in with him ever since,” Sanders said. Jameson glared.
“What happened?” his voice was low and threatening.
“I don't know. Mr. Hollingsworth wouldn't say – just said that when she first got here, there was an understanding between her and Mr. Castille that she was not coming here to be his girlfriend. Something happened two weeks ago to change that,” Sanders told him.
“What are you telling me!? She's already his girlfriend!?” he snapped, disdain dripping from that word that he hated.
“I don't know. I think so,” Sanders said slowly.
“Goddammit!” Jameson yelled, and he stomped across the room. Grabbed a plastic bag that was sitting near the door. “So when the fuck is this momentous fucking occasion happening!?”
“They're in a conference room downstairs. Mr. Hollingsworth said they're going to be talking about it over dinner. Which was served, twenty minutes ago,” Sanders told him. Jameson groaned.
“Goddamn Tatum, always making me do things I don't want to fucking do,” he growled, and hurried out the door.
*
Tatum stared at herself in the bathroom mirror. She looked good. She had on a heavy red lipstick. Light eyeliner. Her hair was down, but in soft waves. It had grown pretty long – she wondered if the sun had positive effects on it. It curled down almost past her breasts. When she swished it over her shoulder, she could feel it against her bare back.
She was wearing the dress Jameson had bought for her, the one she had worn to her parents' house. It was the only nice one she had brought with her to Arizona. It felt strange wearing it again.
It felt even stranger knowing Jameson was upstairs. He had been so different. Staring at her, so calm. Not angry. Not demanding. Almost laughing. Flirting. He hadn't run away. He hadn't dragged her down to hell. He had wanted to ..., just talk.
She couldn't handle it. She felt like she was going to throw up. When Nick had met her at her hotel room, he had kissed her thoroughly, and that made her feel like she was going to throw up, too. She had hurried out of the hotel room ahead of him, laughing nervously. He thought he made her giddy. He had no idea it was Jameson making her giddy.
She'd made it through the meet and greet. Managed to laugh. What had Jameson said once? She could be cordial. She could be fucking polite. She had been raised in polite society, after all; she was good at faking it.
As Nick could tell anyo-, SHUT UP! SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP!
When dinner was served, though, she didn't have the protection of the crowd. Of other people. Nick sat close to her, rested his hand on her thigh as food was brought out. As they tucked into their dinners, he started bringing up how glad he was that she was there. How happy she made him. How much easier it would be if ...,