for banging an intern. He wasn’t given the boot for sniffing coke on his desk before his monologue. And he wasn’t found skimming off the top of the ad revenue his show raked in.
Nope.
But he feared the truth would make him look bad.
Unreliable. Disloyal. The kind of guy you can’t lean on. The kind of guy he was fighting to show her that he wasn’t.
He looked away, staring at the golden Thai dragon on the wall, at the red embroidered jacket behind the hostess stand, then at the sea of busy tables and booths full of tourists, high-rollers, and Vegas businessman and women doing deals at the Luxe.
Brent pulled his eyes away from the crowd and back to Shannon. Her long brown hair fell loosely around her face, so different from the short, fresh-faced style she’d had in college. She was different too. Tougher than she’d been back then, but softer as well. More vulnerable, too, at times.
He briefly considered his answer. He could easily spin a quick tale about loving the nightclub business, and while that was true, he’d lost her once before by being less than honest. He wanted to show her that he’d changed—by giving her the full truth, warts and all.
He inhaled deeply, and steeled himself. “Look, I could make up a nice story, Shan. I could tell you something about how I’ve always craved the challenge of running a club, and some of that is true. Because I do love Edge, and building it has been exciting and I’ve enjoyed it. But the truth is, I left comedy because I didn’t want to wear out my welcome.”
She tilted her head to the side. “How so?”
He launched into the backstory of his show. “My show had record ratings. It was the biggest show on cable. It was beating broadcast some nights. It was the kind of gig most entertainers would’ve held onto forever. For years. It was the type of job you’d ordinarily have to pull someone away from kicking and screaming.” An image of the Hollywood trade articles on his departure popped into his head. The entertainment industry and the viewers had been shocked that he left after only three years. “But I wanted to go out on top. I didn’t want anyone to cringe when I did my monologue. I didn’t want anyone to say, his jokes are stale, or, he’s phoning it in.”
She nodded a few times, as if she was processing his decision. “I get it. You wanted to leave on your own terms. But why would it bother me?”
Okay, he was just going to have to spell it out, no matter how bad it made him look. “Because I was worried you’d think it proves I don’t stick around. That when the going gets tough, I pack up and get out of Dodge. That I leave before things can turn difficult,” he said, the words tasting bitter. His own indictment of himself.
She didn’t speak at first. In her silence he wanted to kick himself for having spoken so honestly. Maybe he should have given her his canned line—I was ready for a new challenge.
“Does it mean that?” she asked, but her tone wasn’t cutting. It was earnest. “That you don’t stick around when things get tough?”
He shook his head several times for emphasis. “I don’t think so. I don’t regret leaving the show, but I think—at least I hope—that I’ve learned that what might be a good philosophy in business isn’t necessarily a good way to approach relationships.”
She flashed him a sliver of a smile, and in it he felt exonerated. Not from the choice to step down, but from the prospect that she was only going to see him as a certain type of guy. He felt like he’d shed some of the bad reputation that might prevent her from trusting him again.
“I’m glad you’re being honest with me now, and that you’re changing,” she said. “We all are, aren’t we? Changing? I know I am. I’m trying not to see people for the things they might do. I’m trying to believe in second chances, as my grandma would say, and to focus my energies on that.”
“She’s the smartest woman I know. I agree with everything she says,” he said, slicing a hand through the air as if making a declaration, and Shannon laughed.
“But I noticed one thing about you hasn’t changed...” she said, letting her voice trail off.
“Besides my stunning good looks, strapping build, and huge cock?”