the woman is talking to me. She’s beautiful with long, long blonde hair, and when I see the robe wrapped around her body, I realize instantly that she’s the woman from the film.
“Who?” I ask.
“Sean. He’s not here. That’s who you are looking for. You’re his new girlfriend.”
“I’m not sure I would say that. More like his new plaything for a little while.”
The woman laughs. “If you are just his plaything, then why did he bring you here? He hardly ever brings women here unless he’s serious about them. It’s one of his tests. And you’re failing horribly.”
I frown. “I know. But I didn’t freak out because of what he does. It’s more complicated than that.”
She nods. “It always is.”
“Where is he?”
The woman glances up, and I know immediately that he retreated to his condo.
“Thank you,” I say. I run to the elevator and press the button for the top floor.
“You’re going to need the code to access his floor,” the woman says from behind me.
I feel in my pockets, but I don’t have my cell phone to text him. It’s with my personal belongings that I left in the car for Sean’s staff to take up to the condo. I have no way to reach him. Shit.
The elevator doors open, but I don’t know what to do because I can’t reach him even if I step on. The woman steps on and starts entering a code into the panel. I step in behind her and try not to think about the reason she knows the code to access Sean’s floor.
“Don’t hurt him,” she says as she steps off the elevator.
I frown. Why does she think that I would hurt him?
The doors close, and they don’t open again until I reach the top floor.
When the doors open, I expect another obstacle in my way, preventing me from getting to Sean, but that’s not the case. When the doors open, they open straight to his condo. And it’s the most massive condo I think I’ve ever been inside of. His condo in Chicago isn’t even half of the size of this place.
But I try not to focus on how massive and beautiful and expensive his place is. I try to focus on the man sitting on the couch with Milo in his lap and a drink on the end table as he stares out the window in silence.
I know that he knows I’m here because Milo’s head pokes up, looking at me, and there’s no way he didn’t hear the elevator. But, still, I cautiously walk over and take a seat on the other end of the couch, tucking my feet under me. I prepare for a fight of some sort or a breakup to happen even though we were never really together. But he doesn’t say anything to me. He just blankly looks at me, unfeeling.
“I don’t know what to say,” I say.
Sean takes a drink of his amber liquor and then says, “Tell me that you hate me.”
He says what he wants me to say. I know that he brought me here to end whatever was going on between us. But it’s not what he wants. He wants to be with me—or at least, he wants to fuck me again. I’m not sure if he really wants me. He probably wants to be with Jamie.
“I don’t hate you. I wish I did. It would make everything easier,” I whisper.
He nods.
I want to apologize. I want to find a way to fix things, but I can’t. I know that’s not what he wants anyway.
He just wants me to accept him for who he is. And I do, and I don’t care what he does for a living. But it still doesn’t mean that we can be together. I just don’t know what it means yet.
I feel entirely exhausted and drained even though I slept for hours on the plane. I feel so tired. I’m tired because I didn’t get much sleep the night before due to my migraine. I’m tired from dealing with Owen. I’m tired of trying to figure Sean out.
“What’s my final test?” I ask, hoping that shows him that I still approve of him enough to be here.
He raises an eyebrow, surprised at my question. “You need to hire five actors tomorrow for a new film. The script is on the kitchen counter for you to read through.”
“I’ll read it before I go to sleep, which I need to do soon,” I say, waiting to hear what