Playing at Forever - By Michelle Brewer Page 0,20
eyes guarded.
“So you are,” he gave her another once over. “Aren’t you going to introduce us, Tom?”
“I thought that’s what you were already doing.” Penny watched as Tommy glared at the other man. “Penny, this is Graham Walters. He’s my manager.”
“You must be a friend of Tom’s.”
“You must not be.” She had taken an instant disliking to this man. Graham only laughed.
“Well, I can definitely see the appeal.” Graham laughed again, nodding his head this time. “I was hoping we could talk business, Tom. You’ve kind of left things in a little bit of an uproar back home. But if you’re busy, I can always come back.”
“Like I told you yesterday—”
“This is your career, Tom.”
“It’s okay, Tommy. I have to get back to Amy’s anyway. I’ll see you tonight, though, right?”
“I wouldn’t miss it,” Tommy told her, flashing her a strained smile. Part of her thought she should stay, just to support her friend. But another part of her said that this—whatever conversation that needed to be had with Graham—wasn’t her business.
Tommy needed to take care of whatever it was he was running away from, and she had to let him.
“Okay, I’ll see you tonight then. Around seven, okay?”
“I’ll be there.”
“It was nice to meet you, Penelope.” Penny didn’t respond to the man. She had been raised that if she didn’t have anything nice to say, she shouldn’t say anything at all—especially when it came to meeting strangers.
“Has anyone ever told you how much of an ass you are, Graham?”
“I believe you have, a number of times.” They were inside Tommy’s motel room, Tommy pacing back and forth while Graham sat in an old armchair. He looked completely out of place here, in his expensive suit and shoes. The sunglasses he wore cost more than Tommy had paid for an entire week for this room.
“I’m pretty sure I told you to leave, too.”
“As you can see, I am an excellent listener.” Tommy glared at him and Graham sighed, leaning forward. “Look, I’m not here as your manager right now, okay? I’m here as your friend. That’s how we started out, isn’t it?” Tommy thought back many years. Graham had been one of his roommates, before he’d gotten his big break. “I just want to know that you’re okay.”
“I’m great.” While his tone was sarcastic, he was telling the truth. He hadn’t felt this relaxed in a very long time. Of course, he was worried about his career. He couldn’t deny that. But the thing that was worrying him the most right now was Penny.
“You don’t seem great.”
“Well I am. I just—I have some things I need to take care of here.”
“How much longer are we talking about?”
“I don’t know.” Graham sighed again.
“I’m doing the best I can here, Tom. You’re not making my job any easier these days.”
“Look, Penny has been a really good friend to me. She’s going through a rough time right now.” It wasn’t really an excuse, although it felt like one.
“So you came back here to take care of a friend.”
“No, I—I came back here to get away. And then I found out about Penny.”
“What’s her deal?”
“She’s going through a divorce.”
“Please don’t tell me it has something to do with you.” Tommy shook his head, his expression baffled.
“What? No, I haven’t even seen Penny in ten years.”
“Was she your high school girlfriend or something?” Tommy hadn’t told anyone about Penny, mostly because he was ashamed of how he’d treated her. He shook his head.
“She was my best friend.”
“See, this I can spin, Tom. You found out your best friend was going through a rough divorce, so you had to take some time off to help her get back on her feet. Maybe a little romance blossoms—”
“There’s no romance blossoming.” His tone was suddenly very defensive.
“Just think about what a wholesome girl like that could do for your image.”
“Graham…” Tommy warned, not liking the direction this was going in.
“I’m not saying lie to the girl. She might be willing to go along with it. Play a little role, maybe you could even cut her a deal or something.”
It hit him unexpectedly.
Why hadn’t he thought of it earlier? It was the most obvious solution to Penny’s problems. “Graham, you’re a genius.” Tommy declared, throwing himself onto the bed.
“You actually think it’s a good idea?” he sounded very surprised.
“No, I actually think your idea is a horrible one. But it did give me another.” Tommy chuckled. It was so simple. He could loan Penny the money. It wasn’t like