Page 46 of Men or Paws

The blinds suddenly snapped shut.

I held in the laughter and wrapped the towel around my waist, before glancing at the clock to see how long I had.

It was fifteen minutes until eight and Marcello would be arriving soon for our morning meeting. Houdini was currently getting groomed in the driveway with Shannon, the owner of a local mobile pet-grooming service. Once she was done with him, I would take him to Beth for the second day of dog watching before focusing on the scripts again.

I entered the house to take a quick shower before Marcello arrived and practically ran into him when I circled around the kitchen island. “You scared the crap out of me.”

“Well, then you need to turn in your spandex to HR, because you are not the superhero I thought you were.” Marcello chuckled and gestured to the guesthouse through the window. “I take it everything went well yesterday with Beth since I didn’t hear from you last night?”

“If by went well, you mean barely passable, then yes.”

Marcello opened the refrigerator, pulled out a protein shake from the shelf, twisted off the top, and took a sip. “Uh-oh. What happened?”

I shrugged. “Nothing—I’m exaggerating, kind of. Houdini did escape from her twice, but I was here both times, so he just scratched on the office window for me to let him in. Honestly, I didn’t mind because I was missing his company a little.” I glanced over at the guesthouse. “Beth was cooking over there most of the day and evening. It smelled pretty good, whatever it was.”

“She didn’t offer you anything?”

I shook my head. “She had the blinds closed, trying to avoid me, I guess. Anyway, I ordered in Chinese last night.” I pointed to the takeout containers on the counter behind Marcello, then glanced out the window again.

“You have to be one of the only A-list actors who doesn’t have a private chef. Maybe you should hire Beth to cook for you when she’s done with the dog-sitting gig.”

I scoffed. “The last thing I need is to have Beth around here all the time.” I looked out the window again.

Marcello crossed his arms. “For someone who doesn’t want her around, you sure are interested in what she’s up to.”

“Just keeping a watchful eye out, that’s all. There’s a stranger on my property. I need to be careful she doesn’t turn out to be psycho.”

“Sure, whatever you say,” Marcello said, giving me a wry smile.

I sighed. “Okay, I admit I don’t know what has gotten into me. I’ve been thinking about Beth a lot, which is weird since she wants nothing to do with me.”

Marcello nodded. “Not a surprise. You want what you can’t have.”

I shook my head. “No—that’s not it.”

“Well, she is a gorgeous woman. Maybe it’s just a case of infatuation?”

“Nope.”

“Seriously, just ask her out.”

“No way,” I said. “If she said yes and things got serious, I would feel guilty as hell when I broke up with her, which, let’s be honest, I would at some point.”

“And where exactly was that guilty conscience when you broke up with Scarlett, Kate, and Natalie?” Marcello asked.

“You know I felt bad about those breakups,” I said.

He nodded. “Yeah, I know. And it’s not like they didn’t see it coming. You did warn them you had some baggage that might prevent you from fully committing to the relationship.”

Luckily, most people in Hollywood bounce back from breakups faster than the average person. The more an actor is in the public eye with another actor or celebrity, the more relevant they appear, which leads to more press. When you’re seen with someone new for the first time, it’s like magic, within minutes you’re plastered all over social media and make it into the tabloids and every TV entertainment program.

“You and I both know that Scarlett, Kate, and Natalie probably had dates lined up ten minutes after I walked out the door,” I said.

“More like five,” Marcello said, laughing.

“Exactly. I mean, come on, Scarlett has been married twice since we broke up, so what does that tell you? Now Beth, on the other hand, is a normal gal. Hollywood would chew her up and spit her out before she could blink those pretty eyes. Why I’m feeling protective of her, I have no clue, but she needs to stay away from me.”

The problem was, I wasn’t so sure I wanted to stay away from her.