Fade into Always (3 page)

She handed me a tissue. “What did Max say?”

“I haven’t told him yet.”

“He’s gonna be pissed.”

I nodded as I wiped my eyes.

“At least you’re not in my situation,” she said.

I looked at her. “What do you mean?”

“Come on, Olivia. You know.”

I looked down at my hands that were balling the tissue anxiously.

She said, “You saw the DVD. You saw me come in the other day after staying up all night on coke.”

“Jesus, Krystal. Cocaine?”

She nodded and shrugged, and told me everything. It was a confession of sorts, almost like I was a priest and she was a parishioner. I listened with sympathy, and at one point I grabbed her hand as she started to cry.

“I got mixed up in this because of the money,” she explained. “Now…I can’t get out. I don’t know what to do.”

“Why can’t you just stop?”

“And do what?” Her voice came out with more than a little touch of frustration, but I knew it wasn’t directed at me. “I’ll never get a real acting job. I’m fucked.”

“No, you’re not.”

“I really am,” she said, taking a deep breath and letting it out forcefully through pursed lips. “I’m in debt. Big time.”

It was the drugs. She was getting paid to do porn, but a big chunk of it had been going to feed her coke habit. Then she started getting it on “credit” with the dealer, and now, to my horror, she was sitting there telling me she owed the guy about twenty thousand.

It turns out the dealer was also the guy hooking her up with various porn gigs. It was almost like he was a pimp, I thought. And then, just as that thought entered my mind, she said that’s what the guy had in mind for payback. He was going to pimp her out.

“Holy shit” was the only reaction that came to mind. What the hell had she gotten herself into? “It isn’t Marco, is it?” I had met that guy weeks ago when I walked in on the two of them just as they were probably getting ready to have sex in the den. It didn’t take me long to pick up on his creepiness.

“No, not him,” she said. “He’s got his own problems. I haven’t even talked to him in like a week or so.”

“Can you just…leave? I mean, go back to Ohio? Get away from here?”

She shook her head. “And, what? Go back to my parents’ house? Ha. Very funny.”

“I didn’t mean that, I just—”

“I know,” she said, “I’m sorry.”

We sat there for a little while longer, commiserating with each other. Here we were, two Midwestern girls trying to make it in the big city, both now totally screwed by failure.

Later, around 5:30, Max came to get me.

Krystal was in her room taking a nap. She’d been in there for almost two hours. I told Max before we left I needed to check on her. I cracked the door just a little, saw that she was facing away from the door. She was sleeping, breathing deeply, and was probably getting the only rest and relaxation she’d had in a while. I decided to leave her a note on the kitchen counter.

“Coming down off a high?” Max said.

I looked up from the paper. “You have no idea.”

“What is it?”

I folded up the paper and laid the pen on top of it. “I’ll tell you later.”

We got to Max’s house and the first thing he did was run a warm bath. We lathered each other up. I faced him as he massaged the shampoo into my scalp, and I massaged his cock.

It started when he told me to tilt my head back so he could rinse my hair. “Hold on so you don’t fall.”

Instead of reaching for his shoulders or his waist, I took his semi-hard erection into my hand.

He laughed. “That should work.”

“Gee, I wonder if that’s what you wanted me to do all along.”

“No.”

My mouth dropped open. “What? Fine, then.”

“If I wanted you to do that, I would just tell you to.”

“Oh really.”

He looked at me. “Touch it, Olivia.”

The warm water sluiced through my hair and ran down my back in soapy waves, and Max got fully hard in my hand. I loved how it got longer and thicker under my touch. When I looked down I saw now that he had grown to a length that broke the surface, with at least half of him straight up out of the water.

“Like a periscope,” I joked.

He closed his eyes and shook his head. “Maybe you should do stand up comedy.”

“You think?”

“No.”

I squeezed him—hard.

“Easy now.”

Max pulled me against him and I slipped my hand away. His erection was pressed against my stomach—slipping and sliding around on it—making me want it inside me.

He pressed his lips to mine, pulling my tongue into his mouth, then sucking on it like I sucked when his cock was in my mouth.

Max kissed his way down my neck, then across the top of my chest. He pulled me closer, up onto his lap. His erection was perfectly notched in my cleft and I just wanted him to do it, do it, do it…

But he didn’t. He teased me, rocking his hips as he moved me back and forth so I was sliding along the length of his cock. Which, honestly, was almost enough to make me come by itself. But I didn’t want that. I wanted to come with him inside me.

I pressed my face to the top of his wet head as he sucked on my nipples.

“I hate not being inside you, Olivia.”

“Then do it.”

“Not just now,” he said. “Always. I wish I could be inside you all day, every day.”

And with those words, he shifted a certain way and entered me. I moved my hips to ease him in. Each time we did this, I loved the way he stretched my tightness.

This was slow, sensual sex. It was more like making love than fucking. I wondered if he felt that way, too, but I didn’t dare ask him. I feared not getting the response I wanted to hear.

And as I thought about that—while sliding up and down on him—my eyes started to tear up a little.

When Max noticed he said, “Are you okay?”

“Yes. Everything is…perfect.”

Max pulled me closer and we kissed as we climaxed together.

After the shower, I put on one of his button-down shirts and Max wore only a pair of jeans as we sat at a bar table in his kitchen and ate dinner.

“Something’s on your mind,” he said. “Is it Krystal?”

Actually, that wasn’t it at all. I was distracted by the ongoing debate in my head about whether to tell him what happened with Kevin and the fallout from it. I also was on the verge of asking him if he had felt the same thing I did in the bathtub. But the Krystal issue was good enough for now. Plus, I’d already promised him I’d tell him.

And so I did—complete with all the details she had given me.

“Jesus,” he said. “Twenty grand. Where’s she going to get that?”

“No idea.”

“You know what that means.” Max stood and took our empty plates to the sink. “She’s going to end up working it off.”

I got up and walked toward him. “I can’t decide which is worse. That or the coke.”

“Both.”

I stood next to him as he rinsed off the dishes and put them in the dishwasher. His face was a mask of concern, and I assumed it was about Krystal, even though he hardly knew her.

“What are you thinking?” I asked.

He closed the dishwasher, started it, and picked up a towel to dry his hands. “Let’s get her out of trouble.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’ll pay the guy off.”

Whoa.

“On one condition, though,” he said. “She has to check into rehab.”

“Are you serious? You’d do that?”

“Yes.”

“But you don’t even know her.”

Max took me in his arms. “But you do. I’m not going to let you stand by helplessly watching a friend ruin her life.”

“Max…I don’t think—”

“Let me do this. Let
us
do this.”

SIX

I woke up Saturday morning, lying on my side. I had my back to Max, and he was just about ready to slide inside me. I looked over my shoulder at him. He was looking down, watching what he was doing. “I could wake up like this every day. Awesome alarm clock.”

“Funny. But I can’t help it, Olivia.”

“I was being serious,” I said, and put my head back down while Max brought us both to an early morning orgasm.

After we showered Max drove us to Marina Del Rey, where we boarded his boat and set off for Catalina Island. I had heard of the place and was under the impression that it was only for the wildly rich and the tourists. I guess I qualified as a tourist, and since I was with Max, the rich part took care of itself.

Max pulled the boat up to the marina. A dockhand was there and called out to him. “Hello, Mr. Dalton.” The guy climbed aboard and said he would take care of the docking. I saw Max slip him a hundred dollar bill before we got off the boat. Valet parking at a Marina. Who knew?

We spent a good part of the late morning and early afternoon taking a tour of the island. It was gorgeous—lush green trees and bushes, incredible views of the ocean and the island’s various canyons—like nothing I’d ever experienced.

And it only got more intriguing, as the tour guide signaled for us to look in various directions throughout the ride, to see the incredible wildlife the island had to offer. We saw wild turkeys and pigs, two bald eagles, and even buffalo.

“I love this place,” Max said.

I was holding on to his arm as we sat in the jeep. I held on tighter when I saw the almost boyish way he marveled at the outdoors.

“It’s beautiful,” I said, resting my head on his shoulder.

“Makes you not want to go back to the city, doesn’t it?”

I looked up at his face and saw that he was deadly serious. The truth was, I didn’t care where we were. I just wanted to be with him.
Needed
to be with him.

Later in the afternoon, we took our shoes off and sat on a little beach area. Off in the distance, sea lions occupied the rock jetties. We were told they could be aggressive, and to keep an eye on them. They were far enough away not to pose a threat, and we didn’t have any food with us anyway.

I was starting to feel guilty about keeping the Kevin story from Max. He deserved to know. He was going to find out one way or another. The idea of keeping it from him so it wouldn’t ruin or weekend hadn’t been a good idea at all. While it spared him from thinking about it, delaying did nothing for me. Despite all the enjoyment of the afternoon, thoughts of telling Max what happened lingered close by, threatening to spoil the day.

So it was on that peaceful little spot of land that I said, “I have something to tell you….”

I told him everything, ending with an apology for not telling him sooner.

“I don’t care about that,” he said, holding me tight. “What a fuckwit.”

“A what?”

Max gave a little chuckle. “Fuckwit. Like an idiot, but much worse. One of my favorite words.”

“I’ve never heard you use it.”

“I save it for special occasions, and this is definitely one of them. The deal with Jacqueline Mathers is the biggest thing that’s ever happened to him. I guess he didn’t think about that.”

“Are you going to drop her?”

Max shook his head. “No, she’s good. Perfect for the role. I’m not going to start from scratch just because Kevin makes stupid decisions about who to try to fuck.”

This was going easier than I thought. I had actually expected him to be angry—maybe somewhat at me for not telling him, and certainly at Kevin for doing what he did. “You don’t sound mad at him.”

“I’m not,” he said, without hesitating. “He’s pathetic. And I don’t think for a minute you would give in to him.”

Now that we’d settled that part of it, I felt free to express how worried I was for myself. “I hate that he did it, mostly because I have to start over now, you know?”

We had shifted so that Max was sitting behind me, and held my back close to his chest. He kissed me on the top of my head, and kept his lips there as we sat in silence for a moment. Finally, he broke it.

“Work with me.”

I had been relaxing so much that my eyes were almost closed. They flew open when I heard  his words.

“What?”

“You heard me.”

“Yeah, but…” My voice trailed off. I was stunned by his suggestion.

He kissed me on my head again and said, “I’ve been thinking about what I’m going to do when I stop producing. You know I just want to write. That’s what I’m going to do. But I’ll need an assistant, someone who will read all my stuff and not bullshit me with empty praise. Just like you did the other day. You were brilliant, Olivia. Your ideas made the story so much better.”

I moved so I could face him. “You’re serious.”

He nodded and reached up to touch my cheek. “Don’t worry about anything. And I know you by now—you’re thinking I’m doing this just to help you out. I’m not. You impressed me from that first meeting. I’d hire you even if you weren’t sleeping with me.”

My smile must have stretched across my entire face, and Max returned one just as big, then said, “Of course, we’ll have to be careful how we proceed.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’ll pay you as an independent contractor, not as a direct employee.”

“Why’s that?”

“Because then you can’t turn around and sue me for sexually harassing you on the job every day.”

I laughed and leaned forward to kiss him. “Every day? You promise?”

“Try to stop me.”

On the boat ride home, I told him my parents would be coming for a visit. “And I’m worried.”

“About what?”

Max was driving the boat and I was sitting on his lap. I put on one of his baseball caps and put my hair through the hole in the back, a makeshift ponytail to keep it from whipping him in the face.

“My living situation, for one thing,” I said. “They’re going to wonder about Krystal. Remember, she was my sister’s friend growing up?”

“Right. Well, maybe she won’t be around if she takes us up on the offer to help and checks into rehab. Then you can just say she’s out of town or something.”

“True.” He had a point. It was a justifiable lie. I’d be protecting Krystal’s confidentiality. My stomach churned with nervousness as I considered how to tell him I wasn’t sure about having him meet my parents.