Just Add Heat (25 page)

“You had
better look for yourself.” He scooted over and patted the bed as my phone rang
in my hand. Cheryl.

“Hello?”

“Omigod.
Did you get my messages? I’ve been trying to get in touch with you all
morning.”

“Yeah. We
were on a balloon ride and we left our phones in the car. I’m freaking out, but
he’s already pulled the video.”

“Thank
goodness. Mom called and told me to check my email. I think one of her friends
saw it and told her about it.”

My worst
fears were being realized. Not only had
Sharon
seen our sex tape, but so did any number of people we know.

“Don’t
tell me anymore, Cheryl, I can’t take it. Carter thinks we might get in trouble
for sending out an adult movie without a warning. My career is over. I’ll never
be able to face people again.”

“It’ll be
okay, Juss. Think of what a sex tape did for all those celebrities. They became
way more popular than before. Heck, it pretty much made them household names.”

“They weren’t doing an
almost family friendly cooking show! Children watch my program.”

“Hmm. I
hadn’t thought of that. That’s actually pretty bad.”

“No duh.
I’m ruined.” I threw myself back onto the bed and closed my eyes. “You didn’t
watch it did you?”

“Well,
let’s just say it was nothing I haven’t seen before.” I cringed at the
reminder.

“I’ll talk
to you later, okay? This is just too much to take in right now and it’s my
anniversary.”

“Oh yeah.
Happy Anniversary!” She sounded so excited that the last few minutes of my life
might never have happened. “What are you guys planning for tonight?”

“We’re
going to have dinner delivered to our terrace, and I’m glad we already booked
room service. I just don’t think I can face anyone right now.”

“There’s
nothing more you can do about it now, so try to have a good rest of your day.
Tell Carter I said hi. Love you.”

“Love you
too. I’ll call you tomorrow. Thanks for letting us know what was going on.”

We hung up and I looked
over at Carter. “She thinks it will make me famous.” He set the computer on the
night stand and flopped down onto his back beside me.

“It’s my
fault. I’ll take the blame. I should have been more thorough, but I was excited
to get out of town. I’ve sent out an apology to all of our subscribers, I just
hope it’s enough to tamp down the outrage. I’m sure you’re going to lose a few
followers, but you’ll probably gain a few more, too. I don’t want to think
about it right now. I look ridiculous in that footage.”

I didn’t
know how I was going to put it out of my mind, but I was determined to try if
only to make our anniversary special. “You and your Princess Leia fetish. Now I
don’t think I want to pull out the buns.”

“You
brought ‘em?” He perked up immediately. Pervert.

“Yeah, but
I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to wear them without thinking about
broadcasting my naked butt to anyone with an internet connection.”

“I like
your naked butt. Anyway, we’ll find out what the fallout of our movie is soon
enough. I think you should go put on your buns and take off everything else.
We’ve got some Anniversary Sex that needs to commence.”

“You know
what? You’re right. And the Xanax has kicked in, so you’re in luck.” I leaned
over him and gave him a kiss. Tomorrow I might be infamous, but I was going to
make our anniversary unforgettable.

Bonus Read

A Peek
Into
the Mind of Carter Ross

Love at First Sight

    
“Carter, hurry up and take out the trash. I’m trying to get
this kitchen cleared up before Cheryl and her friend get here.”

   
“I’m coming. Just a minute.” I had to yell through the bathroom
door because I was still fixing my hair. Nothing I did could tame the wild mess
that grew out of my head. I didn’t understand it. Neither of my parents was
cursed with this shaggy black mane. I had let Cheryl experiment with her
straightening iron last summer and although I liked the results it just seemed
a little bit too gay to do to myself every morning before school. I ran my
fingers through it one more time before giving up and I smiled at myself with
an open mouth. I had just gotten my braces off last week and I still liked to
check myself out without seeing shiny metal.

   
I walked down the stairs in no hurry. It wasn’t that I was lazy
or anything, but Mom was racing around like Cheryl was bringing Princess Diana
over or something. I didn’t get the big deal. It wasn’t as if Cheryl lived
across the country and only came home for holidays. She lived in the dorms at
UT. We saw her all the time. Too much if you asked me. I was finally in high
school and I liked being the only kid in the house. For the first time in my
life I didn’t have to fight anyone over the Fruity Pebbles and make do with the
crappy bran cereal my parents ate or try to get to the Oreos before Cheryl
commandeered them to eat in her bedroom with her pack of friends.

   
I entered the kitchen and saw my mother at the stove stirring a
huge pot of
something
. It didn’t smell
too
bad, so that was a good sign. I
walked over to peer over her shoulder and repressed a shudder. Whatever it was
didn’t look very appetizing.

         
“What’s that?” I tried to swallow my
disappointment at the fact my mother was cooking which automatically ruled out
pizza.

   
“Chili. The watery mess in the pot was supposed to be chili?

   
“Mmm.” I loved my mother with all my heart, but she just could
not cook. I figured the nicest thing to say was nothing so I just moved along
and grabbed the bag of garbage and carried it outside to the can. I had just
closed the lid when Cheryl’s Jetta came barreling up the driveway. She
screeched to a stop and jumped out.

   
“Hey Carter, did ya miss me?”

   
“I just saw you last weekend. I haven’t even had a chance to
yet.” Actually,
 
I did kinda miss her. It
was still a little bit strange not to be able to walk across the hall and talk
to her if I wanted to. We had always been close and the fact that she was four
years older than me meant that we were too far apart in age to get into all of
the normal sibling arguments. She came up to me and gave my arm a squeeze. I
looked over to her car as I saw the passenger door open.

   
“Justine, this is my brother Carter.” The girl getting out of the
car looked over the roof at us and it felt like I got the wind knocked out of
me. I met the eyes of the hottest girl I had ever seen.

         
“Hi Carter. Cheryl has told me all
about you.” Her voice. Holy crap it was sexy.

   
I wanted to tell her hello, but my mouth refused to work. I ended
up nodding at her stupidly before turning on my heel and walking back into the
house. I realized I probably seemed rude, but this was the first time I had
ever come face to face with such a gorgeous woman. I opened the back door and
walked quickly past my mom.

   
“Cheryl is here,” I managed to say as I made my way back to the
stairs and to the sanctuary of my bedroom. When I got there I flopped down on
my bed cursing myself for being such a pussy. What the hell is wrong with me
that I couldn’t even talk to a hot girl? I had to snap out of it immediately
and try to reclaim some coolness. I was in high school now; I couldn’t let
myself look like a fool.

I stood back up and
walked over to my closet. The first order of business was to change out of my
sweats and into something that made me look more mature. I pulled out some
jeans and a blue sweater. I kicked off my sneakers and sweats and hastily
pulled on my jeans. I left my tee shirt on and put the sweater on over it. It
didn’t hurt to bulk up a little bit. I pulled my sneakers back on because I
didn’t want to look like I was trying too hard and I tried to smooth down my
hair. I was going to go back down and impress…shoot, I don’t remember what
Cheryl called her. Damn it. Now I was going to look stupid if I asked her name.
I shook my head and started back down to the kitchen. I could hear the females
talking so I straightened up before walking into the room.

“There you
are. Are you okay sweetie? Cheryl said you were acting strange outside.” I gave
Cheryl a glare before answering.

“I’m fine. I just
remembered something and I had to take care of it before I forgot.” Whew. My
voice had recovered and I sounded coherent. Cheryl looked me over and raised
her brow. I should have realized she would notice that I changed clothes.
Luckily she didn’t say anything out loud, though.

“Well, I hope everybody
is hungry. Justine, I made chili in honor of your visit.” Justine, her name is Justine.
Thanks mom.

“I certainly am. Thank
you for going to all this trouble for me, Sharon.” Justine was the only one of
us to express her feelings of hunger. Cheryl and I knew mom’s cooking for what
it was. Practically inedible. Mom pulled some bowls down from the cabinet and
started doling out portions.

“Not much
for me, Mom. I’m not that hungry.” I was starving but I would come back later
and make a sandwich or something. I wasn’t going to sit here and try to choke
down the “chili” in front of Cheryl’s friend. I wanted to look smooth in front
of her and there was no way to do that while eating mom’s cooking.

“Me either. I didn’t know
you were cooking and I ate some Twinkies before we left.” Cheryl knew the
drill, too. Poor Justine was going to be taken off guard by mom’s food.

We all sat
down at the kitchen table and I took the opportunity to grab a handful of
shredded cheese to dilute the chili taste. When I looked down at my bowl it was
easily two thirds cheese. Perfect.

I was trying to watch Justine
out of the corner of my eye. She was so pretty that it was making me act
unnaturally.

“So
Carter, what grade are you in?” Oh no, she was talking to me directly. I tried
to look nonchalant as I met her eyes.

“I’m a
freshman.” I thought that sounded better than saying ninth grade.

She smiled at me and I
could feel myself blushing. Geez, this had never happened with Cheryl’s other
friends. Okay, that wasn’t entirely true, Heather was pretty hot, but she
didn’t have anything on Justine. She was like a goddess.

“So Justine, what’s your
major?” My mom stepped into the breach left by my embarrassed silence.

“English.
I want to write but I didn’t want to go into Journalism. I really wanted to go
to cooking school but my mother insisted that I go to a “real” school.” She
made air quotes around the word real and rolled her eyes, so I figured she
didn’t agree with her mother’s assessment of her educational choices.

“Well, I’m glad you came
to UT, otherwise I wouldn’t have met you.” Cheryl piped in while stirring her
bowl. No one but Mom had taken a bite yet. Maybe Cheryl had alerted Justine in
advance. I hoped so; it didn’t seem fair to make a guest eat this food without
forewarning.

Justine smiled and took a
bite. She kept smiling as she chewed her mouthful. I looked at Cheryl and she
winked at me. Good, that meant Justine knew what was up and was being polite.
It made her that much cooler to me.

We sat there chatting and
“eating” for about half an hour more before I got up.
 
It was almost time for me to go to my friend
Jeff’s house. Crud. It had seemed like a good idea to make plans to be out of
the house tonight when Cheryl said she was bringing a friend, but now I was mad
at myself. I wished I could make up a reason to stay home but his mom was
taking us to a movie.

“Well, I have to go. Mom,
can I have some money for a movie?” It sucked that I had to ask my mother for cash
in front of Justine, but I didn’t have anything left after I spent my money on
my new telescope. I was actually kicking myself about that purchase since I
lived in
Austin
and the sky was drowned out by all of the light.

“You can grab a twenty
out of my purse. Do you want me to drive you?” God, this was getting worse by
the minute. Now mom was pointing out that I was too young to drive. I needed to
get out of here before I looked like even more of a kid to Justine.

“Nah, I’m
good.” I walked over to mom’s purse and grabbed out a twenty dollar bill before
stuffing it in my front pocket.

“Bye Carter, see you
later.” Cheryl got up to hug me so I hugged her back.

“It was nice meeting you,
Carter.” Justine’s smooth voice made my name sound like a caress. I think I’m
in love.

“You too. Bye Mom.” I
walked out the back door and into the garage to get my bike. I hopped on and
took off to ride the four blocks to Jeff’s house. I had just met my dream girl.
I just hoped Cheryl would stay friends with her so that I would have a chance
to get to know her better. Next time I would be ready with some intelligent
conversation and possibly some witty banter. As I got closer to Jeff’s house I
peddled faster; I could hardly wait to tell him about Justine.