SLEAZE: A Hollywood Comeback Story (Book #1)

Chapter 53

"I wanted to be with you," she exclaimed, stepping towards me. Her toes were bright red from where her shoes had dug into her feet and they looked angry against my cheap linoleum floor. Swaying slightly, Sophie's gaze traveled in an unfocused circle around my face. "I miss you."

I traced my fingertips along the curve of her cheekbones. Sophie's face looked thin, almost as sunken in as it had been in January. Make-up filled in the dark circles that curved around her lower lids but nothing could hide the way her collarbones protruded from her body like knives.

"Do you want something to eat?" I asked, motioning towards my cooling sandwich. Sophie wrinkled her nose with distaste.

"No, thanks." She let go of me to hold her own midsection. "I'm not hungry."

"Sophie," I began, but then shook my head. She seemed like she was in a good mood tonight; was there any point in upsetting her? "Whatever."

Still eyeing me, Sophie shed her outfit in an unceremonious heap before dashing off to my bedroom. By the time I draped her short grey dress over an arm of my couch, she'd returned wearing sweatpants and one of my collared shirts. Although we weren't that far apart in height, she looked like she was drowning in the fabric. "You're so skinny," I blurted, unable to stop myself from commenting on how little she weighed.

Sophie glanced down and I couldn't help but stare at the way her hip bones pushed against her sweatpants' heavy material. Instead of protesting, she shrugged. "Did you get my text?" she asked, taking a seat at my rarely used kitchen table.

Careful not to burn myself on the pan, I picked up my toasted sandwich and began peeling off the crusts. "Yeah, I replied."

"Did you?" Sophie frowned. "Well, anyway, what do you think?"

"About you going on a vacation? I think it's a good idea."

A really, really good idea.

"No, about us going on a trip."

Surprised, I looked up at Sophie while she moved animatedly in her seat. "I want to go to Santorini, or maybe Hokkaido -- I can speak some Japanese, you know -- or even, like, Guam. I want to fly somewhere."

She spoke so quickly that the words blended together like a tongue twister. I couldn't tell if she was joking or not but as she continued her drunken rambling, the wild twinkle in her eye told me that she might be serious. "Sophie, I'm broke."

"So? I'll pay for you."

Clearly she wasn't kidding. "No."

"You always say no," she whined, and as she kicked her feet up and down, I noticed that she'd borrowed my last pair of clean socks, too.

I sighed. "I have a job. You have jobs. We can't fly around the world because you want to."

"God, you're like an old man. Always so serious." Sophie made a face and then groaned as a thought crossed her mind. "You saw my interview earlier, didn't you?"

When I nodded, she sighed. "Is Michael mad?"

"Well," I said slowly, "that's one way to put it."

"Great." She rested her head on the table and swore. "Can you tell him I'm sorry?"

"Tell him yourself."

Sophie peeked at me. "I'd rather not."

I didn't blame her.

"Tell him why I did it, too," she continued. "Tell him that I lost it. I didn't mean to, obviously, but I couldn't take it. I'm just so tired of--of people treating me like..."