“You’re dating a man who’s in the public eye. Who the press adores, and fawns over. That man also runs a sex toy company that is well known for supplying to BDSM clubs, and for better or for worse, some people find those clubs seedy. That’s just reality, and you can’t change that. That’s why you need to be more cautious than if you were dating a cop, or a teacher, or even the CEO of a dishwasher detergent company. Do you know what I mean?”
“Sure,” Michelle said with a crisp nod. Carla had always given her smart advice.
“He doesn’t have to worry about boundaries and public or private lives in the same way you do. You’re an intimate relationship therapist, and you have to be cautious, in the same way that a teacher or police officer would be. Society has certain expectations about different professions, and we’re in one of those professions where we have to be circumspect. The reality is there are bound to be speculations about your sex life now,” she said, giving new meaning to the word blunt.
“So that’s it? This is not an It’s Raining Men situation?”
Carla laughed. “No. But I’m not saying you shouldn’t date him. If you enjoy his company and he’s good to you, then by all means, have some fun. What I’m saying is be aware of these eagle eyes that can’t seem to stop looking at him, and now at you. For better or for worse, the man is a magnet for the cameras.”
Michelle nodded, agreeing with her mentor. “I don’t think I realized just how much. We started dating a few weeks ago, and no one noticed. No one cared. And now, in the last few days, Page Six has taken an avid interest. And it was so uncomfortable when my patient asked about him. She just kind of word-vomited up this whole thing about whether we used his sex toys. Talk about boundaries,” she said, shaking her head in frustration.
Carla gave her a sympathetic smile. “Look, you won’t be the first psychotherapist to deal with dating someone in the public eye. It’s not as if you’re forbidden from it. The key is to manage it properly. That’s why I said to be careful. You don’t want your patients or colleagues to start seeing you in a particular light, and seeing you only as this man’s lover. That won’t help. And if that keeps happening, I would have to stop referring patients to you.”
Michelle’s stomach dropped at that prospect. She valued Carla’s referrals dearly, as well as the chance she was giving her to lead the upcoming workshop. “I don’t want that to happen. I want to keep growing in my career.”
“I know,” Carla said matter-of-factly. “So let’s take steps now to protect your career. And as frustrating as it may be, you need to operate under the assumption that you’re dating a celebrity. And until it becomes serious, and you’re engaged or married—not that I’m saying that will happen,” Carla said, holding up a hand when Michelle’s eyes threatened to pop out of her head because clearly she and Jack were never getting married, let alone going to date beyond thirty days, “—you simply need to be chaste in public, but behind closed doors,” Carla said, lowering her voice to a conspiratorial whisper, even though it was only the two of them in her office, “feel free to have some fabulous sex.”
“Carla!” Michelle pretended to be taken aback.
Carla wiggled her eyebrows. “Is it fantastic? Is that why you’ve been glowing lately?”
She brought her hand to her cheek, as if she could discover this so-called glow everyone kept noticing. “Am I glowing?”
Carla laughed. “No. But you seem happy. Truly happy, and I hope you are. And I also hope you’re having great sex. Because everyone should. Besides, isn’t great sex something to strive for in an intimate relationship?”
“I suppose it is,” she said, and she and Jack certainly had great sex in spades. They also had an intimate relationship. Which was a weirder thought because where she came from intimate relationships were more than just great sex. And that’s what she and Jack had to be about. The sex; only the sex. Nothing more.
Besides, these problems would all end in a few more days. The clock was ticking, unspooling minutes and seconds until their thirty days expired in a little more than one week. She fast-forwarded over the next ten days. She’d be spending half of them abroad. Without him. Which would suck royally because their plan was working, at least for her. Her heart was healing. Clay was in the rearview mirror. She felt like herself again. Like she could breathe and live and feel without the weight of all that urequited-ness yanking her down.
She didn’t want to miss a single second of her time with Jack. And she wanted to let him know how much she would miss him while she was away. When she walked back into her office fifteen minutes before her last appointment of the day, she returned a few quick calls to colleagues, then dialed Jack.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Too Far Gone
“I don’t want to fuck this one up.”
Jack tossed a Nerf basketball up in the air, catching it easily on the way down. He lay on his purple couch, feet crossed on the armrest, an afternoon coffee on the table. Casey lounged on the chair with her cinnamon dolce latte and an iPad, as they reviewed their plans for the upcoming charity gala. He also needed to talk to her about his meeting later this week in Los Angeles with the CEO of one of their online retail partners.
She shot him an inquisitive look, tilting her head to the side. “The charity gala? ‘Cause you’re good at fucking up a lot of things, but I don’t even know how you could mess that up,” she said, then the corner of her lips twitched playfully.