Fin considered the pile of messages in his inbox. Juggling so many projects, all hurling at him with urgent deadlines, he now understood the stress Alex was under back in October. The movie script he’d been playing with in Houston was now in its final revision, and the hiring call for actors was out to various agencies. Mac was in talks with a director about the film, while Fin and Addie worked on building their production team. The response had been overwhelming. He had no idea Hollywood would receive his debut project with such enthusiasm. He hoped the momentum kept going.
While his career was suddenly taking off in new directions, his love life appeared stuck in neutral. He and Alex touched base every night. Sometimes only in passing via text message or voicemail exchanges. When they could connect, they were often either too busy or too exhausted to have any deep, meaningful discussions. They still talked about important topics, but the time available didn’t allow that same connection they had when in person. And he missed holding her. His growing dissatisfaction with the long-distance relationship wore on him. He understood now why showbiz people dated and married other showbiz people. Who knew schedule coordination was a real consideration for selecting a proper mate?
He stood and stretched the rest of his body, hoping to work out the stiffness from sitting at a desk most of the day. His thoughts strayed to Alex again. Phone sex was something he’d never engaged in before, but Fin discovered it had its place. And Alex excelled at it. The woman both frustrated and delighted him. As he remembered last night’s call, he glared at his wall calendar, then moved into the first of his tai chi forms meant to calm his mind.
“Hey, boss… hello… anyone home?” His new assistant’s voice broke through his daydreaming and brought him back to the present.
“Yes, Kathy?” Fin stopped mid-movement and turned to her.
“Wow, you were miles away. Must be a great meditation technique.” She grinned at him. “You have a call on line one. Alex?”
“Right. Thank you.” The muscle in his jaw clenched as he strode toward his desk.
Chapter21
Insight
Alex hungup the phone and sat back on her couch, rubbing Felix as he lounged in her lap. She’d always seen the calm, considerate, and fun side of Fin, with occasional glimpses of quiet anger when dealing with the press. This was the first time she’d caused his frustration.
His life had become as busy as hers. The ideas lingering in his mind for years were now living, breathing things that had taken off all at once. She knew from experience his head was spinning with the unexpected fast pace of everything happening in unison.
But what she got from the phone call wasn’t stress from his world spinning faster. From everything she could tell, he thrummed with renewed energy toward his career. No, what she sensed on the call was aggravation with her and their circumstances.
One of Fin’s primary objectives when he’d left Houston in October was to find time for them. With her world running at full-throttle and his ramping up, the time he sought was an elusive thing that slipped away when you looked for it.
Alex stretched out on the couch, making herself more comfortable, and pondered her current situation. Until last month, everything in her life had revolved around her career. She’d even organized her personal life to accommodate her work schedule. She played volleyball and gathered with friends when she wasn’t working. As recently brought to her attention, she chose the men she dated by how well they fit into her work life, and discarded any who wanted more than she wanted to give.
Felix bumped her hand to signal her neglect of her rubbing duties. Alex scratched him in his favorite spots as she considered those two weeks with Fin.
Fin had blown in like a hurricane, completely disrupting her life and making her reconsider what was important. But once he’d left town, she’d fallen back into her regular patterns, focusing her time on her career rather than her personal life.
And she missed him. Oh man, did she miss him. They talked or texted every day, but those interactions didn’t contain the same intensity as having him here. She had told him she was all in and she would try, but had she really been trying? No, she’d been drifting along the same way she did before he came into her life. She decided his annoyance was justified. She wasn’t holding up her part of the bargain.
With that conclusion, she moved Felix to the side and stood. Time for her to become part of the couple, not just give it lip service. She fixed a quick salad and poured a glass of wine, then sat down with her laptop to study their shared calendar.
After seeing what Fin noted, that their schedules showed them traveling in opposite directions for the next six months, she changed tactics and looked for opportunities to meet up during their travels, rather than taking complete breaks in their calendars. On the fourth sweep, she found a potential candidate and dialed Fin’s cell number.
“Hey, lass. I’m sorry about earlier—” he began.
“No, you were right to be frustrated. I haven’t been pulling my weight in this, leaving you to worry about our personal stuff. But I have an idea. The first week in December, when you fly to Los Angeles, you entered your actual itinerary rather than a destination. Can you get all your itineraries entered this way?”
“Aye, but why?”
“Well, from the flight details you entered, I can see that you have connecting flights in New York City. I’m flying to London that weekend. If I route through New York with a layover and you rearrange your flights, we could squeeze in a short weekend together.”
“Truly? That’s brilliant!”
“Right? I’m thinking if we enter our itinerary information in this calendar, we may find more moments like this.”
“I’ll begin straight away.” He paused, then asked, “Are you okay if I give my assistant access to the calendar? She can update it with the travel details and keep it updated in the future.”
“Um, do you trust her?”
“Aye.”
“Yeah, okay. If you trust her, then I will too. And Fin… I’m sorry for not committing fully. I see that now. I slipped back into my former pattern of putting my job first and let you carry the load on our relationship. If I do that again, give me a nudge, okay?”
“Dinnae be too hard on yourself. This is unfamiliar territory for both of us. We’ll get it straight. And if I have to bash you over your stubborn Texas head, I’ll be happy to do so.”
