Free If You Want Me by Kayla Perrin Page A

Tanisha?”
    “It’s all right, Marcus,” Alice said. She was a big girl; she didn’t need him fighting her battles.
    “No, it’s not okay. This is classic Tanisha. Lie when it benefits you—”
    Tanisha looked wounded.
    “Marcus, it really doesn’t matter.” Though the fact that he was standing up for her with Tanisha was almost worth the trip back to Chicago. At least he’d figured out her true colors.
    “If you must know,” Tanisha answered, “I have some concerns. About her reputation. It could hurt the theater.”
    “What the hell are you talking about?” Marcus asked angrily.
    Alice shot him an exasperated look. If Tanisha didn’t want her help, that was fine with her. She certainly wasn’t going to beg the woman.
    “ She knows what I’m talking about,” Tanisha said with a flip of her head in Alice’s direction.
    “I have no clue what you’re talking about,” Alice replied dryly.
    “For goodness’ sake, it’s all over the papers.”
    “What papers?” Alice asked her, getting more confused by the second.
    Tanisha finally looked at her. “ The Intellect , Desirée. You’re featured on the front cover.”

Five
    “Oh, my God.” Alice groaned as she scanned the picture of herself on the front cover of one of the nation’s biggest tabloid papers and the blurb beneath it. The picture was actually flattering; it had been taken at this year’s Golden Globe Awards right after she’d received her award for best supporting actress in a dramatic series, and she looked stunning in a shimmering gold gown. But no one would remember that wonderful moment in her career, not when the caption below screamed: Sex-Starved Desirée! Find out why this hot actress was fired from her latest film. More on page three.
    “This was the only one?” Alice asked.
    Marcus nodded. “There was no mention of you in any of the other tabloids.”
    After leaving the theater, Marcus had insisted on following Alice to her house in his car to drop Mia off, then the two of them had gotten into his Mustang and driven to the nearest variety store. Marcus had gone inside and purchased the paper, then returned to her, a frown marring his handsome features as he dropped the paper onto her lap.
    “For now,” Alice said glumly. “If The Intellect has printed this story, it can’t be long before the rest of the nation’s tabloids report their version of it.”
    She seemed genuinely shocked and mortified by the story, but Marcus couldn’t help wondering if the story was true. After all, she was an actress. She could easily be acting surprised now.
    “You want to talk about it?” he asked. No matter the situation, he felt the old need to be there for her.
    Alice rolled up the paper into a tube shape, effectively hiding the front cover. “Not really.”
    “Who’s the guy in the picture with you?”
    “Oh, him,” Alice replied, wishing Marcus hadn’t reminded her of that sour chapter in her life. “That’s Noel Sanders.”
    “You were engaged to him, weren’t you?”
    As a celebrity, her private life had been public knowledge, so she shouldn’t have been surprised that Marcus knew about her brief engagement, yet she was. She wondered if that meant he had followed her career. “ Was is the key word. Talk about a lapse in judgment.”
    Marcus started the car and drove along the tree-lined street in silence, heading in a different direction than they’d come. Alice wondered where he was taking her and was about to ask until she saw the familiar old building in the distance.
    She chuckled, a hint of fondness in the sound. “Maxi’s is still there?”
    “Yep.”
    He pulled up in front of the old building, which sat on the corner of the street. The yellow awning was still there, though the x in Maxi’s was fading, making the sign look like it read Mavi’s.
    “There are a few more choices here,” Marcus told her as his eyes met hers across the front seat. “No longer just doughnuts and coffee. They’ve got soup,