Authors: Arielle Archer
“You can’t come in here,” Samantha said.
Good ol’ Samantha. I felt warm and fuzzy all over as she told him to get lost. Only this wasn’t her battle to fight. No, I needed to take care of this.
“I need to talk to Jessica,” Sean said. He peered past Samantha and locked eyes with me. “Did you hear me? I need to talk to you Jessica!”
I walked up to the door. “What’s the matter? Upset you didn’t get your evening booty call like you were planning?”
I put a hand on the Samantha’s arm. “I’ve got this, but thanks.”
“You sure?” Samantha asked.
“I’m sure. This won’t take long,” I said with a pointed look at Sean.
Samantha shrugged. “Suit yourself. I’ll be in my room. If you need me to call the cops just yell.”
I turned back to Sean as Samantha made her way back to her room. “What do you want?”
“I just want to talk to you,” Sean said, pleading in his eyes. Pleading that almost made me feel sorry for him. Almost. “Can I come in?”
“No,” I said. I’d done it. He could fuck off now as far as I was concerned. I wasn’t interested in anything he had to say, only he insisted on continuing to talk.
“I was terrified when I saw you sitting with Carrie,” he said.
I arched an eyebrow. “Oh? Afraid I’d learn the truth?”
“What you heard from her was a version of the truth,” he said.
“A version of the truth? She said you had some fun with her over a convention weekend a couple of years back and then you left her high and dry. That seems pretty cut and dry to me.”
His shoulders slumped and once more I felt vindicated. I felt like I’d been absolutely correct. And at the same time I hated that I was absolutely correct in my assessment. It was silly, but there was still a part of me that very much wished I’d been wrong.
“Okay, so I know that looks bad. And what she said was more or less what happened. We had a little fun at this convention a couple of years ago, but I decided things weren’t going to work out between us. I broke things off on the last day and she’s never been happy about it. It’s always made coming to the convention here a little awkward because she always uses that bullshit story to gain sympathy with some of the volunteer organizers and get a spot close to me,” he said. “And when I saw her talking to you…”
“You mean when you saw her telling me the truth about who you are?”
“That’s not who I am!”
I heard a door open and turned to see Samantha sticking her head out. I shook my head slightly and waved her off, let her know that everything was okay. That he hadn’t gone completely crazy.
“I tried to explain this to you earlier,” he said. “You have no idea what this can be like. What people act like around me.”
“Oh yeah,” I said. “Poor little rich and famous boy. Life’s so hard you can’t even finish the latest book in your series.”
“Yeah, that’s part of the reason,” he said. “I deal with this all the time. All she was interested in was Sean Taylor the famous writer. Sean Taylor the rich guy. You’re not like that! You’re different!”
I couldn’t help but laugh as he said that. “Different? I’m different? Why would you expect me to actually believe that line of bullshit?”
“Because it’s true!”
I felt lightheaded. I felt darkness moving in and around the edges of my vision and I was falling forward. I managed to throw my hand out to steady myself against the door frame even as his hands reached out and encircled my waist causing a weird conflicting mix of emotions to wash over me.
Oh how I wanted what he said to be true. How I wanted to believe him. For that matter how I loved the feel of his hands wrapped around my waist holding me there. It was almost enough to make me forget everything that had happened, but not quite. It was too much. The damage was too great.
And so that mixture of longing, of wishing he would finally tell me the truth, was replaced by something else. By anger. White-hot anger. I looked up and locked eyes with him.
“Get your hands off of me,” I growled.
His own eyes widened and he took a step back. His hands left me and I felt a pang of disappointment even as I felt satisfaction.
I poked him in the chest and he took another step back. “You don’t understand. Carrie is crazy! “Did she tell you everything? Did she tell you how she spent the entire weekend gushing about how she couldn’t believe she was with Sean Taylor? Did she tell how I took her to dinner on Friday night and the next day she tried to use the fact that she was my “girlfriend” to bully people in the dealer hall into giving her free stuff, and when that didn’t work she tried to get them to expense it to my account? Did she tell you how I didn’t find out about any of that until I discovered her trying to break into my laptop so she could get at my notes and figure out what was going to happen next in the story? I can’t even bring my laptop to these conventions anymore because of her! We didn’t even have sex! She’s a crazy who meant nothing to me!”
I took a deep breath. He might have a point. I could understand where he was coming from after everything that had happened to him. But it still didn’t change one simple fact.
“She sounds crazy. I could tell from talking to her,” I said.
Sean breathed a sigh of relief. He smiled at me as though he thought that made everything better. But it wasn’t. How I wished it was, but it wasn’t.
“But none of that changes the fact that you lied to me. You’ve lied to me at every step of our relationship. Most of them have been good surprises, but it doesn’t change the fact that you’ve lied. Well no more lies. No more bullshit. I’m done with it. I want to believe you, but what makes you think I would after everything you’ve done? You’ve lied to me since the moment we met each other and I’m supposed to believe that I’m different from another girl that you brought to a convention, banged, and then tossed aside when you were done with her?”
“I didn’t bang her!” Sean said.
“Yeah, the jury’s still out on that. Why should I believe you there given all the other crazy lies?”
“But this is different…”
“Different? I don’t think you’ve told me a single true thing the entire time we’ve known each other! And you expect me to start believing you now?”
His mouth worked silently for a moment but he obviously couldn’t think of anything good to say. Obviously couldn’t think of a good defense.
“My biggest regret is that I think I was really starting to fall for you,” I said. “But after all the lies and half-truths I don’t think I could believe a thing you told me. I don’t think there’s a genuine bone in your body. So I’m leaving tomorrow. You won’t have me to kick around anymore.”
And then I hit a button and the elevator door closed in his face. I heard one last “Jessica, wait!” but that didn’t stop me. I leaned against the door and slid down. I felt tears come to my eyes and then I was sobbing. How I wanted to believe him. How I wanted him to be telling the truth. Only I was completely right. How could I believe him when everything he’d told me the entire time we’d known one another had been a lie or a half truth?
I’d have plenty of time to think about that when I got home. Right now I just needed to cry.
I sighed as I got everything together in my backpack. It was amazing how everything I’d planned on wearing for the convention could fit into one oversized laptop backpack. Oh well. I always traveled light. And I suppose that was a good thing and this time.
I briefly considered going down to the dealer hall to get a souvenir, but ultimately I decided against it. Anything I bought down there would be related to Elassa. Even if I could find something that wasn’t related to the books in any way it’d still have the taint of this trip. No, better to just cut ties completely and get the hell out of here.
I paused in the suite wondering if I should bother Samantha, but decided against it. I wanted her to enjoy the rest of her weekend. I wanted her to have a good time even if I couldn’t. At least somebody should get some enjoyment out of that suite and VIP tickets.
Of course she was waiting for me when I stepped off the elevator.
“Trying to sneak away?” she asked with a grin.
“Maybe,” I said.
“Not happening,” she said. “Now let’s go get you a cab.”
We stepped out of the elevator and I went for the hotel lobby but Samantha grabbed my arm and pulled me towards one of the sky walks. The sky walk that led from the hotel to the convention center. I stopped.
“I’m not going to the convention,” I said.
“Of course you’re not going to the convention. You’re going to the front of the convention center to get a cab. Have you ever tried getting a cab at a hotel first thing in the morning when all the business types are trying to leave? It’s not fun,” Samantha said.
I rolled my eyes but followed her. She had a weird way of being right about that sort of thing. Maybe I would save time by going to the convention center. I still had plenty of time to get to the airport, but I didn’t want to cut things too close.
And so I found myself walking through the elevated tunnels to the convention center with Samantha walking in silence beside me. The convention center was last place in the world I wanted to go right now with all of its reminders of yesterday and how wonderful that day had been before everything came crashing down around me. I wiped moisture away from my eyes. Damn it. I didn’t want Samantha to see me like this. I wasn’t going to think about that. I wasn’t going to think about him. I just needed to get the hell out of here before I lost it.
Samantha kept glancing over to me but whenever I looked back at her she was staring straight ahead with a weird look on her face. Maybe she noticed the tears?
We went down an escalator from the sky walk into the convention center and what I saw there amazed me even as it filled me with apprehension. The place seemed oddly deserted. Eerily deserted. The convention center was packed yesterday and today was supposed to be even busier, but there wasn’t a single person around. No convention center staff. No attendees. Sure this was just a hall feeding from hotels into the convention center but I still figured it’d be packed like yesterday. Had the thing been called off for today and I didn’t get the memo or something?
“What’s going on here?” I asked.
“No idea,” Samantha said. “I thought you didn’t care about the convention?”
I frowned. “I don’t. Let’s go get a cab.”
I sighed and we made my way towards where the actual convention was happening. Surely there’d be somebody there. Only the emptiness continued as we made our way through the convention center. The place was a complete ghost town like. Where the hell was everybody? It was like one of those twilight zone episodes where somebody finds themselves in an alternate dimension or something. That eerie emptiness continued right up to the moment we rounded a corner and stepped into the massive two floor hall that ran next to the Elassa Con dealer hall.
I stopped and stared.
We’d found everybody.
The main concourse was open on the second floor allowing people to walk the halls upstairs and look down on the first floor. Every railing on the second floor was lined with people staring down. All the walls along the first floor were lined with people as well. They were packed at least ten deep running down the entire length of the convention center. And there at the end, near the entrance that opened out onto one of the streets in downtown Indy, a lone figure stood.
I turned and looked at Samantha who was grinning at me. I wanted to punch her in the face. Apparently my desire to punch her in the face was pretty clearly communicated through that look because she held up her hands defensively and took a step back.
“You can still get a cab and leave,” Samantha said. “But I’m going to say my piece. I heard your argument last night and I think he had some good points. I think you’re looking for any excuse you can find to run away from what’s probably the best damn thing to happen to you in awhile.”
I balled my hand into a fist, anger pumping through me, but then I released it. I let out a sigh and all the tension I’d been feeling all morning drained out of me.
“You really think so?” I asked.
Samantha stepped forward and wrapped me in a hug. “Just do what feels right Jess. Don’t go crazy over thinking things or thinking about all the ways something could go wrong. Let something go right for a change.”
I sighed as she released the hug and turned to look behind me. There was still a clear path back to the hotel if I wanted to escape. Apparently everyone at the convention had gathered in this hall. Waiting for me. I couldn’t believe there was an entire convention of people waiting for me.
I seriously considered escape, only something stopped me. I turned and looked at the crowd again. At everybody staring in absolute silence, all of them hopeful, and then I looked down at that lone figure standing at the head of the crowd.
He’d gone to this much trouble. I might regret it, I might decide it was the most ridiculous decision I ever made, but I figured the least I owed him was hearing him out if he went to all this trouble. I still couldn’t quite believe that this was all for my benefit, but after everything else that had happened this weekend I could also very much believe it.
So I took a hesitant step forward. No one stopped me. It seemed this show definitely was for my benefit. So I walked down the center of that big group of fans. All of them staring at me expectantly.
I got closer to that figure standing alone. Sean in a nice-looking suit, a single rose in his hand and a hopeful smile on his face. A smile that grew bigger and an expression that grew ever more hopeful the closer I got.
Finally I stood in front of him. I fixed him with my best neutral stare. If he thought all this was going to impress me or pressure me into anything then he had another thing coming, but I was also mulling over everything Samantha said. Was I trying to sabotage this?
Sean got down on his knees and held the rose up to me. I blinked in surprise. I wasn’t expecting that.
“Jessica,” he said, his voice catching for a moment and then he seemed to get control of himself.
He was either the world’s best actor or this was a genuine moment. In a daze I took the rose, still not quite believing this was happening. Still not quite believing I was actually going along with this after all the anger and shouting yesterday. Finally he seemed to regain control of himself and he started talking again.
“You were absolutely right last night Jessica. I haven’t been honest with you. I did it because I was afraid, but I should’ve given you more credit than that. I realize that now I’m going to be completely honest with you from here on out. I want to start over with you.””
I was getting a little overwhelmed myself. I was weak in the knees. Actually, shit. I was losing it. I was falling to the floor only he caught me in his arms and I wanted to sigh and just lean into him, but I couldn’t. Not yet. I owed him an apology.
“I’m sorry for not listening to you,” I said. “I think I was afraid and it was easier to lash out at you and believe my version of reality than admit to myself how I feel about you.”
He arched a sexy eyebrow. “How do you feel about me?”
I arched my own eyebrow. “That’s not obvious? I love you, you idiot!”
He stood and held out his hand. Not the reaction I was expecting but I took his hand and he lifted me up. “In that case we’d better start this out right. Hi. My name’s Sean Taylor. I write books, I’m here with a few thousand of my closest friends, and I’m falling absolutely, totally, irretrievably head over heels in love with you too.”
I launched myself at him. I had the satisfaction of seeing his eyes go wide and then a moment later he was wrapping his arms around me and our lips came together. We were locked in a passionate embrace with thousands of fans erupting and cheering around us. I closed my eyes and I was completely oblivious to the world around me. My entire world was Sean, that incredible kiss, and a wave of relief that was washed over me.
Maybe I was going to get my happily ever after!
I have to admit it felt a little weird to have my love life playing out in front of an audience of thousands, but I suppose I was going to have to get used to that sort of thing if I was going to be dating one of the most successful authors in the world. I pulled away from the kiss and disentangled myself from him, turned around to look at the crowd gathered for us.
Sean held up a hand and everyone immediately grew quiet. I marveled at the level of control he seemed to have over his fans, at the level of dedication they had.
“I want to thank all of you for taking the time to help me out this morning,” Sean said. “I really appreciate it. And I want to introduce all of you to my new girlfriend, and incidentally my new muse who’s got me working on the next book again. Everybody, meet Jessica!”
I looked up at him and blinked in disbelief. His girlfriend? Then I smiled. Yeah, his girlfriend. I liked the sound of that.
Even the worst-case scenario part of my brain couldn’t argue with that. That announcement had a finality to it. I wasn’t just a one night stand. I wasn’t just someone he was having no strings attached fun with at the convention. No, this was a relationship. It was a whirlwind romance, to be sure, but it was a hell of a lot more rock solid than I’d worried it might be.
Once more everyone erupted into applause. Whether for our budding romance or announcing the new book was anyone’s guess.
I wasn’t sure what to do, so I just went with the moment and pulled him into another kiss.
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