When Dreams Come to Life (22 page)

“Make sure you see who it is first,” I say, worried that Trent could be back for round two. Vicki looks through the peep hole.

“It’s the food,” she calls out, still laughing. She opens the door and I hold my breath. The paparazzi can be stealthy - I wouldn’t put it past them to pay a delivery guy to try and get some pictures.

After I watch her hand the money over and shut the door, I let my breath out. As she walks back over, I look at the bag. She’s ordered the best subs in Denver.
Yes!
She hands me my sub.

“I got you the pastrami on an Italian loaf.”

“Sounds amazingly tasty right now. Thank you.” I look at her and chomp down, taking a huge bite. Vicki smiles at me with food in her mouth. I turn the TV on and of course, the news is on.
Damn it!
The anchor is reading the local news. I wait for my story to come up and sure enough, there it is.

             
“Local chef Lea McKenzie was arrested today for the assault of ex-partner, Trent Dallas. A witness to the crime tells us the altercation, which took place out the front of McKenzie’s restaurant, Conrad’s, was over the chef’s new relationship with actor Eoin Skye.

Skye is best known for his role as the vampire Joseph White in the new hit series, Memoirs of a Vampire, which can be seen Fridays on HBO.

The suspect’s lawyer, Olivia Stern, of Stern & Stern Inc., released the following statement this afternoon:

‘The confrontation between my client and Mr. Dallas was in no way connected to Mr. Skye. My client was protecting herself from a man who not only has a history of domestic violence, but who has harassed her on several occasions in the past six months. We will be filing for dismissal of the charge, as well as filing a restraining order against Mr. Dallas.’

No further comments were given by Mrs. Stern or the suspect. Mr. Dallas has also refused to comment about the incident or the charges. We will keep you up to date on this story as it unfolds.”

             
We both just stare at the television in shock. Vicki finally turns to me.

“What a load of shit, calling you a suspect. He’s the trash of the story.” I shake my head in reply.

This is just perfect. They showed a picture of me, but at least it wasn’t a mug shot. They even pictured the damn restaurant.

“I just hope this is over quickly. Thank goodness Olivia gave a short but to-the-point statement. I’m curious why Trent didn’t open his fat trap this time, though. I’m worried he’s going to use it against me in the future.”

“If he breaks the restraining order, he’ll go to jail, Lea. Try not to stress about it too much,” Vicki says. “Maybe you should tell Eoin to get one as well.”

“He’ll do what he thinks is best but it doesn’t seem like he’s worried about Trent. I wish he would be, though.”

“Just wait to see what he says when he calls. No more talking about it. Let’s just finish our dinner and relax.” I nod and flip the channel to a movie so I can finish my dinner.

Looking at the time, I wonder when Eoin’s going to call. I need to hear his voice - it will tell me if he’s mad at me or not.

All I can think about is Eoin and what he must be thinking, how he must be feeling about this. I lay my head back on the couch and try not to think about it anymore. All I can do is wait.

I close my eyes and start to drift off but shake myself out of it. I don’t want to miss Eoin’s call. I sit up and grab my beer, finishing it. Vicki hands me another one and again, I take a huge swig.

“Slow down, killer,” she laughs, looking at me. “It’s not going to help if you’re smashed when he calls, is it?”
No, it certainly isn’t.

“I know. I’ll slow down ‘til after he calls.” She laughs at me and my phone starts ringing. It’s Eoin.
Deep breath, Lea!
I head to my bedroom to get some privacy.

“Hi.”

“Are you okay, Lea?” Shit. He sounds really upset.

“I’m fine. I’m so sorry, Eoin. I should’ve never done that. Please forgive me.”

“He deserved it. Is your hand okay?” I haven’t even looked at or thought about it. I glance down and see that it’s swollen and I have a cut on my middle knuckle.

“It’s swollen but it will be fine.” I realize he hasn’t said whether or not he forgives me. My face pales.

“Did Scott help you get out quickly? He said he gave the officer the money and that the cop said he would do what he could to speed the process up.”

“Yes, he did. I thanked him for his help and I’ve asked him to drive me around until it calms down.” I suck in a breath. “There was mass media at the jail, too. We went out the back so I could avoid them.” I hear an irritated sigh on the other end.

“Eoin, I really am sorry. I lost it and I should’ve known better than to do something so stupid and selfish.”

“I know you do. What did your lawyer say? Will she be able to get the charges dropped?” Oh, he’s definitely mad at me, I can hear it in his voice. I want to cry. I explain what Olivia told me and that she’s already filed the necessary paperwork.

“She said that we’ll know what’s going to happen in a few days. She sent me an email earlier to say she has a meeting with the D.A. tomorrow, too.”

“Good. Do you still have your interview with the magazine tomorrow?” Shit, I forgot about that.

“I haven’t had any calls from them saying otherwise but we’ll see if she still shows up tomorrow.”

“I’m sure she will. I haven’t been approached by any reporters about this so I think it’ll blow over soon. I think people can see that what you did was not necessarily the right thing, but not wrong either.”

“I hope you’re right. Anyway, how was your day? Is everything going well down there?”

“Yes, I’m flying back to Atlanta tomorrow to film. Okay, I need to get back to the volunteers but I’ll call you when I land tomorrow.” Now he’s blowing me off. My chest tightens with sadness.

“Okay, I miss you and I can’t wait to talk to you tomorrow.”

“I miss you, too. Make sure you call Scott right away if that dick shows up, okay, Lea?”

“Of course. There will be a restraining order on him by tomorrow afternoon, hopefully.”

“Good. Have a good day tomorrow and rock that interview. I know you will.”

“You, too, and safe travels. I’ll text you tomorrow and let you know how it went. Good night, Eoin.”

“Night, Lea,” he replies and hangs up. That was so not like him! I’m extremely worried. I think my actions have ruined the best thing in my life right now.

Tears fall down my face and I throw my phone across the room, and flop down on my bed, hugging my pillow tightly.

I’m going to lose Eoin if the stupid paparazzi bug him about this and splash his name all over the internet.

I fly out of bed and run back into the lounge room, heading for my laptop, scaring the crap out of Vicki in the process.

“What the hell? What’s wrong, Lea?”

“Nothing. I just want to see if there’s chatter online about what’s happened.” I type furiously and my heart jumps to my throat. It’s everywhere! Headlines from
Eoin Skye dating a thug?
to
Eoin Skye furious he is wronged again by chef criminal
flash across my screen.

I almost want to throw my laptop across the room as well. I bring up my Facebook pages and I’ve got hate messages and comments everywhere. Are people really so stupid to believe everything they read on the ‘net?

“Why? Why do people have to be so stupid, Vicki?”

“You know the truth, Lea, and so does Eoin.” I delete all of the ridiculous comments and mail and message Aurora, asking her to watch the page and make sure any nasty comments are removed.

I don’t think I’m going to have time for it for a while. Maybe ever. I have too much to deal with right now.

She agrees so I send her a quick thank you message, letting her know I’ll call her at some point to explain, and slam my laptop shut.

I peek over in Vicki’s direction and of course, she has more beer.

“Let’s just drink a few of these and dance it off. All of this’ll blow over when the charge is dropped. You know it will. You’ve just got to stick it out ’til then.”

“You’re right! Fuck all the stupid drama that’s the World Wide Web!” I head into the kitchen to pour us some shots. We throw them back and Vicki puts some music on.

We dance around like idiots, like we do oh, so well when we’re pissed off or upset. I grab my phone and ring back the first few missed calls in my log. It’s about time to let people know what’s going on but that doesn’t mean I’m going to stop dancing.

I try Crystal but she doesn’t answer so I send her a quick text.

* Where are you? *

* With Chris. Is everything okay? *

                I pause for a minute, typing out a novel-of-a-text message to explain what happened today before setting my phone down. A very familiar song comes on. Vicki and I look at each other and burst out laughing.

“Ready to do the Joseph dance, Lea?”

“Hell yes! Turn it up loud!” As Vicki dances over to the stereo, I find myself thinking about earlier, when I danced with Eoin to this and it makes my stomach do flips. As soon as I have a small feeling of happiness, there’s a knock at the door. She pauses the song so I can answer the door.

I remember at the last second to check the peephole before opening the door. It’s Crystal - Chris and Derik are with her. I swing the door open and pull them in, giving them a ridiculously big hug.

“Play the music!” I yell back at Vicki, who laughs and hits play then runs to Derik. I say hello quickly to the guys and then Crystal joins us.

We’re all laughing and smiling - this is a good distraction. The guys head into the kitchen to do some shots while we continue to bust a perfect replica of Eoin’s sexy dance from the show. Derik snaps a few pictures of us and shakes his head, a smile on his face.

At the end of the song, I grab Derik’s phone and do a quick scroll through the photos, choosing my favorite one and sending it to my phone so I can post it to Instapic. I decide to tag Eoin in it and Vicki must see the mischievous smile on my face because she gives me one back. 

I’ve got a text message so I open it quickly and see it’s from Eoin.

* Try to smile. I know it’s hard. *

I hit reply and send him the picture I posted. He texts back straight away but it’s just a smiley face. I’ll take it - it’s better than nothing at all.

Crystal calls me over.

“Dude, you totally socked Trent in the face!” Everybody bursts into laughter and Derik puts his fists up in front of his face, mock-boxing pose.

“I wish I was there to see it, Lea. That guy is a joke,” Chris says as he puts his arm around Crystal’s shoulders.

“Yeah, he is. As long as all of this goes away soon, I’ll still be glad I did it.” Of course, I don’t mention I’m really livid with myself for doing it as well - everyone is having a great time so there’s no need to ruin it. I grab my deck of cards.

“Poker, anyone?” They all shout yes in agreement, so we move to sit at the kitchen table.

The rest of the night is great, filled with conversation, laughter and happiness. I even manage to enjoy myself. I look around the table and beam - I’ve got such wonderful friends.

It’s around midnight when we decide it’s time to call it a night. I insist they all stay because we’ve all had a lot to drink, plus I have two spare rooms.

I give Vicki and Crystal a huge bear hug each. Derik steals one, too, but Chris decides on a hand shake. He grabs my sore hand but notices me wince, so he’s gentle.

After everyone is settled in their rooms, I go to mine and shut the door, noticing Maxx is already in his bed in the corner. I give him a pat and slide into my bed.

I close my eyes and sleep comes easily.
Tomorrow is a new day. Let it be a good one, please.

Fourteen

I WAKE TO my alarm buzzing. I rub the sleep out of my eyes and get ready for work. I decide to put makeup on today since I’m supposed to be doing an interview. I hope she still comes.
She will. Stop it, Lea
. I really need to stop arguing with myself. Or turn myself into the loony bin.

Looking in the mirror, I give myself a pep talk.

“You’ve got this. It will be a good day.”

With a few deep breaths, I head to the kitchen. Crystal is already awake and has coffee and a light breakfast ready for me. I smile at her.

“Thanks, dude. You’re really helping this day off to a great start.”

“It will be fine. You’re going to be in
5280
! That’s so awesome!” she replies with a cheesy-ass grin.

“I still can’t believe it. I just hope the lady still shows to do it.”