by L. D. Davis
Emmet was first to speak.
“Did you sleep with him?” he asked tightly.
I looked over at him, startled. “No!”
“That one picture…”
He didn’t have to say which picture, because I already knew which picture. It was the last one, the one that made Felix and I look like lovers.
“I know how it looked,” I said, a little alarmed at the desperation in my voice. “But that’s not how it was. He gave me his shirt after the shoot and introduced himself.”
“Everyone said that you took your shirt off yourself, no one told you to do it,” he said, watching me carefully.
I nodded slowly.
Emmet let out a low curse and pushed his hair back.
“Why, Donya? That’s not like you.”
“You’re right,” I said with a small shrug. “It’s not. I was someone else. That’s my job.”
He sighed. “I’m sorry,” he said meaningfully. “It was a shock to see you topless and pressed up against another guy for the entire world to see.”
“You would have found out in a few days,” I sighed.
“You did look…like a model,” he said reluctantly.
Hesitantly, I smiled. “Thank you.”
There was another moment of quiet. I looked out the window, and Emmet looked straight ahead.
“Are you sure you didn’t sleep with him?” he asked in a harsh whisper.
“I am still very much a virgin, Emmet,” I said, patting his hand.
He flipped his hand and laced his fingers with mine.
“He likes you,” he said softly. “He’s attracted to you.”
“Felix Hunter is attracted to anyone with a vagina,” I snickered but stopped when Emmet didn’t laugh.
“He bought you this dress,” he said, touching my knee with his other hand.
I shifted uncomfortably. “He was just being nice.”
“What would have happened if I had not come with you? Would you have gone with him to his bedroom?”
“Emmet,” I sighed. “Give me some credit. Is that what you really think of me?”
“No,” he said, shaking his head. He closed his eyes and let his head fall back on the seat. “I’m sorry. I’m just…jealous, and I have no right to be. I hated watching him touch you…and kiss you.”
I sucked in a breath and let it out in a rush. I didn’t want to have to admit to him that I had made out with Felix in a limo much like the one we were in.
“If it’s any consolation, I’m here in the limo with you. I’m not in the penthouse with Felix Hunter.”
He opened his eyes and smiled a little. “I suppose that is true.”
We arrived at the little coffee shop a few minutes later. We each ordered coffee and a slice of pie. We talked about the people we met at the party, laughing at things we couldn’t laugh at while in attendance, and we discussed scandals that happened right before us. I teased Emmet about the super model that kept trying to pull him away from me, and he teased me about the older gray-haired man that looked a lot like Hugh Hefner that invited me to his mansion in Newport, Rhode Island.
When all of the pie was gone, and we were on our third cups of coffee, the polite conversation ended.
“I miss you, Donya,” Emmet said frankly, looking me in the eyes. “There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t miss you.”
I couldn’t hold his gaze. I looked at my coffee cup and stirred the spoon slowly.
I had managed to keep that pain at bay for a long time. Though I had been hurting from our break, I needed to be able to focus on my career, but with Emmet before me, it was all pushing up towards the surface.
“What happened with us?” he whispered.
“You hid something very important from me,” I answered weakly. “I should have never found out the way I did, but that was no excuse for the cruel things I said to you. I hurt you, but hey, you got me back really good, right?”
“Donya,” he said my name desperately and reached across the table to hold my hand, but I pulled it out of his reach. I knew without looking that I had hurt him in that small action.
“Whatever you are feeling right now is not even a fraction of how I felt when you left,” I said and finally met his eyes.
“I know.” He fisted his hands on the table. “I know. I didn’t do the right thing, but I thought maybe we needed some time apart.”
“You don’t walk away from a relationship every time it gets hard,” I snapped, surprised by the vehemence in my voice.
He closed his eyes for a moment. When they opened, I saw his emotions like I was peering through a window.
“I know,” he said again. “I wanted to come back to you, but by the time I stopped being an ass about it, you were already in New York. I didn’t want to be a distraction to you.”
That revelation hurt me instead of soothing me. “You should have come to me,” I said bitterly. “Damn it, Emmet, I thought you hated me!”
There were about twenty other people in the shop. I didn’t care if anyone heard me.
“When you got the bracelet at Christmas, why didn’t you call me?” Emmet asked accusingly.
“I didn’t get the bracelet at Christmas!”
He looked confused and then patiently said, “I left it with Emmy to give to you.”
“I didn’t get it until a couple of months ago.”
He cursed and slammed a hand on the table. He looked away from me for a moment. When he turned back to me, he still seemed accusatory, but only a little less than before.
“Why didn’t you call me when you got it then?”
“Because I thought that if you wanted me to call you, you would have attached a note or something. Giving me the gift didn’t necessarily mean that you wanted to talk to me. Maybe you were feeling reminiscent when you bought it. Maybe you were saying, ‘to hell with your kisses, Donya, and your stupid candy heart. I can’t give them back to you because I got hungry and ate them, but I’ll put them on this bracelet instead so no one will ask questions about why I didn’t get you a present.’ Maybe that’s what you were saying.” I crossed my arms, completely vexed.
Emmet stared at me for a long time with his mouth slightly ajar. Suddenly, he burst into laughter. I tried not to react. I didn’t think it was funny. I was serious, but watching his green eyes twinkling with laughter made my smile come anyhow. Then I was laughing with him. Then I was mad at him for making me laugh.
“Stop making me laugh,” I said trying to suppress my giggles. “I’m mad at you.”
“What are you doing tomorrow?” he asked, ignoring my remark.
“You mean today? Nothing. Why? You want to laugh at me some more?”
“I want to spend the day with you. I know we can’t go backward, but can we move forward?”
I pretended to think about it, but I didn’t have to really think about it. Of course, I wanted to spend time with Emmet. It’s what I had wanted for months and months.
“Listen,” I said with a long sigh. “I really want to, Emmet. I really do, but you’ve already screwed up.”
His eyes widened in surprise. “I’m sorry I was jealous at the party. I think I handled it pretty well.”
“You mean other than holding me like a piece of property?” I countered.
“Well…” He looked for the right words, but I cut in.
“But that’s not where you screwed up.”
“Tell me then so I can fix it,” he said anxiously.
I leaned forward and looked at him hard.
“You promised me a donut, but I got pie.”
He smiled warmly at me. “I promise to give you a donut later.”
He slid out of the booth and stood up and offered me his hand. I put my hand in his.
“With sprinkles,” I added.
“Hard bargain, Miss Stewart.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
“Emmet!” I clapped my hands and jumped up and down.
It was ten in the morning, and I had just
answered Emmet’s knock on our suite door. He stood on the other side holding two longboards under his arms. I hadn’t been on a skateboard in about a year, and I probably wouldn’t have thought about it if he didn’t come to my door with one.
“Let’s get back to our roots,” he said with a grin that made my heart beat a little faster.
I said goodbye to my mom and joined him in the hallway. I threw my arms around his neck and hugged him, knocking him back a few unsteady steps.
“Whoa,” he laughed. “Had I known you would get this excited, I would have showed up with your board months ago.”
We left the hotel, hand in hand, carrying our boards. Emmet was taking me to a skateboarding park. We walked down the sidewalk, chatting about nothing of importance. I barely paid attention to the people around us. I was happy to be holding his hand and on our way to do something we used to love doing together.
“What the hell are you doing with that board?” I heard a familiar voice demand right in front of me.
“Hey, Max,” I said to my agent. “This is my friend Emmet.”
“I don’t care who he is,” Max said sharply and jabbed a finger at my board. “What the hell are you about to do with that?”
“New York is a big town. How did I get so lucky to run into you on the street?”
“No skateboarding,” he growled.
“Relax,” Emmet said, stepping in front of me a little. “She knows what she’s doing.”
“I know what she’s going to be doing if she falls and gets hurt—nothing. Not in this town or anywhere else. Clients don’t want pretty girls with banged up knees and elbows.”
“Peace out, Max,” I said, tugging Emmet along.
“You better have some knee pads hidden somewhere in those short shorts of yours,” he yelled after us.
“Those are some very nice short shorts,” Emmet remarked, looking at my legs.
Getting to ride on a board again was exhilarating. I had forgotten how much I loved it, how much it eased my mind and quieted my nerves. I had especially forgotten how much I loved to board with Emmet. I looked away from the beautiful sky above us and settled my eyes on him as he boarded wide circles around me. When my board stopped, I just stood there watching him until he was standing on his board in front of me.
“Hi,” he said, smiling down at me.
“Hi.”
He reached over and tugged on my ponytail, and I smiled like an idiot.
“I’m glad you came, Emmet,” I said sincerely. “I didn’t think that you would, and then I wasn’t sure if I wanted you to, but I’m so glad you did.”
“I couldn’t stay away,” he whispered, taking my hand into his.
We were standing in the middle of a noisy skateboard park. People were zooming past us. Boards were falling, riders were falling. The sounds of wheels on the ground and landing on the pavement after jumps surrounded us, but we didn’t notice. I was looking into those emerald eyes and wondering how I had gone so long without them.
My mind drifted back to a long ago evening at the vacant lot in New Jersey. Emmet and I had skated for a long time that night before ending in the same positions. He had kissed me, and I had fallen off of my board.
I wanted to go back to that day. I would do a lot of things differently. I wouldn’t have pushed him away. I would have admitted to myself how I felt about him and embraced it. Maybe we would have still been together.
But as Emmet had said over coffee, we couldn’t go backward, but we could try to move forward. Where would we end up, though?
“Let’s get some lunch,” Emmet said, frowning slightly. He had apparently been in deep thought too.
“Okay,” I said. I got off of my board and tucked it under my arm.
We walked wordlessly side by side. When Emmet’s fingers nudged mine in question, I answered by curling my hand around his.
We decided to stop back at the hotel and ask my mom if she wanted to go to lunch with us. I told Emmet about all of the progress she had made, but her life had become all about me. I wasn’t even sure if she had any friends.
“And she’s always tired,” I said as we walked across the lobby to the elevators. “I think I’m wearing her out.”
“She does look drained,” Emmet agreed, frowning.
“Maybe she just needs to get out a little bit more. We’re in New York City. She should be out enjoying it just as much as me.”
“It’s probably not easy for her to return to the real world after so many years of being out of it.”
“Probably not.”
When I stepped through the door of the suite, I was surprised to find that we had a guest. I was so surprised that I had halted, and Emmet had run into the back of me.
“What’s…” he started to say but then saw what I saw. His hand shot to my waist in a possessive hold.
“It’s about time you got back,” Felix Hunter said. “Your mom is kicking my ass in poker.”
“What are you doing here?” I asked, stepping farther into the room and out of Emmet’s hold.
I opened the small closet behind the door and stashed the skateboard in there. Emmet followed suit. He stood very close to me and again I could feel the tension in his body.
“I brought your pictures,” Felix answered, holding up a manila envelope. He smiled, but it was a tight smile. His eyes flickered to Emmet and back to me. “I’m afraid I can’t have lunch with you this week. I have to fly to L.A. to start filming. We’re starting a couple of weeks early.”
How strange my life has become, I thought as Felix handed me the envelope. I had my…Emmet, my semi-sane mother and a megastar standing in the middle of my New York City hotel suite.
“Thank you,” I said, smiling at my friend.
“Can I talk to you?” he asked and nodded towards the hallway. “Alone?”
I didn’t need Emmet’s permission, but I found my head swiveling towards him anyway. His eyes darkened, but he stepped around me and started talking to my mom about our afternoon plans. I took that as a yes, put the envelope down on the table and followed Felix into the hallway. He gently took my arm and led me down the hall and into the stairwell.
“I guess this is as much privacy as we’re going to get,” he said.
I watched, stunned, as Felix Hunter nervously ran a hand through his hair and looked at me almost as if he was afraid to speak. Felix Hunter didn’t get nervous. Felix Hunter always said exactly what was on his mind. Those were two of the many staples that made Felix Hunter wanted and idolized by millions of females and some males across the globe.
“What’s up?” I asked, leaning back against the wall.
He looked at me for a long moment before speaking. There was something in his eyes that made feel a little uncomfortable, and a little excited, which immediately made me feel guilty with Emmet only a few yards away waiting for me.
“Is that the guy?” he asked. He glanced at my bracelet. “Is that the guy that hurt you?”
I shifted from foot to foot. I didn’t like the way he worded that. Emmet and I hurt each other, and yeah, I was probably hurt more than Emmet when he left, but I didn’t like Felix making him into a villain. I had told Felix a shortened version of our story, but I had never expected the men to meet.
“Yes,” I finally answered.
“Are you two back together now?” Felix asked. He put a palm on the wall beside my head, partially caging me in.
“No.” I shook my head.
“I have to admit, I was very surprised and very disappointed when you brought him to my party.”
I defensively crossed my arms and couldn’t help how my brow creased with irritation. “I didn’t know I had to check with you first, Felix.”
He made a small sound of exasperation and rolled his eyes. “Don’t go getting your feathers all ruffled up, Miss Stewart. Of course you didn’t have to check with me first, but I had expectations that were thwarted.”
“My friend was sick, so she sent her brother in her stead,” I sai
d, speaking quickly. “I had no idea that she was going to do that. He was the last person I expected.”
“He looked like he wanted to try to kick my ass,” Felix snorted.
“Probably because he did want to kick your ass.”
“It’s a good thing he doesn’t know what I wanted to do to you last night,” Felix said in a low voice and put his hand on my hip.
“Felix,” I said his name in warning. “On our first day together you told me that you’ll be my friend.”
“I also told you that I really, really like you. I’ve tried to just let it go, but I still really, really like you, Donya. In fact, I like you more than ever.”
He took a step closer to me. Our bodies were almost touching. My chest rose and fell too quickly.
“I was going to ask you to reconsider last night,” he said softly. “I was going to ask you to come with me to L.A. and try with me.”
“Try what?” I asked just above a whisper.
“Try us,” Felix said even softer. “So, I’m asking you now. Come to L.A with me.”
“That wasn’t a question,” I said dumbly.
He was so close. His forehead was touching mine. My breathing was so erratic; I began to feel dizzy.
He smiled and asked in a very low tone, “Will you come with me to L.A., Donya Stewart?”
My chest twisted in pain. The truth was, I wanted to. I wanted to go with him. I wanted to fight my mom and other parents and take off with Felix to L.A. I remembered what it felt like to kiss him and thought about how nice it would be to kiss him every morning and every night. I imagined holding his hand while walking down the famous streets of L.A. and swimming in the Pacific with him outside of his Malibu beach home. I shamefully imagined losing my virginity to him on an enormous bed inside an insanely expensive hotel suite.
If Emmet had not showed up at my door the night before, I might have seriously considered it. The truth was, I really liked Felix. I probably could have been quite content with him in L.A. for a little while, but Felix played hard. He would get bored with me, and he would want more. His drinking and partying would eventually become an issue between us. And my career? What would have happened to it if I moved out of New York?