Auctioned to Him 9_Wait

by Charlotte Byrd

  “Will you give me ride home later?” I ask.

  I wait for a look of relief to sweep over his face, but it doesn’t. Instead, what I get is a look of disappointment. “Oh, do you have to go home?” he asks, slowly.

  “Well, no, not really. But I don’t want to stay too long. I’m sure that you have a lot of things to do.” He looks up at me. The light tan of his skin glistens in the sunlight. He flashes a smile of his pearly whites.

  “Nope. Actually, I don’t have any plans,” he says with a shrug and plates my scrambled eggs.

  “Are you sure? Because it’s really no problem.”

  “How about this? I’d like for you to stay and hang out. But if you don’t want to, I totally understand.”

  I take a deep breath. Is Finn really asking to spend more time with me?

  “Okay,” I say, taking a bite of the most delicious scrambled eggs I’ve ever had in my life.

  “Okay?” he confirms, lathering a pancake generously with maple syrup. I nod and we eat our breakfast in silence, but with big smiles on our faces.

  Since he cooked, I take it upon myself to clean up. I start putting the dirty dishes into the dishwasher. Suddenly, I hear the doorbell. Finn goes to answer it.

  A few moments later, I hear him say, “You can’t just barge in here, you know.”

  A female voice says something in return, but I don’t quite make it out.

  “Who do you think you are? You think you’re better than other people or something? When I talked to your rep, I was assured that you were a gentleman. But it serves me right for not screening you properly, doesn’t it?”

  The accent is very familiar. Texan. Who do I know who’s from Texas? Oh yeah, that’s right! Dolly.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Finn says. His voice is getting closer. I know that they’re headed this way. I see Dolly just as I dry my hands.

  “Chloe?” Dolly practically yells out my name. I take a step forward and tighten the belt on my robe. I’m suddenly keenly aware of the fact that I’m not wearing anything underneath.

  “Hi, Dolly,” I say quietly.

  “What are you doing here?” she asks. I don’t like her tone. Who does she think she is?

  “Um, what are you doing here?” I ask.

  “I’m here to yell at my client for standing you up on your date. Since that’s what you told me the other day. And now, I see that you are with him all along. What is going on here?”

  I stare at her. What the hell is she talking about?

  “He did stand me up. This is Finn, a guy I work with. We ran into each other by accident at the Governor’s Ball.”

  “Oh no, no, no,” she shakes her finger at us as if we were five years old. “This is Finn Dalton. He was supposed to be your date.”

  “What?” I ask. I can hear what she’s saying, but none of it is making any sense to me. “No, my date stood me up.”

  I turn to look at Finn. He casts his eyes down and almost turns away from me.

  “What is going on, Finn?” I ask.

  Dolly turns to him as well. She crosses her hands across her chest and taps her high heel.

  “I don’t know what came over me, Chloe. It was just this fluke thing. I was set up on a date. And when I got there and found out it was you…I don’t know, I just felt like…”

  “Felt like lying about who you are?”

  “No,” he mumbles.

  “About pretending that my date stood me up? Acting as if you were some knight in shining armor rescuing me from a bad situation?” I ask.

  Now, I’m really starting to hate that I’m wearing this stupid silk bathrobe that he had laid out for me. “No, that’s not what I wanted to happen. I just wanted to talk to you as if I weren’t your date. I wanted to get to know you a little more.”

  “Well, now you know me, don’t you? Isn’t this perfect?” I ask. I start to walk toward the bedroom to change into my clothes, but he grabs my arm and pulls me close to him.

  “Chloe, please,” he says.

  “Let go of me, Finn. Let go!” I scream when he doesn’t let me go at first. He lets me go, and I run toward the bedroom. I change into my clothes as soon as possible and grab my phone. Only then do I realize that I don’t have a ride home. Shit. I feel like I’m about to burst out crying, but I gather my thoughts and take a few deep breaths.

  The rest of the hour is a blur. Somehow, I manage to get my stuff together and get into Dolly’s car. She offers to give me a ride home. I want to say no, but I don’t have many options unless I want to pay $100 for a cab and wait around for it at Finn’s place.

  “I’m so, so sorry, Chloe,” Dolly keeps saying over and over in her annoying accent. If it weren’t for her, I wouldn’t be in this mess. I knew that Finn was never a person I could really trust, but it’s not just because he’s a movie star. It’s because he’s a guy. And no matter how hard I try, I’m not ready to be in a relationship with a guy. Too bad I’m not into girls. All of this would be so much easier.

  “Chloe, please, please, say something.”

  “What do you want me to say?”

  “How are you feeling about this?”

  Is she really asking me this? I feel like a fool. Like an idiot. I had the first orgasm of my life with someone who’s a liar. Now, what am I supposed to do with that? What now? And, worse than that, I’m going to have to see him at work again. If I even have a job anymore.

  “I feel like shit, Dolly,” I say turning to her. I don’t elaborate. I stare ahead. I can’t deal with her now. I can’t deal with anyone. I want to more than anything go back to a few moments before she appeared and feel happy again. Content. I mean, I really thought that I had met someone special, and now it has all gone to shit.

  Chapter 22 - Finn

  I don’t know what to do. She wouldn’t talk to me. She wouldn’t let me explain. She just left. I know I’m asshole for what I did, but how could she just walk out like that? Fuck Dolly. Aghh! I’m so angry. I want to punch something.

  My phone rings. Reluctantly, I look at the screen.

  “Hi, Finn, you have to come quick,” Ben is practically yelling. “Jasmine’s going into labor.”

  Ben hangs up, and I stare at the phone. I don’t want to go to the hospital. I want to drink a bottle of vodka and to smoke some weed. But I’ve been enough of an asshole to people I care about. I haven’t missed one of Jasmine’s births, and I’m not going to start with this one.

  I arrive at the Cedar Sinai Hospital in record time. Ben texts me the room number, and I head straight up.

  “How is she?” I ask. Ben is pacing outside of the room, clearly distressed.

  “Um, not good. This is too early. If the baby comes out now…” he doesn’t finish the statement. I know what will happen. I’ve seen the television shows and the movies. If the baby comes out now, she’ll be premature. She’ll probably have to stay at the hospital for weeks and be hooked up to one of those tubes. They won’t be able to touch their baby. They’ll have to wear scrubs to come and see her.

  I try to calm him down. I tell him that it’s going to be okay. The two hundredth time I say it, Ben finally believes me. Jasmine is relaxing now, and I ask him if he wants to go to get something to eat. Jasmine’s mom is in with her. Reluctantly, he agrees.

  “Everything’s going to be okay,” I say again, biting into a cold tuna sandwich. Ben’s eating a slice of pizza. He takes a sip of his coke and nods.

  “Yeah, I hope so….So, what’s going on with you? Take my mind off this whole thing.”

  Should I tell him? Eh, why not? He wants a distraction. I’ll give him a distraction. I tell him the whole story. He listens carefully, with a perplexed look on his face.

  “So, wait, I don’t understand. Why did you lie to her?”

  “That’s the thing,” I say. “I have no idea. I just saw her sitting there, and I sort of felt like I didn’t want to have the pressure of being on a date with her. I mean, if she were anyone else, I would, but I
like this girl. I liked her the first time I met her on set.”

  “So, you decided to lie to her?”

  “Yes,” I hang my head.

  “But why didn’t you tell her the first time she came over?”

  “Well, I was going to, but then we started kissing. And then she got sick. There was no good time. And then we got into this argument on set, and I barely got her to go out to dinner with me again.”

  “This is bad, Finn.”

  “I know that. Don’t you think I know that?” I ask. “I just don’t know what to do now.”

  “What would you do with anyone else?”

  I shrug. “Eh, I’d just let it go.”

  “Wow,” Ben smiles.

  “What?”

  “You must really like her then.”

  I think about it for a second. “I do. And get this, I think I might even more than just like her.”

  “What?” Ben nearly chokes on his drink.

  “I think I might be falling in love with her,” I say quietly. “I hate it. It makes me feel sick to my stomach. What if she doesn’t forgive me? What if she hates me forever?”

  “Yes, you are falling in love, man. Wow, my friend is finally growing up. This is a momentous day for you, Finn.”

  I roll my eyes. “No, this is a momentous day for you, Ben.”

  “It’s still huge,” he says.

  He’s right, of course. I’ve never felt this way about anyone before. Perhaps, this is what love feels like. I thought it was going to be exciting and adrenaline-charged. Not absolutely terrifying. No, Chloe has to forgive me. I’m not going to give up until she does.

  I alternated between sleeping and walking around outside of the waiting room. Twenty hours later, the baby comes. Five hours later, I’m at work.

  When I arrive at work, I go straight to Chloe’s trailer.

  “Chloe, please, will you just talk to me?” I knock on the door, but no one answers. “Chloe, I’m not leaving until you come out.”

  Finally, after a few minutes of knocking, she opens the door.

  “What do you want?” she asks, crossing her arms across her chest.

  “I need to talk to you,” I say.

  “So talk.” She turns around and starts going through the clothes on the hangers. “I’m listening,” she adds. I take a deep breath. This is probably as good as it’s going to get.

  “Chloe, I know that what I did is unforgivable.”

  “Good, then leave.”

  “I know it’s unforgivable. But I want you to forgive me.”

  “And why’s that?”

  “Because I’m really, really sorry. I don’t know what came over me. But for some reason, I just saw you sitting there and…” I lose my trail of thought. It’s difficult to explain exactly what I thought.

  “You saw me sitting there and you thought. Eh, okay, let’s have some fun with this sap.”

  “No, not at all. When I saw you there, I already had feelings for you. And I didn’t want to go on some formal date with you. I just thought it would be fun, I don’t know. I don’t have a good excuse. It was a stupid thing to do. Really, really stupid. And I’m sorry.”

  “I’m sorry too,” she says. “Because I thought we had fun.”

  “We did! That’s what makes me hate myself so much. We did have fun. So much fun. And I want to see you again. A lot.”

  She shakes her head.

  “What?”

  “I don’t date liars, Finn. And you’re a liar.”

  “Please, Chloe. Give me another chance.”

  “I can’t, Finn. I’m really mad at you right now. Even when that goes away, I can’t give you another chance. Because you fucked up. Big time.”

  Chapter 23 - Finn

  The movie wraps up within a month without any more real contact between us. I come to work. Put on the clothes that Chloe chooses for me. Say my lines and go home. I try to approach her a number of times again, but each time I get a cold and sullen reception. It starts to feel like I’m stalking her, so I back off.

  But my feelings for Chloe don’t subside. When I hear from my agent that I’m going to be People Magazine’s Sexiest Man Alive, it is her who I want to call first. When I go looking at houses in Malibu, it is Chloe who I want to bring with me. I can’t get her out of my head. Yet, I can’t convince her to give me another chance.

  On the last day of our shooting, Chloe isn’t there. I go to her trailer to get my clothes, but she’s nowhere to be found. No one knows where she is, and she didn’t call in sick. Luckily, everyone’s outfits are labeled and organized, and we are able to get dressed and shoot our scene as we had planned.

  Around lunchtime, Martha gets a phone call. When she hangs up, her face turns white.

  “What’s wrong?” I ask, taking a bite of my lentil and cucumber salad.

  “Chloe has been in a car accident.”

  “What?” I ask, choking on my food.

  “That was her sister. She said she doesn’t know much, but it sounds bad. She’s on her way to Cedar Sinai now.”

  I drop my plate on the table and get up.

  “I have to go.”

  “What? Now?”

  “I have to go, I’m sorry.”

  “But we just have one more scene to shoot. We should be done by the afternoon.”

  I think about this for a moment. My mind says that it’s fine. I should just finish up the day, then go see her, but my gut says something completely different. “I know. And I’m terribly sorry. But I just have to go there. I have to see if she’s okay,” I say.

  They can’t shoot the scene without me. Everyone will have to go home until tomorrow, but there’s just no way around it. Something you just have to do.

  I arrive at the hospital in record time. I find Lila in the emergency room. She’s sitting curled up in a ball in one of the chairs. Her head is buried in her knees and her arms are wrapped tightly around them.

  “Lila?”

  She looks up. Her eyes are watery. Her face is deep red. She has been crying.

  “Finn?” she asks. “What are you doing here?”

  “I came as soon as I heard. How is she?”

  Lila shakes her head. “Not good. She’s in surgery. They say that she’s got swelling. That she might be in a coma. I don’t know. They used all of these medical terms, I didn’t really understand.”

  “What happened?” I ask.

  “I’m not really sure,” she shakes her head.

  What they don’t tell you about emergency rooms, and hospitals in general, is that every minute in there feels like a century, and every hour feels like a lifetime. I buy Lila coffee and some candy from the vending machine, but the sugar just makes it worse. I start to feel jumpy and even more out of control. A few hours later, a couple of police officers show up to talk to the doctors. They tell Lila that the person who was driving was drunk. In addition to hitting Chloe, he also slammed into a car with a family. Everyone in that car is dead.

  Lila breaks down when she tells me this. She’s completely inconsolable, and all I can do is wrap my arms around her and tell her that it’s going to be okay.

  “Do you promise?” she mumbles into my chest.

  “What?”

  “Do you promise that Chloe is going to be okay?” Lila looks up into my eyes.

  “Yes, I promise,” I say. “I know she’s going to be okay.”

  Delivering those words is the hardest acting job I’ve ever done. I know what she wants to hear. It’s something that the medical professionals aren’t able to offer her. So, I’m the one she relies on.

  Another hour passes. I go down to the cafeteria and wander around. Random people stop me and ask to take pictures with me. At first, I try to say no, but after a while I give up. They’re here for someone too. If this makes them feel even a little bit better, why not? The only thing I can’t muster is a smile. Afterwards, every single person asks me why I’m here. I tell them that a friend has been in a bad car accident. They promise to pra
y for me and tell me where the chapel is. I’m not a religious person, but three hours later, after making another round of the hospital to stretch my legs, I find myself in front of the chapel. I open the door quietly. There’s no one inside. It’s dark and cool. No bright, obtrusive fluorescent lights in here. I find a seat in the back and just sit there for a while. I close my eyes. I think about Chloe. I think about every moment that we had shared together. I think about how much she made me laugh, how little time we had together and how whatever time we had together, I wasted on lying to her about something so incredibly inconsequential that it’s ridiculous.

  “She’s out of surgery,” Lila says after I come back to the waiting area. “She’s stable now. But she’s in a coma.”

  “A coma?” I ask. She had mentioned it before, but a big part of me didn’t think it was real. Or possible.

  “What does that mean?” I ask.

  She shrugs. “I don’t really know.”

  I look at Lila’s face. She looks like she’s about to cry again, but no tears come out. She is spent.

  I hand Lila another cup of coffee. I no longer have to ask her if she wants cream or sugar in it. After so many hours in this place, I know exactly what she likes. Black coffee, no cream, no sugar. She likes peanut and plain M&M’s and hates crispy M&M’s. She doesn’t care for snickers or any kind of sour candy.

  “The cops were back again,” she says taking a sip. “Apparently, that drunk asshole who hit her and that family is fine. Only a broken arm. But they’re arresting him. Vehicular manslaughter.”

  “Good,” I say.

  “Why does it have to be that way? He was the one drinking and driving. And yet, it’s Chloe and that dead family that has to suffer. He killed an entire family! The mom, dad, and two kids. I can’t even imagine! And Chloe, my sweet Chloe, she’s in a coma now. Because of him. And he’s fine! Only a broken arm. What the hell is wrong with the world?”

  I put my arm around her shoulder, but she pushes me off. She’s no longer in shock. Now she’s angry. I’m angry with her.