by DeSalvo, Kim
“None of them knew the truth about who Dylan really was, actually,” she admitted.
Tony looked truly surprised. “Wait a minute,” he said, “you were dating Dylan Miller, one of the most sought after bachelors in the world, for months, and your co-workers didn’t know it? How is that even possible?”
“Nobody knew his real identity,” she said, “except for my best friend, and only because she was going to the InHap show with me the night after we met.”
“Wait, are you saying that not even your family knew?”
“Nope,” she smiled. “That’s been another big part of the whirlwind the past couple days. I finally got to introduce him to my family and friends; and share all the stories I couldn’t tell them before.”
Tony snapped to attention, and turned to one of the producers before coming back to the camera. “My producer is reminding me that we need to take a commercial break,” he said. “We’ll hear more about this when we come back. Stay right where you are.”
The woman behind the camera signaled that they were off the air, and a shaggy-headed teenager scurried over with a couple bottles of water. “You rock,” he whispered as he handed Dylan the chilled bottle. He ran off before they could even thank him.
“Spectacular!” Tony exclaimed. “You’re a natural, Tia; they’re in love with you already.”
“I agree completely,” Dylan added, pressing a kiss to the top of her head. “Brilliant.”
“It’s easier than I thought it would be,” she admitted. “I was so nervous at first, but I’m actually feeling OK.” An audience member answered her with a “Go Tia!” which earned him a round of applause.
“On in ten,” the camerawoman announced; counting down. “Three, two,” and a point of her finger signaled they were back live.
Tony shook his head. “Welcome back,” he said, “if you’re just joining us, you’ve missed out on some startling revelations. Tia informed us, just before we went to commercial, that up until yesterday, her best friend was the only person in her life who knew that she was dating Dylan Miller.” He raised his eyebrows at Dylan. “Were you bothered by that?”
“Actually, I was impressed,” Dylan said. “I have to say it’s one of the things I love best about her. For Tia it was never about being involved with someone famous. They all knew she was in a relationship; they knew I played in a band, knew my first name; but that was it. She never wanted to flaunt it, because she knew she’d lose some of her individuality once it was out there.”
“It was so hard,” Tia admitted. “Again, not because he was famous, but because I wanted so badly to tell the whole world who I was in love with—especially my friends and family. I hated not being able to tell them everything.”
“So why keep it a secret, then?” Tony asked honestly.
“When we first met, I thought I’d have a weekend with him, at the most,” Tia started. “He was playing in Chicago for a couple nights, going on to Cleveland, then heading to Europe for the summer, and of course to New Zealand to film the movie. The first couple nights he even kept telling me that he couldn’t make me any promises, and that it might be easier if we just walked away before things had a chance to get too intense. I wanted to keep him to myself then, because I knew we’d only have a short time together. I didn’t want to share him with anyone.”
“So, you only knew him a couple weeks before he invited you on the tour, then?”
Tia and Dylan shared a smile, and he interjected. “I only knew her a couple days before I asked her to go to Europe, Tony. It all happened so fast—neither of us expected it, neither of us was even close to looking for it, but we both felt something pretty powerful. Bringing her on the tour was the only way we could explore it further, because it would’ve been nearly a year before I’d even be back in The States again.”
“Luckily, my job gives me summers off.”
“That’s for sure,” Dylan agreed. “It dawned on me on what I thought would be our last night together—it was Memorial Day, and I had to fly out the next morning for a gig. I tried to put the situation out of my mind; tried to chalk it up to an amazing chance encounter, but I just couldn’t imagine letting her walk away.”
Tony’s eyes were wide and he shook his head slowly in contemplation. “Wow, this has to be one of the best stories I’ve heard on my show, and I’ve been doing this a long time. Almost sounds like a little bit of, at the risk of being cliché, incidental happenstance?”
“The very best sort,” Dylan agreed.
He turned back to Tia. “So, what’s next for you, then, Tia? I have a very strong feeling that your days of anonymity are behind you…there are a lot of changes in your future, my dear. Do you think you’ll be able to go back to your job? Do you even want to?”
Tia sighed. “I can’t even think past today, to be honest with you,” she said. “The rest of this week is full of interviews, and then we’re going to spend the holidays in Australia with Dylan’s family. I’m having a hard enough time wrapping my head around that.”
“Oh yeah,” Tony said, “meeting the folks—that’s always an adventure!”
“I think I was less nervous about being here than I am about that,” she admitted. “But we haven’t had much of a chance to really discuss what comes next. Right now, we’re taking it day by happy day.”
“Am I right, though, in saying that this isn’t the first time you’ve been in front of a big crowd?” he asked slyly. “Would you be the Mystery Wembley Girl? The one who took over singing harmony for Ty Waters when his voice wasn’t up to scratch at one of the London shows?”
Tia smiled huge, remembering. “Yup, that was me alright.”
“I understand there was a big to-do in the British tabloids about that,” he said.
“There was, but they got my name wrong, and the pictures were too fuzzy to identify me, so I was still in the clear.”
“So I have to ask, how did the two of you meet? You have to admit, a school teacher and a rock star are a pretty unlikely match.”
Dylan looked at his watch and smiled. “I don’t think there’s enough time left to tell that story; it could fill a whole show.”
Tony looked at his own watch. “You’re right—I’m afraid we are running out of time, which is too bad, because I’ve got so many more questions!”
Dylan pulled Tia close. “I’ll tell you this, Tony. We have a lot of future plans to discuss because I plan a future with this woman.” The crowd broke into applause. “Right now, though, I’m just so happy to have her back in my life, and we’re taking it one day at a time. I’ll keep you posted though.”
“I’m counting on it, and expect to see you back here again soon. But on that note, we are out of time, so until then, I wish you both a little luck and a lot of happiness!”
He closed the show, and then the three of them walked down into the audience, shaking hands and receiving well-wishes from the crowd.
*****
Ryan and Jace sat at a table in Smitty’s Sports Bar, nursing Fat Tires and glancing occasionally at the Packers /Vikings game that dominated the huge televisions spread around the pub. It wasn’t one of their usual hang-outs by any means, but they were sick of driving and parking only to walk into a place and see a sign that advertised that they’d be showing the After Dark special airing at 8:00. Although Tia’s name wasn’t yet public knowledge, it seemed that enough folks in town either knew that it would be Tia on the program or that the mystery woman was a local and had convinced their usual hangouts to air the show.
He’d begged off Lexi’s numerous requests to attend the viewing party at the pub, much to her chagrin. “It’s a once in a lifetime event, Ryan. How could you not watch Tia’s television debut?” she’d asked.
Ryan had gotten more than his fill of Tia’s “debut” the night before, spending several hours sitting alone and watching Lexi bask in the limelight cast by her best friend. He’d spent the whole damn day on the fringes of it all, actually, first at the club and then at
Paddy’s. He watched all the country club people fawning all over Tia, acting like she was suddenly everyone’s best friend even though most of them had barely spared her a polite hello prior to her attachment to Dylan Miller. The last thing he wanted to do was to spend his Sunday night there, too.
He and Jace had met first at the club, but it didn’t take long to determine that they were setting up for an event. Turned out that they were hosting a viewing party for the show too, complete with a buffet and full bar. They took one look at each other and without saying a word, walked out to find a different venue at which to spend their evening.
The game was tied at 10 and the Packers were on the 30 yard line with three minutes to go in the half when they heard the announcement. “Ladies and Gentleman, if I can have your attention, please!” one of the servers bellowed. “We’ve just found out that there’s going to be a special edition of After Dark starting in a few minutes, and that they’re going to announce on the show that Dylan Miller’s mystery girl is from right here in Chicago! A number of you have asked if we can tune in, and since some of it’ll be during half time, we’re going to show it on the televisions in the bar section. We’ll keep the game on in the dining area, so if you want to move, you should settle up with your server and make your way—it starts in ten minutes.”
“Seriously?” Jace asked incredulously as Ryan just shook his head. He glanced around the room and saw the African-American woman who’d been at the pub last night—the school secretary, if he remembered correctly—followed by a little entourage of teachers from Tia’s school. He and Jace simultaneously picked up their mugs and drained their beers, grabbing their coats and wordlessly heading for the exit.
*****
“Hey Fancy Pants,” the guard said to the woman in the cell. “Got somethin’ here you ought to see. My cousin in America sent it to me.”
“Fuck off,” Penelope said unenthusiastically.
Madeline ignored her and set her laptop outside of Penelope’s cell, turned up the volume, and struck a key. And as much as Penelope didn’t want to look, didn’t want to know, Dylan was on the screen, and she couldn’t turn away.
Madeline watched with interest as Penelope’s facial expressions went from elation to devastation when the host, a good looking guy named Tony Granger, asked Dylan Miller; who was absolutely smokin’ hot in Madeline’s opinion; if he had found the girl he was looking for.
““Well…I’m very happy to say that there is a happy ending in all of this mess, Tony,” the beautiful man said. “Turns out she never stopped loving me either.”
For a moment, silent tears streamed down the prisoner’s face. Then, he said that his woman was there with him and introduced her, slipping her a juicy kiss right there in front of the whole world. That’s when the prisoner went off the edge.
Penelope had remained stoic during her detention; refusing to speak to anyone unless absolutely necessary, eating only enough of the absolute shit they tried to pass off as food to keep her alive, and trying to maintain her dignity in her less than dignified situation. Once again, she pulled from her Oscar nominated acting skills to show the peons who ran this place that they couldn’t touch her—couldn’t break her. Surely, she thought, Dylan would come to his senses at some point and realize that what she’d done, she’d done for love. They’d shared too much over the past few months for him to just walk away and leave her. Damn it, it only took a couple days for him to fall for that bitch, and she had so much more to offer than that Tia chick could ever give him.
But now she watched them on the screen, unable to turn her head away even though it crushed something inside her to see them together; her eyes locked on Dylan’s smiling face as he pulled Tia into his arms…
“AAARRRUGGGG!” she screamed, the strangled cry exploding from somewhere deep inside her and bouncing back and forth off the bare walls of the tiny cell, echoing and mocking her. Her features contorted and she lost her hold on self-control. She started flinging things at the wall—magazines, her smelly, flat pillow, the blanket off the bed. There was precious little in the room to hurl, however, and none of it crashed, broke, or made her feel even the slightest bit better. What she wanted to do was to smash the laptop—to watch Tia’s smug and smiling fucking face disappear in a spider web of broken glass; shattered just like Penelope was shattered. But the guard had it just maddeningly out of her grasp, and the fat cunt laughed when she tried desperately to reach it. Instead, she flashed Penelope an evil grin and leaned over to hit the replay button; Dylan’s mellow voice now echoing with her own moans. She howled in sadness and broke into huge racking sobs, pushed her palms against her ears to block it all out and slid to the floor, defeated.
She’d kept hoping that she would wake up from this nightmare, but apparently what she’d done—little things really—intercepting a few letters, fiddling with a computer and a phone, selling some slightly doctored photos—was being blown way out of proportion. And because she’d been in this godforsaken country there were charges stacking up on two continents, and they couldn’t even tell her when she’d be able to go home. Not that she had anything to go back to.
She’d thought that if she could explain things to Dylan; just talk to him, he’d understand, and maybe even forgive her eventually. She kept waiting for him to show up here, but obviously he’d left at the first opportunity and run straight to her and he wasn’t coming back. He’d actually said, on national television, that he had nothing to say to her. Not ever.
The hopelessness of her situation drowned her—if Dylan and that damn teacher were on national television, it was only a matter of time before her fucking mother and sister would see how she’d screwed up her life. Again. She could just picture the bitches and their smug faces with their ‘I told you so’s and their ‘she deserves it’s.’ All hope gone, she curled into fetal position in the corner of the room, tucked her head in the crook of her elbow, and let the tears come.
Chapter 9
Tia felt like she’d been tossed around in a tornado by the time they got to the studio on Tuesday morning; not a good place to be right before a photo shoot for an international magazine; the name of which she didn’t know and didn’t really care. She’d been moving so much the past couple days that she was actually looking forward to sitting in the make-up chair and closing her eyes for a few minutes.
“Mr. Miller, Miss Hastings, we’re so happy to be working with you this morning!” said a heavy-set woman wearing too much eye makeup. A small troupe of others rushed up to shake their hands as they were swept into the room. There were several different areas set up with a variety of themes; a garden, a street scene, a park, and a cozy room with a stone fireplace and a red velvet chaise lounge.
A young girl with hoops in her ears, lower lip, and right nostril rushed up to greet Dylan. “I don’t know if you remember me,” she said, batting her lashes, “but I worked with you about a year ago on the shoot for ‘Remember Yesterday.’ I did your hair and makeup…”
“Of course,” Dylan said, flashing his celebrity smile. “You did a great job.”
“Oh, well, you’re so easy,” she breathed, “not much work needed at all. I’m so excited to work with you again.”
Tia rolled her eyes as the woman flirted with her man. Dylan caught her look and rolled his back.
“You’re so lucky,” Sarah, the makeup artist told her as she smeared creams into Tia’s skin. “He’s just so dreamy…”
“Don’t I know it,” she answered as Sarah swirled a large makeup brush over her face. “On both counts.”
“You’ve got great cheekbones. And I just love the color of your eyes. We can pretty much go in any direction you want—this is your chance to reinvent yourself. Or, invent yourself, I guess, since you’re kind of new to the whole celebrity scene. We can go completely glamorous or…oh! How about 50’s starlet? We can do an updo, add some lashes…”
“I don’t think so,” Tia smiled. “That just isn’t me. And if I have to be thrust into all
of this, I at least want to stay true to myself. I’m not really the glamorous type.”
Sarah sat in the swivel chair next to her and turned Tia’s to face her. “I totally respect that, really. So why don’t you tell me a bit about yourself so I can get it just right. Describe yourself in three words.”
Tia raised her eyebrows. “Three words?”
“Yup. The first ones that come to mind that describe you best.”
“Hmmm. I guess the first one would be “Earthy.” I’m pretty down to earth, and I love nature…you know, hiking, bird watching, that kind of thing.”
“OK, what’s next?”
“Honest. And then…” words bounced around in her head; it was so hard to narrow yourself down to three adjectives. Finally, she settled on the one that had and would see her and Dylan through any situation. “Loyal.”
“I can do that.” Sarah opened a drawer and pulled out some pallets of color. “Close your eyes and trust me. We can always wash it off and start over if you hate it, but I’m pretty sure I’ve got you down.”
It was some time before Sara spun Tia’s chair around to face the mirror. When she got a look at herself, she sucked in a short gasp. Never in her life had she had so much product on her face—not even the makeup people for the TV shows they’d already done spent so much time, but somehow, she still looked natural. A soft gold shimmered under her eyebrows, and her lids were covered in shades of green that got progressively darker as they reached her temples. The colors made her eyes pop, and her newly-shaped brows looked full and natural under a variety of pencils and powders. Her lashes swept high and dark, and there was just the slightest emerald green line curving below each eye. Sarah had somehow managed to make her skin look flawless, and her lips appeared plump and pouty, with just a touch of color and sparkle. “Wow, you mean I could look like this every day?” she asked. “I absolutely love it!”
“You could if you hired me as your personal makeup artist,” Sarah smiled. “It’s hardly an everyday application process, but if I do say so myself, you look earthy, honest, and loyal. You two make an adorable couple, by the way.”