“Julian,” Melissa scolds him. “That’s not fair. It’s not like he can just give up his career or anything.”
Melissa Connelly is Mal’s best friend from college. I invited her to join us because I need Mallory to see how I can fit into her life just as much as she can fit into mine. I know she’s expecting me to ask her to give things up for me. That couldn’t be further from the truth. I’m willing to do almost anything for her. “I’m not saying things will be perfect,” I tell them. “We have a lot to figure out. And, no, I’m not going to just blow into town when it’s convenient.” I give Julian a reprimanding stare. “I have commitments, schedules I have no control over, but outside of those, I’m free to go where I choose.”
Julian keeps trying to pour me more wine. I’ve already had a glass and don’t intend on having more, but he doesn’t seem to take no for an answer. When he tries for the third time, I lose it. “What’s your problem, man? I said I don’t want any more.”
“He’s a recovering addict, Julian,” Mallory reminds him. “Don’t push him. Please.”
Julian holds up his hands in a gesture of innocence. “What happens when someone else does, Mallory?” he asks. “What happens when he has that second or third glass at a cast party? I mean, he shouldn’t be drinking at all.” He puts down the bottle and looks me in the eye. “You’re reckless. Mallory doesn’t need that in her life.”
If it weren’t for the fact that I’m so fucking pissed at him, I might actually respect him. After all, he’s standing up for her. Making sure she’s safe. “Maybe I was reckless once, but I’m not anymore. That was a long time ago, Julian. I won’t make excuses for what I did back then. There are none. But it’s been three years since I was that person. I know you may not believe that because of how they make me look in the news, but it’s true. But you know what? You aren’t the one I need to convince of that. She is.”
I want to reach over and take Mal’s hand. Put up a united front. Mark my goddamn territory. But I don’t. They have a history together, one I have to accept and respect.
“Okay, boys,” Melissa says, trying to reign both of us in. “Can we all just agree that every relationship has its complications and yours won’t be any different? You guys will have to figure out a lot of stuff if you want to be together. But we certainly don’t need to hash it all out now.” She gives Julian a biting stare. “Do we, Julian?”
He scoffs, shaking his head.
“Has Mallory told you how we met?” Melissa asks me.
“She just said you met at school.”
She looks at Mallory. “Can I tell him?”
Mal shrugs. “I guess. It won’t be the first embarrassing thing he learns about me.”
“Wait,” I say. “This isn’t worse than when you went to the wrong house to babysit, is it?”
Julian laughs. “Oh, my God, that was hilarious.” He turns to Melissa, telling the story. “Chad and I were at my house, which was down the street from the two of theirs. We were hanging out in my yard when Mallory walked down the street to the babysitting job her mom got for her. So she sees the kids out front and starts playing with them.”
Mallory covers her eyes in embarrassment. It’s so damn cute. “She even picked up the smallest one, who was about four years old,” I say.
“Oh, shit, yeah,” Julian says, shaking his head in amusement. “That was when the mom came out and started yelling at Mallory to put down her kid.”
I start laughing at the memory. “Mallory was completely freaked out. After all, she thought that’s why she was there.”
“Chad and I rushed over when we saw that something was wrong. It took a few minutes, but we were able to figure out she went to the wrong house. The mailboxes were next to each other and when she saw the kids out front, she just assumed that was the house.”
“Hey,” Mallory interjects. “It wasn’t all that bad. Mrs. Jenner ended up hiring me to babysit those very kids. I made a lot of money that summer.”
“That was a great summer,” I say.
Julian nods. “It was, wasn’t it?”
It was the last summer we all spent together. The next year, Julian spent the summer in Brazil so it was just Mal and me. And then I moved.
The waiter comes to clear the table and show us the dessert tray. The girls fawn over the chocolate delicacies and decide to split one. I want to tell them it’s not necessary, but I don’t need another lecture from Julian about how I choose to spend my money. So what if I rented out the private dining room? I only did it to protect Mallory. He should be thanking me, not reprimanding me.
“Okay, Melissa,” I say. “Let’s hear it. How did you two meet?”
She looks excited, rubbing her hands together and then settling into her chair like this will be a long story. “Okay, so it was freshman year and Mallory was rushing a sorority, Delta—”
“Wait.” I hold up my hand to stop Melissa as I turn to Mallory with wide eyes. “You rushed a sorority? You—the girl who organized a protest sophomore year when the student body president wanted to make every Friday spirit day. You didn’t want anyone telling you what to do or what to wear. That Mallory joined a sorority?”
“Just let her finish the darn story,” Mallory says, rolling her eyes.
“So she was a few weeks into the pledging process,” Melissa says. “Hazing wasn’t technically allowed, but they still got asked to do some pretty outrageous stuff. I found her standing in the middle of campus by herself, wearing a cheerleader’s outfit from a rival school. She was shouting that cheer ‘two, four, six, eight’ . . .”
My brain is still stuck on Mallory in a cheerleader’s uniform. Holy God I’d like to see that. I glance at Mal to see her taking a large swallow of wine as she tries to hide her mortification.
“She got heckled by students, of course,” Melissa says. “That was the point. To teach humility or some crap like that. But some of the students were downright mean, even when they knew she had to do it as part of pledging. By the time I came upon her, I guess she’d about had enough, because she ripped off her sweater and skirt, threw them down, stomping on them and then she marched over to some girls from her sorority that were videotaping her from behind a tree. She told them to take their sorority and go fuck themselves.”
My jaw is almost on the table. “You stripped in the middle of campus?” Then it hits me. “Wait. You said fuck?”
She laughs, shrugging innocently. “I had a tank top and shorts on underneath.”
Melissa laughs. “Don’t let her fool you. She stripped. Her ‘tank top’ was a cami and her ‘shorts’ were those underwear things cheerleaders wear so you can’t see their crotches.”
“Shit. I wish I had been there to see it,” I say.
“I’m pretty sure it exists out on YouTube somewhere,” Melissa says. “It was epic. I followed her and offered her the t-shirt and yoga pants I had in my workout bag. We hit it off and the rest was history. We’ve been Mal and Mel ever since.”
“What made you want to join a sorority?” I ask Mallory.
“I didn’t have any friends there,” she says. “I thought pledging a sorority would be a quick way to change that.”
I turn to Julian. “Didn’t you go to Berkeley?” We always talked about going there together, the three of us, even though Julian and I would go there a year before Mallory could.
“Uh, no. I went to Penn State,” he says, looking guiltily at Mal.
I wonder if that had anything to do with their breakup. I assume it did, but now isn’t the time to get into it. Obviously, the three of them know things I don’t and it pisses me off. I’ve been replaced. It used to be the three of us—now it’s the three of them.
“Anyway, it was Melissa who got me into teaching,” Mallory says, smiling over at her friend in an attempt to stave off the awkwardness from my previous question.
“And you are great at it,” Julian says, proudly. “Did she tell you she won an award in her district for being the rookie teacher of the ye
ar?”
I watch the way he looks at her. It’s with more emotion than how one friend looks at another. He’s revering her. Hell, he’s worshiping her. I know this because it’s the same goddamn way I look at her.
“No, she didn’t. That’s great, Mal,” I say. “I’m not surprised, however. I knew you’d be great at whatever you chose to do.” I turn back to Julian. “So, Penn State, huh? Where did that lead? Mallory hasn’t said much of anything about you.”
I get a little kick under the table from Mal for that remark. I know it was a dig. But if he’s going to look at my girl that way, he’d better be prepared for me to push back.
“I’m an investment banker,” he says. “For Walters and Leeman.”
“Shit, really?” I shake my head in awe. “You must be one smart dude, but then I always knew you were. Good for you.”
I catch Melissa whispering something to Mal, but Mallory brushes her off, quietly asking her not to bombard me with silly fangirl questions. “It’s okay, Mal,” I say. “Let her ask. Personal questions from friends are different than personal questions from fans.” I turn to Melissa. “What do you want to know?”
Melissa looks to her friend for approval and Mal gives her a reluctant nod. “Mallory told me you got your big break in a shopping mall,” she says. “Can you tell me what happened? Did they have auditions there? Was it like a massive American Idol audition but for actors?”
My eyes dart between the two girls. “Mallory hasn’t told you any of this?”
“No,” she says. “Mallory never told me about Thad. All I knew was she had a best friend, Chad, who moved away when she was in high school. I never even knew the boy she grew up with was the same person as Thad Stone until she saw you last week at the club.”
I have conflicting emotions over her statement. On one hand, I think maybe I wasn’t important enough to her to tell her friends about me. On the other, I’m flat-out impressed Mal never resorted to name-dropping like most people would have done. Julian, too. I shake my head in wonder before answering Melissa’s question.
“No. It wasn’t an audition,” I say. “It was a total fluke. I was in the food court waiting for my little brother, who was fifteen at the time, when he came racing out of a store looking terrified. Two security guards were running up behind him. Kyle said he snatched something from the store and he begged me not to let them put him in jail. Apparently, I gave the performance of a lifetime, sweet-talking the guards into letting it slide. I fed them so much bullshit, I’m surprised they didn’t drown in it.
“After the security guards left, a man came up to me, telling me he saw the whole thing. I thought he was a cop, but it turned out he was a talent agent. He said he was impressed by my improv and my confidence and that I had what he was looking for. I told him I didn’t have any acting experience other than a play I did in high school. He didn’t seem to care. He said I had the right look or some shit like that. He gave me his card. On a dare from Kyle, I called the guy a week later. The next month, I was cast in Malibu 310.”
“Wow,” Melissa says. “How lucky were you?”
Sometimes I wonder. I wonder if it was the best thing that ever happened to me, or the worst. It did, after all, separate me from who I was. And from Mal. But then again, it also led me back to her. And now here we are, right where we should be.
We are served dessert and spend the rest of the night reminiscing about old times. Despite the awkwardness with Julian, I don’t want the night to end. Mainly because Mallory came with Melissa and not me. She thought it’d be more neutral that way. She didn’t want it to seem like we were teaming up on him. But it means when we say goodbye, I won’t see her for two days. I’ve got plans with my cousin Jarod and his family tomorrow, and the next night she does her volunteer work. It was bad enough not seeing her for the entire day yesterday, I can’t imagine going two days without seeing her now that I know we can finally be together. It makes me dread Thursday, the day I leave for Vancouver. I’ve got commitments for the next two weeks. Two weeks where she can change her mind. Two weeks for Julian to talk her out of it. Two weeks for her to meet someone else who doesn’t come with all my baggage.
The girls get up to use the bathroom before we leave. I watch Julian follow Mallory out the door with his eyes. And then he and I are left sitting alone for the first time tonight. “You’re in love with her,” I say.
It’s not a question.
He smirks. “Looks like we’re right back where we started then, aren’t we?”
That’s no lie. I think we both loved her even then. Before he dated her. Before I came back. “Yeah, but you had your chance, Julian. Now it’s my turn.”
He nods reluctantly. “I know. But I’d be remiss if I didn’t threaten to kick your ass if you hurt her.”
“Duly noted,” I say. “If I hurt her, I’ll be the first one to let you.”
The server comes to clear the table, our cue to leave. Julian gets out his wallet. “No,” I tell him. “It’s already been taken care of. You can get the next one.”
I put on my baseball cap as we head out into the lobby. I managed to sneak in without notice, so I hope my luck holds. Cole sees me and heads out to get the car. The ladies find us waiting for them and come over to say goodbye. I hold my hand out to Julian. “It’s been good seeing you again. We should hang out sometime when I’m in town.”
He pulls a business card out of his pocket. “Sure. Give me a call.”
I try to judge his sincerity. Does he really want to try and be friends again? Or does he want to keep tabs on me? Keep your friends close and your enemies closer and all that shit. I read his business card. Maybe he just wants my money. It really fucking sucks not knowing what people’s true motives are when your face is plastered on billboards and buses.
“It was nice to meet you, Melissa. I hope we can do this again sometime.” I give her a kiss on the cheek.
She blushes. And squeals. “Holy shit, Thad Stone just kissed me.”
“No,” I tell her. “Mallory’s boyfriend did.”
I take Mallory by the elbow. “We good?”
She looks in my eyes. She knows exactly what I’m asking. She smiles up at me, nodding.
I lean down and kiss her on the head. “Good. I’ll see you soon, then.”
I head out the front door, tapping out a text as I wait for Cole.
Me: The next time I say goodnight to my girlfriend, I’m going to kiss the fucking shit out of her. Just sayin’.
I peek back inside and watch Mallory pull her phone out of her pocket. Then I watch a huge smile overtake her face. Then I can’t help my celebratory fist pump.
Chapter Fourteen
Mallory
As I wait for Chad to pick me up, I page through the texts he’s sent me over the past few days. Texts a boyfriend sends to a girlfriend. Texts about wanting to kiss me, hold hands with me. Texts that reference a future he wants me to be a part of.
I’m teeming with excitement that we are even considering a future together. I thought the door on that was shut nine years ago. But at the same time, I’m wary. Julian brought up some valid points. When are we even going to have the time to see each other? I teach and he has so many appearances, interviews, upcoming movies to promote, new films to make. Will either of us be happy with a significant other we can only see once a month or whatever? Will he be able to resist all the temptations that go along with being who he is?
Then I think about all the nice things he’s done for me since he came back into my life. And I know in my heart that even seeing him once a month would be a hundred times better than seeing some other guy every day of the week.
Take Monday night. A courier arrived at my door when I got home from work. He delivered a huge box along with a beautiful vase of flowers. Inside the box was a copy of Defcon One on Blu-ray. It hasn’t even been released to theaters yet, not until next month. He sent me my own private copy. Also in the box was everything you’d need for a night at the movies—popcorn,
jujubes, and an uber-comfy pillow and blanket for me to cuddle up with. And darn it if they didn’t smell like him. I think he must have spritzed his cologne on them before boxing them up. He included a card.
Here’s the next best thing to actually being with me. Me—I’ll have to rely on the memory of your incredible smell and the picture I took of you last night. Counting the hours until tomorrow evening.
I curled up on the couch and watched as Lt. Jake Cross stole my heart almost as much as Chad Stone has. He’s a phenomenal actor. Truly gifted at his craft. It almost makes those years we spent apart worth it. If he hadn’t moved away, he never would have been discovered. And I’m convinced nobody could have played the part of Lt. Cross as well as he did. I’m a firm believer that everything happens for a reason. That there is a butterfly effect and everything that happens influences what will happen next. Even my mom dying. I mean, what if she hadn’t been on the road at that very minute in that very spot? Instead, what if it were a young family, or a pregnant woman in labor being rushed to the hospital? Maybe that drunk driver running into her saved other lives. And maybe one of those lives that was saved is someone who will go on to discover how to prevent cancer. Or global warming. Or nuclear war.
Maybe everything that’s happened in my life and in Chad’s has led us to this moment—the time when we can finally be together—the time we were always meant to be together.
The doorbell rings and my heart pounds. This is it. Our first official date. I’m going out with Chad Stone. I smooth my hands down my dress and open the door.
I watch the reaction on Chad’s face as his eyes rake over me. It’s everything I imagined and more. His mouth hangs slightly agape as his gaze travels from my hair, that I pinned up with loose tendrils framing my face, to my little black dress that fits well in all the right places, to my stocking-clad legs and then down to my heeled sandals. And then he slowly works his way back up again.
By the time he gets to my face, I feel like I’ve been thoroughly made love to yet he hasn’t touched me at all. My insides coil, my legs start to shake, my breathing comes quickly. Oh, Lord, how am I going to make it through an evening with this man?
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