"Okay, I wanna see where this goes."
She sighed and let her shoulders fall in such relief that it surprised me. She looked over at me and smiled. "I was worried, alright—about you, not you and him. I thought maybe Brent did more damage than I gave him credit for. I just don't want to see you give up on love and a nice guy. Even if Sean isn't that guy, it would kill me and Annalisa for you not to have that someday, Morgan."
I leaned over and hugged her. "Thank you."
"You've done the same for me for years. We're in this together—you need to remember that."
"I do remember that. Sometimes I just need some time to think on my own, though." It was one of the best things in the world to have such good friends, but I'd always need time to process things on my own.
"I get that, especially with this situation. Now, call Sean because he's seriously draining my cell phone battery."
I smiled a little at that and hit "Call Sean."
Immediately and in such a rush, I had to concentrate to understand all his words. "Morgan? I'm so sorry. I didn't tell Stewie to do that. I swear to you I told him to stay away from you where that was concerned. I told him you understood me and had been through something similar, but he didn't believe me, and I'm so sorry."
"You should have told me you were that wealthy, Sean. You can't keep leaving me in the dark like this. If you trust me as much as you say you do then just tell me who you are. I can't deal with the secrets anymore. This has—" I didn't know if I wanted to put my heart on the line yet, but I felt like I had no choice. "I know this is all just words, and it's just been three weeks. What we have—it's just talking on the phone and texting and email, but I feel like—I mean I think I want it to—"
"It's more than that, sweetie. I feel it too. Look, I don't want to tell you who I am over the phone. I want it to be in person so I can see you and talk through it. Can you wait just two more weeks. I can get away for a weekend in two weeks. Please?"
"Okay. Two weeks. I just—can you try to tell me everything else? I don't like surprises."
"I'll try, sweetie. I can only talk another couple minutes. They've been calling for me for the last half hour."
"I'm sorry." I felt a little guilty for keeping him from work.
"No. I'm sorry. And if you don't let Stewie stay and help you with the inn, I won't let him come back. I'll kick his sorry ass out on the street." I didn't smile at that, but all the muscles in my face finally relaxed as he continued. "Besides, I told him he can tell you about anything you want to know, except questions related to my job, and don't use your intelligence against him."
"Sean, you know I could've Googled the details you've given me and figured it out by now, but I haven't."
"I know, Morgan. And that really means a lot to me. I promise, just two weeks and you'll know everything."
"So I can ask him anything and he has to tell me? What about Rudy? Can I ask him why you need Rudy to be your bodyguard?"
"Shit."
I smiled a little at his cussing, but then thought about him needing a bodyguard. "Are you in danger a lot?"
"Stewie gets talking, and he blurts things out. He and Cerise should get along really well."
"You didn't answer my question," I said softly. He was quiet for a few minutes, and I wasn't sure he was going to answer me. "Sean?"
"I get some threats. I can take care of myself, though. Rudy is more of a barrier than anything else."
Threats… he received a lot of threats. He could be a politician. No. I couldn't imagine him as a politician, but everything was pointing to actor. I just couldn't conceive of that—it was too fairy-tale like. I was still worried and looked to Cerise, but she just reminded me of the fact that they had been conversing behind my back. "Oh and since you brought up people getting along well with Cerise, I hear you've been getting along fine with her yourself. So if I'm not willing to give you information, you go to her?"
He was quiet again for a few moments then blurted out, "Brent's last name," as if solving a puzzle. "Morgan, I just—I needed to—it was important that I—Sweetie, I don't have an excuse, not a rational one anyway. I won't ask her anything behind your back again. I promise."
"I'm not that mad about it. This is just really tricky, Sean. It's so difficult to trust you when I haven't met you, and can't look you in the eye and see if you're being honest with me. It's hard to have blind faith here, especially with such potential to wind up just like—nevermind."
"No. Stop right there. I can understand everything else you've said, but that. You have to stop comparing me to Brent. I know my money blindsided you, but it means nothing. I know you're not out for that, and whatever anyone else says, you need to know I know that. Please Morgan, I need you to let Brent go."
I could let the money issue go, but there was more to whatever we had here winding up like Brent and me than just the money issue. I couldn't talk about that with him, though. "I'll try. Will you call me later?"
"As soon as I can. Bye, sweetie."
Cerise followed me back to the inn, and I found myself dreading going inside. I had a sick twisting in my gut about Stewie, but I had to remember that he was protecting his best friend. I thought about his words from earlier, back before he shoved his foot in his mouth. He's had a lot of trouble finding women who are interested in him for who he is and not what he does. It's not an easy life. We've seen it firsthand. If that were Cerise or Annalisa, I'd want to help them through it too. So I vowed to give Stewie another chance as I walked slowly to the inn. Cerise caught up with me and looped her arm through mine.
"Annalisa and I will kill him if he says one more wrong thing," Cerise warned.
"I think you're on your own with that. You should have seen how they were flirting this morning."
Cerise laughed. "You should have seen her lay into him when he was telling Sean what he'd said to you. I thought she was going to kill him right then and there. The only thing that saved him was the severe guilt he seemed to be bathing in."
We walked to my office where we pulled off our coats and gloves. She put her hand out to me, and we walked into the kitchen to find Stewie at the center table on a stool with his back to us.
Annalisa rushed to me and wrapped her arms around me. "Why didn't you come get me? I could have shut him up or kicked him out or something."
"I—it happened so fast. I wasn't really thinking everything through."
She nodded sadly then stood up straight, her shoulders back and her head high. Loudly, she said. "Well I made him put his bags by the door." In a softer voice, for my ears only, she said, "He feels awful, and I believe him, but you know I fully support your decision."
I patted her upper arm. "I know you do." I walked over to Stewie, who really did look awful and a little scared. Maybe Sean really did threaten to not let him go back to Miami.
He glanced up at me but then stared back at his hands. "I'm so sorry. I just thought you were like the others. I had no idea—I'm just really sorry."
"Annalisa and Cerise are like my sisters. I'd do anything to protect them. I can imagine I might even make the same assumptions you made about me if I were in your position. But you need to know that I hate money that isn't earned outright. I believe in working hard to get what you want. No one has ever handed me anything, but I've been in a situation before where the man I was supposed to marry thought I would be getting a great deal of money handed to me. When he found out I wasn't, he left me at the altar. I'll never forget how that felt. You can't imagine what that was like. But if you can accept that I want nothing to do with Sean's money, I'd still like your non-financial help."
He gave me a somewhat disarming smile. "I really can help with the inn, Morgan, I really can. And that's why he sent me here. I won't be paying for anything I help you get for the inn. I've made a lot of friends in a lot of areas of advertising. I'm happy to call in a few favors if that's okay with you."
I narrowed my eyes suspiciously. "And what do you get out of it?"
&
nbsp; "Redemption, maybe forgiveness, at the very least, I get out of having my body twisted into a pretzel by Sean, and maybe you'll let me spend some more time with your sister there." He pointed shyly to Annalisa, who turned red but didn't smile.
I nodded. "Okay. Well, you should see the rest of the place, then. Annalisa, can you show him around?"
Annalisa still didn't smile at him, but took his hand and pulled him from the kitchen.
The Friend Hat Slips
True to his word, Sean called me three hours later. Our conversation started off a little slow, and I felt very tentative because of what happened earlier, but we eventually broke back into the warm way we talked to each other. The more he relaxed, the more gravelly his voice became.
"You sound tired," I observed out loud.
"I'm okay. It's just been a long day."
"Because of earlier?" I didn't like the idea that what had happened with Stewie had stressed him out the whole day.
"A little. This is tough on me too, Morgan. We've talked about this before, but I really hope you were serious about enjoying public displays of affection. I've thought about touching you a million different ways these past few weeks. It's getting a little obsessive."
"A million different ways?" I laughed lightly. "That sounds a little less like public displays of affection."
"Mmm. I didn't say they were only public." His deep voice was insanely attractive.
I'd never before gotten tingles all across my skin over some guy's voice on the phone. I imagined Sean's voice in my ear, his warm breath against my skin, or his hands—ugh. I had to shut my mind off to those thoughts. "Stop that. You're making me insane."
He chuckled slow and sexy. "The feeling is mutual, sweetie."
"Are you done working for the day or do you have more to do?"
"It'll be a late night." He yawned. "Probably won't get done until after midnight."
"Are you sure you'll make it that late. Don't work so hard you make yourself sick with exhaustion."
"I'm all about the late nights. I can handle it. I'll grab a nap at some point and be good to go. But it's nice that you worry about me. I like that."
"Well I have a lot of time and energy invested in you. I have to keep an eye on my investment."
"I'd like to invest myself in you too, sweetheart."
"Sean," I scolded.
He laughed deeply, making me want to soak up the sound. "Mmm. I bet you blush when I say things like that."
"I don't know. I don't stare at myself in the mirror when I'm talking to you. Do you? Are you checking your hair and practicing the best way to wink at chicks to make them fall to their knees?"
"Doesn't take much practice." The words were arrogant, but he sounded annoyed and frustrated by it. "You're the only one who's made me really work at saying the right things. And you make me nervous as hell." He chuckled in a boyish way.
"I make you nervous?" It was hard for me to believe.
"Mmm hmm. I'm so afraid I'm gonna scare you off."
"Stewie nearly did, but it's a good thing I'm not interested in Stewie. If being wrapped up in your arms feels anywhere near as good as being wrapped up in your voice, it's a safe bet that nothing can scare me from you."
"You may regret saying that when I flat-out refuse to take my arms off you."
That sounded too nice. Two weeks seemed like an eternity in that moment. "This waiting is killing me."
"I know. Me too. Let's talk about something else. So is Stewie behaving himself? I thought he and Cerise would talk nonstop. They're both people persons."
"He's actually getting along really well with my chef right now."
"Oh really?" The way his tone changed told me he was going to give Stewie hell about that piece of information.
"They've been flirting like crazy all morning." I smiled, but then realized I needed his help. "I need to know something."
"Anything, sweetie."
"Is he like you? I mean, the whole several girls, can't keep his di—uh, you know? Is he a womanizer because Annalisa—she's really shy and really innocent when it comes to guys."
"I don't like that you have that opinion of me, but no, Stewie's solid. He was in a tough relationship a year or so ago, but she—I don't know if I should repeat this. Can I trust you not to tell anyone, especially Stew?"
"Of course."
"She tried to kill herself. Stew was a mess. She's been in a mental hospital since then. She had a bad childhood, and I really think she just hated herself, but Stewie always blamed himself for not being able to get her out of it. He's moved on, but he's a slow mover."
"Good. I mean, that's awful—about his ex-girlfriend—but Annalisa doesn't need to be played. And she's all about the moving slow."
"Even if he were a player, and I've got a couple in my gang, he wouldn't go near one of your friends—they all know better. I've lectured them repeatedly."
"You've discussed this with your friends?"
"Look Morgan, we've been talking for several weeks now. I know it's not quite the same as meeting in person, but I think it's obvious by now that I like you. More than that, I really really like you. I know you don't feel very stable with this whole phone relationship, and I can't blame you, but I want this to go somewhere. In order for that to happen, I know my friends and I need to behave a certain way. They're rusty on this kind of thing, so I just made sure we were all on the same page."
He really really liked me. I bit my bottom lip to control my smile. I knew he liked me or he wouldn't be calling me and sending his best friend to help me out and calling a hundred times when I hung up on him, but hearing him say it just made me giggly.
He groaned loudly. "I gotta go. They're calling me back. My schedule is a complete nightmare tomorrow, but I'll try to call or text you when I can."
"Okay. Don't work too hard."
"I'll try not to. Bye, sweetheart."
While he did text me every few hours, we never really got to talk about anything because of the staggered response time, but Stewie kept me pretty busy anyway.
When Stewie wasn't calling around to the hundreds of people he seemed to have connections with, he was telling me stories about idiotic things Sean did in high school. He didn't talk too much about after high school, but I felt like I was getting to know Sean better. Sean was really close to his parents, and Stewie called them Mom and Dad. He said his parents weren't always there for him like Sean's parents were, but I suspected there was a lot more to that story.
Stewie knew someone at nearly every travel magazine known to man. Okay, that was probably an exaggeration, but he got me two months of free ads in 29 different locations online and in magazines. It bought me enough time to pull in some business so I could pay to put out my own ads. He took pictures of every room in the inn from fifty different angles and sent them off to Troy, who had them up on my new website within hours. He'd even talked his friend into doing an article about The Olde English for a very popular travel magazine.
By Saturday night, Stewie's promotional blitz, as he called it, took us from seven new reservations to over twenty. It was completely amazing. He also spent a lot of time with Annalisa, talking about how best to promote the restaurant. The way they had their cute little heads together, talking low about ideas made both Cerise and me all warm and gooey inside. Annalisa deserved some happiness.
To celebrate—and to give Annalisa and Stewie some more time together—we decided to go out to dinner then dancing at a club in Rutland. Cerise and I had been there several times, especially when we were younger, but Annalisa was not into the club scene. With Stewie going however, she was all for the idea. It was so cute.
Cerise and I decided to go to Annalisa's house to get ready since she was our main priority for the evening. And in an attempt to put her more at ease, Cerise invited Tommy, the town partier and a few of our friends. Unfortunately, Tommy invited Lutz, Alvin's brother and Cerise's ex-boyfriend. I knew that meant Alvin would come with him, and I dreaded it the whole a
fternoon because I really didn't think Alvin could keep his friend hat firmly in place.
Annalisa sat on the edge of her bed, looking numb. "He's never seen me in anything but a chef jacket. What if—"
Cerise plopped down next to her. "Cut it out, Annalisa." As I went through her closet, Cerise gave her a talking to. "It's clear he likes you, but even if he doesn't, it's dinner and dancing. You're not trying to marry the guy. Don't put so much pressure on yourself here. Dinner and dancing with some friends."
"Dinner and dancing with some friends," Annalisa dutifully repeated.
I fished out a loose knee-length black skirt and grabbed a simple red sweater that I'd seen her wear several times. I knew she wasn't too comfortable with skirts, but I thought the red sweater might make her feel more comfortable. It also brought out the blue in her eyes and made the light blonde in her hair shimmer. Cerise and I opted for more subdued outfits of dark pants and simple sweaters so that Annalisa would be the shining star. We both really wanted to see her happy.
When we piled into my SUV, Stewie took the back seat with Annalisa, leaving Cerise to ride shotgun. He looked very nice in black slacks and a green sweater. They made a really cute couple—he was stocky and broad-shouldered and several inches taller than Annalisa, so they worked well together.
I volunteered to be the sober sister for the evening, hoping if we got Annalisa tipsy, she would be all over Stewie. We weren't trying to play pimp or anything, but well, Annalisa had zero track-record when it came to guys. It was seriously time that changed.
When we arrived at the restaurant, the look on Alvin's face told me this was not going to go well. He smiled as we sat down, but it was completely fake. The seating arrangement was a disaster. We were at a circular table, and the second I went to sit down away from Alvin, he stood up and pulled out the chair next to his for me.
He cleared his throat. "Morgan, why don't you sit here?"
Accidental Texting: Finding Love despite the Spotlight Page 8