“Stop thinking about it,” he said. He pushed his plate back. “Look, Megan, you said it yourself that this felt like more than a fling. Do you want it to be more than a fling?”
“I’m not ready to confess my undying love for you.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
She took a few deep breaths. “I just don’t know, Tyler. Obviously I care or I wouldn’t have been curious enough to listen to your phone call. Beyond that, I just don’t know. Love doesn’t happen in a week.”
“And I thought I was the down-to-earth cynical one.”
She chuckled. “Yeah, what happened there?”
“You walked by again.” Silence. “I’m sorry. No more declarations. All right, what should we do for the afternoon?”
“Could we maybe spend the afternoon apart, so I can get over my shame and embarrassment and generally get my feet back under me?”
He nodded. “If that’s what you need. But you’ll come back?”
“I’ll come back.”
***
Megan was very aware of her mother’s almost constant stare as they sat at the antique dining room table that night. Of course Megan knew that her silence and lack of appetite would be enough to raise flags in her mother’s mind but she couldn’t mask this confusion behind a happy-go-lucky front. That didn’t mean she was looking forward to the chat that would come later.
She sighed and her mother set her fork down on the table. “All right Dear, that’s the fifth sigh since you sat down at this table. You’ve barely touched your dinner and you haven’t joined the conversation. What’s wrong?”
“I wasn’t expecting this talk until bed time,” Megan grumbled.
“Well, I’m tired of this moping. What happened this time? Did you actually fall in love?”
“No. I mean, I don’t know. Mom, I’ve known him less than two weeks! How could I possibly know if I love him?” She sighed, again, and poked her meatball across her plate. “He said he loved me yesterday.”
Deborah smiled indulgently. “Megan, have I ever told you how your father and I met?”
“Sure, you’re the original high school sweethearts. Everyone knows that.”
“We went out for pizza with a fairly large group of mutual friends.” Deborah’s eyes took on a faraway look. “There I was, squished against the back wall of the booth, five of us trying to sit on a bench designed for three, and your father peers over the wall at me. I’d seen him around school before, but the way he smiled down at me just took my breath away. I made four of my best friends pile out of the booth just so I could go around and sit at his table. Everything he did that evening left me breathless so when he asked me to go steady a week later I said ‘yes’ and here we are, nearly forty years later.”
“I don’t believe in love at first sight, Mom. I was in love with Bryce from the start, remember? He wouldn’t even come back to Kingsbridge to meet you two. And when I went back early because I missed him so much, he was fucking another woman in my apartment.”
“Language, Megan,” her father said.
“Sorry Dad. He was intimately and athletically embracing another woman in my apartment.”
Her father nodded once and went back to his dinner.
“Bryce wasn’t the one for you and you weren’t in love, you were a small city girl infatuated with a big city boy and he took advantage of that.”
“And what if this is the same thing?! He’s another big city boy, Mom. He doesn’t have time for the simple little things in life, how the hell …”
Her father cleared his throat.
“How the heck would he have time for a family? Does he think I’ll give up my career and move to wherever he lives and be a charming wife, entertaining all his business guests and ironing his ties?”
“Damn ties,” her father muttered.
Megan rolled her eyes and was about to continue her rant when her mother cut her off. “Have you asked him? How should I know what the man thinks? Honey, you’ve been off sleeping with him for almost two weeks, against my advice, and now you’re afraid you’re about to get your heart stepped on. Well, you made the physical and emotional commitment to this relationship, now you go and sort out where it’s going.”
Megan watched in shock as her mother cleared the plates from the table. “I wasn’t finished.”
“Go figure out what he wants. And if it’s what you want, then why can’t you fall in love with him?” Deborah called from the kitchen.
“You’re kicking me out?”
“Only for a few hours. Now go.”
Megan pushed back from the table, retrieved her purse and sandals, and stormed out of the house. She drove to the rose garden because it was open all day and because she had no intention of going to the hotel to talk to Tyler.
She settled on the bench across from the fountain and glared at everything while her thoughts bubbled around in her head.
“I didn’t ask for this,” she told the evening air. “All I wanted was a quick fling, a few nights of decent sex to take the edge off before going on tour and being on my best behavior.” She hmphed and crossed her arms over her stomach. “I don’t want love, especially not from some big city workaholic. I don’t even know his last name, or where he works, or where he lives! This is not how you fall in love with someone.”
With a sigh she got up and walked around the garden. She loved roses, though any plants she bought for her apartment withered and died in a matter of months. She was content just to look at other people’s gardens and admire from the safety of a walkway or patio, where she couldn’t kill the beautiful flowers.
Checking the time she saw it was still early evening and decided to take a chance. She called Alicia’s number and continued to walk about the garden as she counted rings. At ‘five’ the phone picked up. “Hello?”
“Hi, Alicia, it’s Megan.”
“Hi! I didn’t expect to hear from you so soon. But then I guess your vacation is almost over.”
“Yeah, any chance you’re free tonight?”
“I’m just finishing up a painting but you can come over if you want.”
“I’ve never minded watching you work. I’ll be right over.”
Alicia’s house was a little one bedroom with barely enough grass to call a yard. She had painted it aquamarine with navy trim, it was attractive but it stood out against the white washed houses on either side. Megan let herself in the back and found Alicia in the living room which had been converted into a studio. The canvas on the easel was mostly complete and the King’s Bridge, complete with stony creek and scrubby pasture, was captured there.
“Hey Megan! I’m just working on the sky, it’s giving me some trouble. Did you want a drink or anything?”
“If there’s wine in the fridge I’ll get us both a glass.”
“Grab me a sandwich while you’re there! They’re ready made. Grab one for yourself too!”
“No thanks,” Megan called from the kitchen. “I just ate, sort of.”
“What do you mean, sort of? You’re not on a diet again are you? I told you being a celebrity would ruin your self-image.”
“I’m not dieting. My mom stole my plate before I was done and kicked me out for the evening.”
Alicia’s eyebrows shot up. “Why did she do that?”
Megan took a deep breath and poured out the entire story, in a lot more detail than she could ever tell her mother. When she was finished Alicia’s eyes were wide.
“He bought every single one for hotels? My paintings are going to be on display in hotel lobbies? This is too amazing.” She took a deep breath and held it before leveling a very serious gaze at Megan. “Enough about me, we’ll celebrate later. This is about you.”
“Does it have to be? Can’t we just get drunk and celebrate your big success in style?”
“Later, I said. Do you love him?”
“Alicia!”
“No excuses. No wishy-washy crap. Do you love him?”
“I don’t know. A
licia, it scares me. Last time I fell in love he ended up being a total jerk. This casual fling thing works for me. I don’t want it to get complicated.”
“When you started this casual fling thing you had to know there was a chance you’d one day fall for one of your flings, didn’t you?”
“I wasn’t thinking about it,” Megan grumbled.
“Why can’t you love him?”
“My mother asked me that same question.”
Alicia finished her sandwich, washed it down with half a glass of wine and picked up her paints again. “I’ll paint, you talk.”
Megan sighed. “We don’t know anything about each other. I don’t know where he works, all I know is that he’s involved with business, and apparently hotels. I don’t know where he lives. I don’t know anything about his family. He doesn’t know what I do for a living.”
“What do you know about him?”
“He uses these stupid pick-up lines and I just laugh at them. I should slap him but I can’t help laughing at them. He likes art and history and hiking. And sex, he really likes sex. He likes turkey club sandwiches and white wine and what’s the point of any of this?”
“You said you knew nothing about him, but that sounds like an awful lot of somethings. And he probably knows just as much, or more since you talk so much, about you. You’re focusing on the unimportant unknowns instead of the all-important already knowns.”
“And if he wants me to marry him? I can’t marry a man without knowing where he lives or where he works!” Megan filled her glass again and took another large sip.
“We’re not talking marriage, Meagan, we’re talking love.”
“They’re the same thing in my book. When you love someone you marry them. Guys don’t seem to want that anymore.”
“Do you want to get married?”
“Of course I do. Someday, when I find the right guy, I want to get married. And have kids. God, I don’t even know if he wants kids! I can’t marry a man who doesn’t want kids.”
“You should have thought of that before you started using this casual fling thing to deal with Bryce’s betrayal.”
“Stop making so much sense, Alicia.” Megan sighed. “What the hell am I supposed to do?”
“Go talk to him. Ask him what he has in mind; find out those all important details you’re so hung up on. And tell him the truth about who you are and what you do. Get it all out in the open and then make up your mind. Are you going to keep in touch with him after these two weeks are over, or not? Because he deserves to know.”
“Fine. I will. But not tonight. I’m still feeling too embarrassed that I actually eavesdropped on his phone call.”
“Yeah, that was a pretty stupid thing to do.”
“You’re not supposed to agree with me on that one.”
Alicia shrugged. “So, what are you going to do for the rest of the evening?”
“Drink to your success and sleep it off on your couch because I’m not going back to face my mother.”
Chapter 5
Since eating in his room would only make him think again he went down to the restaurant then across to the bar to watch the game and get suitably drunk.
Unlike his first night in Kingsbridge he didn’t stop at four beers. He skipped right over the beers and ordered scotch, the full bottle, and a glass with no ice, and set about trying to forget everything, except maybe his room number.
The scotch went down smooth and soon Tyler was drunk enough that he didn’t mind when the music changed from mellow-background to club mix. He poured himself another and downed it before looking over to see who had filled the stool at his elbow.
“Fancy meeting you here, again,” said the blonde. Her low cut, skin tight outfit was pink today and her lipstick matched. She was smiling big and leaning forward far enough that he didn’t have to strain his neck to see down her dress. “Looks like a lot of scotch for one man.”
“Tell that to my father,” Tyler said. “On the other hand, don’t bother. He’s dead.” He poured another.
“Aw, I’m sorry to hear that.” She rubbed his leg with her foot. “Wanna talk about it?”
“Why? Been dead two years.”
“Wanna talk about why you’re in here alone with a bottle of scotch?”
He stared into her big blue eyes to see sympathy as well as lust. “I’ve had more than enough casual affairs for one vacation,” he said.
“Who said anything about sex?” she rubbed the back of his hand. “Let’s just get drunk together and see where the night takes us.”
He looked at her and then the bottle of scotch. She was right, it was too much scotch for him to finish on his own, at least if he wanted to walk away from the bar on his own. He waved the bar tender over. “Another glass.”
“With ice,” she added. When it arrived Tyler poured and they clinked glasses. “To getting drunk.”
“Amen.”
Morning found Megan asleep on Alicia’s couch with an empty bottle of wine lying on the floor. The painting Alicia had been working on was finished. The sky, which had been giving Alicia so much trouble, was now filled with ominous thunder clouds. Alicia staggered down the hall from her bedroom and into the kitchen.
Megan woke to a cramped neck and the smell of fresh coffee brewing. She came to the kitchen table and sat. “I must look like shit.”
“Only a little,” Alicia said. “You can’t go see him looking like that.”
“I can’t go home looking like this or my mom will assume the worst.”
“You can wash up here but you’re on your own for clothes.”
“The clothes should be fine. I didn’t spill any wine on them.” She took the cup of offered coffee with a grateful smile. “So, in the face of your great success, what’s your next endeavour?”
“Oh, we were so busy getting drunk last night that I didn’t tell you. The owner of the hotel chain that bought my paintings was so pleased with them that he called me, personally, and commissioned a bunch more.”
“Really?” Megan’s eyes were wide.
“That’s not the best part. He’s flying me to one of his hotels on the west coast so I can photograph the ocean and other scenery and do a series of paintings from them.”
“What? All expenses paid?”
“Yeah, well, sort of. As long as I eat at the hotel he’ll pay for it. And it’s only for a weekend. But I’ve always dreamed of seeing the ocean.”
“Alicia, this is fantastic! When do you leave?”
“In a few weeks. Now, go get cleaned up. You’ve got a big day.”
Megan gulped her coffee. “Don’t remind me.”
By the time she got to the hotel it was after nine so she poked her head into the restaurant and let her eyes sweep over the early risers. Tyler was not among them so she went to the desk. A young woman Megan didn’t recognize was sitting there. “Excuse me, Tyler, room 412, he didn’t check out, did he?”
The woman frowned. “I’m sorry, we don’t generally give out that information.”
“I know, my father worked this desk for years. It’s just,” she sighed. “We had a fight yesterday and I don’t want to go up and embarrass myself if he’s left.”
That earned her a sympathetic, almost pitying smile and the woman clicked a few keys on the keyboard. “He’s checked in. Reservation for tonight and tomorrow night yet.”
“Thank-you.” She went up and knocked softly on the door. There was no answer. She stood in the hallway debating whether she should go down and sit in the lobby for an hour or if she should knock louder. Once more, she thought and knocked.
She could hear a muffled voice and she leaned against the door. “Where the hell did my pants go?” Tyler muttered. A moment later the door opened a crack.
“Megan.”
“Hi. You told me to come back.”
“I wasn’t expecting you this early.” He wore pants and nothing else and Megan felt her heart begin to beat a little faster.
She licked her lower lip a
nd shrugged. “I can come back later, if you want. I just – I was at a friend’s house last night and she had to get going early this morning and I didn’t want to go home right away.” She sighed. “I’ll come back later.”
“If you walk away I’ll just chase you.”
Now her heart was thundering. “As fun as that sounds I don’t think the other guests would appreciate us tearing up and down the hallway.”
Pants on Fire Page 6