The Price of Love (A Price Novel Book 1)

by Craft, Maggi

  As Eric parked the car, I decided to leave my thoughts of Slayde in the car. I was determined to have a good time.

  Eric’s brother’s name was Ethan, and he looked like a younger version of Eric. He wasn’t quite as tall, but he had the same pretty blue eyes and blond hair. Ethan’s girlfriend’s name was Amber, and she seemed OK. I think she had started her party a few hours before we had, and she was super excited about Eric’s Jell-O shots.

  We stood in the parking lot a while, trying to consume as many of Eric’s Jell-O shots as we could before going into the concert, where they’d make us throw them away. We grabbed a few shots for the road and started our walk toward the Staples Center.

  Thanks to the quick consumption of numerous Jell-O shots, I had a good buzz going early on in the concert, and I needed to go to the little girl’s room. Apparently Eric thought I wasn’t able to go by myself, because he started to follow me. I didn’t have the energy to argue with him, so I let him walk with me. When I came out of the bathroom, he was leaning against the wall, waiting for me.

  “How about we go get some water? It’s burning up in there,” he said, and I nodded. We were headed back into the concert when he grabbed my hand and stopped walking. I turned to see what he was doing, and he kissed me. Without thinking, I kissed him back. Maybe I hoped it would make me feel better, but it didn’t. I felt nothing. It was like kissing my cousin or something — total disappointment. Was this what life post-Slayde was going to be like? I felt dead inside.

  Still holding my hand, Eric led me back, and I had a few more drinks. I spent the rest of the concert trying to force myself to have a good time. We had pit tickets, so everyone around us was completely insane, and I grew tired of getting stepped on by crazy fans and tired of getting beer sprayed all over me by the band. I suggested we go back to the car and finish off those Jell-O shots.

  That’s when things got a little fuzzy. When we arrived back at the dorm, I felt like death. It was late, and I was exhausted and drunk. All I wanted to do was get in my bed and pass out.

  Eric helped me up the stairs and to my room. The door was unlocked and the lights were on. I thought I must have been really drunk, because it looked like Slayde Price was sitting on my bed. I blinked several times, and Eric let me go as Slayde approached us.

  The next thing I knew, I was lying on the floor and Slayde was kneeling beside me, wiping my face with a cool rag. I could hear Slayde saying my name over and over, but I couldn’t for the life of me respond. Eric and Milly were also kneeling beside me, and Milly squealed when she saw me coming to. Slayde got closer to my face, and Eric pushed him away. I could tell I had missed something, but I didn’t know what.

  “Boys, boys, stop it! Eric, now that we know she’s going to be OK, you can go home,” Milly said.

  “I’m doing no such thing. I am not leaving her. I’m staying and helping you take care of her.”

  “I think you’ve done more than enough,” Slayde snapped. Just the sound of his voice gave me delicious chills, even though I could tell he was angry.

  “Who in the hell are you, and what are you doing here?” Eric asked.

  “I’m her boyfriend. Who are you?” Slayde shouted. They were both standing at this point, and only about a foot apart.

  “I’m her date, and she doesn’t have a boyfriend,” Eric said.

  They both turned to Milly for some clarification. She grabbed Eric’s arm and led him to the door. “Good night, Eric. We will see you in the morning.” She shut and locked the door before he could argue.

  Suddenly, the room started spinning, and I knew I was going to puke. Slayde must have figured that out, because he grabbed my trash can just in time. I felt so humiliated. He helped me to the bathroom and pulled my hair back. Once I felt like I could get up, he got me my toothbrush, washed my face, and helped me get on something to sleep in. After he helped me into bed, he went into the bathroom, and Milly rushed over to me.

  “What in the hell did you do in Paris?” she asked with a huge smile on her face. “He’s what’s really wrong with you, isn’t he? That’s why you cry yourself to sleep every night. Why didn’t you tell me?” I didn’t answer her aloud; I just nodded. I knew he could hear us. The walls were paper thin, and the door didn’t close anymore, since I had ripped off the doorknob. “OK, sweetie, you sleep. Is it OK to leave you? I will go crash at Karen’s.” I told her that was fine, and she kissed my cheek and left.

  Slayde waited for her to leave and then came back into the room and lay beside me on my bed. I was too out of it to discuss anything with him. No matter how angry, hurt, or confused I was, going to sleep in his arms was all I wanted to do.

  I didn’t think I had been asleep long when I awoke in a panic. I didn’t know where I was. I reached for the lamp but fell across Slayde onto the floor. I thought I had dreamed it all, but apparently I was wrong.

  Turning on the lamp, Slayde looked down and said, “Baby, what are you doing?” That made me angry. How dare he come here and think that everything was OK? He had a pregnant girlfriend on the other side of the world, and here he was in bed with me. What a dog!

  “You don’t get to call me that anymore. Why are you here?” I grabbed my robe from the closet to cover up. He may have seen me in my panties before, but that would never happen again.

  “OK, I guess you’re sober enough to talk.” He sounded abrupt, and I could tell he was aggravated. He sat with his arms crossed over his bare chest, chewing the inside of his mouth. I looked at the clock. It was 4:37 a.m.

  Getting out of bed, Slayde came over to where I was standing. Even through my anger, I thought how beautiful he was, standing there in nothing but his boxer briefs. “Why do you think I’m here, Arden? You take off and leave without saying good-bye or letting anyone know where you are. Nobody has heard from you in a month. Not your sisters, not your mom. What in the hell is going on with you?”

  I felt the anger I’d been bottling up for the last few weeks come flooding out. “What is wrong with me? Are you serious? Is ripping my heart out and stomping it into a million pieces not enough for you?” Tears started streaming down my face. I shouted, “You had to come here, to my home, and rub salt in the wound?” pointing my finger at his face.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about!” He took a step back and held his arms out. He really looked confused. “Me ripping your heart out? You’re the one who led me to believe everything was going to work out, and I came home to find you had packed your stuff and left without so much as a note. I have been beating myself up for weeks, trying to figure out what in the hell I did wrong.”

  I was dumbfounded, but I wasn’t in the mood to argue with him. “Slayde, I can’t do this. I want you to go back to Paris. Go back to Kinley. I don’t even know why you came here.” I walked to the window. I couldn’t face him. He didn’t deserve to see me cry. I searched for something outside to concentrate on but didn’t find much. Some people were walking in from the parking lot, trying to beat the security golf cart to the dorm. Other than that, it was quiet.

  “Kinley? Why would I do that?”

  “Slayde, I know she’s pregnant.”

  “OK, so what?”

  “So what? Slayde, I really thought more of you than this. I’d love to know what Lexi thinks about all of this.”

  He paused for a minute and then came over to me. “Arden, do you think I got Kinley pregnant?”

  “Well, yes. Kenedy said that — ”

  He cut me off. “Wait a minute. ‘Kenedy said’?”

  “Yes, Kenedy came to your apartment all upset, and said she needed to talk to me. She said Kinley was pregnant with your baby.” Hearing it out loud, I realized how stupid it sounded.

  At first he smiled, looking at the floor and shaking his head, but when he looked up, I could tell he was mad. His smile had faded, and his eyes were narrowed, and he wouldn’t quite look at me. “You mean to tell me this whole time, I’ve been thinking you got scared and ran? I’ve flown back and f
orth from Paris, trying to find you. I’ve gone to your mom’s and to your grandmother’s. Neither of them would tell me anything. I even had my mom go talk to your mom. I finally broke down and asked my dad for a favor to find out what dorm you lived in. And all of this time, you have been sitting here, thinking I cheated on you, because your sister, a known liar, told you so? You didn’t even have the decency to ask me first? I can’t believe this. You know, for someone so intelligent, you really do some stupid shit.” He put on his shorts, grabbed his shirt and shoes, and left.

  What have I done? I felt so empty and stupid. All I could do was cry. I lay down in my bed and pulled the covers over my head, but when I did that, I could smell him. Inhaling deeply, I tried to breathe him in. I couldn’t believe he had been there holding me only a few minutes before, and now he was gone. He had never been mad at me before. I didn’t know what to do, and I didn’t know if he would ever talk to me again.

  I had to get up and do something, but what? I didn’t know how to handle this. It was time to talk to Milly. Even though it was five o’clock in the morning, she still picked up her cell on the first ring.

  “What’s wrong?” I could tell she had been asleep, but she was immediately on best friend duty. I just cried, and she said, “I’m on my way.” And within minutes she was in the dorm room, climbing into bed with me.

  “Honey, what happened?”

  “I screwed everything up. I am such an idiot. I know I never deserved him to begin with, but I can’t believe I was so careless with him,” I cried.

  “What are you talking about, you never deserved him?” she asked.

  “It’s obvious he is out of my league, Mills.”

  She laughed loudly. “Well, someone needs to explain that to him, because I don’t think he got the memo. I was only around him a few hours last night, but when he talked about you, his whole face lit up.”

  “Hours? How long was he here?”

  “I found him in the lobby about an hour after you left with Eric.”

  “In the lobby? What was he doing in the lobby, and how did you know he was looking for me?”

  “I saw him at the front desk when I was heading out, and of course you can’t not pay attention to that. I don’t see how you concentrate with him in the same room, but anyway. I went over there so I could bump into him, if you know what I mean.” She winked. “And I heard him say your name. He was asking someone if they knew where to find you. I told him I was your roommate.” She smiled. “Of course, I was hoping he was a relative you had forgotten to introduce me to. He looked relieved to hear that someone knew where you were. I told him you had left with a friend and wouldn’t be back for a few hours, but that I would take him to your room if he wanted to wait. Or I could tell you to call him. He said he would rather wait, if that was OK. We just sat in the room and talked until you got back. I almost died when I saw Eric bringing you in like that. I could tell Slayde wasn’t too excited about that either, but he didn’t say anything.”

  “What did you talk about?” I asked.

  “Nothing, really, but he seems like a really nice guy. He said he knew you from high school, and that he ran into you in Paris when you got there, and that you stayed with him until your sister got back. But I want the scoop. You owe me the details. You’ve been hiding them from me, and it’s time to pay up, sister.” Milly was so nosy. “I still don’t understand why you came back here and didn’t say a word about him. What’s up with that? I mean, he didn’t make it seem like anything happened to make you so upset.”

  I told her the whole story, from the day we met in the street to the day I left. Well, most of the story — I did leave out some personal details. After I finished, she sat there for a minute and then said, “Well? Is it his kid?”

  “He said no, and I believe him.”

  She turned her head sideways, looked at me, and smiled. “You slept with him, didn’t you?”

  “What?” I could feel myself blushing.

  “You little slut,” she said, laughing. I covered my face and shook my head. “Hallelujah! I was starting to think you were going to end up in a convent somewhere. Or they’d make a movie about you. The Ninety-Year-Old Virgin.” She laughed again.

  “Excuse me for being selective,” I said.

  “I’m going to leave that alone. Selective is a mild term for you — but getting back on track, what are you gonna do? You can’t just let him leave. Not after he came all this way.”

  “Well, I told you I lost my cell phone when I was there, but I really left it at his apartment. So I don’t have his number in my new one.”

  Milly grabbed my chin. “Well, lucky for you, I know where he is.”

  “What? What do you mean?” My heart started racing, and I felt hopeful for the first time in months.

  “He’s staying at the Crowne Plaza near the airport. He said he didn’t know if he would find you this time or not, but he had three days before he had to go back and finish up over there.” She started pushing me out of the bed. “Get dressed, and let’s go find him … but you might want to take a shower first. You kind of smell.”

  Though exhausted and extremely hung over, I got ready as fast as I could. Milly drove me to Slayde’s hotel. When we pulled up, I couldn’t force myself to get out of the car. “What are you doing?” she finally asked.

  “I can’t do this. What if he’s not even here anymore? What if he won’t see me?”

  “What if he’s sitting in his room, wishing he could talk to you, but he doesn’t have your number? I highly doubt that he’ll turn you away. I mean, he did fly across the ocean three freaking times to come look for you. And what do you have to lose at this point that you haven’t already lost? Nothing! But if you sit your ass in this car and don’t go find out, you could be making the biggest mistake of your life. This guy loves you, Arden, whether you see that or not. Now get out of my damn car. I will be at the restaurant down the road getting breakfast if you need me in the next hour,” she said.

  I got out of the car and walked to the front desk. “Is Slayde Price still checked in?” I could feel my legs shaking.

  “Yes, he is. Is he expecting you?” the lady asked.

  I didn’t know how to answer that, and I could feel a tear run down my cheek. But before I could say anything, she said, “Well, there he is,” and she winked at me and pointed toward the elevator. How the hell does she know him that well?

  I turned around, and he was walking toward me. I couldn’t read his expression, but he wrapped his arms around me and gave me a hug. I forgot we were in the lobby of a nice hotel until he whispered in my ear, “Let’s go upstairs and talk.” I just nodded. He grabbed my hand and we walked toward the elevator. Neither one of us said anything.

  He held open the door and let go of my hand so I could go into his room ahead of him. I sat awkwardly on the foot of his bed, and he sat next to me, chewing the inside of his cheek.

  We both started to speak at the same time. “You can go first,” I said, of course assuming the worst — if he was about to tell me he was tired of dating a crazy person, I sure didn’t want to embarrass myself by spilling my guts about how sorry I was and how much I missed him.

  He took a deep breath and ran his hand through his hair. Turned toward me. “I’m sorry I left like that. I was just so angry with you for not having more faith in me,” Slayde said. “I know I should have handled that differently. I hope you can forgive me.”

  Was he kidding? Me forgive him? My rushed judgment and obvious insecurities had caused us both so much unnecessary pain. “Slayde, I don’t know what to say. Of course I will forgive you. I don’t blame you for being angry. I can’t believe that I was so dumb. I hope you can forgive me.”

  “I just want to know why. Why did you just take Kenedy’s word on something so serious? I don’t understand that. You know she so obviously has a problem with us being together. It doesn’t even make sense. What did I ever do to make you think I was interested in being with anyone but you?” />
  “I don’t know,” I sighed. “I didn’t believe her at first, but I came to look for you. You said you were at a photo shoot, but I saw you with Kinley, sitting outside the building. She was crying and you were holding her. I guess that just made what she said look true. I felt like I was dying. I had to get the hell out of there.” He didn’t say anything; he just started laughing and lay back on the bed and put his hands on his face. “Why are you laughing? I don’t see anything remotely funny about this,” I said.

  “No, it’s not funny. It’s just crazy how this all turned out. I got to the photo shoot that morning, and Kinley was late. We waited around on her for an hour. The photographer was furious. When she finally came in, he lit into her, and she ran out crying. Which was weird for her — she’s usually such a bitch that she would just roll her eyes over something like that,” he explained. “I followed her outside to check on her and to try and hurry her up. I was hoping to get out of there early that day and spend the rest of the afternoon with you. When I found her, she was sitting with her head on the table. I sat down across from her, and she told me she was pregnant and her dad was sending her home at the end of the week to ‘take care of things.’ I let her cry, and I tried to console her. Which is, I guess, when you saw us.”

  I closed my eyes and buried my head in my hands. “I’m so sorry. I know you think I’m crazy. I don’t really know what else to say.”

  “How about banana pancakes?” he said, and when I looked up, he was smiling that smile I had missed so much.

  “What?”

  “They have the most delicious food here. Let’s order room service and sleep all day,” he proposed. “Unless you have other plans.”

  “Well, I have class all day, but I’ve already missed my first one, so — oh well. It’s Friday. I guess I’ll make it a long weekend,” I said.

  Pulling me down on top of him, he kissed me like I had been dying for him to do since I left Paris. We made love twice before ordering room service.