by M. L. Young
Boarding came and as I sat down in my seat, I fell asleep, as my likely bloodshot eyes were all too happy to finally rest a little. I was going to get to her, and I was going to get her back.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Jenna
My professors allowed me to make up some work while I was gone, which was a huge relief for me and my grades. I’d had not-so-nice professors in the past, but I made up some lie about my mom being sick, which I knew was a little wrong, and they didn’t give me a hard time. I thought they’d feel too bad if they did.
I finished my classes and looked at my phone to see that I only had a few hours before my flight left. I rushed home, my bag practically packed, before I finished packing and heard Malia come in through the front door.
“You ready?” she yelled from the bottom of the stairs.
“One minute!” I replied.
I looked around my room, making sure nothing was missing, before taking a quick inventory and verifying I had my laptop and all accessories. I always forgot something before traveling, and I was going to be too far from home to get it to me. Malia was kind enough to take me to the shuttle bus stop, which wasn’t too far from our place. It was a cheap service, and she would have just taken me to the airport if she didn’t have to work.
I walked down the stairs as my suitcase bumped against the wall and scraped a little at the bottom. I grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge and went outside before tossing my luggage in her trunk and getting inside. “Ready?” she asked.
I gave her a thumbs up and we pulled away from the townhouse before heading to the bus station. I was ready to leave.
“Well, is there anything else you need?” she asked as we pulled up.
“No, I’m good. The bus doesn’t leave for another half hour, so I think I’ll just hang out here,” I said.
“Okay, well, have a safe flight. Let me know when you get there so I don’t worry about you,” she said.
I gave her a hug and got out before grabbing my things and heading over to a bench in the sun. Malia drove off, and I wrapped my legs around the bottom of my suitcase and waited.
I played with my phone, flipping through Facebook and seeing if anybody from home wanted to catch up and hang out. Two people, old high school friends, said they wanted to see me. I loved Malia to death, but having a couple more friends in my life to spend time with was definitely a needed and much appreciated thing. I didn’t have much of that after moving out to Los Angeles.
The bus rolled up and the few of us who were here paid the driver and got inside before waiting for him to take us to the airport.
I knew I wasn’t going to some crazy destination or anything, but boy did I feel adventurous right now.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Cash
I hailed a taxi in front of the airport and told him to step on it. I looked up Jenna’s address online, only knowing where it was and not the actual number or street, before the driver took off and I sat back and tried to relax.
What was I going to say to her? Was she even going to care that I was there? Was my dream really a premonition, and she’d already moved on? No, she couldn’t have. It had barely been a week since I’d left, if that. Things were going to be okay.
We pulled up to her house just as her roommate, Malia, was about to get into her car.
“Wait!” I yelled out the window.
She looked at the taxi, and then at me, before her jaw dropped as she stood next to her car. “Stay here and leave the meter running,” I said, getting out of the car.
“What are you doing here?” she asked.
“I need to see Jenna,” I said, my appearance likely that of a crazy, disheveled drifter and definitely not a movie star.
“She left,” she said.
“When will she be back?” I asked.
“She went back home. I just took her to the shuttle bus,” she said.
“She’s not here?” I asked, almost in shock, and with a bit of distress in my voice.
“Her flight isn’t for like two hours. The shuttle bus should be on its way to the airport now,” she said.
“I can catch it,” I said. “What flight?”
“She’s going to Chicago, but stopping in Minneapolis for a layover. I don’t know the number,” she said.
“Thank you so much,” I said, running back to the taxi.
“Cash!” she yelled.
“What?” I asked, turning to her as I opened the door.
“She still wants you,” she said.
I smiled before getting back in the taxi and telling the driver to go back to the airport.
We drove off and I opened my phone and looked for flights matching what Malia told me. There was one, leaving in about an hour and forty-five minutes, that I hoped I could get to in time. I prayed that I could.
I couldn’t have paid and gotten out of the taxi quickly enough once he pulled up to the terminal. “Thank you,” I said, giving him a one-hundred-percent tip and bolting out with my backpack. I ran inside, looking for a gate agent and asking for a ticket on the plane. I had no intention of flying there, but hopefully I could stop Jenna from going since security wouldn’t let me through without a ticket.
“There’s nothing on that flight. I can get you a later date,” she said.
“Get me anything, any flight, that’s flying out now,” I said.
“But sir,” she said.
“I need to see somebody who’s in there. Please,” I said frantically.
“Hey, aren’t you that actor?” she asked.
“Please, I need the ticket before it’s too late. I’ll do anything if you help me, please. I’ll even go to your kid’s birthday party. I just need the ticket,” I said, waving my American Express card.
“I’ve got you,” she said, taking the card and swiping it.
I got my ticket, just about reached across and kissed her on the cheek, and ran to security and the TSA Precheck line. It took less than five minutes, and I was so grateful that my publicist convinced me to get that a few months ago for faster travel. I needed to give her a vacation.
I studied the departures board, searching for that flight, scanning the board twice finally finding it. “H7,” I mumbled to myself, looking at the boarding time. It was soon, and I had to get across the entire airport to get to it.
I started to walk as quickly as I could, out of breath, as I’d barely eaten anything since I was in that training. My calves burned, my hamstrings tight, before I got to the right corridor and heard an announcement that boarding was about to start. I limped down, the line incredibly long, scanning it to try to find Jenna.
She wasn’t there. I panicked, my heart racing, before I heard my name being called, softly, more like a whisper.
“Cash?”
I stopped looking, the voice making me shiver, before I turned around and saw Jenna standing there, about ten feet in front of me. “Jenna,” I said, out of breath.
“What are you doing here?” she asked.
“I can’t let you get on that flight,” I said.
“I have to. I have to get out of here,” she said.
“I tried to do the same thing and I couldn’t do it. I went all the way there and came back because I needed to see you,” I said.
“Cash…” she said.
“No, listen to me. I’ve come a long-ass way to talk to you, and I need to say something. I was wrong. I was wrong in everything I did, and for taking that role, and for leaving you to go to Thailand. I should’ve fought harder to do that stuff here, and I let you down. Not only with the role, but because I promised you we’d have time together and then I took it all back and left you,” I said.
“You’ve always dreamt of that, though,” she said.
“I can’t do this without you,” I said.
“Do what?” she asked, her eyes starting to well up.
“This. All of it. Everything. I want you in my life, Jenna. I want to wake up next to you, and kiss you, and just be with you
. You’re the most amazing, genuine, down-to-earth woman I’ve ever met, and I can’t just give you up,” I said.
“You already did,” she said, a tear rolling down her face.
“I know, and I screwed up in the most royal way. When you left me, when you broke up with me, I was a mess. I wondered how you could do this to me, how this could happen, but then I realized I did it to myself. It took a lot of thinking, and some pretty smart people, to make me realize that a potentially amazing relationship with you is more important than any stupid role. I’ll have plenty of those, but I only have one chance at true love,” I said, hoping and praying that she’d understand.
“I don’t want to stop you from living your dreams,” she said.
“My dream is to try with you, Jenna. My dreams changed when I met you, and I want that to be my reality now, and not just a dream,” I said.
“What if you leave me again?” she asked.
“I won’t,” I said.
“What if they make you?” she asked.
“Then I’ll take you with me, or not take it at all,” I said.
She stood there staring at me, tears rolling down her face. My heart was exploding out of my chest as I waited in anticipation for her answer.
“Kiss him already,” one older woman said as the line started to move.
I blinked, realizing that everybody was still around, some of them even recording us with their cell phones, though I couldn’t say I really cared. Right now only she and I mattered, and I was going to give her the attention she deserved.
“Please,” I said.
She nodded, smiling, before I started walking towards her. “Really?” I asked, as the weight on my shoulders lifted.
“Really,” she said, nodding.
I grabbed her, kissing her passionately, and she ran her fingers through the back of my hair as the crowd around us started cheering. “I need you to promise me one thing, though,” she said softly.
“Anything,” I said.
“You’ll never be this stinky around me again,” she said, laughing.
“Deal,” I said, laughing, as my own stench started to make my eyes water.
“My mom is going to be upset,” she said.
“I’ll pay for the flight, reimburse her, whatever, I don’t care about the money. I can’t let you leave, though. I need you,” I said.
She grabbed my hand, I grabbed her bag, and we walked out of the airport and got a taxi back to my place for some much-needed vacation time.
“And what about the role? Did you leave it behind?” she asked as we sat in the taxi.
“I’m not sure. I’m meeting with my agent and the studio tomorrow sometime, and we’ll figure it out from there. Either we do it here, or we don’t do it at all. Some things in life are more important than money and roles,” I said, kissing her forehead.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Jenna
Waking up next to Cash felt about as good as anything ever could.
I’d called my parents when I got to his place, telling them what had happened and that I wouldn’t be coming. Cash immediately sent them money online, actually more than what my ticket cost, mainly for inconveniencing them. My mom was sad not to see me, but she understood, and I was going to plan to take a trip out there once school ended. Cash even said he wanted to go, too.
As I rolled over onto my other side, facing him in bed, I ran my fingers through his brown hair and woke him up gently. “Good morning,” I whispered.
“This is the best view I could ever have while waking up,” he replied.
“I still can’t believe it,” I said.
“What?” he asked.
“That this is happening. I thought it was over,” I said.
“Me, too. I was so broken up about it, but I don’t want to think about or revisit those feelings. We’re together now and that’s all that matters,” he said, leaning in and giving me a kiss.
I respected that, and didn’t want to cause him any stress or problems, especially right after getting back together. Maybe it wasn’t all that important to talk about anyway, considering the bad times were gone and now all we had to look forward to were good moments and experiences together. I was just afraid that the studio would cause a rift between us again.
“When’s your meeting?” I asked.
“Uh,” he said, grabbing his phone and scrolling through it, “in about two hours.”
“You’d better get ready, then,” I said.
“Coming with in there?” he asked, pointing to the shower.
“Wouldn’t miss it for the world,” I replied.
He chickened me as we walked there, pinching my bare butt as I giggled and jumped a little. The warm steam of his massive shower enveloped us as we washed one another and made out a little. I could feel his dick growing beside me, but we didn’t do anything sexual, instead just enjoying being close to one another.
I made him breakfast after the shower, giving him some much-needed carbs before he left. I was going to go home and get some things together for the weekend, since I didn’t get a chance to yesterday after he picked me up from the airport. The airline was flying back my luggage since I didn’t take the flight, and I was hoping to get that delivered tomorrow or the next day. It was mostly just a bunch of cold weather clothes, so I could deal without them.
Cash came up behind me as I stood in front of the stove, then wrapped his arms around my stomach and held me tight. “Well, hi there,” I said, smiling, before flipping a pancake.
He put his forehead against the side of my head, giving me a few short, sweet kisses. I couldn’t hold back on the butterflies. These were gigantic prehistoric moths in comparison to the ones I’d gotten in the past with him. It was overwhelming, to say the least, but I wanted that feeling more than anything. It made me feel like I’d made the right decision in trying this again.
We ate breakfast together, playing a little footsy, before he looked at his watch and said he had to get going before traffic piled up. We left the dishes out and went outside, where a car service was just pulling up for me. “I’ll see you soon?” he asked.
“I’ll be back in a flash,” I said.
“Let yourself in if you get back here faster than me,” he said, giving me a kiss and opening the door.
I started to feel a little nervous, hoping and praying that things would go well for him, as I knew that what happened today could really define our relationship going forward. They better not try to send him back to Thailand. That wouldn’t work for me.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Cash
“Are they here?” I asked as I got out of my car and walked over to my agent.
“Yeah, they’re all upstairs waiting. Are you sure you want to do this?” he asked.
“I have to,” I said.
“Then I’ll be in your corner. Let’s go,” he said.
In my suit, I confidently walked down the halls towards the conference room where the studio executives were waiting. While I exuded confidence like a character in one of my movies, deep down I was a bit scared, mostly because of the contract. I knew they weren’t happy with me, but I also knew that I had to stand my ground if I were going to keep Jenna and keep the life I wanted to live. It was imperative.
“Mr. Hawthorne,” one of the men said as we walked into the room.
There were about six of them, all sitting around a table, and I shook all of their hands and tried to be as cordial as I could. I hated giving bad news like this.
“Gentlemen,” I said, sitting down.
“We aren’t happy, Cash,” one said.
“I know you aren’t, and I’m sorry for that,” I said.
“Pulling a stunt like this, after we’ve casted you and signed contracts, is not acceptable. You’re costing the studio a lot of money,” another said.
“My client didn’t do this to hurt anybody,” Mike, my agent, said.
“Whether or not his intention was to hurt the studio doesn’t matter. He
broke his contract,” a man said.
“I did it because I had to. The training location was causing major strife in my personal life, and I had to leave there,” I said.
“In what way did it cause this trouble?”
“My girlfriend and I had broken up because of it, because I was leaving for so long. I thought I could handle it, but I couldn’t and I came back to get her back,” I said.
“And did that work?”
“Yes, it did. I’m happy again,” I said.
“None of us want you to be unhappy, Mr. Hawthorne, but we have to keep the interests of our studio in mind as well.”
“I understand that, and like I said, I’m sorry. I’m still willing to do the movie,” I said.
“You’ll go back and train?” one man asked, perking up.
“No, I will not,” I said firmly.
“You just said you’d do the movie.”
“I will if I can do it here. I’m fully committed to filming, learning the martial arts, and training in every way needed. I will not, however, leave the country to do so. Either you guys find these instructors to teach me here, or I’ll have to walk away from the role,” I said.
“Absolutely not,” one of the men said, obviously annoyed with me.
“Take it or leave it,” I said, staring them down.
“We just worry it won’t be authentic.”
“And training there will? What does it matter where I learn the moves? All that matters is that I learn them,” I said.
“Yes, but—”
“You heard what my client will do, and what he’s willing to work towards. Either you take his deal, or we break the contract and you do what you need to do,” Mike said, alluding to a lawsuit.
“We need to confer for a few minutes,” the man at the end of the table said.
“Take your time,” I said, and Mike and I got up and walked outside.
“Tough crowd,” he said as we stood outside the doors.