The Last Thing

by Gaitan, Briana

  “I have, but she doesn’t want our relationship to be public.”

  “I take it it’s not Chloe James then?”

  I scoffed. “Hell no.”

  “ What’s her name?”

  “Quinn. She’s…..” I browsed the crowd to make sure no one was listening, but everyone seemed caught up in their own conversations. “She’s pregnant.”

  Harlow let out a little squeal and brought her hands up to her cheeks. “Oh my god, Chasey! This is so exciting. What does your mom think?”

  “I haven’t told her yet. Things with Quinn are still new.”

  “How did you meet her? I need details.” She moved in quick and grabbed me by the arm.

  “She’s Ginger Teague’s cousin. I met her at a cast party.”

  “Ginger Teague has family?” Harlow scrunched her nose in confusion.

  “Yep. Same age. They look nothing alike.” I chuckled, thinking about how different the two girls were.

  “How far along is she?”

  “Almost five months. We find out what we are having next week. At first I was scared, but now it feels like she’s the best thing to ever happen to me.”

  Harlow’s eyes grew wide as someone tapped me on the shoulder. I turned to see Chloe standing there with a massive smile on her face. She smoothed her hands along her massively low cut red dress and turned to give me a full view of her ensemble.

  I must keep my thoughts kosher.

  It was easy to fall into the façade that we had built around us. She had a sizzling body, but her personality sucked and I was with Quinn. I shamefully looked away from her breasts.

  You’re trying to turn over a new leaf. Calm it down.

  “Sorry I’m late. Let’s go make people fall in love with us, huh?” she held out an arm to me.

  “We will talk later,” Harlow, promised. She gave Chloe and me an odd look before turning away. It was apparent that she was confused as to why my pregnant girlfriend wasn’t at my side. Will Quinn ever be by my side? I honestly didn’t know.

  “Do you want to go get some drinks after the event?” Chloe asked me. We continued down the aisle, nearing the reporters.

  “No thanks. I need to get home early.”

  “Come on. You basically ignored me the entire time we were shooting, and now you act like we aren’t even friends.”

  “We aren’t friends, Chloe.” I didn’t need this type of temptation.

  “According to the world, we are dating. You were begging to get into my pants just a few months ago.”

  The frustration had to be showing plainly on my face. Did she not understand the idea behind a fake relationship?

  “I’m with someone else now. Listen, you’re a pretty girl, but the situation has changed.”

  She wasn’t taking my no for an answer.

  “We’ll see what Rhea has to say about this…”

  “God,” I exclaimed, “you’re so fucking annoying.”

  My voice was louder than intended, and a few people close by turned to look at me. I shrugged my shoulders and laughed it off as if it wasn’t a big deal. Chloe glimpsed up at me with huge fake tears in her eyes. She was making a scene, pretending to be the victim. Just as quickly as the tears appeared, she sneered and grabbed ahold of my arm to steer us into the theater.

  Oh, I see. You’re gonna play that way.

  The rest of the premiere went smoothly. I endured Chloe following me around like a lost puppy and hanging all over me when a camera was near. By the time it was over, I was ready to get home and take a hot shower to wash off the stench of Chloe’s perfume.

  When we left the theater, the sidewalk was littered with paparazzi. Annoyed, but use to the flashing lights, I jumped into my limo unaware that Chloe jumped in right behind me. She was supposed to be staying for the after party. The tinted windows of the limo shielded the photographers from seeing inside, but it didn’t stop them from knocking on the windows and snapping photos.

  “Tell me again why you’re in my car?” I asked her coldly.

  “This is the studio’s limo.”

  “I’m going home.” I took off my sports coat and threw it across the limo seat.

  “So?”

  “I told you our charade is over. The movie has finished filming. We made our ‘appearances’ and now we go back to our separate lives.”

  “Actually our contract states that we have to lead people on until the movie premieres, so that means we have a few more months under our belt.”

  Shit, how did I forget that detail?

  She scooted closer to me before lightly trailing her hand up my leg. “You aren’t as fun as your reputation makes you out to be.”

  I laughed; only because I always strived to live up to my reputation.

  “You had your chance, my dear. You turned me down plenty of times. You only think I’ll further your career, but you don’t need my help. Just look at you!”

  She smiled as if I weren’t telling her anything new, which I wasn’t. She was well aware of how good she looked.

  “What does this ‘waitress’ have that I don’t?” She lifted her hands in finger quotes when she said the word waitress. She didn’t want to hear my answer; the first thing that came to my mind was far too cruel to say out loud. I would never hear the end of it, but still I was never one to keep my mouth shut.

  “Simple, she isn’t as needy.”

  Chloe gasped. “Nobody turns me down. Ever.”

  “Get used to it, Chloe.” I groaned.

  “Actually…I heard what you had said…” The way she teased me piqued my interest.

  “What are you talking about?”

  “I heard what you told Harlow at the premiere. About Quinn’s…condition?”

  Thank God, I was an actor. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. “

  “Stop playing dumb, Chase Crowley. I bet you would really hate for this to go public. ”

  “Listen, I don’t know what you think you heard, but Quinn has no condition.” Chloe was known for making trouble in the tabloids. She picked fights via Twitter and called people out in interviews. She wouldn’t keep this quiet. If word leaked, it would crush Quinn. She wasn’t ready for this to go public and I would stand by her side until she was ready.

  “I would advise you to get your facts straight before you start spreading rumors.” I added with a tight voice. I wouldn’t let Chloe bully me around. I could blow on her and knock her over. She wouldn’t threaten my girlfriend or the well-being of my family.

  She laughed while reaching down to fiddle with her phone.

  “Oh, Chase… I don’t want you. I only want the status that comes with you. We are Hollywood’s it couple. People worship us! The rumors won’t settle down now that the movie has finished filming, we still have publicity and the premiere of the movie. You agreed to this relationship months ago. When people find out about her, they will look at me and realize you’ve been cheating on me this entire time. It will be so heartbreaking!” She threw her head back against the black leather seats and howled with laughter.

  “You’re crazy.” I mumbled. I would have to speak to Rhea about Chloe. Even though I trusted Rhea to do what was best for my career, and I would do anything she asked, I could not deal with Chloe’s obsessive quest for fame. The car stopped, signaling the return to my hotel. Turning to Chloe, I put my hand out to stop her from moving.

  “Don’t follow me inside.”

  “But I’m staying here as well.”

  So not surprising. I sighed and climbed out of the limo. The dark parking garage was silent except for the random echo of a car alarm going off.

  Wait!” she called out as she tried to keep up with me in her high heels.

  “Let it go, Chloe,” I called out, not stopping or turning around to look at her.

  “You’ll be sorry,” she yelled out.

  I walked through the hotel room later that evening with only a towel around my waist. From the look of the clock, it was only minutes before my schedu
led Skype call with Quinn. I’d had my last series of interviews today, and in a few days I would be on a plane back to the west coast. There was a stop that I first needed to make in Miami. I used a hand towel to pull the remaining water from my hair and sat down at the wooden desk to call Quinn. It was almost midnight in New York, but I was wide-awake.

  Quinn’s face popped up on my screen. Her hair fell down one shoulder in a fishtail braid, like the night we had met.

  “Hey.”

  “Everything okay?” I asked her.

  She shrugged. “Can I ask you something?”

  “Shoot.”

  “What exactly are we doing?”

  I moved closer to my laptop. “What do you mean?”

  “I mean. I can’t ever fit in with your life. What are we doing?”

  I wasn’t sure how to answer her. This all came out of nowhere.

  “Why are you bringing this up?”

  “Just answer my question, Chase. What are we doing?”

  “I thought we were falling in love.”

  Her face turned cold, and she bit her bottom lip. The computer screen wasn’t the clearest, but I detected a tear falling down her cheek.

  No, I must be imagining it. I can’t tell

  I always made her cry. She needed my reassurance again.

  “I’m not going anywhere, Quinn. I won’t give up on us. You need to trust me.”

  “Trust you?” She held up a few tabloids printouts from the internet. Pictures of me and Chloe, me and Harlow, and me and Lena covered the screen.

  “You know that is only gossip,” I told her as calmly as possible.

  “Gossip? Here you are with your arm around some model only hours ago, and look at this one. Chloe ‘gushes’ on about how great of a kisser you are.”

  “We kissed for the movie.” My voice was monotone. “My publicist wants the press to believe we are together. It’s to promote the movie, nothing else. I swear.”

  What else could I say? She was overreacting.

  “Our relationship is too new to handle this type of distance. This picture shows the two of you tonight leaving the movie premiere together!”

  “She jumped in the limo. I couldn’t kick her out.”

  “So?”

  “Does it look like Chloe is here?” I held my hands up and stared around my empty hotel room. “I’m coming home this weekend. What else do you want from me? This is my livelihood, my dream.”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Then I don’t know either. I need to go. I’ve been working all day, and I really don’t feel like fighting.” I closed my laptop without giving her a chance to reply. I loved her, but she was right. We both wanted to separate things out of life. I wanted the spotlight and red carpet events. She wanted…well I wasn’t sure what she wanted, but it wasn’t the same thing as I did. She wanted privacy, a quiet life. I needed to do something before I lost her for good.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Quinn

  Rolling up my last piece of sushi, I wiped my hand on my apron to pull off remaining pieces of rice. I took the apron off and set it on the counter leaving me in a pair of comfortable pajama pants and a large t-shirt. I turned to Chase, who was playing some stupid game on his phone.

  “How was your plane ride home?” I asked.

  “Good.”

  “Did you have fun?”

  He shrugged and continued to stare at the screen.

  “Did you get to see your mom?”

  “Not really.”

  “Are you gonna talk to me at all or are you gonna play on your phone all night?”

  He raised his head from the small screen in his hands.

  “What do you want to talk about?”

  “I don’t know. We haven’t seen each other in weeks. I thought…”

  Aren’t we supposed to be in that giddy love stage? Something had changed between us since he’d been gone. He was quiet, deep in thought.

  “ Yeah, I know what you thought, and I decided that our only solution is to move in together.”

  It was blunt, catching me off guard. Was this the reason he’d been quiet all evening?

  “Wh—what?”

  He paced across the room, his hands clasped behind his back.

  “I know what you’re thinking. Crazy, right? Well I’m not crazy. I need you to be in this relationship one hundred percent. No more hiding. No more excuses.”

  What could I say? This was happening all too fast.

  “I don’t—”

  His hand came out to stop me from speaking, and he took a step closer so that our bodies pressed up against each other. His breathing was steady, my heartbeat erratic, while we stared into each other’s eyes.

  It’s time, Quinn. You need to go for it. Put yourself all the way out there.

  “Okay.”

  “Okay? I figured you’d put up a fight.”

  “I said okay.” Why not? Our relationship was already moving at an alarming pace, no matter how hard I tried to slow it down.

  “Okay,” he repeated. “Well that’s good because I found a perfect home that we can move into this month. Let’s go check it out.” He grabbed his keys off the counter.

  “Wait! What about all this sushi I made?” I motioned toward the twenty rolls I’d cut up and elaborately displayed on a large wooden boat. Each roll had been hand crafted impeccably.

  He peered across the counter before leaning over to pop a piece into his mouth. I opened my mouth to protest.

  “Hey, that was my piece.”

  “So what? Have one of mine.”

  “No, my pieces don’t have raw fish in it. I can’t eat raw fish because of the baby… I read it in a baby book.” I told him with a proud smile on my face.

  “Aw, dear. You’re reading baby books now.” His fingers came up to lightly caress my warm cheek.

  “Yeah, what you said to me before you left. You were right. I need to take this pregnancy more seriously.” I’d bought a handful of books from the store a few weeks ago and devoured them all. I was a pregnancy guru now. Chase attempted to pick me up in his arms, but his plans fell short when we realized that my stomach was now in the way.

  “You’ve gotten so much bigger since I’ve been gone.” He reached out to rub my stomach.

  “Imagine being the whale. Eating all this blubber.” I popped a piece of sushi into my mouth.

  “You’re not a whale. You hate the water, remember?”

  I stuck my tongue out at him and scowled.

  “By the way, I don’t have any movies booked until after Christmas so I was thinking we could visit our families for the holidays.”

  What?

  I coughed, choking on a stubborn piece of sushi. I leaned forward, accidently throwing a piece of sushi right at his forehead. My hand flew up to cover my mouth in humiliation.

  Did I really just throw food at his face?

  “I’m so sorry.” I scrambled to pick off little pieces of rice that had fallen from the roll.

  Chase laughed and before I knew it, he picked up a few more pieces of sushi and stuck them right to my forehead.

  “Paybacks a bitch,” he declared proudly.

  I leaned back to glare into his dark eyes. They were full of something I couldn’t recognize. A need, perhaps? No, they were full of desire regardless of the fact that I had rice stuck to my face.

  “Oh no you didn’t….I just spent two hours perfectly preparing that sushi.”

  One of the pieces fell off my forehead right into his lap. He examined it closely.

  “I wouldn’t eat this now. Your make up rubbed off on it.”

  Though he found this amusing, I decided to play dirty. I grabbed the jar of pickled ginger off the counter and smirked as I dumped it all over the top of his head. My nose crinkled as the sour stench wafted my way. Chase growled something incoherently before lifting his hand and rubbing it back and forth along the top of his head. Juice sprayed out towards me as he did so, making me squeal. He shook his head like a wet d
og.

  “This is gross, Quinn. I’m gonna smell like a hot pickle for weeks.” He covered a deep laugh with his hand.

  In a brilliant attempt to turn the table, I whimpered and buried my face in my hands. “Oh…”

  Chase’s laugh stopped suddenly, and he put a hand out to console me. “What’s wrong?”

  “You shot ginger juice in my eye.”

  “Well there’s a first time for everything,” he teased

  What the hell? He wasn’t taking my bait. I sat up and gave him another glare. I was so tired of glaring at him.

  “I know you’re pretending,” he told me with a straight face. I hadn’t realized until that moment just how much I’d missed him over the past few weeks. I’d grown dependent on him, something I promised myself I wouldn’t do again.

  “That’s not fair….” I used my fingers to walk a path up his leg. As I neared his crotch, I let my hand linger across the broadness of his jeans. I could feel him twitching beneath my touch. Pieces of ginger littered Chase’s shoulders and lap. Rice and fish randomly covered us. Who knew a food fight could be so sexy? The tension between us had broken, and left nothing but raw and uninhibited passion. I wanted to let him in. But would I freak out again afterwards? I used my hand to apply pressure against him while his hips lifted up to greet me.

  “Quinn…” he mumbled.

  I’d barely touched him, but he was already coming undone. I didn’t want to take all the credit; this had to be the longest he had ever gone without. All the feelings inside of my head jumbled together like the lotto pick. This could turn out so many different ways. Each option required a sacrifice, but in many of them, I was a happy normal twenty-one year old. His hands moved up and down my arms. His soft hands caressing my body, making me shutter in want.

  “I missed you.” My whisper was furious but unraveled the longing that I kept hidden deep.

  “Would you rather take things slow?”

  “Slow? Our relationship has never been slow.”

  He put his hands on either side of my head and pushed our heads a bit closer together.

  “Slow went out the window when you agreed to move in with me.”