Incidental Happenstance

by DeSalvo, Kim

  “Dylan?” she asked, her voice full of confusion.

  “Oh Jessa, I’m so sorry. I never should have doubted you for a second. Penelope…”

  “Of course it was her,” she said. “It’s about damn time you came to your senses.”

  “Jessa, I don’t know where to start. She’s ruined everything.”

  “Tell me what she did, Dylan. It’s been driving me crazy not knowing.”

  He started at the beginning—with his own stupidity and lack of faith—telling her how Angela had hired an actress that looked like Jessa to wear the same scarf and hand out his private phone number at the airport. “When the girl on the phone described you to a tee, I just lost my head,” he told her. “Angela was there, telling me how you’d said I’d be sorry…I still shouldn’t have doubted you though, but I did, and now I really am sorry. Can you ever forgive me?”

  “Tell me the rest,” she demanded. “and I’ll think about it. You were a complete ass, you know—I never once gave you a reason to doubt me, but you never even gave me a chance to explain.”

  “I know,” he whispered. “Believe me, I’m kicking myself for that too.” There was no doubting the sincerity in his voice, and Jessa’s heart nearly broke at the sadness she heard there.

  “What else, Dylan?” she asked, the rough edges in her voice softening. “I need to know.”

  He told her the whole story breathlessly, his anger simmering in every word. She listened and didn’t interrupt, taking it in but having a hard time believing anyone could be so cruel and selfish.

  She waited until he finished the story before exploding. “Are you fucking kidding me?” she screamed so loud that Dylan had to hold the phone away from his ear. “I can’t believe that anyone could do something so horrible! And Angela was in on it too? I don’t even know what to say!”

  “I can’t even begin to tell you how pissed off I was last night—I’m still absolutely livid,” he growled. “It was all I could do not to wring her neck—both their necks, actually. I spent most of my evening dealing with the police—giving statements, and then stayed up all night reading Tia’s letters. It just killed me reading about how much pain she’s in,” he whispered. “She’s not going to get away with this, I promise you.”

  “I’ll have a little something to say about that too, you can bet on it. She’s going to pay!”

  “She may have ruined my life,” Dylan said sadly. “Damn straight she’s going to pay.”

  “Holy shit Dylan, poor Tia! She doesn’t know any of it does she? What are you going to do?”

  “Oh God, Jessa, I have to go find her. They changed her phone number and her email address, and this isn’t something I can say in a letter that’s going to take weeks to get to her—it has to be face to face, and it has to be now. I need to get back to the States as soon as possible—today, if I can. I’ve got a few hours of work to do this morning, but I’ve already started packing and I…”

  “I’ll get right on it,” she interrupted. “Just do what you need to do there, and I’ll handle everything.”

  “Does that mean you forgive me?” he said with a huge sigh of relief.

  “Of course I do Dylan. I knew it wasn’t you—it had to be her doing—but you had to figure it out for yourself, and I’m so glad you finally did. But I’m still seriously pissed that you doubted me, and for that, you’re going to have to pay,” she added with a smirk.

  “Have you found another job?” he asked hopefully.

  “I haven’t even looked, actually, I’ve been on kind of a holiday; catching up with my family and all that. Why,” she added coyly, “are you looking for an assistant?”

  “I am in the market,” he said smiling. “If you’ll come back, it’ll be with full pay for the time you’ve been off, and I swear I’ll never doubt you again.”

  “That’s a deal!” she exclaimed, then her voice softened. “I’ll be happy making my first order of new business helping you and Tia get back together again. This had to destroy her, and she doesn’t have a clue. Give me your new number, and I’ll start right now, and call you as soon as I have something.”

  “You’re an angel, Jessa, do you know that? I swear I’ll make it up to you!”

  “You already have.”

  He gave her the number and ran out of the trailer, jumped in a golf cart, and rushed over to the little studio. So many emotions coursed through his veins that he knew, beyond a doubt, that he’d give a stellar performance.

  Dylan threw the last of his things into his suitcase and looked around the little trailer he’d called home for the past few months. The last thing he grabbed was the picture that still sat on the little shelf above the couch—the picture of him and Tia in Paris. “I’m on my way, baby,” he said to her image before he tucked it in his carry on and went outside to pace, waiting for Jessa’s call.

  It was forty five minutes before his phone rang, and he answered on the first ring. “What have you got?”

  “It’s not great, but none of them really are,” she said. “There’s a flight that leaves at 7:30 tonight, with a twelve hour layover in San Francisco that’ll get you there at a little after five tomorrow morning, Chicago time. Friday morning, that is. It’s the best there is—most of the other available flights have two stops, and are even longer. It’s twenty-eight hours of travel time not counting airport waits before and after, Dyl.”

  “I’ll take it,” he said, looking at his watch. It was nearly 3:00, and it was a little over an hour drive to the airport—that would get him there just about the time he needed to be if he left in the next twenty minutes or so. He’d have to find a ride, fast. “Thanks so much—at least now I know it’s only hours before I can see her again.”

  “That flight’s going to be a bitch, though,” Jessa said.

  “God knows I’ve slept on planes before.” He was about to click off, but remembered a crucial detail. “Bloody hell—I get there Friday morning, you said?”

  “Yup. Bright and early.”

  “Shit. I have Tia’s home address, but she’ll be at work by the time I get through customs, get my luggage, and get a ride. I have to see her right away. I know she works at a school, obviously, but I don’t know which one. Could you…”

  “Consider it done. I’ll find out and arrange for a limo to meet you at O’Hare. I’ll call you back in a few minutes once I have the flight all booked, and again when I have Tia’s info, just so you know. If you don’t hear from me on that before you fly out, buzz me from San Fran, and I’ll fill you in. Oh, one more thing,” she added. “There are showers in the lounge at San Fran, so bring a change of clothes. You can’t show up to see her all grungy after more than a full day of traveling.”

  She thought of everything, he thought, and he was so lucky to have her back. “I love you!” Dylan yelled into the phone, elated.

  “I know you do, Dylan,” she smiled, happy to have her life back. “Now get the hell out of there, will you? You’ve got a plane to catch!”

  Dylan clicked off the line and called Gary, his guitar prodigy from the editing department. They’d become friends, and had played together a fair amount over the time they’d been here. “Gary, it’s Dylan,” he said hurriedly. “I need a favor—can you sign out one of the staff cars and take me to the airport? Like, right now?”

  “Hell yeah, dude—I can do that. I can be there in, like, ten minutes. Does that work?”

  “It’s perfect,” Dylan answered, shoving the phone in his pocket and running in to grab his bags.

  ***

  Lilly was busy at her desk and didn’t notice the limo pull up in front of the school or the man who got out of it until he was standing inside her office. When she looked up, her heart nearly stopped.

  “Hi,” he said quickly. “Ah, I desperately need to see one of your teachers; is class in session yet?”

  “Oh. My. God,” Lilly whispered as she recognized him, feeling the heat rush to her face and putting both palms down on her desk to steady herself. �
��You’re…” but she couldn’t quite get the words out.

  Dylan saw the photo he’d signed, all those months ago, tacked to the bulletin board beside the woman’s chair and reached back into his memory for a name. “You must be…Lilly, right?” he asked, remembering. “Tia told me a lot about you.” He put out his hand and she giggled nervously before taking it.

  “You’re…” she stammered again.

  “Dylan Miller,” he said. “Nice to meet you, Lilly.”

  “Wait a minute,” Lilly said, shaking her head. “You’re Tia’s Dylan?” He nodded. “I should have known!”

  He smiled then, and Lilly thought she might faint. “She didn’t tell anyone about me, did she?” he asked rhetorically.

  “She told us plenty about you,” she said, “but not that you were…well, you!”

  “I should have guessed. But Lilly?”

  “Yes?” she answered, still unable to catch her breath.

  “I’ve been traveling for thirty five hours and came here straight from the airport. It’s really urgent that I see Tia. Can you arrange that for me? Please?”

  Lilly shook her head, trying to get back her composure. “Now just a minute,” she scolded, hands on her hips. “She was in love with you, you know, and what you did hurt her so much. So before I do anything, I’m gonna ask you one time—and you be straight with me, hear?” Dylan raised his eyebrows, willing her to continue. “Are you going to hurt her again? Cause she’s a prize, that girl, and I won’t watch her go through that again.” She folded her arms across her chest protectively, and Dylan liked her immediately.

  “That’s not my intention at all, and it’s what I really need to speak to her about,” he said, trying to hold on to his patience. “I know she’s a prize, and I have so much to explain to her—I really can’t wait another minute.”

  “So it’s good news you’re bringin’ her, then?”

  “God I hope so,” he breathed. “Please Lilly?”

  The tone of his voice and the look on his face convinced her completely. “Well, they’re in a staff meeting right now, but if you follow me, I’ll see if I can interrupt. It isn’t every day a celebrity like you visits our school, so I think maybe the boss’ll make an exception.”

  “Thank you,” he said, relieved, as he followed her down the hall. His heart was thumping nervously and he was having a hard time finding his breath. He was just steps away from seeing her again, and every cell in his body ached to go to her, to wrap his arms around her. He knew, though, that he’d have to explain things first if he even stood a chance of holding her again. An audience was fine with him too—by tomorrow the whole world would know what Penelope had done and that suited him just fine.

  Lilly stopped at a door and poked her head in. “I’m sorry to interrupt,” she said excitedly, “but there’s someone here to see one of our teachers, and I know that if I didn’t bring him in to meet all of you I wouldn’t live to see the end of the day.” She looked to Ned, the principal, for his OK.

  “That’s fine Lilly,” he said. “Our speaker is stuck in traffic and has to reschedule, so I was going to call it short anyway.”

  Lilly’s eyes were positively blazing, and everyone watched the door. “Now you all stay in your seats, you hear? The man’s got something to say, and I don’t want you all jumpin’ up to greet him before he’s had a chance to say it. Got it?”

  They looked at her like she’d lost her mind, but they shrugged. When she held open the door and Dylan stepped in, the air was nearly sucked from the room with the collective gasp, then the voices started in unison, “Oh my gosh! You’re…I can’t believe it…What the…”

  Tia sat glued to her seat, frozen in place. For months she’d been hoping to see him again, and now he was standing just a few feet away from her. Her breath caught and her heart instantly started hammering in her chest. Part of her wanted desperately to go to him, to wrap her arms around him, but another part wanted to beat him within an inch of his life. He’d hurt her so badly, and until she knew why he was here, she would maintain her dignity. At least she still had a little bit of that left.

  Dylan’s eyes swept the room until they met Tia’s, on the left side of the long table around which the fifteen or so staff members sat. She was the only one not making a sound. His heart nearly melted at the sight of her, but he knew she wouldn’t accept his embrace. He could only hope that she would after she heard what he had to say.

  “What are you doing here, Dylan?” she asked finally, softly.

  For a moment he was struck speechless, unable to take his eyes off her, lost in the timbre of her voice. Immediately, all eyes turned to her and the rest of the women at the table were suddenly all talking at once… “Wait a minute, this is your Dylan? The one you went to Europe with? You were dating Dylan Miller all this time and you didn’t tell anyone? You were in love with Dylan Miller??” The questions were being fired at her from all directions, but her eyes never left his. There was so much emotion tangled in them, he thought, that they were impossible to read.

  “Oh God, Tia,” he said, breathless. “There’s so much I need to say to you, but just seeing you, I don’t know where to start.” His breath caught again when he saw her unconsciously raise her hand to her throat where the Eiffel Tower glittered on her neck. She still wears it, he thought hopefully, she still remembers.

  “I didn’t think you had anything else to say to me,” she said. “Or so you told me in your email.”

  “Oh, I have a lot to tell you, believe me, the first being that I never sent you an email. Not the one you think I did, anyway.” Her eyebrows rose, and he continued. “I’m sure I don’t have a lot of time before you have to start work, so all I ask is that you hear me out.”

  Tia motioned with her hand, shrugging, telling him to go ahead with his story. He took a deep breath and started at the beginning.

  “I never dumped you, Tia, and I’m guessing—bloody hell I’m hoping—you never dumped me.” She looked at him with confusion in her eyes, but didn’t answer. “I got an email too. From you, supposedly, telling me that you were done with me, that you couldn’t stand how different our lives were…”

  “I never sent you an email like that!” she exclaimed.

  “And I never knew you got one like that, supposedly from me,” he continued. “It was Penelope,” he said. “She hatched a huge elaborate scheme to get you out of the picture, and it worked.”

  “I don’t understand,” she said, her mind racing.

  “The other day, I walked into her trailer, to return her phone,” he said, “and I found out the truth. Some of it, at least. The police are still working on the details.”

  “Whoa, the police?” she asked, sitting more upright in her seat.

  “Penelope’s going to be arrested as soon as she sets foot back in the States, and I’m going to make sure she pays for everything she’s done,” he announced.

  Tia’s head was swimming. She was still trying to get past him saying he never sent the horrible email, and that he got a similar one from her. “What are you talking about, Dylan?”

  “Mail fraud, computer hacking, libel, for starters,” he said. “She set us up. I walked in and she had pictures and letters spread out all over her place, pictures and letters I’d written to you that were never sent. She cut your face out of the pictures and put herself in. She erased your name on the letters and wrote in her own. It was some sick fantasy that she was trying to make come true, and she needed you out of the picture so she could get what she wanted.”

  “But I saw the pictures in the tabloids…” Tia said, but as soon as the words were out of her mouth, she remembered what Dylan had told her in Paris, on the day he’d laid out the complications they’d face as a couple… They try to link me with other celebrities, fabricate relationships—there has to be a whole different level of trust between us… A spark of hope flickered at the back of her mind.

  “All fake. Most of those shots were taken by her assistant while we were f
ilming the movie. We look like a couple because we were acting at the time. I didn’t know that she was selling them to the tabloids—hell; I didn’t even know she was taking them. No one did. She’s going to be in trouble with the studio for that, too.”

  “Wait a second. I can’t believe Jessa would let this happen. She’d see right through her!”

  “Jessa was her first victim,” Dylan said sadly. “Penelope’s assistant, Angela, hired someone who looked just like Jessa to pass out my private mobile number at the airport—that’s what started the whole thing. She even had the nerve to take Jessa away on a girls’ weekend first, and talked her into buying a really unique scarf, then bought an identical one for the actress to wear to make it look like Jessa was the one who betrayed me…”

  “Oh no, poor Jessa!” Tia said.

  “I know—it was terrible. I fixed it with her yesterday,” he said quickly, “but at the time I fell for it and I fired her on the spot—and Angela became my new assistant. She was working for Penelope the whole time of course. I had to change my phone number, and Penelope, pretending to help me deal with the catastrophe, changed your number in my phone so I couldn’t get in touch with you. Then they sabotaged my computer while I was out in the wilderness, sent the emails and changed the addresses, intercepted our letters—they cut off all our communication. Apparently, they thought that if I believed you’d dumped me, I’d just fall for her. She ruined our lives, Tia. She stole us from each other, and I don’t even know the whole extent of it yet. She took months away from us.”

  “How could she do that?” Tia asked, shaking her head. “How could anyone be so cruel?”

  “I don’t know how to answer that, because I can’t even begin to figure it out myself,” he answered. “It may be a long time before we know the whole truth, but Person to Person is running my story—it’ll be on the newsstands tomorrow.”

  “But you never talk to the tabloids!” Tia exclaimed.

  “I had no choice—it was the only outlet to get it out there quickly. Plus, it’s the way she manipulated the whole fabricated relationship, so they had to save face too. I worked on it on the plane ride over. They agreed to let me tell my own story, and my lawyers approved the copy before it went to print. I got a restraining order against Penelope, refused to work with her for even one more scene…the last few days have been hell, Tia. I had to finish up filming what I needed to, and they have to piece the story together without our big love scenes—I refused to do them. Once I found out what she’d done…once I found out you didn’t dump me…I couldn’t even look at her again—all I could do was find you, to tell you…”