by R. S. Elliot
“Oh,” she said, voice falling. “Right. I had almost forgotten.”
“I know, me too. Just give me a minute and then head out. If she sees something, she sees something. But I’d rather not have that conversation with anyone again.”
I gave her one last parting kiss and then ducked out into the hallway, glancing only momentarily to see if Sonia was waiting for me. Luckily, I had beat her there. We still had a few minutes before all of us were supposed to meet and go to the banquet hall together. It looked like I would be spared the awkward conversation about why Emily and I appeared out of her hotel room together.
Sonia arrived a minute later, splashy as ever in a dark emerald blazer and snakeskin shoes. She had pulled her curls up into a forgiving bun, and it looked like she had slept in her makeup.
“Look at you,” I said, hoping to distract her from how rumpled my shirt had gotten with a compliment. “I love that color on you.”
“Oh, this thing? Thanks; I got it at an estate sale if you can believe it. Where’s Emily?”
I shrugged, hoping I looked convincing.
“Still getting her stuff together, I think.”
“Did you manage to get any sleep?”
I stiffened a bit, even though I knew tension would just make me more suspicious.
“Ah, no. Too wound up about the speech. You?”
“Slept like the dead. Those beds are heavenly. I’m feeling much better now.”
Thank God. If Sonia slept soundly during our few hours of recreational time, there was no way she heard anything, not even through the paper-thin walls of her hotel room.
Emily appeared from her room then, looking a good bit fresher than me. I had the irrational fear that Sonia would know simply from looking at us, from seeing us standing side by side, but she just smiled at Emily as the girl shouldered her camera bag.
“Everyone ready?” Emily asked.
“Sure am,” Sonia said, already heading down the hallway. “I’m excited about food. And Luke’s speech, of course.”
I turned to fall into step behind Sonia, and Emily scurried forward a few steps to catch up with me.
“Your tie,” she said, too softly for Sonia to hear, and reached out to adjust it for me. I let her, lingering close while she straightened my disheveled Windsor knot, but it was at that moment Sonia turned a corner ahead of us and caught us out of the corner of our eye. She faltered a bit, doing a double take, and then hurried forward with her eyes on the ground in the hopes that we wouldn’t notice that she had seen. But I saw. And my stomach felt like it was full of rocks.
I shot Emily a worried glanced and moved away from her, putting plenty of distance between us. I didn’t glance behind me, knowing that if her expression were hurt, I wouldn’t be able to handle it. I had to control this situation; I had to give my speech and keep Sonia from jumping to any conclusions, correct or otherwise.
The banquet hall was already packed by the time we arrived, mostly by people in suits milling around with plastic wine glasses or seating themselves at numbered tables and buttering rolls while they waited for dinner to be served. I had been to these kinds of events a hundred times, and they all blurred together. The speech I was going to give about innovation and the future would do nothing to distinguish it any further, but I had a job to do, and I intended to do it.
I lost Emily to the crowd almost immediately as she slipped away to find the best place to take pictures, but I tried not to let my distress show. She was only my intern. Anyone else wouldn’t be upset not to have her by his side at all times, and I shouldn’t be either. Sonia, reinvigorated from her nap, was great at her job despite any doubts Olivia may have had. She picked the most direct path to lead me through the sea of people to the stage entrance, and she gracefully but firmly turned down people who tried to shake hands with me, pass on business cards, or ask for autographs. If anything, she was even more efficient than Olivia, and no one seemed to argue with a woman in five-inch platform snakeskin stilettos. I made a mental note to bring her as my bouncer for future events.
The backstage space of the banquet hall was as dark and stuffy as they always were, but Sonia managed to keep people from pestering me while I downed bottled water and waited for the conference founder introducing me to take to the stage. My heart was beating at an annoyingly fast pace, out of synch with the calm I was trying to force myself to exude. Isolating myself from noise and stress hadn’t helped, so I tried what Emily had suggested. I closed my eyes and breathed deeply, blocking out all other sounds and sensations other than my own breathing. After a minute or so, I no longer had to remind myself to breathe deeply and slowly, and I had managed to put intrusive thoughts and last-minute worries out of my mind.
By the time the founder called my name and invited me on stage to thunderous applause, I was as calm as I had ever been. I could hardly make out any faces in the crowd through the white glare of stage lights, but I knew Emily was out there somewhere, studying my face through her camera lens, and that gave me immense peace. I smiled, unfolded my speech on the podium before me, and leaned into the microphone.
The speech went over better than I could have expected. I held the audience’s attention the entire time and even managed to elicit some well-timed laughter. I even felt myself getting a little worked up during this speech. I had given it in some form or another so many times when I got to the part about sowing resources into our future, and into areas of society that needed the most help, I felt surprisingly emotional. By the time I finished my speech, a handful of people were on their feet, and the whole room was clapping and whooping their approval. I beamed down into the crowd, bathed in a rush of elation, and then waved at them before making my way offstage.
Sonia was waiting for me backstage with a smile and my usual afternoon espresso. I didn’t know where she got it from, but I was grateful.
“That was amazing! I didn’t realize you were such a good public speaker.”
“Thank you,” I said, taking the coffee. “Where’s Emily?”
“Still out on the floor, I think, getting some shots of the banquet hall. I told her we would meet her outside. Come on.”
I followed Sonia as she wove a tight trail through the crowded backstage, dodging the people who tried to catch my attention to congratulate me. I had made her promise that this would be as short of a trip as physically possible, and she was delivering on that with great aplomb. We exited the banquet hall through a side door, finding ourselves in the hotel parking lot where Emily waited with a camera in hand, her face reflecting the California sun.
“You did so well!” She exclaimed, blue eyes sparkling like ocean waters. In a moment, Sonia and I were right next to her, and I was looking down into her beaming face, I couldn’t help myself. There was no one else around, and Sonia already suspected, so screw it. I knew what I wanted, and I didn’t want to pretend like I didn’t.
I caught Emily’s face in my hands and kissed her, smiling against her lips. I heard Sonia gasp next to me, throwing her hand over her heart, but I wasn’t worried about it. She was the least likely person in the whole office to care, as her own love life was usually as complicated and sordid as a soap opera.
Then I heard the unmistakable sound of a camera lens shuttering. I looked up to find that a couple of members of the press had circled the building and were snapping pictures of Emily and me from the corner of the hotel, talking excitedly on cell phones and jotting down the scene on legal pads. All the blood drained from my face.
“So much for keeping things quiet,” I muttered.
Chapter Sixteen
Emily
Luke tugged me across the parking lot as fast as my feet could carry me before I even registered what had happened; Sonia ran along behind us with her high heels clacking against the asphalt. The paparazzi had given chase and were hustling along as fast as they could manage, shouting at us to slow down and just answer a few questions, and please, just give us one smile. The world was a blur around me as we ran
for the car, blue sky mixing with yellowing California grass and oily gray cement. Eventually, I registered what had happened. Luke had kissed me. In front of Sonia. And now, since the cameras had caught us, in front of the world.
“Let’s go hide out in the rooms,” Sonia suggested, coming up alongside us. She was already fumbling through her purse for her room key.
“No,” Luke snapped. “Do you want them to know where we’re staying? Get in the car. We can lose them and circle back later.”
All this seemed very extreme to me, but then again, I had never dealt with the rabid attention of the press before. Luke spoke like a drill sergeant leading us through familiar military formations, urging us on towards our own survival. I couldn’t imagine living my whole life like this, but now, whether I liked it or not, I was getting just as much attention as Luke.
“Miss, miss!” Someone called behind me. “What’s your name? Please miss, will you just tell us what your name is? Are you Luke’s girlfriend? Do you work for him? Miss!”
Luke snagged the keys to one of the rental cars from Sonia as we came careening up beside it. She threw herself into the backseat, and I nearly collapsed into the passenger side, buckling myself in with shaking fingers. Luke was the last to get inside. He shouted something nasty at the press, something I couldn’t make out clearly through the windshield, then got into the car and slammed the door. In an instant, the journalists with cameras were pressed up against the vehicle, cameras against the glass snapping intrusive photos. Sonia snarled at them and flipped them off, and I covered my face with my hands, trying to keep from crying. This was all too much.
Luke threw the car into gear and backed up deliberately, narrowly avoiding running anyone over. As soon as he had an opening, he peeled out across the parking lot, hitting thirty-five before we were even on the road. Some journalists had caught wise to his plans and rushed for their cars and news vans, but he was quicker than them. He banked down a side street while they were still navigating the parking lot, and in a few moments, we were lost in the back streets of San Francisco. I didn’t think Luke knew where we were going, but he drove with absolute determination.
“I’m so sorry about that,” he said, eyes flicking up into the rearview mirror. “Sonia, are you in one piece?”
“Lucky for your dumb ass, I can run in heels,” she shot back, righting herself. She had been thrown down onto the floor of the backseat when he took the turn out of the parking lot at a particularly sharp angle. “What the hell kind of PR stunt was that?”
“It wasn’t a stunt. I didn’t mean to—”
“To what, lock lips with your intern?” She pushed herself up between the seats so she could see my face. “Are you two a thing? Emily, why didn’t you tell me? Seriously, how many times have we talked about Mr. Most Wanted over here?”
“What?” Luke said, making a disgruntled face.
“Shut up and drive, Luke. Emily, what the hell is going on?”
“I don’t know!” I shot back. I was jumpy and rattled from our close call with the paparazzi. “Things just happened, I—”
“Leave her alone,” Luke snapped. “This one is on me. I thought we were alone. I thought you knew. I’m sorry.”
“I mean I guessed something had happened between the two of you when I saw her being all sweet on you in the hallway, but I didn’t assume that you two would break the Internet.”
My throat was dry.
“Break the internet?” I croaked.
In a moment, Sonia had Twitter pulled up on her phone and typed Luke’s name into the search bar. Photos of him cradling my face in his hands and kissing me deeply were splashed across the screen with headlines speculating about my identity and our relationship. It was a surreal, out-of-body experience to see myself standing in that parking lot, pushed up on my tiptoes to kiss Luke, while I sat in a car next to him, wishing I could take back the last ten minutes of my life.
“God,” I moaned. “I’m going to get fired.”
“No, you’re not,” Luke said. “I own the company. Emily, you’re white as a sheet. Are you feeling alright?”
“I feel… I’m a little sick.”
“I’m so sorry about this, baby. Lean back and close your eyes if you want to. I’ll find us a safe spot to pull over soon.”
“Luke, what are you going to do about—” Sonia began, but then stopped when his phone started to buzz insistently.
“Get that,” he ordered. “It’s in my pocket.”
Sonia obediently rummaged around in his pocket until she retrieved his bulky smartphone.
“It’s your sister.”
“This isn’t a good time.”
“It could be important. Maybe she saw the pictures.”
“Damn it, Sarah… Fine, answer it.”
Sonia fumbled with his passcode entry and then pulled the phone to her ear.
“Hello, you’ve reached Luke Thorpe. This is his assistant Sonia speaking. How may I help you?”
Her chipper office voice was jarring amid our crisis, and I turned around to watch her over my seat. She was biting her manicured nails, face a rictus of distress despite her bright tone.
“Yes… I understand. Of course, yes, I’ll let him know…”
Luke glanced over to me from the driver’s seat, then switched lanes to get us closer to an easy exit. He seemed to be scoping out businesses and parking lots which would give us the quietest cover to talk and regroup.
“It’s probably nothing,” he said quietly. “She’s probably just trying to get me to go out to dinner with my brother-in-law again.”
“She wants to talk to you,” Sonia said from the backseat, holding the phone to her chest.
“Tell her I’m busy. She knows better than to call while I’m working.”
“Luke, this is important, it’s—”
“Sarah always thinks whatever is worrying her at the moment is important; I’ll call her back.”
“Luke, please shut up and listen to what I’m saying. It’s your father. He’s had a heart attack.”
Luke’s jaw tightened, and then the car careened twenty miles over the speed limit off the road and into the parking lot of a Wendy’s. He put the car in park in the back near the dumpsters, then passed his hands over his face. He looked gaunt, like he had aged a decade in minutes. Then he took the phone from Sonia, got out of the car, and stood facing away from us, hand squeezing the back of his neck as he talked to his sister.
Sonia and I watched him in silence for a while as he paced, head turned down towards the ground. Then she shook her head and sighed.
“What a bitch of a day. When it rains, it pours.”
“Did it sound very serious?” I asked quietly, not daring to glance back at her for fear that there might be bad news written all over her face.
Sonia sagged back against her seat.
“Yeah. She said his brother-in-law rushed his dad to the hospital an hour ago. They don’t know all the specifics yet, but it’s not looking good.”
“God,” I breathed. “That’s so scary.”
Luke nodded now and turned back to the car with a briskness in his step that spoke of purpose. He yanked open the door and leaned inside, still on the phone with his sister.
“Sonia, can you drive? Back to the hotel, please. I need to get my stuff and get to the airport.”
Sonia obediently scrambled out and took over driving, pulling smoothly around to the front of the restaurant and then back onto the road. She asked me to navigate for her, and I pulled up the GPS app on my phone while Luke carried on a low, urgent conversation with his sister.
“How long had he been having the pains …Christ?. No, I didn’t know… Since when? Who all is with him there… I know, I know… What hospital did they take him to again?”
He was being as efficient and measured as possible, but I heard the misery in his voice. I remembered what he said last night about his father not being there for him when he needed him, but this wasn’t the voice of a man who ha
ted his father. This was the voice of a man who felt responsible for his father, and who was distraught at the idea of not being able to say goodbye to him if it came to that.
Sonia slowed down suddenly as we approached the hotel, moving at a crawl. There was panic in her eyes.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“We’ve got no idea if those vultures with the cameras are still there. They’re going to be waiting for you, Luke, they know you’re staying in the hotel.”
“Just a minute, Sarah, just a minute, I’ll be right back.” Luke pressed the phone to his chest and threw a hard glance out the window. “Well, what are we supposed to do? I need to get my things and get to the airport. Now. Hell, I needed to be there an hour ago, my father is in critical condition, he’s—”
“I know. We’ll think of something.” She gnawed on her lips, and then her eyes lit up with a revelation. “We’ve got two cars. You two take this one to the airport. Emily, stick with him, make sure he gets where he needs to go and make sure you get back to New York. I’ll rush up for our bags and bring them around in another car. I’ll make sure they get back to the city; you just focus on your family right now, Luke.”
“Thank you,” he said, reaching out to squeeze Sonia’s shoulder, and then went back to the somber phone call with his sister. They were discussing diagnosis and billing and all sorts of other things I couldn’t understand but knew demanded his attention.
Sonia rolled to a stop a couple of blocks away from the hotel and unsnapped her seatbelt, reaching over to squeeze my knee in encouragement before hopping out of the car. I watched as she hustled down the sidewalk in her heels, already rummaging around in her purse for her keys and ID. I knew that she would be alright and that our bags would make it back to New York, somehow. Luke started to slide out of the car, phone wedged between his ear and shoulder, but I stopped him.
“No, stay on the phone with Sarah. I’ll drive.”
“You’ll… Emily, are you sure?”