Brian
I knew I should never have given Scott keys to my place. How the hell was I supposed to avoid people when I couldn’t lock out the one person determined not to let me skip my meetings?
“Brian?” Scott called out as he entered the house. He found me sitting on the living room sofa three seconds later. “You were supposed to be there over an hour ago. Kaylee threatened to remove my man parts if I don’t have you there in twenty minutes.”
I looked down at the IM box on my laptop and sighed.
Cinder458: As much as I am enjoying this groveling session, I have to go.
EllaTheRealHero: Yeah, yeah, your Friday night awaits you, Mr. Popular. Go have fun.
I smiled. I supposed I could enjoy myself now.
Ella had finally watched my movie The Long Road Home like I’d asked her to. She’d been so surprised that she wrote a hilarious review entitled “My Sincerest Apologies to Mr. Brian Oliver.” It was a movie review like the ones she used to write for her blog before her accident, except it was written in the form of a personal letter to me, apologizing for thinking I was going to ruin Cinder. It was brilliant.
After she sent me her review of The Long Road Home, I immediately wrote her back and insisted she start blogging again. I knew how much Ella loved her blog, and it had killed me when she said she wasn’t going to do it anymore. It may have taken weeks of begging, but Ella had finally posted her review today. She gave a brief explanation that she’d been in an accident and unable to keep up with her blog, but thanks to an argument with a certain “obsessed fan” of hers, she was back and had to start with her thoughts on the cast of The Druid Prince. She’d started with her apology letter to Brian Oliver.
When I found the post this afternoon, I signed on to welcome her back to the blogosphere, and we ended up getting into an argument in the comments section of her post about Princess Ratana’s costume. Quite a few of Ella’s readers had already found her post and were jumping into the debate as well. I was pleased to see that my side was winning, despite the welcome-back lovefest Ella was getting from her fans.
Cinder458: It shall be as my wise priestess asks. I wasn’t really looking forward to this evening, but now I promise I will have lots of fun in honor of your return to the blogging world.
EllaTheRealHero: You’re a weirdo.
Cinder458: I am not. You love me.
EllaTheRealHero: Yes, you are, and yes, I do. Goodnight, Cinder.
A violent longing filled me as I stared in shock at Ella’s reply. I expected her to come back with something about my overinflated ego, and instead she admitted she loved me. She’d never said something like that before. I knew it couldn’t possibly be the same way that I cared for her, because only I was crazy enough to fall for a random stranger on the Internet, but at least she loved me in some way.
Cinder458: Goodnight, Ella.
I hesitated and then typed one last message.
Cinder458: I love you, too.
I let out a breath as I hit ENTER. Maybe it was on instant messenger, and maybe I’d never met Ella in person, and probably she thought I was joking, but I’d never said those words to a woman before. For me, this moment was huge.
A long whistle startled me out of my epiphany. I looked up to see Scott standing behind me, reading over my shoulder with wide eyes.
Ugh. Time to get back to reality.
After a long stretch, I closed my laptop. Before Scott could ask about Ella and what I’d just written to her, I said, “You win. I’m coming. We can’t have you losing your man parts on my account.”
. . . . .
“Careful,” Scott warned as we entered the club. “Kaylee is pissed that you didn’t show up on time tonight.”
I smirked. Of course she was pissed. Tonight was her twenty-first birthday, and according to her, it was the night we were supposed to get engaged. She rented out the most exclusive club in LA for her party and invited every VIP she knew. And, from the looks of it, every paparazzi in the state of California, too.
If Scott thought Kaylee was pissed now, he should just wait until I broke off the fake relationship instead of giving her the ring I was supposed to buy—and hadn’t. “A word to the wise, Scotty: run while you still can.”
Scott wasn’t fast enough. Kaylee pounced on us both the second we came through the door. “Baby!” she squealed, plastering herself against me. “What took you guys so long?”
Her voice was happy, but the fire in her eyes explained exactly how pissed she was. She’d brought an entourage of friends and birthday well-wishers with her, and after politely saying hello to them all, I took Kaylee by the hand and said, “Can we talk privately for a minute?”
Kaylee’s whole face lit up. “Sure!”
She made a face at the crowd that suggested she thought she was getting a birthday surprise, then let me drag her off to a private table.
I didn’t waste any time. As soon as I was sure no one could overhear us, I said, “I don’t want to do this.”
Kaylee rolled her eyes. “Yeah, you’ve made that quite clear since the moment it was suggested in that meeting.”
“Let me rephrase.” My patience was already wearing thin. “I’m not going to do this.”
Kaylee’s eyes narrowed into thin slits. “The hell you’re not.”
“Kaylee.” I rubbed my temples and took a breath. I wasn’t going to fight with her if I could help it. “Give me a break, okay? Things have changed for me since that meeting.”
If Kaylee were a cat, she’d have arched her back and puffed up her tail. As it was, she stiffened and folded her arms across her chest. “You mean that girl?”
That girl? Ella was so much more than that girl. “Yes, I mean Ella. If I’d known she was alive, I never would have let anyone talk me into this stupid plan in the first place. Now that I have her back, I’m not going to ruin things with her by getting pretend-engaged to you.”
Kaylee began to tremble slightly from the rage building up inside her. She was going to explode any minute. “So you’re just going to dump me for her? Are you going to ask her to be your fake fiancée instead?”
I was so horrified by that thought that I lost my temper. “I’m not doing this fake shit with you anymore! We have to break it off right now. I’m going to go to Boston to meet Ella. I’m going to tell her who I am, and I don’t want her to think I have a girlfriend when I do. I want to date her, and I refuse to keep it secret or make her wait for me while I prance around LA with my fake fiancée in front of cameras.”
I hadn’t thought Kaylee’s eyes could open any wider, but I was wrong. They grew so big they nearly popped out of her head. Her mouth fell open, too, and she leaned forward over the table that separated us. “Wait a minute.” She threw a hand up, as if she were going to shake a finger at me. “She doesn’t know who you are? You’ve never met her?”
My cheeks grew warm with embarrassment. I knew it sounded crazy, but I also knew what I felt. “My relationship with Ella is…complicated.”
“Define ‘complicated.’”
I didn’t want to talk about Ella with Kaylee. Kaylee would never understand. Ella was the best thing in my life, and Kaylee would only want to tear that apart. Kaylee was like poison. I wasn’t going to let her taint what I had with Ella. “I don’t have to explain myself to you.”
“Yes, you do!” Kaylee hissed. “You’re breaking up with me. I deserve an explanation.”
I clenched my jaw and once again tried to keep my temper in check. “We aren’t really breaking up. We aren’t actually together.”
“We may as well be. It’s what everyone thinks. What about the publicity? What about our careers? What about proving you’re not just some arrogant player? What about our plan, Brian?”
“If we make it amicable, say it was mutual and that we’re just better as friends, it won’t be so bad. You’ll still get plenty of publicity when the movie comes out, and I’ll just stay out of trouble. We’ll be fine.”
“Sure, we’d be fine,” Kaylee agreed, spitting out the word fine as though it left a bad taste in her mouth. “But think of how much more we could be if we stick to the plan. We could become the next Kanye and Kim, the next Brad and Angelina! Between your father and mine, and the way the entire nation loves us, we could own this town. Fame is just a popularity contest, and we’re the prom king and queen. We’re supposed to be together.”
Her anger died just a tad and her voice softened. “We could be great together. If you would just stop fighting this and do it for real, you’d see. I could make you happy, Brian.”
There was no way in hell Kaylee could ever make me happy, but I managed to keep that thought to myself. “I can’t do that. I’m in love with Ella.”
The force of my statement shocked us both. I sucked in a breath and blew it all out of my lungs after that admission, but it felt so good to admit it out loud that I said it again. “I love her, Kay. I can’t be with you—I can’t even pretend anymore—when all I want is her.”
Kaylee sat back in her seat and stayed quiet, surprising me with the amount of pain in her eyes. I expected her to be pissed off that she wasn’t getting her way, but I never dreamed she’d be hurt by my rejection.
I reached across the table and placed a hand over hers. “I’m sorry.”
After a minute, Kaylee looked up as if she were contemplating a new approach. She pulled something small out of her purse—an engagement ring—and held it out for me to see. She slipped it on her finger, as if she just wanted to see what it looked like, and sighed wistfully. “It’s beautiful, isn’t it?”
Oh shit. I was the one who was supposed to get the ring. What the hell was she doing with it? “Why do you have that?”
Kaylee pulled her eyes away from the diamond. The look she gave me caused a bad feeling in my stomach. “I’m not an idiot, Brian. I knew you were going to try and weasel out of this tonight.”
In a flash, her entire countenance changed and she became the evil woman I had just pictured devouring my assistant. “I don’t give a shit who you love. I’m not going to let you ruin this for me. I will, however, ruin you if you don’t step up your game right now. I’ll ruin your father, too. There are going to be four more Cinder Chronicles movies, and directors can easily be replaced. My father owns the two of you, and Daddy gives me whatever I want. I’ll make sure neither of you ever work a real job in this town again. And then, when you’re finished in Hollywood and you finally run crying to your precious little Ella, I’ll destroy her worst of all.”
My heart stopped beating at the threat, and all my blood turned to ice. Kaylee could definitely do some major damage to both my father’s and my career, though I doubted she could ruin them entirely. But she could destroy Ella. It didn’t matter that she didn’t know who Ella was; the second I met Ella, the world would know—the world always knew everything I did. Once I moved beyond anonymous Internet friend status with her, I’d never be able to keep her secret.
Kaylee was cruel, and Ella had been through so much. If Kaylee wanted to, she could find every crack in Ella’s armor and use her tragedies to break her to pieces without ever even meeting her. There was no doubt in my mind that if I scorned Kaylee now, she would do exactly that.
“Ah,” Kaylee said with satisfaction. “I see we finally understand each other, don’t we?”
“If you even think of dragging Ella into this—”
“Oh, no, you’ve already dragged her into this, and if you want me to stay away from her, then you go all in. No more half-assed appearances and bad attitudes. You take all that sappy, pathetic puppy love in your heart and you make the world believe it’s all for me. Make me believe it, Brian.”
Kaylee jumped to her feet without warning, squealing loudly and hopping up and down with crazy, giddy excitement. “Yes!” she cried. “Yes, yes, with all my heart, yes! Of course, I’ll marry you!”
She bounded around the small table and jumped on me before I even realized what was happening. She planted a kiss on my mouth while everyone in the entire room gathered around, clapping and cheering.
As soon as I could break free of the kiss, I took a few deep breaths and pulled Kaylee close so that I could whisper in her ear. “You have no heart, you bitch.”
“Sure I do, baby, and it only beats for you.” She thrust her newly blinged-out hand out to the crowd for everyone to see and cried, “We’re getting married! Best birthday present ever!”
Kaylee gave me another evil smile and fluttered her eyelids, saying, “I love you so much.”
She waited for me to say it back, but I wouldn’t do it. I would never say those words to her, whether I meant them or not. “Good” was what I replied instead, earning a hearty laugh from the crowd.
Rage flashed in Kaylee’s eyes, but she couldn’t say anything with everyone watching. She forced her smile a little brighter and kissed me again. I hated it, but I had absolutely no choice other than to kiss her back. I couldn’t let her hurt Ella. I wouldn’t even let her figure out how I knew Ella. I’d just have to wait to tell Ella the truth until after Kaylee was finished with me. I could only pray Kaylee’s plans didn’t include a trip to Las Vegas and a legitimate marriage certificate.