Kate

I had to admit that after a near scalding hot shower that lasted far longer than any shower really needed to, followed by a bowl of hot miso soup from the room service menu, I felt almost like myself again. Swathing myself in a fluffy white hotel robe, I settled into the far-too-comfortable king-size bed in my room and switched on the TV, ready to just unwind for a moment. It had been such a painfully long day, and I had decided to just lie low rather than trying to reconnect with the group. I dreaded the inevitable looks of certainty that I just wasn’t cut out for this type of work. I just didn’t feel up to it. Besides, tomorrow was a new day. I was determined to just kick ass tomorrow and prove all of them wrong.

Just as I had decided on watching an old Nic Cage action film dubbed over in Japanese, a knock came at the door. I assumed that it would be housekeeping or a wayward bellman. When I opened the door, I came face to face once again with Cam and wished to God that I could look at his sexy grin without my heart racing as it always did, but alas, there I was.

“Hello,” I said coolly as I tried to tamp down my own errant thoughts as I made absolutely certain that my bathrobe wasn’t betraying me in any way, noting his absentminded perusal of my body.

“What can I do for you, Cam?” I said, having the distinct feeling that I was interrupting some inappropriate thought that had entered his brain.

“Not a thing. I’ve come bearing a gift,” he interjected quickly as he seemed to snap himself back to the task at hand. In an instant, he thrust a small envelope towards me. I stared at it as though it were full of poison and looked back up at him incredulously. He sighed, running a hand through his hair in mild exhaustion.

“May I come in?”

“No,” I said flatly, not moving a muscle as he attempted to move forward, knowing in my heart that if I gave him an inch, he’d have me on my back on that oh-so-inviting feather bed in mere seconds. Cam politely backed up with an apologetic grin.

“Okay,” he said, a bit thrown by my response to him. He sighed ready to change tactics.

“Look, I wanted to apologize to you,” he said.

“Cam, you don’t have to…”

“No, I do,” he said firmly. “I know migraines; and I know better than most that they are often brought on by stress, and I honestly hate to think even for a moment that I may have caused that.”

“I’m sure it wasn’t you,” I said unconvincingly.

He eyed me with a grin, drawing a knowing smile from me. “That’s very kind, but I’m sure that I at least contributed, and I honestly feel terrible about that, Kate. I was really scared for you today,” Cam said earnestly with genuine remorse in his eyes.

I relaxed a bit and gave him a forgiving smile. “It takes a lot more than a headache to bring me down, Cam. I’m really fine.”

“Oh, I figured that. But for the record, I also know that I was incredibly out of line with you in Toronto, and I desperately want you to understand that I’m…I’m not that guy. It’s no excuse, but you and I both know that it’s incredibly easy to forget your manners in this business. Too many people let me get away with murder, I’m afraid,” he said sheepishly.

“You understand that I will never be one of those people, right?” I said flatly.

“I’m getting that,” he said with a jovial grin. “Incidentally, though, that might be one of my favorite things about you.”

I could feel the color rising in my cheeks, forcing me to cast my gaze down onto the floor.

“Anyway, I want to make amends,” Cam said as he held out the envelope to me once again.

“What is it?” I asked, just brimming with suspicion.

“It’s just a massage at the hotel spa.”

I raised an eyebrow at him. “What are you going to do? Pay off the masseuse so you can trick me into some smarmy, romantic interlude?”

“You know, I hadn’t thought of that.” The edges of his lips curled upwards. “That’s actually rather brilliant.”

I tried to stifle a grin as I rolled my eyes at him.

“The fact that you think I’d do that, though, speaks volumes,” he said a bit sadly. “I promise, no more funny business. That was yesterday. This is today. From here on in…perfect gentleman.”

I stared at Cam, unconvinced.

“Look, the spa here is life-altering. You’ll love it. Will you please accept it and the apology that accompanies it?”

I looked into his eyes and there was an earnestness that I hadn’t seen there before.

“Please,” he said one last time and my heart softened just enough for me to take the envelope from his hand.

“No funny business,” I warned with an accusatory finger.

Cam gave me one of his full-bodied, panty-dropping smiles, and I melted like a moron.

“You have my word,” he said with a graceful gentleman-like bow toward me.

I rolled my eyes once again as Cam continued to grin at me. I was just about to close the door on his smug face when he stopped me.

“One more thing. I’ve made dinner reservations downstairs at Tapas at 8:00 pm…” My brow immediately furrowed. “…for the whole group,” he said before I’d have a chance to further get the wrong idea.

Relaxing a bit, I thought about how memorable a fantastic dinner for my very first night in Japan would be.

“That actually sounds—really nice,” I said reluctantly.

“Someone’s got to bring this dysfunctional family of ours back together, Prescott.”

And with a smile and a wink, he was off down the hall, leaving me grinning and a bit speechless.

---

Little more than an hour later, I found myself emerging from a changing room in the spa at the Mandarin Hotel. I was swathed in yet another fluffy white bathrobe, with a small cup of tea in hand, ready to take in the beautiful views of the expansive city of Tokyo as I waited for the massage that Cam promised would be “life-altering.” My serenity, however, was interrupted as Lizzy approached tentatively before sitting down next to me.

“Don’t tell me. Cam?” she said with an uncertain grin.

I nodded my head silently, not feeling a need to afford her my usual politeness.

“Me, too,” she said, holding up her envelope as well and settling in. “He feels awful about your headache this morning. We all do. Kate, I’m so sorry for my part in that.”

“Oh, for God’s sake! You, too? Honestly, I’m fine. I get migraines on occasion. It’s nothing to freak out about.”

“I just…I know I haven’t been the kindest person to you recently, and I…well I could have been more helpful getting Cam up for the junket in Toronto. That’s really my responsibility. I just wasn’t feeling particularly charitable toward you that morning, I suppose,” she said, barely able to meet my gaze.

“Lizzy, what is the problem? Did I do something?”

“It’s not you.”

“If it’s not me, do you want to tell me why…”

“Why I was being such a stroppy cow to you?” she said finishing my thought as she flopped back onto the sofa she was sitting on. “It’s so stupid, Kate.”

“Lizzy, you have to tell me what the problem is. One minute we’re thick as thieves and then the next you can’t seem to bear being in the same room with me. What did I do?”

She turned to me with a truly pained expression on her face, so pained in fact, that it made me feel awful for whatever was tormenting her.

“Whatever it is, just say it.”

“Kate, are you involved with Matt Castell?” she spat out rapid-fire, as her eyes clenched almost in agony.

My jaw dropped. “What?”

“You two just seem terribly close and the way he was with you at the party the other night and…oh, my God! I sound like an idiot.” Lizzy covered her head in her own arms, apparently feeling the need to crawl into a hole and hide for the foreseeable future.

I put my tea to the side and gave Lizzy a sisterly but knowing grin. “Lizzy, are you crushing on a hot movie star?”

“Embarrassingly so,” she admitted begrudgingly as she attempted to smother herself with a nearby throw pillow, which I promptly removed from her grasp. She crossed her legs on top of the sofa, which suddenly made this feel like more of a teen sleepover than a spa day, which I had to admit, I kind of enjoyed. “I’ve adored him since the shoot, Kate, and he was SO flirty with me. Toward the end I thought maybe something might happen but then nothing…and then I thought…”

“You thought something might happen on this tour.”

“Until you showed up and ruined everything,” she said, pouting but with a smile that told me she fully realized how ridiculous she was being. “It’s like I’m not even here!”

I slowly began to feel the tension leave my body as I smiled empathetically at her. “Lizzy, I’m not interested in Matt Castell,” I said with a laugh that I hoped eased her anxiety a bit.

“Really? Not at all?” She bit her lip and twirled a tendril of her own hair sheepishly.

“No,” I laughed. “He and I friend-zoned each other years ago. He’s more like a big brother than anything else, and I’m pretty sure that he feels the exact same way about me.” Hmm, perhaps that was a tactic that I should try with Cam, I thought absently.

“So, I’ve caused you to have a migraine for absolutely no reason, then?”

“For the last time, you didn’t cause my migraine, Lizzy, and I can assure you that Matt Castell is not even remotely on my romantic radar,” I said with a definitive grin.

Lizzy sighed as she now flopped back into the fluffy pillows beneath her as I shook my head. “Well, now I just feel like an idiot.”

“It happens.”

We shared a girlish giggle, suddenly feeling a renewed comfort in each other’s company.

“Well, if you’re not into Matt, is there anyone else you might be interested in?” Lizzy asked with a mischievous grin.

“Sadly, Tony turned me down cold,” I joked.

Lizzy laughed her little fairy-like laugh. “Kate, I think you know who I mean. What about my brother?” she asked looking hopeful, like a puppy dog begging for a treat.

“Ugh! I’m one hundred percent not interested in your brother,” I lied. “Besides, he’s my client. I’m not really interested in being ‘that girl.’ Plus, he’s basically the only thing standing between me and a huge promotion at work. That’s just not a road I want to go down.”

Lizzy deflated a bit. “I get it,” she said, now resigned to not being able to play Cupid. “For the record, though, I think you two would be great together, and I know he thinks the world of you.”

“And just how do you know that?” I asked.

“Because he’s told me so,” she said simply.

Just then a stern looking male masseuse interrupted our girl talk to take Lizzy back to her massage. She gave me a wave, and the two wandered off down the hall, leaving me deeper in thought than I would have liked.