Kate

After just a few hours of sleep, I awoke to the sun streaming into the room as we had forgotten to close the curtains the night before. My muscles ached from the workout Cam had given me over the course of the previous day. I was a little sad, however, to find Cam wasn’t lying next to me when I woke up. As my eyes adjusted to the light, I saw a note lying in Cam’s spot on the bed. I opened it.

At the gym, love. Will work you out though when I return. Love you, Cam

I couldn’t help but grin as I flopped back in the bed, happier than I could ever remember being in my life. My blissful daze, however, was interrupted by a frantic knock at the door to my room. My heart jumped a bit just before I went to close the door to the adjoining room in case whoever was in the hall got a peek into the room. Padding over to my hotel room door, I checked the peephole and saw Evander and Lizzy standing outside. I smiled as I let them in.

Lizzy was the first to rush in and clobber me with a huge hug. “I’m so happy for you two!” she squealed as she pushed her way into the room with Evander in tow. “I haven’t seen Cam this happy in so long. This is amazing.”

“Shhh, will you calm down,” I said as I attempted to close the door to the room, but not before Evander stopped me long enough to pull in a large rack of formal wear.

“What’s this?”

“Clothes for the premiere tonight. Cam said we could roll it in here since we know the adjoining door is now fucking ajar,” said Evander with a naughty smile.

“Oh, my God. You both need to chill. We’re keeping this on the down-low for now. There’s still a lot for me to figure out with my job and everything.”

“I don’t know how ‘down-low’ it’s going to be when you’re wearing one of these showstoppers on Cam’s arm at the red carpet tonight,” Evander said with a smile. “That’s putting it on fucking blast, if you ask me, honey.”

“What are you talking about?” I said, now completely puzzled as I walked over to the rack that Evander had wheeled in. While the bulk of the items on it were men’s wear, there were also five gorgeous designer dresses on the end of the rack.

“Cam asked me to pull a few looks for you for tonight. I need you to try them on, so I can go sort out your shoe situation.”

“I’m dying to see you in the emerald green one,” said Lizzy. “I think that’s the one.”

“This is really nice, but I already have a dress for tonight.”

“Let me guess, black, wallflower-type-of-shit, publicist issue?” Evander said with an eye roll.

“That’s the uniform,” I said.

“I think Cam wanted you to perhaps have something special. It’s a big night for him, and you’re obviously very important to him,” Lizzy said carefully.

“Girl, he wanted you to have something befitting the woman on his arm. These dresses are exactly that. You are gonna look fierce!”

Anxiety suddenly gripped me. Cam and I were terrific together in our little cocoon, but I hadn’t yet prepared myself for any sort of a coming-out party.

“Are you, okay?” Lizzy asked.

“Umm…”

Just then, Cam entered the room from the adjoining door. He was a bit of a sweaty mess from the gym, but his face was alight with excited energy as he approached and planted a kiss on my lips. I suddenly began to feel as though the walls were closing in on me a bit.

“Did she try them on yet?” Cam asked Evander.

“Not yet.”

Cam inspected the dresses on the rack himself now. “Lizzy thinks the green one, but I love you in royal blue.”

“Cam…” I said tentatively.

“You’d also look amazing in the white, too, though. I don’t know which one, I like best anymore. What do you think, Evander?”

“Cam! What is all this?” I said a bit louder than I had initially intended. Everything in the room suddenly stopped as all eyes turned on me.

“Hey, what’s the matter?” Cam said, regarding me seriously now.

“I don’t need a dress for tonight.”

“Come on. I thought it would be fun for us both to get dressed up. You can’t blame me for wanting to show you off a bit.”

“Show me off? I kind of assumed we’d be keeping our relationship quiet for the time being. Red sequins aren’t quite what I’d call going incognito, Cam,” I said testily.

He narrowed his eyes at me. “I guess I thought that last night changed things a bit,” he said earnestly, seeming to suddenly wish that we didn’t have an audience as he glanced at Lizzy and Evander.

I sighed and ran a hand through my hair as I took in the slight look of hurt on Cam’s face, which absolutely killed me.

“We should go,” Lizzy said, looking a bit fearful now as she pulled Evander toward the door and quietly exited, leaving Cam and me staring at one another, at an impasse.

“I honestly didn’t think you’d be this upset, Kate.”

“Cam, I don’t like to be manipulated like this,” I said, starting to pace.

“Whoa! Manipulated?”

“Yes. You’re clearly trying to roll us out like some perfect little Hollywood couple here and to hell with what I need.”

Cam stared at me as though he had never seen me before, and I hated the sudden distance that I had just put between us.

“First of all, that is completely unfair, and you know it. Tonight, is an incredibly important night for me, and I just wanted to share it with the person that I love. That’s all. I’m not your mother, Kate. I don’t have an ulterior motive here. I just wanted to be with you tonight. That’s it.”

What he had said was like a punch to the gut, but most of all I hated that he had known exactly where my mind had gone. The rack of clothes had reminded me of the perfectly matching mother-daughter outfits that my mother had so enjoyed trotting us out in for appearances, intimating a perfection to the world that didn’t really exist in our relationship.

“And secondly,” he continued, “this whole argument about not wanting Evelyn to find out about us doesn’t entirely hold water for me anymore. I could understand it when there was uncertainty between us, but this—you and I—we’re solid, Kate. I’m not going anywhere. I’m yours, which means that where Evelyn is concerned, you actually hold all of the cards.

“I think that’s a bit of a stretch, Cam.”

“Listen, I am more than happy to call Evelyn right now and tell her that we’re together.”

“Neat! And then I lose my job.”

“Kate, do you really think she’s going to fire you if I insist that I will walk unless you are allowed to continue doing your job? I’m the biggest name on her roster of talent right now. She can’t afford to lose me. It would kill her reputation.”

I sighed.

“You don’t like that scenario? Go ahead and quit Masters PR and I’ll walk out with you. I guarantee you, you can walk into any other agency in LA with me and Matt freaking Castell in tow and name your price.” Cam turned away from me for a minute but then turned back even more fired up. “Even better, why don’t you start your own agency? You’re unbelievably talented, smart, creative, and you’ve already got your first two clients lined up. Make your own rules. God knows you’re far better at this job than Evelyn ever was,” Cam said.

“Well, that’s just ridiculous. Evelyn is a legend,” I said.

“Fuck that. She’s just a bully, Kate, and you know it. She’s tricked you into thinking that you need her, when really, I’m beginning to wonder if it’s actually the other way around. You sell yourself far too short. There isn’t any reason why you couldn’t be the next big thing in your industry if you’d have the courage to get out from behind that woman.”

I ran my hands through my hair as I resumed my nervous pacing.

Cam sighed and softened his tone a bit, seeming to realize that he’d gotten a bit too animated. He took my hand, slowly reeling me into him. “Look, the point is, you’ve got options, love, and I will be by your side, whatever you choose. You just have to decide what it is that you want.”

Cam was right on so many levels; I did have options and to be honest, it wasn’t like I hadn’t run those same scenarios in my own head. They were all huge leaps though—leaps right into a world that, for all intents and purposes, slightly resembled one that I had run away from years before. What’s more, that leap involved putting all of my faith in Cam, and I could count on one hand the number of times banking on someone to love me enough to stand by my side had panned out for me.

I gave Cam a weak smile as I stroked his sweet face, seeing the love in his eyes and wanting so desperately just to surrender, but this whole conversation terrified me.

“Look, wear the dress, don’t wear the dress. I really couldn’t care less. I just want you to be there with me tonight, as my date,” he said as he slowly pulled me into him, putting me under his spell. I hated denying him anything. “Will you do that for me? We will deal with whatever the fallout is together. I promise. You’ll never be alone in this, okay?”

Looking deeply into his eyes, I could see how badly he wanted this…how badly he wanted me just to put my faith in us. I plastered on a little smile as I tugged at his warm-up jacket and dropped a soft kiss on his lips before I straightened out the mussed fabric and collar.

“You’d better get going,” I said with a sigh. “You’re going to be late for your roundtable interviews this morning. Megan should be waiting for you in the ballroom.”

“Kate, I…”

I held my finger to his lips stopping him. “Will you get out of here? I’ve got a bunch of dresses to try on.”

Cam smiled and overwhelmed me with an overzealous kiss, making me laugh.

“This is all going to be fine, Katie. I promise. You’ll see.”

I nodded.

“I’ll see you in a bit,” I said, mustering up a warm smile for him as I stroked his cheek. I watched Cam as he left the room, not letting on for a moment that despite what I had just said, I really had no idea what I was going to do about our situation that night.