“She’s not coming in,” Peg told me Tuesday when I showed up at the music store.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean she’s not coming. She called to cancel the rest of her lessons. Whatever happened, it was obviously too much for her.”

“Did she say anything else?”

“No, it was a very uncomfortable conversation. That’s all I know. You could have cut the tension with a knife. I think you fucked up, she’s not going to text you back.”

“It wasn’t me though. It was the fucking parasites who wrote all those stories…”

I knew it was useless to keep going though. Peg had zero sympathy for me when it came to the spotlight, she’d been put through the ringer herself over the past decade.

It had only been the last few years that people had finally started to leave her alone. They’d finally gotten the hint that Gavin Pierce’s big sister wasn’t going to talk, that she was notoriously tight lipped and surly when it came to interviews.

“I know, bro. And I’m sorry. I really am. But maybe this is a sign that it’s just not meant to be.”

“I won’t accept that as an option, Peg. I just won’t,” I replied and strode from her store. “And I won’t be doing any lessons today, I’m sorry.”

It felt good to finally be able to make a dignified exit now that the cast was gone.

I told the driver Chloe’s address and was on edge the entire way to her apartment.

Once there, I ran up the three stories to her floor and banged on the door.

It opened slowly and I almost swept the girl who answered off her feet.

But it wasn’t Chloe.

“You’re…” she murmured sleepily and rubbed her eyes.

“And you’re not Chloe,” I replied, my disappointment palpable.

“The Chloe? She was here?” the girls asked, perking up. “This is just an apartment the university provides. The former resident is gone, I moved in yesterday. I can’t believe it’s the Chloe apartment from the stories. I’ve seen pictures…oh my god, they were taken right in front.”

I didn’t bother replying, this girl had nothing for me and I didn’t have time to make small talk.

Not when I had to find Chloe.

I went right back to Peg’s shop, walked past surprised customers and stood in front of her counter. She looked me up and down and said, “Now what?”

“I need her new address.”

“I don’t have that.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“Come on, Gavin. I can’t share information with you.”

“I’m not asking you to share anything she wouldn’t have given me herself if the press hadn’t involved,” I pleaded.

“Let me see your texts. Let me make sure you’re not being a creepy stalker,” she said, her mouth pressed into a thin line.

I handed her my phone and opened it to the messages I’d sent to Chloe.

Peg read a couple, looked at me and said, “Dammit, you do love this girl.”

“I do.”

“Wait, this doesn’t look right,” she said and reached under the counter. She pulled out an appointment book and flipped it open. “You idiot, you have the wrong number.”

“What do you mean?”

“This isn’t her number. You have seven eight six five as the last four digits. It’s actually seven eight five six.”

Chloe had entered her number into my phone, she wasn’t an idiot but she had probably been overwhelmed by going out with me.

Or maybe it had just been a slip of her finger.

Either way, those texts had been going to the wrong number.

All this time that I thought Chloe had been ignoring me, I’d been sending them so some unknown place where they’d sat, unread.

I couldn’t help myself, I laughed out loud. “Are you kidding me? All this over a couple mixed up numbers?”

“That’s our family’s weird luck,” Peg laughed with me.

“Do you have her address?”

“She left Seattle. Her university dumped her because she was too much of a distraction,” Peg told me and I raged at the thought of Chloe going through this all alone.

And then I felt ice in my veins at the thought of her hating me for not texting her.

Oh god, she would have believed the shit they’d been publishing about her being a one night stand.

“You have to let me go to her,” I said. “I’ve got to see her.”

“Then call her,” she replied.

“This needs to be done face to face,” I said, my heart speeding up in desperation. I was ready to grab Peg’s appointment book and run off with it like a thief.

“You’re so old fashioned,” she replied and rolled her eyes. “Okay, fine. I’ll give it to you but this had better be real. I’ll make you suffer if you use me for her address and then treat her like your other women.”

“She’s not like any other woman,” I said. “She’s not like anyone I’ve ever known.”

“Who am I to stand in the way of true love?” Peg asked in a mocking tone. “But seriously, I hope this works out for you. I’ve never seen you like this.”

“Thanks, sis,” I said and grabbed the paper with Chloe’s scribbled address.

I had a woman who’s heart I had to win, so there was no time to waste.

And this forward momentum kept me going until I ran smack dab into a wall.

My assistant texted back that the private jet wasn’t available, Gail had lent it to another one of her clients.

Or she was just being pissy because I wasn’t interested in jumping to her beck and call.

Either way, I was without a plane and would be forced to fly commercial.

I got on the phone immediately while my assistant worked double time to line up flights from Seattle to Chloe’s home town.

It was no easy feat, but we finally pinned down the fastest route. It wasn’t the most efficient though, it had two lay overs and a long wait in Chicago.

And I wouldn’t get to her until late Wednesday.

I was sorely tempted to text the right number and let her know I was coming, but anything I sent would sound like a lie.

Especially given the fact that Blythe’s people had leaked some fake story about us being in a secret relationship and her dumping me for my affairs.

I was beyond my tolerance limit for bullshit and would have to take back control of my life.

The trip was a disaster and I was fucking spoiled.

At least that’s what Peg’s last text had said.

Not that it was a disaster, that was my assessment, but she told me I was too used to private jets and special treatment because I was famous.

And maybe I was, but god dammit, this was the first time that I wanted to be somewhere immediately and it was the first time I felt like there were barriers in place to prevent it from happening.

I would have texted her back, but I left my god damned fucking phone on the plane when I’d gotten off in Chicago.

It was almost unbelievable, the series of small disasters that had been keeping Chloe and I apart since our one night together.

But it made me feel like she was more right for me than before. I felt it in my bones, the harder the universe tried to stand in between us, the more I wanted her.

I was trapped in the Chicago airport due to weather.

I would have given in and called Chloe at that point, I was desperate enough just to hear her voice, but you know…the phone thing.

What it meant was that my frantic trip to declare my love to Chloe was put off by a day until the weather cleared, and it meant that I was about to go fucking insane with my need for her.

I sat in the airport’s executive lounge, I had that at least, and penned a new song for her.

It was one way I could keep my mind from running off the rails.

I was finishing up the final set of lyrics when they finally announced boarding for my flight, the final leg of my journey to see her.

I practically fucking ran to the plane, it was so undignified but damn. I didn’t care.

From there, the flight was a blur.

One flight attendant flirted with me outrageously but for once in my life, I wasn’t interested.

She seemed to pout at one point and asked me where I was going.

“I’m going to tell the love of my life that I can’t live without her,” I replied.

“That doesn’t seem like any reason we couldn’t get together for a quickie,” she purred seductively.

Sitting in executive class afforded us a little more privacy than elsewhere, but I wasn’t in the mood to put another mile high club notch in my belt.

“There’s nothing you could say that would convince me to fuck you, sweetheart,” I glowered at her.

“You don’t have to fuck me, but I could give you a blow job. I’d do anything for you, Gavin. I feel like I know you,” she replied with a smile.

I shook my head and made a sound of disgust. “You know nothing about me, you think you know me but you only know what you want. You pick and choose the stories you read online and you focus on the photos and songs that feed your attraction to me, but you don’t care for me as a human being. There’s only one woman in the world who does that, who sees the real me.”

“Oh, and who is this wonder woman?” she asked with a catty smirk.

“Chloe Kingston. The only woman I’ll ever love.”

“The Chloe? The one who broke up you and Blythe?”

“Blythe and I weren’t together, that was the first day I met her. See how little you know about me?”

“I thought Chloe was another one of your party girls,” the flight attendant said and it annoyed me that she was challenging me over details of my own life.

I sighed in irritation and said, “Would I be going to tell her I loved her if she was a one night stand?”

“I guess not.”

“Okay, now that we have that established, how about another scotch?” I asked and rattled my glass of ice in her direction.

That seemed to shut her up and she behaved herself the rest of the flight.

We landed and I hoped my assistant had gotten updates so there would be a car waiting.

I picked up my luggage and was walking through the airport when I heard a voice calling my name.

Of course as soon as somebody called for me, half the airport turned to find out where I was.

I guess my dark sunglasses and baseball cap pulled down low didn’t always work.

I waited for the woman to catch up and was surprised to find the flight attendant who had wanted to suck me off.

“I got your phone,” she said breathlessly as she ran up. “I tracked it down, you left it behind.”

“I know, but that’s amazing. Thank you.”

“There’s still time for me to put my number in there, you know,” she said with a flirty grin as she handed it back to me.

“No thanks, sweetheart,” I replied.

She laughed and said, “No hard feelings. But can I get a pic with you?”

I obliged, but I turned down the fifty or so people who lined up for their own Gavin Pierce airport photos.

I had Chloe to find.

I couldn’t waste another god damned minute.

There was no car waiting but I found an Uber immediately. We made small talk the entire way to her apartment building. I knew he knew who I was, but he was polite enough to not address it.

I thanked him when we got there and jumped out, grabbed my stuff and got into her building thanks to the fact that I was famous, and knocked on her door.

The most amazing thing happened.

I heard her playing my song inside, and my heart fucking knew this was perfect. We were meant to be together.

I had a million things to tell her when I saw her, how horrible our dumb luck had been with the phone number, how I actually thought it was adorable that she’d been so nervous she messed it up, how I wasn’t with Blythe and had never been, and how I hadn’t felt like myself for a single fucking second since the moment I’d woken up and she’d been gone.

But when she opened the door and I saw her beautiful face with her lips slightly parted, I could only do one thing.

I kissed her.