Chapter11
“Well, don’t you have a different glow today?” Caroline said when she walked into the hospital room.
Aaliyah felt her cheeks heat up, but she couldn’t help the small smile that snuck out. The week before had been so different, had changed things so much, that she almost felt as if she was dreaming. The week before might have well been a year before with how distant everything felt.
Since she’d been able to make her foot twitch, she’d been making progress with her legs. Granted, she wasn’t out taking long walks yet, but she was able to stand and that felt amazing. It was almost as if she couldn’t even remember the fear she’d had that she’d never be able to walk again, it was such a part of her past.
And so was the fear of losing Max. She didn’t know what the change in him was, and truthfully, she didn’t want to know. All she was sure of was the look in his eyes was something completely different, something she’d been hoping for for longer than she’d realized. And just like that, the contract seemed to be nothing more than a flimsy piece of paper to them. He no longer would visit her sulking as if he was bound by ball and chain to be there.
Max instead acted as if coming to the hospital and spending the day with Aaliyah was all he really wanted to do. Practice, games, and time with her was all he really did want, and she couldn’t help how happy it made her that she was Max’s priority. Him being a celebrity didn’t affect her much in the reasons why she felt so lucky. In fact, she often wished he wasn’t a celebrity; she didn’t particularly like being in magazines and having her life splashed out in front of the whole world. But she did feel lucky because he was really the only person who could take her mind off of everything. The way he could play and make her laugh was like no one else could do.
But yesterday, when he’d come to see her, he’d dropped a bomb on her, and now she was nervous for him to come back in, so she’d called Caroline for some reinforcement. “I may be glowing, but it’s definitely from nerves.”
“I talked to your doctors,” Max had said the day before as he leaned down to give her a kiss. “There’s this charity thing coming up, a dinner that my team wants me to attend, and they said that if you felt up to it, they’d love for you to join me.”
Aaliyah had felt herself start to panic. She hadn’t been in the spotlight with Max in weeks, not since before the accident. It had been stressful enough before, when they were having a fake relationship. But now that they were actually having a real one, that made everything more intense. What if she couldn’t dress the part, or act the part, of his girlfriend now that she really was? Now that she actually cared. Her mind had spun with the number of people who would be watching her and judging her. Now that it mattered, it was far scarier that it was when the only thing that mattered was if she got paid.
“I don’t know if I’m ready for that,” she’d hedged. She didn’t want to outright say no because that felt unfair.
A part of her really did want to go and be the girl on his arm. But the other part was completely terrified that he’d find her a disappointment, especially since she was still hurting so much.
But he’d grabbed her hand, and she’d nearly melted into his eyes. “Please come with me. I really don’t want to go without you. It’s going to be dull and boring and full of people I have no desire to talk to. You need to be there to keep me entertained.” His eyes had sparkled at her, and she had nearly said yes. Heck, she nearly would have said yes to anything in that moment with his eyes glinting the way they were and his hand holding hers so tightly. But she just couldn’t get her brain to agree the way her body was.
“It sounds like a lot. I don’t want to hold you back from the night.” It had been an excuse, and they had both known it.
Concern had filled his eyes, and he’d dropped her hand. “Is it me? Did I do something?”
Quickly, Aaliyah had shaken her head no. How could she explain how scary it was to be out in the public eye with him when that’s what the whole beginning of their relationship was?
“It’s just…. it’s intimidating to be out with you.”
“What do you mean?”
“Before, when we would go out, I didn’t really care what the public thought of me. I was playing a part, your girlfriend, and as long as I was getting paid, I didn’t really care.”
Momentarily she’d wondered if what she’d just said had stung, but a rueful smile had crept onto Max’s face, causing her to remember one of the reasons she liked him so much. Very little ever affected his cocky demeanor.
“But now, well… now it’s different.”
“Because you actually like me now instead of thinking I’m a creep,” he’d joked.
Aaliyah couldn’t help the laugh that had bubbled out. “Yeah, I think you’re a lot less of a creep now.”
Max had leaned over and kissed her again. “The public is going to like you just as much as I do. How could they not?”
She’d gestured to the bed that she still was having a hard time getting out of.
“But I’m not going to be like the other girls, models really, that are going to be there. I’m not even sure I’ll be able to walk through the night.”
Max had thought for a second and then shrugged. “So, we get you a high-class wheelchair so my baby can ride in style. And when you get too tired, you just tell me, and we’ll come straight back here. In fact, the earlier you get tired, the better,” he’d finished and winked.
How could she resist him? He was far too adorable, and she really did want to be with him that night. If only she hadn’t gotten in that stupid car accident, then she could have walked through the doors on his arm and enjoyed every second of being with him. Then again, if she hadn’t gotten into that accident, there was a good chance that neither one of them would have actually realized how much they liked each other, and then who knows what would have happened?
After she finished telling Caroline about her worries, her friend jumped off the chair as if it had just turned to lava.
“Honey, you leave all of this to me. By the time I shop for you, find the perfect dress, and come up here to doll you up, no one will even notice that ridiculous wheelchair. They will instead be staring at the drop-dead gorgeous woman who has one of the hottest athletes wrapped around her finger and pushing her in that chair.”
Aaliyah laughed at her friend’s confidence and gave her the nod of approval at her plan. Caroline gleefully fished through her friend’s purse and pulled out the expense card that Eli had given her for this whole affair.
“Leave it to me, girl,” she said and took off shopping.
Momentarily, Aaliyah breathed a sigh of relief. Maybe with Caroline’s expert help, Aaliyah could be like the other girls who would be there that night. Gorgeous, confident, and making every man in their path drool. However, Aaliyah knew the only man she wanted drooling over her that night was going to be Max, and she really hoped Caroline could help her pull that off.
***
Max knew that going to a big fancy event wasn’t going to be Aaliyah’s idea of fun. After all of the dates and time he’d spent with her, he knew she was definitely more of a quiet night in kind of girl rather than a glitz and glamour at a party kind of girl. It was something that stumped him because he’d never met a girl who didn’t want to be on his arm in public, but it was also something he enjoyed very much. Sometimes it was nice to turn off the parties and drinks and just spend a night with a movie or at a quiet dinner. Aaliyah was the only girl who had ever made him think that a night like that could be more satisfying than the nights he’d been living with the parties. In truth, he missed those calm and quiet nights together just as much as he missed their wild physical side. She was an enigma, that was for certain. Shy but feisty, quiet but wild—he loved that he was never sure what side of her he was going to get for the night.
But for all the ways she confused and stumped him with her opposing personalities, there was one thing he was sure of, and that was that she was not one for big public events. It was possibly selfish of him, he could admit, but he really wanted her there. The thought of going without her just wasn’t something he could handle. Somehow, she seemed to make everything easier for him; she had an amazing way of doing that. But if he was going to drag her to something that was so out of her element, then he was determined to make it as nice as possible for her, which is why he called Caroline to set up her surprise.
“I need a big favor,” he started in right away. “I want to get Aaliyah a new dress, but I have no idea what to buy her. Could I ask you to go to the best store you can think of and pick something up for her? When you find it, tell me where you are, and I’ll come pay for it.”
Caroline had argued that she’d already snagged Aaliyah’s credit card that Eli had given her for the same thing, but Max insisted that he pay for it. He wanted to make her feel special.
“You really do you like her, don’t you?” she asked.
Max smiled a bit as a picture of Aaliyah floated through his mind. “Yeah, I do.”
“Good, you’d better. And Max? She may not have been big on following celebrity gossip, but I sure am. Don’t screw this up. Don’t hurt her, okay? Everyone knows you’re a notorious womanizer who has never been able to keep his pants zipped. But she doesn’t deserve to be hurt any more than she already has been.”
She hung up the phone and left Max sitting there in his apartment, almost stunned. He knew his reputation had been bad—it wasn’t as if he could pretend that he hadn’t been a less than stellar guy when it came to women—but a womanizer? He’d never considered himself someone like that. He’d always just thought of himself as someone who liked to go out and have fun; it wasn’t his fault that sexy women threw themselves at him he way they did. But if he thought about it, it was his fault he always said yes. He had always just figured they were using him for his fame, none of them actually cared about him or who he was, if they had, then they probably wouldn’t have put up with his crap.
So since they were already using them, was it so horrible that he used them back? It was the eye-for-an-eye theory right there in his bedroom. Did that thought really make him a womanizer?
A pit formed in his stomach when he realized that yeah, he indeed was a womanizer. He hadn’t ever meant to be; he’d never even seen himself that way before. It was what Eli and the papers were always talking about, but he just figured his love life was being blown out of proportion. He hadn’t realized he’d gotten so bad. It was no wonder Eli and Caroline had warned him not to hurt Aaliyah. He couldn’t stop the question from popping in his mind, but what if those girls had actually felt used, gotten hurt by the way he’d treated them. A pit formed in his stomach as he thought about it, and it turned to solid stone when he thought about Aaliyah being one of those girls.
Before her accident, he’d been having his fun with her too. Of course they were together because of the contract, but what they did once the night was over, the insane nights they had together, were no part of the contract. That was all them. She didn’t strike him as the type that would be using him for sex, but had he been using her? Sure, he cared about her now, but if she hadn’t gotten into that accident, if he hadn’t had that conversation with his brother, would he have just blown her off and probably not thought twice about it? The realization hit him hard, and a new fear started to prickle inside of him.
What if he hadn’t really changed? What if he still really was the player that everyone thought he was? He’d end up hurting Aaliyah just like everyone was afraid of, just like he was now afraid of. The fear crept into him and plagued him all night as he got ready to pick her up for the event. The more he thought about who he really was and how he’d really lived his life before Aaliyah, the more sure he was that he’d never be able to stop his playboy ways. That he’d always look at other women, want other women. Sure, since he’d been with Aaliyah, really been with her, no other woman had crossed his mind, but that was because he only ever spent time at his apartment and in the hospital with her. What would happen when he went back into public again?
His memory traced him back to those first few times out with her. She was drop-dead gorgeous and even interesting and he knew it, yet he’d flirted with and texted other girls the whole time. Once his interest was no longer new and exciting, he feared he’d be onto something, or rather someone, else. These thoughts swirled too far into his mind, and he could feel himself settling into a fog, which he stayed in until his limo pulled up outside of the hospital.
Aaliyah sat there in her wheelchair, a chocolate silk dress that matched her eyes worn tightly across her perfect body, and he nearly felt his jaw drop at the site of her. Whatever Caroline had paid for that dress, he would have paid double.
Max didn’t even wait to let his driver open the door. Instead, he flew out of the car like a little kid down the stairs on Christmas morning. She placed her hands on the side of her chair, and he watched in awe as, shakily, she pushed herself up to a standing position from her chair and took a couple of tentative steps toward him.
In that moment, he knew he’d never seen anything more beautiful in his life.
He raced toward her and grabbed hold of her, pulling her in tightly. He felt her body sag against his strength.
There didn’t seem to be words to describe to her how he felt in that moment. On his arm for the night was going to be a gorgeous, strong woman, and he couldn’t believe that she was actually with him. “You’re amazing,” he whispered in her ear. The fog lifted from his mind, and all he could feel was the warmth of her.