Chapter Eight

When I woke up, Dean wasn’t there, not that I was surprised. I knew he’d be heading into work early today, and I had an early therapy appointment. I slid out of bed and dressed quickly before stopping by Katie’s to see if she would give me a lift—and, of course, give her the favors I’d picked up for her.

Sitting down in my therapist’s office this time was actually okay. As we talked, I started to relax more. I’m not sure if I was still just in a good mood from the trip or what, but today I wasn’t scared to talk to her about stuff.

“So, you went away for a couple days?” My therapist looked me up and down.

“Yup.” I took a deep breath, looking anywhere but at her.

“And how was that?”

“It was … interesting. I ran into an ex-boyfriend and his current girlfriend.”

“Really? That must have been interesting.”

“It was, but more than anything, it put things into perspective for me about Dean and myself. I realized that I’m actually really happy with him.” And I was; I mean I knew that before I ran into Brad and Kirra, but I did know for sure that Dean made me happy. He was kind and sweet and caring—obviously caring enough to send me to therapy and take me to Italy. “Dean’s going to come to one of our sessions,” I blurted out.

“Really? That’s great! Was that your idea or his?”

“Mine.”

An hour passed without me even realizing it. It was like going in there this time had felt 1000% different than it had the first time I went. This time, I was actually looking forward to talking about things. I’m not sure what changed in me, but I was eager to make changes. She wanted me to start working on my goals more, and she thought it was great that Dean and I were going to pay her a couple visits.

Katie waved me over to where she was parked. I hadn’t felt like going out alone today, and Dean couldn’t take me, so Katie had offered to drive me as soon as she heard I wasn’t feeling too great about it.

“So, how’d it go? She decide you’re crazy?” Katie gave me a soft grin. From anyone else, it might have pissed me off, but my best friend just got a playful hit on the arm.

“No, she actually says that I should be able to get over these nightmares soon.”

“That’s awesome!” Katie gunned the engine, and we made our way home. As it turned out, she’d had quite an eventful weekend herself. All with that teacher, she’d been telling me about.

*

“Where’s your girlfriend?” Melina called from the desk. My cheeks flushed as I felt everyone turn to stare at me.

“She’s in therapy,” I said quietly. I was totally aware of the whispers that were already starting despite the fact that I was still around.

Melina grinned, following me as I headed to my office.

“Sorry about that, I didn’t mean to rat you out there.”

“It’s fine; she just might be mad at you once everyone realizes it’s her that I’m dating.”

“I’ll take it.” Melina shrugged. “Oh, by the way, some woman called, she left a message about business.”

My head shot up. Was this the same woman who had stopped by my place? “Wait, what?”

As if reading my mind, Melina nodded. “I wondered if it was the same one too.”

“You said she left a message?”

“Yes. With a number.” She pulled a piece of paper out and handed it to me. I dialed the number with shaking hands, and she answered on the second ring.

“Hello.”

“Hi, this is Dean. You’ve been trying to get a hold of me.”

“You are a hard man to get a hold of.” She sounded pleased to hear from me. “I’ll be over in ten minutes. I really have something you’re going to want to hear.”

*

I glanced down at my phone to see a text from Dean telling me he wasn’t going to be able to come over for dinner tonight, and that he had to work late. As much as it sucked, I told him I understood and would talk to him later before tucking my phone into my pocket and pulling my keys out of my purse.

“Hey.” Katie and I looked up to see Jake standing there. He didn’t look in good shape at all. His eyes were red, and he wore a dirty sweater. He must still be crying over that ex-girlfriend, I thought before giving him a smile.

“Hey, we were just about to go in and order a pizza, want to join us?”

He returned my smile. “I could really use a little company right now,” he admitted.

I opened my door and motioned for him and Katie to step inside before I did, closing the door behind me. Looks like I was going to be busy tonight as well. As much as I would have rather hung out with Dean, at least, I was with good friends.

*

My heart raced as I waited for her to get here. Melina paced up and down the lobby, and I glared at her. If she wasn’t careful, she was going to give away the fact that something was going on, and I didn’t want my staff to start talking about what could be wrong. I cleared my throat, and that seemed to get her attention. She stopped and made her way over to me.

“How is she doing?”

“She’s alright … I think the trip did her some good … I just hope she’ll be feeling better soon.” I tried to swallow down my guilt, but it didn’t work.

“This isn’t your fault.”

“You can’t say that. If I hadn’t started dating her, I wouldn’t have put her in danger. If I’d told her the truth, she wouldn’t have left that room, and he wouldn’t have been able to get to her.”

“And if I’d stayed outside, he wouldn’t have been able to either.” I stared at her blankly. She looked away from me. “I … I was out there—we were talking about what was happening, and I was telling her to give you a chance to cool down or something stupid like that. If I’d told her to come back in and demand you tell her the truth, or just to go home, he wouldn’t have been able to get her alone.”

I reached out and touched Melina’s arm. “You can’t blame yourself for this.”

“Why not? You do.”

“But you’re not the one—” I stopped. I knew she was trying to make a point. “Because one of us has to be rational here.”

A smile touched her lips. “I’m sick of it always being me.”

“Am I interrupting?” I spun to face the woman who had said it. She had blonde hair and a black suit. She looked me up and down before smiling. “I can’t believe we’ve never met. It really is a pleasure.” She looked at Melina, her nose wrinkling. “If you don’t mind, honey, the adults need to talk.”

Melina opened her mouth to say something—and it most likely wasn’t nice, but I cut her off by clearing my throat.

“If you have something to say, please make it quick; I’m rather busy.”

“Oh yes, of course.” She gave me a smile. “I’d like to talk to you about a business idea.” She smiled widely, and for a fraction of a second, I could see how someone might think she was pretty.

“I’m listening, but I’m busy, so please make it quick.”

Any hint of bitchiness left her the second I said that. “Of course, I’m sorry. You were so hard to get a hold of; I can’t begin to imagine how busy you must be.” She pulled something out of her oversized purse and handed me a file. “Here is a little bit about me; well, a lot. I’ll spare you the details so you can read them in your own time, but basically I work with companies to get more people in here. I had a friend who tried to find your publicist and realized you didn’t have one. She mentioned it to me. Do you know how much you’re potentially losing out on by not having someone to take care of all the marketing and networking for you?” She gave a coy smile. “That’s where I come in. I’m a freelance publicist. What that means is you hire me for a set amount of time—I normally suggest a month to start so that we can both be sure that this is a good fit overall, and then I get to work. I bring people into your casino; I get you the interviews and the press releases and the merchandise so that you can focus on work, or maybe even go home and forget about work for a couple of hours.” She took a deep breath; I could tell she’d practiced her speech, but all the greats in business had an elevator pitch. Her smile reappeared. “After what happened here over the weekend … Eh, the tragic shooting I mean, you’re going to have a lot of media attention. I know how to spin that in your favor. That is if you’re interested.”

She looked eager as I weighed her words carefully. A smile touched my cheeks, and it didn’t take me long to decide what I was going to say.

*

I laughed softly. Having people over was definitely better than being alone, and having someone other than Katie to taste my hot chocolate was proving to be useful. I was still trying to get the salted caramel recipe down pat, and Jake was proving to be very useful.

“Don’t listen to her! You need more sweet.” He shook his head.

“No, you need more salt.” I grinned, watching them banter and try to prove that they were right, and

jumped as I felt something vibrate in my pocket. I grabbed my phone out and looked down at it. “I um, give me a second. It’s my mom.” Unlocking the screen, I raised it to my ear. “Hello?”

I walked away from the kitchen trying not to listen to Jake and Katie banter.

“Hey! Are you home?”

“Yea, I got home really late last night, what’s up?”

“Um, it’s your dad. He’s in the hospital.”

I felt my heart hit the bottom of my stomach. “What? How? When? What happened?” I closed my eyes trying to silence the thoughts racing through my mind.

“It’s nothing major … it’s just … I guess he never took my name off as his next of kin. A mild heart attack. I’m heading over there now. Do you want me to come pick you up? Are you at home?” Her voice broke as I heard her sniff back a tear.

“Don’t drive, Mom. Take a cab, okay? Just to be safe.”

“Okay … do you want me to have the cab stop there?” Okay, that wasn’t a good sign. She always put up a fight over this kind of stuff.

“No. I’ll meet you at the hospital.”

I hung up the phone and felt the urge to cry overwhelm me.

“Why are we going to the hospital?” Katie asked behind me.

“We’re not. I just … I’ve got to go; my dad had a heart attack. You guys stay and finish your hot chocolate.” I forced a smile over my lips as I turned to face them.

“Fuck that,” Jake’s words took me by surprise. “You two have been nothing but kind to me since I moved in. It’s about time I return the favor.” He smiled, standing. “Come on, I’ll drive.”

“Yea, we’re here for you.” Katie stood, heading for the door. “Should you call Dean?”

My brow furrowed. I shook my head. “No.” There was nothing he could do anyways. And I didn’t want him meeting my mom in a hospital.

*

“So, how much do you charge?”

That seemed to get her attention. She raised an eyebrow. “I’m flexible. Should we go to your office and talk now? Or would you rather think things over?”

“Let’s talk some more.” I motioned for her to follow me to the office. “Of course, talking doesn’t make me obligated to contact you, does it?”

“No.” She laughed softly.

I have to admit, having someone manage that kind of stuff would be useful. I had always done all that work myself. When I was with Jessica, we did it together, and then none of it mattered because I didn’t have someone to go home to at the end of the day, but now that Rebecca was in the picture, and I was actually into the idea of having a relationship—a real one—it might be kind of useful to have someone around to do that. And the idea of being able to go home and not do work kind of appealed to me, too. I mean when was the last time I could say I did that?

I opened my office door and motioned for her to step in. She inclined her head and stepped in past me, strutting towards the chair and sitting down like she owned it. As I made my way to the other side of the desk, she crossed her legs and stared at me. “So, what questions do you have?”

*

We arrived at the hospital within record time of actually driving the speed limit—well, not getting caught speeding, at least.

“Are you sure we shouldn’t tell Dean? I think he would want to know.”

“No. I don’t want to take him away from work.” I walked as fast as I could without running towards the part of the hospital my mom had told me to go. The second I saw her, my heart did a back flip. “Mom.” I rushed over to her and pulled her into a hug.

My mom was beautiful; though well aged, she still applied makeup every day, she still did her hair, and still looked like she took care of herself—I could only wish to look as good as her when she was my age. But tonight, tears ran down her cheek, and she looked like she’d just jumped out of bed without changing. “Are you okay? Is he okay?”

“He’s fine.” She sniffed. “I went to see him already. He’s asleep.” She looked past me. “Is that Dean?”

“Uh, no.”

My mother stared at me.

“Well, is he parking the car?”

“No.” I swallowed dryly. “I decided not to tell him.”

“You didn’t think he should know?”

“I … I just didn’t want to get in the way of his work tonight. I’m sure he has a lot to catch up on. I didn’t want to worry him.” Why did I feel like I had to justify it to my mother? “I mean, he was just away with me for like four days.”

My mom stared at me. I couldn’t quite read the look on her face, but she smiled as she headed towards the exit. “Shame, I was hoping to meet him, but at least, your friends came with you.”

Katie and I shared a look. “What the fuck?” I mouthed silently.

Katie shrugged.

“So Dad’s asleep?”

“Yes.”

“Okay.” I turned to my friends. “I’m just going to pop in and leave him a note; I’ll be right back, okay?”

“Sure, take your time!” Katie waved my statement away like it didn’t matter, and Jake just nodded, so I rushed off to the room they had my dad in and stepped inside. His head tilted towards the door as I tried to quietly make my way over there.

“She called you.” He didn’t sound pleased. He let out a scuff of annoyance.

“She was worried.”

“She shouldn’t have called you.”

“How are you feeling?”

“I’m fine. Go.” He gave me a smile. “Really, girl. I’m fine. They just want to keep me here for a couple of days to make sure I’m healthy.”

I swallowed dryly. It had been a long time since I actually saw my dad, and seeing him like this made me realize how much I’d been neglecting to see him.

I closed the distance between us and pulled him into a hug. “I’ll come visit tomorrow, okay?”

“Yea, yea.” His arms wrapped around me. “Go. See your boyfriend or hang out with your friends.” His eyes sparkled. “Let an old man rest.”

As I made my way out of the room, all I could think about was Dean. The second I was out of his room, I stopped and pulled my phone out of my pocket.

Just wanted to let you know I love you.