The winter snow and cold temperatures that had brought Alek unwittingly to Corie were long gone. As the trees sprung to life and the brightly colored perennial flowers bloomed, so did the love between the two of them. They spent all their time together, only venturing into Ashland when they needed supplies and an occasional meal out. They were living an ideal life on her little farm. They had no need for anyone else, but each other.

Only a handful of times they went into town for lunch or dinner, and they usually included Kelsey in their plans. Corie and Kelsey had made up shortly after that night with tears and apologies. Even though all was good between them again, they weren’t in as much contact as they used to be. As much as Corie liked spending time with her friend, Alek was her first priority. He was her world, and her life couldn’t get any better.

Corie’s new book flowed out of her like never before. It was her and Alek’s story but changed so that she was a waitress in a small northern town and he was a prince from a wealthy but small foreign country. He kept his identity a secret from her until he knew she loved him for himself not his money or title. She had no idea how close to the real thing her imagination brought her.    

A light breeze rustled the new green leaves on the trees that surround the farmhouse as Corie swept the front porch. This was her favorite place to sit in the afternoon and enjoy the day. Alek was inside once again strumming his guitar up in the bedroom that used to be his. She let him turn it into a small music studio. She was happy he had an outlet for his creativity. Corie had been afraid with all of his traveling, he would get bored staying in one place for too long, but every day he told her he was happy right where he was.     

A sound in the distance peeked her curiosity and had her looking down the lane that led to property. It was definitely a deep roar of a car engine that was getting closer. Corie knew that they weren’t expecting anyone, so she was curious to know who was coming to see them. She was still holding onto the broom as a sleek black sports car bumped its way down the drive towards her. Now she was more curious than ever. Who could this be?    

The car stopped in front of the house and when the door opened an exceptionally handsome man came out. He was dressed in a black t-shirt and jeans, with sunglasses covering his eyes. He looked vaguely familiar, but she had no idea who he was.

“Can I help you?” she asked him.

“You must be Corie. I’m Ethan,” he told her as he took his sunglasses off as he walked to the base of the front steps. His green eyes smiled up at her as he rested a foot on the bottom step. 

“Alek’s friend?” Even if Alek hadn’t talked to her about Ethan, the English accent had her guessing he was here for Alek. It would have been nice if Alek had told her he had a friend coming to visit.

Ethan laughed. “Last person I heard call him Alek was his mum when we were back in London before the tour. But yes, I am Alek’s mate. What’s Laz up to? He’s been ignoring my texts and calls lately.”

Corie invited Ethan up to the porch, and she asked him to sit down on one of the comfortable wicker chairs. Laz must be a nickname his friends called him by she figured out. “Alek’s been avoiding you? He shouldn’t be doing that, but that may be my fault. We’ve been kind of caught up here...together.” She felt a slight blush spread across her cheeks.

“Luv, if I were alone with a woman that looked like you out here in the country, I’d ignore me too. The only problem is he can’t ignore the band. We’re in contract negotiations with the label for the next few albums, and I need him there. Business has to come first.”   

Corie ran Ethan’s words through her head. They didn’t make any sense. None at all. Band? The next few albums? What was he talking about? Alek wasn’t in a band. He told her that.  He played his guitar because he liked doing it, not because he was in a band.

Suddenly, some of the unusual things about Alek started to make sense. When she found him, she thought he looked like a hoodlum, but she was wrong. He looked like he belonged in a rock band...the hair and the leather jacket. Then there was the fact that he played guitar like he was born to it. He had lied to her about that. Then she wondered what else he had lied to her about.

“What band?” she asked between clenched teeth.

Corie saw Ethan look at her slightly confused. “Our band.”

“What. Is. It’s. Name.”

“Midnight Steel.”

Even Corie who didn’t listen to rock music had heard of Midnight Steel. They weren’t just any band, they were huge. They sold out arenas. Then she realized that Ethan was Ethan Madden, the lead singer. He made headlines all over the world. And Alek was the guitarist of the band. That’s why Ethan called him Laz. Corie was shocked and furious at the same time. Her hands started to shake as her heart pounded in her chest. It felt like it was ready to explode.

Before she could say anything else, Alek walked out the front. She could tell that he had no idea they had a visitor. “Babe, why don’t we go…” was all he said. His face drained of all color when he saw his friend. “Ethan? What are you doing here?”

“You fucking liar!” Corie yelled at him as she jumped to her feet. “You’ve been playing me for a fool this entire time!”

“Wait! No! Eth, what did you say to her?” Alek panicked. His worst fears were coming to life.

Ethan looked from a furious Corie to his best friend who was white as a sheet. “All I did was tell her I needed you for contract negotiations with the label and she acted like she had no idea what I was talking about. Laz, did she not know about the band?”

“No I didn’t know anything about the band!” she spat at him. “How could you not tell me, Alek? Or should I call you Laz? You lied to me about playing your guitar. You lied to me about who you are! Is all of this a joke to you? A game? Let’s see how long I can fuck the stupid girl that can’t even recognize a rock star!”

She was so mad at him. Corie wrapped her arms around herself as she paced the porch. Everything was trembling, and this was the best she could do to control it. She was an idiot. A fool. She had given her heart and body to a man that she had no idea who he really was.

“No, Corie it wasn’t like that. I know I should have told you who I was, but I liked not being me. Eth, tell her how miserable I was on tour. I needed to get out of that life. But what we have isn’t a joke. I love you. More than I ever thought possible. I didn’t think I’d ever fall in love again, but I did. You made me realize that I could.”

“Again? Fall in love again? Another thing you conveniently forgot to tell me about. Oh God, I can’t handle this,” she cried. Corie felt the tears start and no matter how much she tried wiping them away, they were flowing nonstop down her cheeks.

Ethan knew that this was his fault, but how was he to know that Laz didn’t tell her about the band. He never said anything like that to him. “He was right, Corie. Laz was a pain in the arse the entire last half of the tour, but I think I better go and let you two sort this out.”

Simultaneously, Corie said “No,” as Alek said, “Yes.”

“Babe, we need to talk. I can explain everything. Just let me…”

“No!” she said interrupting him. “Get out. Go pack your shit and get out of here. ” Then softer she said, “Ethan, please get him out of here.”

Alek stood his ground. He was not going to leave her without a fight. “I’m not going anywhere until you hear me out. Then if you want me to go…I will. I’ll hate it, but I will.” Then he added, “Please.”

“I think you should listen to what he has to say, Corie. He may have been wrong and absolutely fucking stupid not to tell you, but I'm sure he had his reasons. Just give him a chance. I’ve known this bloke for a long time, and I’ve never seen him be this happy. I could tell over the phone he was a different man,” Ethan said trying to calm Corie down.

“Please?” Alek begged. “Give me a chance to explain why I am such a stupid-fucking-jackass.”

She didn’t want to give him an opportunity to explain. Corie felt hurt and humiliated by Alek’s lies. But she knew that if she didn’t talk to him, she’d always wonder why he did it. Why he couldn’t tell her who he was. She wiped at her eyes again before taking a deep breath and then she looked at Alek. “Fine. Fifteen minutes. That’s all I’ll give you.” Then she turned to Ethan. “I’m sorry, you got all messed up in this, but I thank you for unknowingly opening my eyes. Do you want to wait in the house or out here? I doubt this will take long.”

Ethan flashed a sympathetic smile. “I’m fine out here. Don’t worry about me.” When Corie went to walk past him, he touched her arm. “Give him a chance, Luv. It may not feel like it, but he’s a good guy.”

Alek held the door open for Corie as she walked past him. She didn’t look at him or touch him as she walked by. She needed to stay strong. He had lied to her over and over again. That’s what was important. How could she trust that he wouldn’t do it again? She couldn’t and he would. That’s what she had to keep telling herself.

She sat at one end of the couch in the living room. When he went to sit near her, she said, “No,” and pointed to the other end. When Alek sat down, she immediately started in on him. “Tell me why I should believe anything you say? You haven’t been here for a couple of days, Alek, not even few weeks. It’s been three months, and in all that time you couldn’t tell me who you really were? Why did you have to lie to me?”

 “Babe, I’m sorry. I know it was a stupid thing that got out of control. The longer we were together, the harder it was for me to try to tell you. And I wanted to tell you, and I did try. Remember that night when you had the fight with Kelsey? I wanted to talk to you, but you started to take off your clothes, and then I lost all rational thought.”

“So it’s my fault?” she snapped.

“No, not at all. I’m just telling you I tried. Let me start at the beginning. I used to love being in the band. Ethan and I dreamed of this as kids growing up. I’ve been doing this for years…living on the road, one town after another and…”

“One woman after another, right?”   

“Sometimes, but not always. Anyway, the last half of this tour I had it with the life. I love performing, but I hated everything else. Our last show was Montreal, and that was the night I rented a car and just drove. I needed to get away from everything, including Ethan. He’s been my best mate since I was a little kid, but I needed time to myself for just once. Everything about my life is about Midnight Steel. For once I wanted it to be about me…about Alek, not Laz.”

“With you, it was about me. I never expected to end up here, but that damn accident was the best thing that ever happened to me. When you didn’t recognize me, I liked that. I didn’t want you going all fangirl on me. That was a crazy night and the next few days, too. I liked being normal around you. And I knew you liked me for me, not who I was or what I could do for you and especially not for my money. I never planned on staying, but I did, and the more time I spent with you, the more I was falling for you. I knew I had to tell you that I wasn’t just a guy traveling around with his friends, but then we got involved, and I didn’t know what to do.”

Corie was still furious at him. He had plenty of time to admit who he was. Ethan blew it for him, and now he was trying to make up for it. She was not going to be made a fool of again. “You had plenty of opportunities to tell me. From the beginning would have been best, but then what about when we started to have sex? What about then? Or any time in the past weeks where we were supposedly ‘in love,' how about then? I think you were just using poor naïve Corie to have fun with while you could. I was nothing but an easy lay, wasn’t I?” She was so mad, that she was shaking. Why did he do this to her? To them?

“Fuck, no!” he practically shouted. “It was never like that. What I feel for you is real! I never lied about that. I love you, Corie. Sure I made a big fucking mistake not telling you who I was and I’m sorry you had to find out this way, but I love you. Be mad at me, but don’t send me away. We can work this out, I know we can.”

She had heard his words, but she was not ready to believe them. She had been down this road before, and she was not going to be made a fool of again. No way. Corie could feel her heart breaking into a million tiny pieces, and before she lost it in front of him, Alek needed to go.

Now.

“I do not allow liars into my life. I don’t trust you, Alek. You’ve ruined everything we had, and I want you gone. Go pack up your stuff and get out of here. No more talking. I don’t care what you have to say. Just get out of my life and never contact me again. Never!” She was doing her best to stay in control, but unless he left soon, she was going to lose it.

“Please…” he started to say.

“No. Just go Alek. Go back to England and forget you ever knew me.” Corie tried to keep her voice firm, but it broke when she asked him to forget about her. “Please.”

Alek stood up, but Corie couldn’t look at him. It hurt too much, and she wasn’t going to let him see that this was killing her. She heard his footsteps go up the stairs and faster than she thought possible he was making several trips bringing his luggage down and out onto the porch. Finally, he came around the sofa again, and Corie looked up at him. She saw the sadness that she was feeling mirrored in his eyes. For a split second, she almost changed her mind. Almost begged him to come back, but when she saw the guitar case he was carrying it reminded her of why she was doing what she had to. He wasn't the man she thought he was.

“I’m never going to forget you, Corie. You can make me leave here, but you can’t make me forget the best damn thing that ever happened to me, and that is you. I will always love you,” he told her softly before turning and walking out the front door and out of her life.

She didn’t realize that she was hugging her knees and rocking back and forth until the loud roar of Ethan’s car engine filled the room. The sound started to get fainter, and Corie knew that Alek was gone. He was out of her life. The reality that he was actually gone slammed into her. Tears turned into sobs as her entire world crashed down around her.

 

 

Kelsey was afraid to turn down Corie’s lane. She sat in her car in the middle of the road, knowing she had to tell her best friend what she found out. During a spring cleaning binge, she had been rearranging her CD’s so that they were in a more logical order. It was when she held the latest Midnight Steel case on her hand, did it click why Alek looked so familiar to her all these weeks. A search online, she was able to come up with his full legal name. Everyone knew him simply as Laz, but he was Malcolm Alexander Lazare, and only his family called him Alek. Laz was really Corie’s Alek.

She had tried to call her friend several times today, including four times in the last hour. Corie wasn’t answering her home phone or cell, and that worried her. Corie always answered her phone.

Kelsey had spent a sleepless night wondering what she should do. Should she tell her friend who Alek really was? She couldn’t believe that she had never recognized him. Midnight Steel was one of her favorite bands. The music they wrote was phenomenal, and all four members were drop dead gorgeous. It wasn’t the type of music Corie listened to, but Kelsey knew that she knew of the band. That Alek was really Laz, was a shock. She had met an honest-to-God rock star and didn’t know it.

Once she was over that surprise, it came down to whether or not she should tell Corie. Kelsey knew that she had no idea who Alek really was. They had talked about how he and his friends had been traveling around the US and Canada and how he decided it was time break away from them. It sounded like he had the money to travel like he did, but they really never got into details about that part of his life. Simply wandering around the country with his friends was a big difference than a huge eighteen-month worldwide tour with the biggest and most popular band on the planet.

Kelsey knew that if it were her, she would want to know. That’s why she was now in her car and turning down the dirt road that led to her friend’s farmhouse. Maybe Corie knew and just never told her. That would be a huge relief, but she had to find out.

With the car was parked next to Corie’s SUV, Kelsey made her way towards the front steps. Usually, she would just walk in, but since Corie wasn’t living alone anymore, she figured she better knock. The inner door was wide open, with only the screen door closed. She knocked on the door frame, and when no one answered her, she knocked again.

She thought she heard a sound inside, but with no one answering her knock, Kelsey opened the door and called out for Corie. As she walked into the living room, she heard the sound of someone crying. That’s when she saw Corie curled up in a ball sobbing on the sofa.

“Oh my God,” Kelsey cried out as she ran to her friend and sat next to her. “Are you okay? What happened?”

Corie sat up and threw her arms around Kelsey. When she finally stopped crying, Kelsey went and got her a glass of water to help settle her.

“What’s going on, Cor?” she asked. “And where is Alek?”

“He’s gone.”

“Why? What happened?”

“He’s not who he said he was. He lied to me,” Corie said softly.

“I know,” Kelsey told her. “I know.”

When she saw fire pop into Corie’s eyes, she started to immediately explain. “I just figured it out last night. That’s why I’m here. Relax. Remember, I kept telling you that he looked familiar to me, but I couldn’t figure where I saw him? I was going through my music and saw this,” she said pulling a cd case out of her purse and that’s when I knew it was him. How did you find out?”

“He didn’t tell me. His friend Ethan showed up here and told me. He didn’t realize that I had no idea that Alek was Laz from Midnight Steel. When Alek walked out and saw his friend, his face went as white as a ghost. He knew he was fucked.”

“Corie! You never use that word!”

“Well, he was! He lied to me for months, and he expected me to forgive him. I loved a man I didn’t even know, Kels. How could I ever trust him again?”

Kelsey was heartbroken for her friend. She knew Corie had fallen head over heels for Alek. “Did he say why he lied about who he was?” she asked. 

Corie rolled her eyes. “He gave me a story how he was tired of the rock and roll life. That he left the band after their last show to get away and he ended up here that stupid night of the blizzard. He said he never meant to stay on, and he didn’t want me going all fangirl on him. He liked being a regular guy. But then we started to get serious, and he said he didn’t know how to tell me, even though he knew he had to.”

“I can kind of see that,” Kelsey said. When she saw Corie glare daggers at her, she quickly explained. “Okay, listen to me. I had no idea when I told you about him, what would happen. What his reason would be not to tell you the truth. That he’s a dirtbag for lying to you is a given. But I know more about these guys than you do. Imagine living your life not being able to go anywhere without people knowing you.”

“You didn’t know him, and you’re a fan,” Corie interrupted. 

“True, but he cut his long hair. The short cut makes him look very hot, better than the long, but he didn’t look like the Laz I knew. Plus, why would a rock star be here in Ashland? C’mon, no one come here,” Kelsey told her. “Right?”

“Anyway, these guys are in the biggest most famous band in the world. They get mobbed wherever they go. Imagine not being able to even get a cup of coffee without being recognized and being asked for a selfie or autograph. They have a security detail that travels with them because it gets so bad at times. And now he ends up hurt and sick in your front yard. You don’t recognize him, and he can have a normal conversation without someone going all fangirly on him. I bet he was relieved to be treated like a regular guy for a change. And after that, he just got stuck in his pretend life.”

“You make it sound like he should have lied to me.” 

Kelsey shook her head. “No, that’s not what I mean. But just try to see it from his point of view a little. Neither of you expected to fall in love, and by then he had already told you that he was Alek. I don’t think he meant to deceive you, I think he just had no idea how to fix it.”

“I don’t know, Kels. This brings back too many bad memories. I’m just not sure I could trust him again.”

“And that’s solely your decision to make. I just want to make sure that you are looking at it from both sides. How about I go get us a bottle of wine, and we talk more. I think there’s more to your comment about ‘bad memories’ that I need to know about. I can stay as long as you need me, even all night long if that’s the case.” Corie was her best friend. There wasn’t anything she wouldn’t so to help her.

“Thank you, Kels. This is why I love you. The wine’s on the right side of the fridge,” Corie said with a slight smile.

“Great, I’ll be right back.” Kelsey was almost out of the room when something Corie said hit her, and she stopped dead in her tracks. “Wait! You said his friend Ethan came here?  Ethan Madden? Sexy and incredibly hot lead singer, Ethan? Black hair, tight jeans and the most incredible green eyes...that Ethan?”

That got a chuckle out of Corie. “Yes, that Ethan.”

“Well hell. We may need two bottles of wine. I need to hear every single detail about him. Every one!”

The two friends spent the afternoon talking, and Kelsey was able to make Corey laugh a few times. But as night set in and as much as the two friends enjoyed each other’s company, Corie sent Kelsey home. As she drove down the dark lane that would bring her out to the county road Corie lived off of, Kelsey knew that she was still leaving her best friend with a broken heart. If she saw Alek or Laz, whatever he was calling himself she would give him hell for hurting Corie. Maybe in time Corie would forgive him, and they could work things out, but for now, she was certain that her friend was most likely crying again. Falling in love was heartbreaking.