chapter fourteen

I got off the plane with the idiot following me. I picked up the pace, but his strides were bigger than mine. We grabbed our luggage together; a taxi cab together and finally arrived at the same hotel together. How the fuck did he know what plane I was on and where I’m staying? I slam the car door as Justin tries to get out of the same side, coming within one inch of his face. He gets a angry look in his eyes as he opens the door and goes around to the back of the cab with me to grab his suitcases. I grab mine before he was done and practically ran inside to get to my room before I ran into him again. Just because we are in the same hotel together doesn’t mean we’ll see each other, it’s a huge hotel and every single room is booked for the next week because of some sort of mix between business and celebrity based functions. I go up to the counter and smile at the guy behind it, “Reservation for Haywood.” I say, digging through my purse for my wallet and whipping out a company credit card to pay for the bill. “I’m sorry miss, you said Haywood?” I look up as I slide the piece of plastic over the granite, “Yes, Emily Haywood.” “It looks like Miss Haywood that you cancelled your reservation yesterday and we gave your room away.” My jaw drops to the ground as Justin comes up next to me with a bodyguard, “Reservation under Randall.” The overly perky girl smiles like a person on crack, “Here is your room card for number 367 and your bags will be brought up.” “Look,” I say frustrated to the nice but unhelpful guy, “I never cancelled my reservation.” “I’m sorry miss, but someone cancelled it and we have no rooms available.” Justin turns to me, “Having a problem?” Blood rushes into my cheeks and I try to keep from crying out in frustration, “No everything’s fine.” “Miss, I’m afraid you won’t get a place anywhere within fifty miles.” I feel like pulling my hair out as I feel Justin smirking at me, “I have to be here for work.” I hear a voice come through my frustration, “You can stay with me Em.” Hell has officially frozen over. _______________________________________________________________________

I watch her face as it distorts into anger, “Are you sure there is not one room available nearby?” “I’m positive miss.” She looks at him and back at me, “Oh, alright.” I see her relent and snatches the room card from the guy’s hand as she walks ahead of me to the elevator. I catch up to her as the doors close and we are left alone. I watch as she stares at her reflection in the mirror she leans against the side of the elevator. “Why did you offer for me to stay with you?” I glance at her, “You needed a room to stay in.” Emily snorts, “Since when is that ever a consideration for you?” “Would you rather sleep in the hall?” I snap. Emily shakes her head no and gets off first as the elevator dings, opening it’s door as it reaches our floor. She fumbles trying to put the card in the slot and groans loudly as she tries several times to jam the plastic into the slot, “Come on you fucking thing.” I take the card out of her hand and gently put it in as the green light flashes. Emily leans up against the wall and I open the door, gesturing my hand to allow her to go first. Emily brushes past me and I inhale her perfume. Our bags are in our room and she wheels hers over the side table and picks up the phone. I give her a minute and look around the hotel room. The truth of the matter is, I’m the reason Emily doesn’t have a room. I may have cancelled her reservation. Okay, okay I know that it may not have been the most mature thing to do to get her alone, but I had to do something. Thanks to a little snooping the last time I was at Em’s and the fact that she hasn’t changed her password since we were kids helps. Once I knew where she was staying, I cancelled her reservation and booked myself her room. I hear a knock at the door and I go to it, opening it to see some guy from the hotel staff with a cot, “Here you go sir.” I take the cot from his hand, “What is this for?” “You called down for a cot, sir.” I look over as Emily whisks past me, takes the cot, tips the guy and walks back in one swift motion rendering me speechless, which is one of the very few things people can do to me anymore. I thought no one could, until Emily. I quickly recover and walk into the sitting room to see her setting up the cot, “What the hell are you doing?” “What does it look like? I’m setting up my bed. I’m tired. What did you think I was going to do, sleep in the same bed as you?” Um… yeah. Maybe not to have sex sure, but I did think I’d get her in bed with me. “I thought we would at least fight over who got the bed.” Em drags out a spare blanket and puts it on the cot, “It’s your room, I’m just a guest. Why in the world would I fight with you when you’re letting me stay in your room. Which brings me to a question, how is your girlfriend going to feel that I’m staying in your room” Emily stands up from her crouching position and looks directly into my eyes, “What the hell is going on?” “First, Cameron is not my girlfriend, it’s just a casual thing.” “Maybe you should tell her that.” Emily points out. “Second” I continue, “You need a place to stay and I provided it, should you really be questioning the guy who could through you out on your ass?” “You know what? I would rather be thrown out on my ass than have you hold this one nice thing you did over my head.” I go into the bedroom and grab a pillow of the enormous bed, bringing over to Em and hand it to her. Em takes the pillow from me, “Thanks.” I smile, “No problem.” “Look, you’ll never know I’m here. I have to be out by five a.m. and I won’t be back until after midnight so I won’t be in your hair and we can get through this with grace and not have to deal with… us.” Emily says, motioning between the two of us. “Right.” But I want her in my hair. I want her. ________________________________________________________________________

I wash my hair and massage my aching muscles in the shower. It’s not easy sleeping in a cot all night, especially when the guy you’re in love with is sleeping in the next room. I turn the water temperature hotter as it streams down my body. I watch the mirror fog up through the already steamed up shower doors before turning off the nozzle and grabbing a towel, wrapping it around myself. Why the hell are hotel towels so small? They barely go around my body. I may not be stick thin but when you can fit into sizes four to six, I had better be able to wrap a piece of cloth around myself. The door suddenly swings open and Justin comes waltzing in butt naked, yawning casually. “Do you mind?” I squeak, trying not to be seduced by the sight of him. Justin rolls his eyes slowly, “Emily, a few days ago I was rolling around in bed with you and you’re going to be shy about something like this?” I put the toilet seat down and sit in it, “We are so fucked up.” Justin laughs, “You can say that again.” He starts to brush his teeth and I squeeze by him and go into the living room, grabbing some clothes from my suitcase and going into the half bath and get changed. I grab my purse and run out of the room and hail a cab. Work is exactly what I need right now. _______________________________________________________________________

I look at my watch hours later as I sit at my desk sketching away. So far Chad has called six times to discuss details about the wedding and as he calls for the seventh time, I just watch his name flash on the small screen until voice mail picks up. The screen then begins to flash alerting me I have a message, but I ignore it, instead choosing to sip on my diet coke as the intercom comes on, “Miss Haywood, I have a Justin Timberlake here to see you.” My secretary Marsha says. I stop mid sip and rap my nails against the desk until I finally decide to hit the button to respond, “Send him in.” Justin comes in and I raise my eyebrows, “This is what you call staying out of each other’s way?” The very sight of him can bring me to my knees. Everything he does causes me to fall harder for him and I wish he would just go away and leave me be. “I thought that maybe you could use a break. It is eight o’clock after all.” “I told you I wouldn’t be back to the hotel until after midnight.” I say, crossing my legs. Justin just looks at me and I fight to keep from crying. He’s got a bite mark on his neck, and it’s not from me. I’ve never bitten him in my life. I never felt the need to mark him as my own for everyone to see, rather preferring to kiss him everywhere so he knew how much he meant to me, “What do you want?” “You want to go see a movie with me?” I give him a confused look, “A movie?” “Yeah, unless your against them.” “You know Justin, your confusing the fuck out of me. First, you want nothing to do with me, then you want to be friends. We then go on to be fuck buddies which you then end with Cameron and now you’re asking me if I want to go see a movie with you? Do you understand the phrase “mixed signals?” He chuckles, “I guess I never thought of it that way.” “Maybe you should.” I comment. “So, do you want to or not?” I finger my ring gently, “I can’t. I have some wedding details to work out with Chad.” Justin’s jaw locks up and I see the light in his eyes go out, “Wouldn’t want to take a break from that. How does it feel to be slowly suffocated? He doesn’t know you. Doesn’t know how you think or what you feel. All he knows is that he’s in love with you and it doesn’t matter what you want, he’s going to get exactly what he feels he’s entitled to.” “That’s not true.” I sputter. “Yes it is. You just want security so you’re going to give up your whole life just to have someone by your side.” He says angrily. “I can’t keep having this conversation with you. It’s none of your business anyway.” Justin comes over to the desk and puts his hands on either side of it, “I’m so sorry I don’t want to watch you hang yourself.” He says sarcastically. My eyes start to water, “As apposed to watching me break every time you feel like screwing with me. I don’t see you flying to my rescue when it’s you who has done the damage. Go back to your life Justin and leave mine alone.” “Fine!” Justin says, turning around and slamming the door behind him. The phone begins to ring again and it’s Chad. I pull the phone out of the socket and chuck it against the wall, watching it shatter to pieces as the ringing subsides. Marsha runs into the room and looks at me as I sit on the floor in a stupor, looking at the fucking phone. “Are you alright Miss Haywood?” My cell starts to ring and I shake my head, tears flowing over my cheeks. Marsha bends down next to me, wrapping her arms around me, “Weddings are stressful on everyone.” The ringing won’t stop and I just cry harder. If she only knew. 15