Even Karina, who had handled all of the public attention like a champ due to her long experience dealing with it, looked slightly startled by this turn of events. She struggled to divide her attention gracefully between the various people surrounding her, as each was becoming more intense and insistent.
They both heard the chime that indicated Karina had a text message, and she snatched the phone out of her purse and looked at the face of it.
“Oh, God...” she groaned, “It's Bernie. People have been tweeting that we're here.”
The manager of the restaurant came over to the knot of people and loudly insisted that if they had a table at the restaurant, they needed to return to it, and if not, they needed to leave. The crowd – which was growing – ignored him entirely. He repeated the same instructions, even more loudly and insistently. He was again ignored.
The manager reached out and laid his hand on one woman's shoulder to get her attention and attempt to get her to move, but the woman whirled on him, shaking off his hand.
“Don't touch me!” she shrieked, a note of hysteria in her voice, “Get your hands off of me!”
The manager looked startled to say the least at this manic, out of proportion response. He looked again at the crowd surrounding the table and, deciding this was more than he could take on himself, announced loudly, “I'm calling the police. Anyone without business here had better be gone by the time they get here.”
With that, he marched away toward the back of the restaurant.
This incensed the knot of fervent people surrounding Karina. They began to yell at her not to call the police, that they just wanted to talk to her, and didn't she have any respect for her fans at all?
Ryan was getting more and more agitated, feeling the situation spinning out of control right before his eyes, and completely unsure what to do about it. However, when a couple of the people standing closest to Karina started grabbing at her arms and hair, causing her to cry out in pain or panic or both, Ryan had had enough.
He jumped up from the table, grabbing her purse in one hand and using the opposite arm to scoop her up out of her chair.
He sheltered her in the nook of his arm and shoulder, extending the hand that held her purse out in front of him to block the crowding bodies and clear a path for them. He all but sprinted with her toward the front door, and frantically handed the valet their ticket.
“Please hurry,” he said urgently.
As they stood waiting for the valet to bring their car, bright flashbulbs began to go off, one right after the other, right in their eyes. Ryan squinted away and held his hand up in front of his face. Karina elbowed him gently and leaned in.
“It's paparazzi. Don't do that unless you want to end up on the cover of Us Weekly looking like a serial killer. Just try to smile as naturally as possible.”
He looked down at her, thinking she must be joking, but no. He was amazed to see her smiling and waving, quite cavalierly, to the shouting photographers across the street.
He tried to tune in to what they were saying.
“Karina, is your new writing partner more than just a professional fling? Karina, aren't you seeing Kyle Austen Reed? Karina, are you cheating? Karina, how do you feel about getting caught cheating?”
Ryan was incensed. How dare they disrespect her like that! He didn't even think about the wicked scowl that must be building on his face until Karina elbowed him again, harder this time.
“Ryan, I’m serious, look pleasant,” she hissed through smiling lips and clenched teeth. He did his best, but he was pretty sure that all he managed was “blank.”
He saw his truck approaching and his arm tightened around Karina's shoulder in preparation. When the valet pulled up, Ryan tore open the passenger door and bundled her inside. He ran around to the driver's side, shoved a twenty dollar bill into the valet's hand, and jumped in the still-running truck, immediately taking off down the twisting road that led to the exclusive restaurant.
He looked behind him several times, worried that some of the crazily insistent paparazzi would have piled into their cars and given chase up the mountain. But, after about five minutes of driving in solitude and seeing no headlights appear behind him, he breathed a sigh of relief. “I think we lost them,” he said shakily.
Karina, staring out the window, did not respond.
“Are you OK?” he asked, after another moment of silence.
Still no answer.
The silence stretched on. He didn't know what to say, or whether saying nothing was the best course of action.
Finally, she said, in a flat, lifeless voice, “You said you told them we were coming.”
“Yeah. I mean, I made a reservation...” he responded, bewildered.
“But you didn't tell them it was for me,” her voice was still without affect, “You didn't tell them a celebrity was coming so that they could make arrangements.”
“Arrangements?” Ryan asked. He felt like a complete idiot.
“Seating us in a secluded corner. Having a back entrance and exit prepared, and parking your car right next to it. Letting the staff know ahead of time not to publicize our appearance while we're still there. This isn't LA, Ryan. People aren't as used to seeing celebrities here. What just happened? Could have been a lot worse.”
Ryan didn't respond. He was still trying to process how this wonderful, carefully planned evening that he had been so proud of arranging could possibly have spiraled into a chaotic shitpile within the space of about 20 minutes. He just couldn't wrap his mind around it.
“Oh, shit!” he suddenly exclaimed, “They still have your credit card!”
She shrugged, still not having torn her gaze away from what was apparently a mesmerizing view out the passenger side window.
“I'll call tomorrow and apologize for tonight. Lauren will go with me to go pick it up.”
“Don't be silly,” Ryan protested, “I was the one who got you into this, I'll take you!”
“Don't worry about it, Lauren will,” Karina said in a tone that let him know that she wasn't worried about inconveniencing him. She just didn't want him there.
“OK,” he said quietly.
They rode for the next half hour in silence. At one point, Ryan did try to start a conversation. He said, “Karina, I'm really sorry for how this went down. I just didn't know. But, I mean...I know you’re mad at me. But, we'll work this out, right?”
She said nothing for a long beat before replying dully, “How about let's just not talk right now, OK?”
He nodded, and they rode the rest of the way to her house in silence. When they pulled up in her driveway, he started to get out of the truck to come around to her side and open the door for her like he always did, but before he had even gotten the door halfway open, she had jumped down and started running up the walkway to her front door, without a word to him.
He saw her pull her keys out of her clutch and fumble with the lock. He sat in the truck, watching her. Even if she hated him, there was no way he was leaving before he saw that she was safely inside.
When she finally wrestled the door open and the light from her entryway shone on her face, Ryan could see that she was crying. Before he could decide, what – if anything – to do about that, however, she had disappeared inside the house, slamming the front door behind her.
Chapter 26
Ryan sat in his office, again unable to concentrate on QuickBooks, and again because he couldn't stop himself from constantly tabbing over to a screen where he had pulled up photos of Karina.
However, this bout of distraction was not caused by joy, as the last one had been, but despair.
It had been a full week since the disaster in Lake Tahoe. Ryan had called Karina numerous times and she wouldn't pick up the phone. He'd gone to her house, but she had installed a security system with a camera, so she could see who was at the front door, and she wouldn't open up for him.
Bernie and Davis had been by to see him every day and were getting increasingly impatient
for him to sign the documents that they continued to put in front of him, however, he firmly told them again and again that he wouldn't sign anything until he spoke with Karina.
Hell, he told himself, if she won't speak with me by tonight, I'm just going to go camp out on her doorstep.
Just as he was starting to plan out the logistics of that move, he heard a rustling of fabric in his doorway and his nose picked up the aroma of perfume. He looked up expectantly, hoping he would see her standing there, but was surprised to see the other three members of the Fabulous Four instead.
“Wow,” he said, sitting up straighter, “Hi, ladies! I'm surprised to see you here.”
He gestured to the two visitor chairs across from his desk and popped up to go find a third.
Lauren stopped him, “That's OK, Ryan, I'll stand.”
“So, are you three here to reiterate to me what an idiot I am?” Ryan asked sheepishly.
To his astonishment, the girls honestly seemed to have no idea what he was talking about.
“What do you mean, what an idiot you are? You don't think that whole Lake Tahoe fiasco was your fault, do you?” Amanda asked.
He barked out a bitter laugh, “I don't think it matters what I think. Karina's made it pretty clear that SHE thinks it was my fault. That's all that matters.”
Sam's jaw dropped, “She doesn't think it was your fault!”
Ryan's brow furrowed, “Seriously? I mean...she barely spoke to me on the way home. She won't return my calls...I thought she was completely through with me!”
Amanda shook her head vigorously. “No, no! See? This is why it was a good idea to come and talk to you face to face. I was hoping it would be some kind of misunderstanding like this.”
“What misunderstanding?” Ryan said eagerly, wanting with everything inside him to believe that it was true.
“She's not mad, she's depressed,” Lauren informed him, “She thinks that you got a glimpse the other night of what being with her is really like. What it entails. She thinks you'd be crazy to want that, and you're only calling and showing up because you want to dump her. She thinks that's why you haven't been leaving messages. She hasn't been picking up because she feels too depressed to deal with it right now.
“Also, she keeps hearing from Bernie and Davis that there's some papers you refuse to sign? And I guess they have something to do with working with her. So she thinks you don't want to anymore.”
Ryan shook his head, trying to incorporate this new information into his understanding of the situation.
“But,” he protested, “She actually went and bought a security camera for her front door so she could know when not to answer it because I was there!”
“Wow, egocentric much?” Lauren teased, “That camera – that whole security system – is because she's afraid the whole Lake Tahoe debacle will follow her here to Hope Falls, via some diligent and investigatively-talented paparazzi or fan. The other night scared her a little. She just wants to be safe.”
Ryan leaned back in his chair, breathing deeply. It was really the first free, deep breath he had been able to draw since Karina hadn't been speaking to him. “So, that's why you all are here? To try to patch things up between us?”
Amanda nodded, “Not to give you too big a head or anything, but we all agree that getting the two of you back together is the only thing that is going to pull Karina out of her funk, and we just can't stand to see her so miserable anymore. Now we just need to get her to talk to you. Any ideas?”
Ryan smiled, a twinkle in his eye.
“There is one idea. I've been batting it around for awhile. It's a little crazy, and it will take a lot of work. But I think it will be really special. Are you guys in?”
Sam smiled, “A little crazy, a lot of work, and really special are right up our alley. What do you have in mind?”
--- ~ ---
Karina heard the doorbell peal loudly from where she lay, upstairs in her bed, and continued to stare straight ahead as if it hadn't rung. It rang a second time, still provoking no response. After it rang a third time, she sighed reluctantly and pulled herself out of bed. She trudged over to the security camera's monitor to see who was so unwilling to leave her front door.
When she saw who it was, she groaned. Sam, Amanda, and Lauren all stood on her front stoop looking straight into the camera expectantly. She hadn't groaned because she wasn't happy to see them, though. On the contrary, even the sight of them on her doorstep had raised her spirits ever so slightly. She groaned because they were three of just the tiny handful of people in the world that she couldn't just ignore. She groaned because their presence on her doorstep meant she actually did have to get her butt up out of bed.
Karina pressed the intercom button and let them know she was on her way, then made a point of taking her sweet time coming down the stairs and across the entryway. She knew she was being petulant. She didn't care.
She opened the door and the three women filed in, arms full of garment bags, makeup kits and888 bags of hair products and tools slung over their shoulders.
“What's going on?” asked Karina, surveying everything they carried through narrowed eyes. It all looked suspiciously like things they might try to use to drag her into some sort of interactions with the outside world, and that was the farthest thing from her mind right now.
“Well,” said Amanda brightly, “We thought that it might be fun to play fashion show, like we did when we were kids.”
Karina snorted, “You thought wrong.”
“Come on, Kar!” Sam wheedled, “We went to all this trouble just to do something fun for you! We gathered all this stuff together!”
Karina shook her head, “Thanks for the thought girls, but I'm afraid you wasted your time.”
Lauren, however, took a different tactic. She didn't wheedle or beg or guilt. She merely took Karina's hand and began to lead her up the stairs, as if her cooperation were a foregone conclusion.
“Come on,” Lauren said in a tone that was straightforward, but not without compassion, “It's time to rejoin the human race.”
--- ~ ---
What a difference an hour makes, Karina thought, as she looked at herself and her friends, lined up along her generous bathroom mirror, with makeup and hair products spread out on every available surface. They were laughing and talking as they did their hair and makeup in extravagant styles, and it was honestly the most fun Karina had had in a while. She felt happy, really and truly happy, here with her friends. She smiled to herself. She was lucky to have such amazing women in her life, women that cared for her so deeply that they would go to all this trouble just to pull her out of a funk.
“Come on, let's try on our dresses!” Amanda called, and they hurried into Karina's bedroom. Amanda, Lauren, and Sam started unpacking their garment bags, and Karina ducked into her closet.
A moment later, Karina emerged wearing a flowing chiffon gown in midnight black, sparkling crystals adorning the front, resembling nothing so much as diamonds on black velvet or stars in a midnight sky.
Amanda had donned a short, fire-engine red number that looked fabulous against her springy blonde curls and which matched the cherry red lipstick she had applied to her kewpie doll mouth.
Sam had chosen a silken sheath in the most brilliant emerald green satin that Karina had ever seen. Her auburn hair burned rich and bright against the luxurious fabric, and Karina thought that she had never seen Sam looking so lovely.
Lauren, in high strappy sandals, towered over the three of them, wearing a light and ethereal goddess-style gown in royal blue, with delicate gold chain accenting it.
Karina let out a low wolf whistle.
“Dang, girls, but we are hott! Not just one-T hot. Two-t hott!” she exclaimed, and the rest agreed.
They were still in the process of lightheartedly congratulating each other on their two-t hott-ness when the doorbell rang.
“Give Me A Break!” Karina exclaimed, “Who could that be, now?”
“I'll
get it!” Amanda yelled behind her as she tore off toward the stairs.
Karina looked at the other two, puzzled, “Did she seem like she was hiding something to you two?”
They shook their heads, not quite making eye contact.
Karina's eyes narrowed, “Why do you think she took off out of here so fast? With her wearing that red color, it was almost like I could see flames trailing after her.”
The other two just shrugged, making a big show of straightening up their garment bags and rezipping them.
Karina was just about to ask another question when she heard Amanda's voice call up the stairs, “Come on, you guys! They're here!”
Before Karina could stop them, they slithered past her and were headed down the stairs. Karina sighed. There was nothing to do but go downstairs and investigate for herself.
She caught up to Sam and Lauren by the time they all reached the top of the stairs and trailed them down. In the entryway, she saw Justin, Jake and Eric standing there, all in tuxes.
She sighed, feeling a sharp pain stab through her chest, culminating in a sick, grabbing sensation in her gut. It was nice of them to arrange some sort of formal get-together to cheer her up, but was she really going to be the only one going stag? Would that sort of defeat the purpose of the evening, which was to cheer her up and make her feel like losing Ryan was LESS of a big deal than it actually was?
This would just serve to draw attention to her pain!
Still, they were her friends and they had obviously gone to quite a bit of trouble to make her feel better. She was determined to put on a brave face, to keep her pain from leaking through into her voice or her face, and to express nothing to the rest of the Fabulous Four except for profuse thanks for all their hard work, and their caring.
Amanda was already standing with Justin, who had his arms wrapped around her, and when Lauren and Sam stepped from the stairs into the entryway they crossed to Eric and Jake, giving them quick kisses on their cheeks in greeting.
Karina stood in the entryway, alone, making a concerted, conscious effort to keep the genial smile pasted firmly on her face.
Sweet Harmonies Page 27
