by K. A. Linde
Plus this gave Victoria the opportunity to throw her a birthday party Saturday on Franklin Street and get her fucking wasted for her twenty-first. If Liz knew Victoria, she was going to want to steal Liz and take her to every bar for a birthday shot. It wasn’t going to be pretty.
Hayden pulled off of I-85 and into the heart of downtown Charlotte. Liz hadn’t been here since the Jefferson-Jackson gala, when she had left with Brady. She hadn’t known how much her life would change that night. Now she was on her way back to make new memories.
He followed his GPS instructions and veered down the street. Liz was getting more excited; she had never stayed in a hotel with Hayden. It wasn’t that it would be any different from staying at her place or his place, but there was just something to the exclusivity of it that heightened her excitement.
But that was only until they pulled up in front of their hotel.
Liz’s stomach dropped to her feet. Of all the places for him to choose to celebrate her birthday, he had to choose this hotel.
She stared up at the hotel that she had stayed in that first night she had agreed to go home with Brady after the Jefferson-Jackson gala. Her mind just couldn’t grasp the fact that she was here again . . . with Hayden.
How could he choose this place?
“Wow,” she whispered, just to break the silence. “This looks fancy. How did you find out about it?”
Hayden chuckled softly. She wished she found it half as amusing. “I’d heard all of the rooms were named for various political positions. Considering our profession, it seemed fitting. I read that the rooms range from a representative suite all the way up to presidential.”
Liz’s face colored as she remembered what exactly had gone on in the presidential suite. “What kind of room do we have?” she asked, not sure she could handle the answer.
It was Hayden’s turn to look a bit sheepish. “Well, I didn’t get us a suite, but I think it will be nice to have our own room with a king-size bed and everything. Don’t you think?”
Phew! That made sense if Hayden was covering the costs.
“Yes,” she admitted, pushing Brady to the back of her mind as best she could. “I think that sounds really nice.”
Hayden looked so happy to be doing this for her. There was absolutely no way she could ask him to move hotels. She didn’t have a good enough explanation as to why without spilling everything about Brady. Plus, he had clearly put in some time scouting out the right hotel. She couldn’t possibly take that away from him.
They parked the car and then walked into the very familiar hotel. Hayden got a key from the front desk and then took them up to their room. It was nothing fancy in comparison to the presidential suite; actually, it looked like every other hotel. A king-size bed took up the majority of the space, and there was a large armoire with a flat-screen TV inside. The bathroom was small, but had a decent size walk-in shower. It was a nice change of pace from Chapel Hill.
She should be happy that she was here with Hayden, that he had taken the time to be with her on her birthday, to plan something like this. It was clearly very thoughtful. Perfect. Classic Hayden.
No matter what had happened with Brady, that door was closed. It didn’t do anything for her to live in the past and dwell on what could have been when she had something incredible right in front of her.
They spent the night wrapped in each other’s arms and tangled in the hotel sheets. She fell asleep tucked into Hayden’s chest, lost in the steady rhythm of his breathing.
The next morning, Hayden fretted over the suit that he was wearing to the interview. He ironed the already flawless white button-down until it was crisp, and the lines down the front of his black pants were stark. He tied and retied his green tie a dozen times until the topknot was perfect. It made his hazel eyes stand out sharply, and when he smiled at her through the mirror as she was fixing her makeup, she remembered exactly why she had fallen for Hayden in the first place.
He was confident, but not arrogant. He was charming, but not conceited. He was intelligent, but not egotistical. He wanted to be there, to be with her, to take care of her, but he didn’t have to be overbearing to do it. He respected her decision to not be with him immediately, not to have sex with him immediately . . . to communicate and trust her and believe in her. It was almost too much to feel all at once.
Hayden slid into his black suit coat and buttoned the top button. “How do I look?” he asked, turning in a slow circle.
“Can you lift that jacket up in the back?” she asked with a giggle, tilting her head to the side to check out his ass.
“I doubt I’m going to get judged on that.”
“You never know.”
He shook his head, then grabbed her around the middle and pulled her against him. “I think you’ve been spending too much time with Victoria.”
“I’m going to tell her that you’re not calling her Vickie anymore.”
“Don’t you dare,” he murmured, before bringing his lips down to hers.
She laughed lightly as she moved her arms around his neck and intensified the kiss. He groaned into her mouth and it just made her smile more.
This. This was exactly what it was supposed to be like.
“You’re going to do great today,” she whispered, opening her eyes and staring up at him.
“I could conquer the world with you at my side.”
And in that moment, she believed him.
It was only a short drive to the Charlotte Times office from their hotel. The building itself was kind of stark, boxy and boring. It was a basic square warehouse-type building with the words Charlotte Times written in scrawling font that mirrored that of the New York Times. The parking lot was massive, and they managed to find an open spot at the back.
Liz didn’t have anywhere to be, so she figured that as long as they had somewhere for her to relax while Hayden was upstairs she could catch up on work or read a book. Otherwise, Hayden had given her the keys to his precious Audi and told her to be careful with his baby. She kind of wanted to take it out for a spin, because he got so flustered at the thought of her driving it.
The interior of the building was a thousand times better than the bland exterior. The lobby was a soft powder blue with white tile floors that clicked under her heels. A prominently featured staircase led all the way to the top. A large black desk took up space and three women sat behind it. Two of them were on the phones, answering, asking people to hold, and transferring them over to other lines. The other lady looked up when they entered.
She smiled brightly. “Welcome to the Charlotte Times. How can I help you?”
Liz held back as Hayden moved forward. “Hi. I’m Hayden Lane. I have an interview with Ted Moore at eleven.”
“Ah! Mr. Lane. Right on time. If you’ll take a seat, I’ll let Mr. Moore know that you are here.”
“Thank you,” Hayden said, before turning back to Liz and gesturing for her to follow.
They took seats in the waiting area across from the front desk. Liz tapped her feet anxiously. This wasn’t even her job interview, and she was so worried for him. She knew Hayden had an impeccable résumé, and that the Charlotte Times was a step down from where he wanted to work. But it was better to have a job and get some experience than to graduate without anything.
Hayden’s hand landed on her knee. “Hey. You’re going to start making me nervous.”
“Sorry,” she whispered, trying to keep from bouncing her leg.
A man appeared out of the back room. He was balding and it made his ears appear to stick out from his head. But he seemed jovial enough and even had a spring in his step. “Mr. Lane?”
Hayden smiled that heart-stopping smile and stood. “That’s me, sir.”
“Nice to meet you. I’m Ted Moore.” He walked over and extended his hand to Hayden.
“Great to meet you too, sir.”
“Please call me Ted,” he said casually. “If you’ll follow me back, we’ll get started with your interview. I do h
ave to say it’s good to have you here. Your file has come highly recommended.”
Hayden beamed. His recommendations were beyond solid after working four years on the paper, with a year and a half as editor. All of his professors liked him. Who was she kidding? Everyone liked Hayden Lane.
Hayden turned back and picked up his messenger bag that he had dropped on the ground. He gave her a confident wink, and she smiled up at him through her nerves. “I’ll see you after, gorgeous. Wish me luck.”
“You don’t need it,” she murmured.
“You’re right. I’m already the luckiest guy in the world. I have you.”
Liz bit down on her bottom lip and held in her sigh as Hayden walked down the hallway. How was she supposed to respond to that? He was too perfect. There was no way that she could ever compare.
She pulled out her tablet from her purse and started messing around on the Internet, checking emails and responding to messages about the upcoming articles she and Massey were focusing on for the paper.
About forty minutes into Hayden’s interview, when Liz was finally wrapping up her G-chat conversation with Tristan about next week, she heard footsteps coming in her direction.
Liz glanced up at the interruption and then immediately wished that she hadn’t.
Calleigh Hollingsworth walked toward Liz. Her red hair hung loose in big waves, and she looked every bit the exotically beautiful queen bee she was, with dark makeup and a skirt suit with a plum top underneath that showed off her cleavage. Liz had a visceral reaction to her appearance: she kind of wanted to claw her eyes out.
Calleigh had briefly dated her boyfriend, and acted like a Class A bitch ever since Hayden had shown an ounce of interest in Liz. But Liz was pretty sure her aversion to the other woman went deeper than that. It was the innuendo that Calleigh made about Liz and Brady at the primary that really irked her.
Why hadn’t Liz put two and two together before? Calleigh had said from the beginning that she could get Hayden a job at her paper if he wanted. Now he was here.
“Liz! I didn’t know you were going to be here today,” Calleigh said in greeting.
“Oh, Calleigh, hey. I forgot that you work here.”
“Did Hayden not tell you that I helped him get the interview?” she asked, batting her eyelashes.
No. In fact, he hadn’t. She didn’t even know that they were still talking. Of course, Hayden had made it blatantly clear that he had no interest in Calleigh, but Liz still didn’t like it.
“Oh, yeah, he did mention it. I guess we were just so lost in our own world that it slipped my mind,” Liz said with an equally pointed smile. She didn’t even care that it wasn’t true.
“I just know that he’ll be a valuable asset to the team.”
“Hayden would be a pretty valuable employee anywhere,” Liz agreed.
“I think Ted will like him.” Calleigh’s eyes flashed with mischief. “How are y’all going to do when he moves here?”
When. Not if. Liz tried not to cringe. “We’ll be fine.”
“I just . . .” Calleigh began, taking a seat next to Liz. “Well, I’m sure you already know that Hayden and I were involved.”
Liz narrowed her eyes. Where was she going with this?
“Well, the man isn’t good with distance. He just couldn’t handle me being far away. It’s why we broke up in the first place.”
Uh-huh. Not the story she had heard at all. But who was she to contradict Calleigh? It was clear what her game plan was. The fact that she was airing it like this was pretty dumb on her part. Liz wasn’t going to be scared off like the frightened sheep she had been a year ago. She had fucking brought a Senator to his knees . . . she could handle Calleigh Hollingsworth.
“Well, thanks for the advice. I guess. But we’ll be fine. You don’t have to worry about us, Calleigh,” Liz said, reaching out and patting the woman’s hand. “We have a really strong relationship. No worries.”
Anger flashed in Calleigh’s green eyes for a brief moment before it disappeared. “Oh, I’m sure you do. Of course you do. I just wish someone had warned me is all.”
“I’m sure it wouldn’t have made a difference,” Liz said offhandedly.
“What does that mean?” Calleigh snapped, rearing back.
“Things happen for a reason. You guys broke up so long ago and never got back together, so it must have been for the better. Hayden told me all about it actually,” Liz said, batting her eyelashes right back at her. “I’ll learn from your past mistakes.”
Calleigh stood abruptly. “We’ll see.”
Not until the woman stormed back down the hallway did Liz realize her mistake. While it had felt amazing to tell Calleigh off, she had just sent that loose cannon out into the world with something to prove. And if Hayden got the job here, then who would she be trying to prove it with . . . ?
Liz didn’t have much time to think about it before Hayden returned. He looked as if he was walking on cloud nine. The interview must have gone well. Not that Liz had expected anything else.
He shook Ted’s hand once more and they exchanged a few words before Hayden returned to her side. Liz stood hastily as he approached.
“Ready to go?” he asked, tossing an arm across her shoulders and directing her to the door.
“Yep. How did it go?”
“Amazing.” Hayden opened the door for her when they reached it and she walked through it. “I got a job offer!”
“That’s great,” she said softly.
“I just told you I had an amazing interview and was offered a job and you sound sad,” Hayden said, stopping her in the parking lot.
“I’m really excited for you!” she said, but the enthusiasm wasn’t there. She had been so excited and proud and nervous for him before Calleigh had gone and ruined everything.
“Yeah. Liz, you’re kind of an open book when you’re unhappy,” Hayden said. “I was only gone for an hour. What could happen in an hour?”
“Nothing. It really doesn’t matter,” she said, brushing her hand aside. “Tell me about the interview.”
Hayden took her hand and without a word walked her back to the car. Even when she probed him to talk about it he didn’t say anything. When they reached the car, she walked with him to the passenger side to let him open the door for her as usual. Instead, Hayden pushed her back against the car door and leaned forward into her.
“Wha . . .”
“I don’t know how I can make this clearer to you, Lizzie,” he said, brushing her hair off of her face. “What is going on with you matters to me. What you are feeling—happy, sad, exhausted, emotional, frustrated—it matters to me. I know you’ve been kind of out of it recently, and I know that you know that I’ve noticed. But I’ve let you have your space, because it seemed like that was what you wanted. The very last thing I want is for you to try to tell me that something you are feeling doesn’t matter, that it isn’t important. Because it’s important to me.”
“You’re too good to me, Hayden,” she said.
He smiled at that and kissed the tip of her nose. “Well, you’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me. You know that, right?”
She bit her lip and then nodded. She didn’t feel like the best thing that had ever happened to anyone, but she couldn’t argue with him.
“So, what happened?”
Liz shrugged and glanced away. She couldn’t meet his eyes. “Calleigh.”
Hayden blew out his breath quickly. “What did she say?”
“I’d just forgotten that she worked here.”
“Lizzie,” he said, turning her face toward him, “what did she say?”
“She still wants you, Hayden.”
His eyebrows rose. “She said that?”
“Not directly, but she didn’t have to. She started talking to me about your relationship and saying that you just broke up because of the distance.”
“That’s not true!”
“I know,” she said conciliatorily. “She just . . . I don’t
know. I worry that she’s going to try something with you . . .”
Hayden laughed and shook his head. “She can try, but she’s not getting anywhere. Not with me. That’s for sure.”
“I know that. I do. She just gets under my skin. It’s like this weird girl competition challenge thing,” Liz said with a shrug.
“Well, I got the job and I’ll be working here. But it’s you I’ll be thinking about every day. It’s you I’m going to be traveling back to Chapel Hill to see. It’s you who makes working this hard worth it.” His lips found hers once more. “Just you.”
She smiled and leaned into the kiss. She wanted to believe him. She did believe him. If he wanted to be with Calleigh, he could. Calleigh was just trying to get to her.
“I was going to do this over dinner,” Hayden said softly, reaching into his coat pocket.
“Do what?” she asked, eyeing him cautiously.
He extracted a small black pouch from his pocket and handed it to her. “Happy birthday, gorgeous.”
Liz tilted her head to the side and eyed him curiously. What the hell had he gotten her? “You didn’t have to get me anything.”
“I wanted to.”
She took the pouch and weighed it in her hand. It was really light. It didn’t actually feel like there was anything in it.
She pulled open the small pouch and tipped it upside down into her cupped hand. A small clear packet dropped out. Liz just stared at what rested inside with a numb realization settling over her.
Charms.
Four tiny charms. A snowflake, tennis racket, the letter L, and a diamond.
She could determine the meaning behind each charm clearly. The snowflake for the first time they had been together during their snow day. The tennis racket and L were all too obvious. And then a diamond for her April birthstone.
“I didn’t get the locket part, because I knew you already had one. You used to wear it all the time. I thought you would start wearing it again if you had new charms,” he said with a big cheesy smile. “It looked good on you.”
She swallowed. Shit. No. This was . . . she couldn’t even . . . she didn’t know what to do. This was too much. Too soon. Brady. No, she didn’t want to think about him, but of course she couldn’t stop. She couldn’t wear Hayden’s charms. He was so thoughtful, but no.
