“It was never about the conversations,” she said curtly.
I smiled. “I know that. But it’s gone far enough. It has to be over between us, otherwise we’re just going to make each other miserable, it’s going to continue in a loop forever.”
“Well, what if I came out there?” She asked. “I mean, it can’t be that bad right? At least I could come out for a little while and we could talk about this in person. I could maybe persuade you in other ways.”
I wanted to roll my eyes, but I was trying to be so patient with her. “You would hate it here. To be honest with you, I can’t have that distraction right now. I’ve finally gotten my thoughts back and I’m ready to get this story done and written. After that, it’s up to me what I do with my life. But I know 100% that you and I would never work out. So, I need you to stop texting, and move on.”
I could hear the growl in her voice. “You’re an asshole. I don’t even believe you that you’re not coming back. You loved being the center of attention, I could see it on your face. Well, if you do, do me a favor and don’t call me. You are a giant waste of my time.”
And with that, she slammed the phone down in my ear. I jolted a bit, looking down at the screen and shaking my head. It went better than I thought it would. In my mind I had seen her having a complete and total meltdown. Of course, the night was young and knowing her she was getting ready to go out and drink. It wouldn’t be at all surprising if in a few hours I got some sobbing or screaming phone call from her. Nonetheless, I couldn’t have been plainer, and I did my part.
As I walked over to the desk, throwing my phone on the bed, I heard a rustling sound outside of my room. My brow furled, and I wondered who could possibly be out there, it was getting late. There was a chance it was someone trying to get an autograph or picture with me, but the owner had been very strict about who came in and out of the hotel. They didn’t want me to be bothered and they wanted to keep me there.
At first, I thought maybe it was just cleaning, taking care of the little odds and ends that they didn’t get to during the week, but as I drew closer to the door it sounded like someone scratching on the carpet right outside. I grabbed the door handle and slung open the door, looking right and left. Slowly my head tilted down and I found Rory on her hands and knees, grabbing the things from her purse and shoving them inside. Her cheeks were red, and her eyes narrowed at me.
Suffice it to say, she did not look happy in the least. “Rory? What are you doing here?”
She huffed as she jammed the rest of her things in her purse and stood up, flipping her scarf over her shoulder. “Apparently wasting my time.”
Chapter 18
Rory
I had thought about it all day, getting lost in my own mind even as customers ordered from be at the front. Christian had sent me several texts that day, letting me know that he was finally coming around to understanding what he needed to do for his book. I was really excited for him. I knew what it was like to not be able to think. It was miserable when you couldn’t do what you loved because your brain just wouldn’t cooperate. I likes to think that I had something to do with the breaking of his writer’s block, but in reality, I had no idea.
I finished up counting the register, and Tish came around the corner wiping her hands on a towel. “Everything is done back there. What are you doing after this? You want to get some Chinese?”
I shook my head as I put my jacket on and grabbed my purse. “I think if I leave now, I can make it over to the bed-and-breakfast and see Christian before he starts writing. I know once he’s in it, he’s not going to want any kind of distractions, so I figure I’ll just pop in for a minute and…”
Tish grinned at me. “And… Create your own chapters, more of the erotic variety.”
I shook my head at her. “Seriously. Get a life.”
She giggled as she followed me to the door grabbing her things. “But why would I do that? I have yours.”
We laughed and chatted as I closed up, turning to her before leaving. “I’ll see you in the morning.”
She just grinned at me, her eyes sparkling, excitement written all over her face. I rolled my eyes and walked past her, ignoring the fact that she loved to tease me until my cheeks were red. I bundled my coat closed, pulling it further around me as I walked in the opposite direction of my house, heading for the other side of town. With the excitement brewing in my stomach, the walk seemed to speed by.
Shivering, I walked inside the B&B, finding the night staff sitting behind the counter. Elizabeth and Beverly Churchill, twin sisters who had lived in town their whole lives. Their lives always seemed to parallel each other, from when they got married, to the fact that both of their husbands had passed away within months of each other. They were cheerful older ladies and grinned at me happily as I walked in the door.
“I was just going to head up and…” Beverly waved me on, both of them looking down excitedly at the small television they had sitting behind the desk, watching some made-for-TV movie.
I chuckled and walked past them, heading up the stairs. I shuffled my purse to the other shoulder as it was pretty heavy. I had decided to take home several of my cookbooks so that I could go back through them and try to think of a new recipe. I still owed the city a recipe for their cookbook. I walked up to Christian’s door and flipped my hair back, standing up tall with a smile. As I raised my hand to knock, I could hear Christian talking rather sternly inside the room. I paused, feeling as if I shouldn’t interrupt at that moment.
“You would hate it here,” he said to whoever he was talking to. “To be honest with you, I can’t have that distraction right now. I’ve finally gotten my thoughts back and I’m ready to get this story done and written. After that, it’s up to me what I do with my life. But I know 100% that you and I would never work out. So, I need you to stop texting, and move on.”
The beginning of the conversation seemed relatively innocent but the last sentence echoed through my ears. He was telling someone that they needed to move on, that they would never work out. Never, in all the time that I’d spent with him, did I think for a second that he had a girlfriend. But standing there, listening to him, I realized that everything that had happened between us happened while he was seeing someone else. I was the other woman. He had cheated on a girlfriend with me.
I took a step back and turned, not wanting to face him, not wanting to talk to him at all. In fact, I was really glad that the women at the front didn’t even really notice who I was because I didn’t want him to know that I had come by there. I was so stupid. I thought, for a mere second, that I had actually found something true and with a good guy. I told myself to ignore my instincts because it wasn’t time to start listening to them.
“So stupid,” I hissed to myself.
As I went to walk away, I caught my shoulder on the hook by the door, yanking my purse from my arm. It toppled over and I lunged for it, catching the bottom before it hit hard on the ground but sending the contents of it sprawling across the floor. I closed my eyes, knowing it had made a sound, but hoping he didn’t pay attention to it.
Carefully, I dropped down on my knees and began scooping everything back into my purse. I was such a klutz, it was right at the moment that I truly did not need that kind of attention. I paused for a moment wondering if he had heard me, but there was nothing but silence. Letting out a deep sigh, I continued on grabbing the five thousand things that didn’t need to be in my bag but somehow ended up there.
As I reached for a tube of lipstick that was rolling toward his door, the handle turned and the door flew open. I froze for a moment, looking up at him and watching as his eyes slowly lowered toward mine. “Rory? What are you doing here?”
I grabbed the lipstick under my hand and the three books that were laying open on the ground and shoved them in my purse. Grabbing the doorframe, I hoisted myself to my feet and flipped my scarf out of my face and over my shoulder. I narrowed my eyes at him and shook my head. “Apparently, wasting my
time.”
As I turned to walk away, he reached out and grabbed my arm, his face confused. “Rory, what is going on? What are you talking about?”
I pursed my lips and took in a deep breath. “Well, I came over here to see you and wish you good luck writing your book but you were already on a phone call. Why did you think for two seconds it would be okay to try to start something with me, or whatever it was we were doing, while you were with someone else?”
He shook his head. “I wasn’t with anyone else.”
My jaw tightened. “I’m not stupid. I just heard you on the phone. You were telling someone that doesn’t live here that they shouldn’t come here, AND that things were over between the two of you. I am not, nor will I ever be again, the other woman.”
I turned again to leave but he raced around, standing in front of me. “Rory, you have the wrong idea. I mean, yes, her and I had gone out a couple of times, then we slept together…”
I lifted an eyebrow. He shook his head frantically. “None of that matters. What matters is, I wasn’t with anybody when I was with you. She keeps calling and sending pictures… And I know part of that’s my fault, because I kind of led her on…”
I folded my arms across my chest and tilted my head to the side. He wasn’t doing a very good job at explaining himself. In fact, I was pretty sure his entire foot was halfway down his throat by that point. He slapped his hand to his forehead. “That’s not what I mean.”
I shook my head and pushed past them, heading for the steps. I could hear them calling after me, and it broke my heart. The truth was though, I didn’t trust him. I’d heard what he said inside the room, and just right then, and all signs pointed to douche bag.
I didn’t stop at the front desk when I was leaving, I just headed straight out, moving as fast as I could and hoping that he wasn’t chasing after me. At one point I got myself up to a jog and made it home in record time. I raced through my front door as if someone were trying to get me and slammed it behind myself. I locked it and turned around, leaning against the door as I closed my eyes. I was really grateful that I got my key back from him, otherwise I would’ve had to stand there and listen to him until he gave it back.
Very slowly I drug my feet through the house, dropping my coat in the floor, my purse next, and walking into the kitchen. The cat jumped up on the counter and met me at the edge, purring loudly. I plopped down on one of the kitchen stools, put my elbows on the counter, holding my head in my hands and pouted. The cat came over and rubbed his nose against mine, sniffing whatever flour and sugar was still stuck in my hair.
With the emotion having been run out of me as I jogged back to my house, I started to think about what I heard versus what he said. There was a part of it that could be true and if he was telling the truth, then what I heard made sense. He had a girl back in Hollywood that he was seeing before he came there but it wasn’t exclusive. He met me and he was shutting things down with her. But still, that made it really hard for me to open my heart to him.
“What do you think,” I asked the cat. “Should I run, and keep running, or should I think about giving him a chance to explain?”
“Meow,” he replied.
I let out a long deep sigh and rubbed his head getting up and moving over to the cabinet to pour him some food. I was so conflicted by my feelings, and I wasn’t sure whether I should call him, or just go to bed. None of those things sounded like a good idea. I looked over at the oven, up at my shelf holding all the jars of flour and sugar and felt the urge to do some baking therapy. I knew that if I failed again it would make things even worse, but I needed to do something to get my mind off of everything.
A rolled up my sleeves and started taking down ingredients, pushing all my thoughts of Christian out of my head. I went to work, using some ideas I had earlier in the night to start constructing a recipe that I was hoping would work. Grabbing a piece of paper, I started jotting down the different list of ingredients, and how much I would use in each. Whenever I was coming up with a recipe it was like a mad scientist in her lab. My mind would almost go completely dark and my hands would move on their own accord, pulling and stirring, taste testing and measuring.
I paid no attention to the clock, just doing what felt right. By the time that I was finished, counting down the seconds on the timer until the cookies were done, it was nearing daylight again. The alarm went off, and I carefully opened the oven, unsure of whether I would get fire or perfection. As I peered over the door into the warm oven, I could see that nothing had burnt. That was a good start.
Very carefully I pulled out each sheet of cookies and set them down on the counter. I took off my gloves and glanced over at my cat who was watching me curiously. He had a flour handprint on his back from where I had stopped to pet him. I picked up a cookie and very cautiously brought it to my lips, giving it a sniff. It didn’t smell toxic, and in fact, gave off that perfect buttery sweetness that I loved. As I took a bite, my eyes went wide and my heart raced. I had done it. I had gotten my creativity back. I had baked something amazing like I used to do all the time.
Eureka!
I finished off the cookie and leaned against the counter, throwing my head back. I laughed loudly at myself, not because anything was humorous, but because it just felt so good to succeed again. Grabbing my phone, my first instinct was to send a picture to Christian, but I stopped myself very quickly. I wasn’t going to give myself the okay to go running back to him just yet. I wasn’t sure that I would ever go running back to him.
Instead, I dialed Carl’s number, hoping he would be awake. “Is something burning down?”
I grinned. “Even better.”
I could hear him start to chuckle. “You’ve made a new recipe.”
I picked up another cookie as I walked around the kitchen. “I have. And it’s all yours. You can have it for the local cookbook.”
“Hallelujah,” he sang out. “I was hoping that you hadn’t had some sort of crisis keeping you from creating a new culinary perfection.”
If he only knew. “No, it just took me a bit to find the perfect one.”
“Well, that might have something to do with the man you’ve been spending a lot of time with,” he said suspiciously. “Inquiring minds want to know, are you dating that author that’s in town?”
My face dropped. “No, I am not. We spent some time together but… He’s got a lot going on.”
Carl sighed. “That’s too bad. We were all hoping for a little bit of gossip in the love department. I mean it would only make sense, you’re single, he was rated as a top bachelor not too long ago, and the two of you would make absolutely perfect beautiful babies.”
I stopped mid bite of my cookie. “I thought you had to actually be single to be rated in those bachelor ratings.”
“Of course,” he said. “When I read the article, apparently, he was far too busy with work to worry about any kind of serious relationship. The man’s been single ever since he came on the scene. I was hoping maybe he was gay, but I don’t think that’s the situation.”
Normally I would’ve laughed at Carl’s last statement, but my mind was completely mixed up. If he had been single, then maybe I was wrong.
Chapter 19
Christian
There comes a point in everyone’s life where change finds them quicker than what they were ready for. While I had already decided that I didn’t want to leave that small town, I found that my options were either go back to Hollywood and face Rachel, who I wanted to shake after putting me in that situation, or figure out a way to get Rory back. I couldn’t quite bring myself to be too livid with Rachel considering it was partially my fault for stringing her along for so many months. At the same time though, I really shouldn’t have had to tell her as bluntly as I did that things were over.
But none of that mattered. Rory thought I had done something wrong and I needed to do something big to win her back. I knew it couldn’t be spur of the moment and it may take me a little while to put togeth
er, but I wasn’t going to let her slip from my grasps. I’d learn so much since I arrived in that sleepy little town, and one of the biggest things was that amazing love was possible, and even though people made mistakes, I wasn’t going to give up on Rory. She had every right to be upset, and I needed to prove to her that she could trust me.
I went to work, sitting down at my computer and beginning to type. At first, I went through each one of my notes meticulously, following along with the things that I had written down throughout that one day that I had a serious breakthrough. As I went along though, the notes became less important and the story began to unfold on its own. It had done that before, and no matter how many notes I had taken, the story went where it was supposed to go. I worked day and night on it, ordering takeout, showing up from time to time at the café just so that she could see I was still there, and sending her a text every day so she knew I was thinking about her.
Rory never responded back, and I went to the café she always quickly disappeared into the kitchen, but that was okay because I had a plan. I had decided the day that she overheard me talking to Rachel that I wasn’t going back to California. That plan had not changed, and instead had become the catalyst for my mission to get Rory back and show her just how much I cared about her.
I gave the owner of the B&B a huge check, telling her I wanted to stay there as long as I could. I told her to let me know when the funds ran out and I would give her more. She was so ecstatic, and it felt good just to make her day. No matter what she would have one person staying at the B&B in that small little town that I seriously was falling in love with.
The days came and went, the snow drifting outside the window, and the lights sparkling at Christmas time. On Christmas Eve I took a break from working and stared out the window drinking a hot cup of cocoa that they had brought up to my room. I could see the kids throwing snowballs just like Rory had told me, and I had an aching in my chest wishing I could be walking under the lights with her. But I knew I had to be patient, and I knew I had to do things the perfect way. If I did, I would have many Christmas festivals to walk beneath the lights with her. If I did it wrong, none of it would matter anyway.
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