InHap*pily Ever After (Incidental Happenstance) (3 page)

            “No, I
didn’t,” Tia said defensively. “My parents booked a cruise when I told them I
wasn’t going to be here for the holidays, and I didn’t want them to feel guilty
about leaving me here all alone; or worse, insist that I go with them.  Plus,
I’d gone over our last phone conversation in my mind at least a thousand times,
but I couldn’t remember anything that even hinted at us breaking up. That was
the day you told me that Jessa was working on my plane ticket, and we were both
so excited about seeing each other again. Maybe it was denial, I don’t know,
but I kept hoping maybe you’d miss me…” she watched as his smirk turned into a
grin, and wished she could put her hands on her hips and stare him down.
“What’s so funny about that?”

            Dylan kissed
the end of her nose. “I didn’t tell anyone either.”

            Tia’s eyes
narrowed in surprise. She’d kept Dylan a secret from everyone she knew; except
for Lexi of course; but Dylan’s family had known about her pretty much from the
start. They were expecting her to join them for the holidays...how could he not
have told them that she wasn’t coming? “No one? Not your parents? Not even the
guys?”

            “Not a soul,”
he smiled.

             “Why not?”

            “I guess I
just couldn’t accept that we were done either,” he said. “No matter how much
evidence was staring me in the face, I kept wracking my brain trying to come up
with something that would’ve changed your mind about us.”  He shook his head.
“Believe me, I picked apart that conversation too, but I couldn’t think of a
single thing that raised even the smallest red flag. I, of course, assumed that
you had the plane ticket, and hoped that maybe you’d show up anyway so we could
talk things through. And if you didn’t, I was going to skip the holiday and
come find you…” The corners of his lips turned up in a sardonic grin, “…to
convince you to stay with me. I can be quite persuasive, I think,” he said,
walking his fingers softly over her breast.

            “I’ll never be
through with you, Miller,” she smiled back. “Better get used to that right
now.”

            “Music to my
ears,” he said.

            Tia took his
hand and gave it a squeeze while she assimilated what he’d just told her. All
the weeks of mourning, all the tears—her decision to give up on men completely
because she knew she’d never be able to feel for anyone else what she felt for
Dylan—none of it mattered now. He’d never stopped loving her as she’d never
stopped loving him. God, when she’d woken up this morning, thinking that she
should’ve started packing for her trip to Australia but instead believing that
she’d be facing a lonely weekend and one more unbearable week before the most
miserable Christmas of her life…she never for a moment considered that she’d be
here; in his arms again and full of new hope for the future. It was a really
good place to be, she thought as she snuggled against the man she loved.

            The thought
weaved in and out of her consciousness before taking root and growing quickly.
The future. ‘Officially and forever,’ he’d said. Although she’d considered at
least a million times what would happen when she and Dylan went public with
their relationship, it had always been that—in the future. She realized
suddenly that the future was now, and that over the course of the next few
days, she’d be facing the reality of stepping out of her completely ordinary
life and into the public eye without any time to prepare. The ‘whole talk show
circuit’ comment still hadn’t been discussed, but ‘going public with their
relationship’ meant that she’d be expected to make some sort of an appearance,
at the very least, which did nothing to settle her heart.

            Then another
thought crashed into her brain with just as much force. If they were going to
be gone next week—she’d already decided that it would be pointless to go back
to school for just the last two days before the holiday break—she needed to
introduce Dylan to her parents. Her coworkers had already met him, and although
all she wanted to do was hide away from the world and keep Dylan to herself, she
had a very small window in which to share him with her friends and family. She
couldn’t possibly let any of the people she cared about find out about their
relationship from a television show; especially since she felt so guilty about
lying to them all along.

            Nervous energy
flooded her system and she crawled out of her warm cocoon, grabbing another
blanket from the back of the armchair and wrapping herself in it. Her thoughts
were flying in a hundred different directions at once and she couldn’t seem to
nail any of them down. “Oh God, it’s going to get crazy real fast, isn’t it?”
she asked rhetorically.

            Dylan stood
and wrapped his arms around her. “You could say that,” he said simply.

            Tia took a
deep breath and exhaled slowly, trying to make sense of it all. It was a hell
of a lot to take in within a couple hour time period.

            “OK,” she
said, sounding more confident than she felt. “I can do this, right? I mean,
it’s not like I didn’t know for a long time that it was coming. I thought I’d
have a little more lead time, but it is what it is.” She pulled in a deep
breath and looked him in the eye. “So what’s next, Dyl? What should I expect?
Tell me about ‘the whole talk show circuit.’”

            The fierce
protective instinct he felt only for her kicked into high gear, and Dylan felt
stopped. Part of him wanted to lie to her; to tell her that the changes that
were coming wouldn’t alter her whole perception of reality. He wanted to
protect her from all of it; shield her from what he knew was coming.                      If
things had played out normally,--if he’d come back after shooting the film and
they’d simply gone public as a couple—it might have been a little blurb on the
celebrity pages and a few pictures in the tabloids; maybe a talk show
appearance or two because of his “sexiest man” title. The whole thing probably
would have blown over in a few weeks without too much fuss, and they could have
built their life together in the relative cocoon of anonymity he worked so hard
to protect. The whole Penelope factor, however, completely changed the game.
He’d never been at the center of a media firestorm, but he knew plenty of
people who had; and none of them came out of it unscathed.  America’s obsession
with celebrity news and the vast number of outlets dedicated to delivering it
were overwhelming, and anything involving a scandal of this magnitude was going
to be a big story. He’d had a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach from the
moment he’d contacted
Person to Person
about running his story, and he
certainly wasn’t feeling any easier since Jessa had texted him that the
requests for interviews had quickly started pouring in. It was going to be a
bloody avalanche, and once it started rolling, nothing was going to stop it.

            “I wish I
could tell you that it’ll be no big deal,” he finally said, “but I can’t. I
promise you complete transparency though, even though some of it isn’t going to
be what you want to hear.” He took her hand and kissed the back of it. “You’re
going to have a whole new life, love. A very different one than the one you’ve
been living up to now. Some of it’ll be really great—a lot of it will—but being
under public scrutiny is a really mixed bag, and I just don’t know how it’s all
going to play out.”

            “I’m already
freaking out about being on television,” she said. “Putting myself out there in
front of millions of people isn’t exactly something I ever thought I’d do. I do
really well in front of ten-year-olds, but with adults…not so much.” She
dropped her eyes and her voice fell to a whisper. “What if they don’t like me,
Dyl?”

             “Oh baby
girl,” he said immediately, pushing a strand of her hair behind her ear. “You
are the most loveable person in the world; I know this from personal
experience.” He planted a supportive kiss on her forehead. “I truly believe
that most people will love you, because you are a good and genuine person— but
in the end, who cares what other people think? There are always going to be
haters no matter how wonderful you are, but they won’t know the real you. None
of them will. Some people will adore you, and others will just be plain out
jealous that you’ve gone from “rags to riches,” for lack of a better term.”

            “And I’ll bet
there’ll be quite a few who are just pissed off that I took you off the
market,” Tia tossed in.

            “There may be
a few of those,” he answered honestly. “But if you just be yourself, who could
help but love you? One of the toughest challenges will be staying true to your
values; trying to protect who you really are on the inside, even while people
judge you without knowing anything about you.” He shook his head and took her
face in his hands, bringing her up to meet his eyes. “Do you remember the first
night we met?”

            “Every single
detail.”

            “You asked me
that night why I couldn’t just be a normal guy. I told you that I was a normal
guy; I just wasn’t in a normal situation.”

            Tia’s eyes
widened in understanding. “I get it Dylan, I do. I’m not going to change, but
people’s perceptions of me will.”

            “Unfortunately,
yes,” he said sadly, wishing again that he could protect her from the spotlight
and all its glaring accusations. “I wish I could tell you differently…”

            “Oh, some of
it just sucks, doesn’t it?” she said in frustration. “I’m nobody. I’m not
trying to hitch a ride to fame on your coattails, but some people will see it
that way, won’t they?”

            “Some will,”
Dylan said. “But you know who your true friends are—the ones who’ve loved you
all along. You’ll have to be much more careful about the people you choose as
new friends; because not all of them will have your best interests at heart.
It’ll be an adjustment, obviously, but I intend to make it as easy on you as I
can. I’ll be by your side every step of the way.”

            “It’s funny,
in a way,” she said. “I see it in my students all the time; the big dreams of
living the lives of the rich and famous. So many of them want to be movie stars
or sports heroes—they idolize celebrities even when they don’t deserve it.”

            “We’re a bit
backward, aren’t we?” Dylan mused. “Sometimes I feel guilty that I get paid so
well for what I do; for making music or pretending to be someone else in films.
The real heroes are the ones who give of themselves to make our world a better
place; but they’re too often undervalued. Being a teacher is noble thing, Tia.
You’ve made a real difference in people’s lives. That’ll play into how the
public sees you, too, I think. I’m pretty sure your cheering section will be
much bigger than you think it will.”

            His comment
caused Tia’s mind to make yet another leap. How would her students see her once
she’d been in the spotlight? Once they’d seen her on television and on the
covers of magazines? What about the parents and her coworkers? She wasn’t naïve
enough to think that she was just going to be able walk back into her classroom
after the holidays and teach reading and math like nothing had happened.  It’d
only been a couple hours since she walked out of school, but she already felt
as if it were a distant memory; as if she’d walked away from that part of her
life as soon as she’d stepped out of the building.

            “I’m not going
to be able to go back, am I?” she asked, already knowing the answer. “To
teaching, I mean.”

            “We’ll cross
that bridge when we come to it,” Dylan replied, “but I don’t think so, Tia. I’m
so sorry.” He watched a momentary shadow cross her face as the reality sank in.
He hated what Penelope had done on so many levels, but none so much as how it
affected Tia’s life. It was likely that even if they hadn’t been thrown into
this shit storm; even if they had been able to go public on their own terms;
that Tia’s teaching career would have ended. But it would’ve been her decision;
she would’ve had time to come to accept it instead of having it forced on her.
She was smart, though, and he knew she would have already contemplated the
possibility, and hopefully that would help her now.

            “I pretty much
figured that,” she said softly. “I’ll miss it, of course, but I’m so ready to
start the new chapter of my life that includes you, Dyl. I’ve wanted that for
so long, and as much as some parts of this whole situation suck beyond belief,
the end result is that we finally get to start a real life together, and that
makes me happier than anything else in the world could.”

            “It’s about
time we get our happy ending,” Dylan said. “And it will be happy, Tia, I
promise you that.”

            “Alright
then,” she sighed, “tell me what the next week’s going to be like; and don’t
try to spare me the gory details. I need to know what I’m in for.”

            Dylan’s
stomach rumbled. He hadn’t eaten since the international flight, and even
though they’d put a fairly decent meal in front of him, he’d been so worried
about what would happen when he arrived; so worried that the rejection might
have been real; that he’d barely touched his food. He pulled the blanket
tighter around him to ward off the chill and looked out the window at the snow
that fell in giant flakes. “Can we do it over lunch?” he asked. “I’m bloody
starving.”