Authors: Ruby Preston
“Nice try, but no,” she said, sliding out of the car.
“A man’s got to try. It’s my job.” He walked her to the door of the building.
“And you’re great at it. All the girls say so,” she said, laughing.
“What else do all the girls say about me?” he said, taking her teasing in stride.
“All I know is
this
girl is very grateful for everything you’ve done for her recently. I mean that. Thank you.” She kissed his cheek and went inside, waving to him from behind the glass doors. He blew her a kiss before disappearing back into the sleek black limo.
She finally allowed herself to take her shoes off in the elevator on the way to her apartment. It had turned out to be a surprisingly great night. Who would have thought she’d enjoy the evening so much, given the circumstances?
As she turned the corner into the hallway, something caught her eye in front of her door. She leaned down and found a rose wrapped in a tube of paper. She let herself into her apartment and removed the paper from around the rose, curious as to what it could possibly say. More opening-night congratulations? Her parents had sent flowers earlier in the day and other opening-night gifts had been delivered to the theater. She’d have to collect them tomorrow.
She flipped on a light and sat down on the corner of her bed and unrolled the tube of paper. It was a printout of an email from Reilly to Candace earlier that evening.
Subject
:
Swan Song
review
Headline
: “
Swan Song
Soars
”
Her eyes widened as she scanned the unmistakably rave review, with Reilly’s perfect balance of acerbic wit and informed commentary thrown in for good measure. Everything a
Banner
critic’s review should be, she thought—not to mention, it was everything that
Swan Song
deserved.
Scarlett took a deep breath. Does this mean what I think it means? Had Reilly just sacrificed his own career for her and her show?
Scene 44
Reilly woke up groggy and disoriented. He sat up and looked at the clock. It was dark, but he could see morning light peeking around his closed blinds. Suddenly the events of yesterday flooded back. He flopped back on the bed then changed his mind and scrambled to his computer.
Nothing in his emails from Candace, and more distressing, nothing from Scarlett. Maybe it is too late, he thought. He had waited in front of her apartment until nearly 1:00 a.m., but she’d never shown up. Either the opening night festivities had gone on into the wee hours of the morning, or she had already replaced him. Had she been seeing her money guy, Lawrence? He felt sick, thinking he might have destroyed the best thing that had happened to him in years. Funny how he hadn’t realized it until it was too late.
A beep from his cell phone interrupted his thoughts. He pounced on it and, to his relief, saw that he had a voicemail from Candace. But it was the voicemail from Scarlett that captured his full attention. As the sound of Scarlett’s voice on his answering machine filled his ears, all thoughts of Candace flew out of his head.
Scarlett had gotten the review he’d left on her doorstep and wanted to see him. Her message had come in at 2:00 a.m. She must have just been out late and hadn’t gone home with anyone else. He felt like a silly school boy, so great was his relief.
He called Scarlett.
“Hello?”
He woke her up. It was 7:00 a.m. on a Saturday, after all.
“Can you ever forgive me?”
“Reilly! Hi! I tried to reach you last night,” she said, coming fully awake. “I can’t believe what you did for
Swan Song
.”
“How could I live with myself, if I built my career on a lie and hurt the person I care most about?”
“Thank you,” she said quietly.
“Then you’ll forgive me for being an ass? For getting myself into this situation in the first place?” he asked.
“I know Margolies. I know he put you in a tough position.”
“I guess he’ll be in for a surprise this morning when he opens his paper,” he said with a feeling of satisfaction tempered with a lingering sense of dread.
“So you haven’t heard from him? Or the
Banner
?” she asked.
The things that had seemed so important the previous night seemed insignificant in light of Scarlett’s willingness to forgive him. But would she take him back?
“I don’t care about any of that,” he said, not yet wanting to face the inevitable fallout of what he’d done. “When can I see you?”
“Well...I’m still in bed, but I can get up and be at your place in a bit.”
“I’m up now. Can I just come over?” he said, not wanting to wait another minute to see her again.
“Sure. Oh, and Reilly, grab a copy of today’s
Banner
on your way here.”
Twenty minutes later, she answered the door to her apartment wearing a purple satin robe he hadn’t seen before. He wanted to take her in his arms right there, but he wasn’t totally sure how things stood between them. He knew that just because she’d let him come over didn’t necessarily mean they were back together.
“Your paper delivery, my lady,” he said, presenting her a copy of the
Banner
with both hands.
She laughed. “Come in.”
“Nice robe,” he teased.
“Well, you didn’t exactly give me time to get ready!” she said, though he could tell she’d brushed her hair and maybe even put on a little makeup. He took it as a good sign that she wanted to look nice for him. Maybe he could dare to hope that she still cared for him. “Coffee?” she asked. A pot was brewing.
She poured them each a cup as they both stared at the
Banner
laying between them on the kitchen counter.
“Ready to see your review in print?” she said, momentarily wondering if the Jeremys or Lawrence had been up early and seen it yet. She hadn’t called them last night because it had been too late. But she was surprised that no one had called her yet.
He took a deep breath. “Ready as I’ll ever be.”
“Wait!” He put his hand over hers before she could open the Arts section. “I know it’s probably too soon, but is there a chance we can give our relationship another try? I’ve been miserable without you.”
“You betrayed me, Reilly,” she said.
His heart sank.
“I trusted you.” He could see the raw hurt that he had caused her.
“Just say that you’ll give me a chance to make it up to you.” He flashed her his signature charming smile that she had loved just the week before. He could see in her eyes that she was considering his request.
Without answering, however, she took her hand out of his and opened the Arts section.
“Oh my god!” she exclaimed, reading the headline. Her coffee cup hit the tiled floor and smashed to pieces.
Scene 45
Candace woke up in her own bed with a feeling of pure bliss. She had all but given up on waking up ever again with the wonderful feeling of a man’s arms around her. Careful not to wake him, she slowly turned her head to take in Margolies’ body next to hers. He was older than the last time they had been like that, twenty years before, but he was still the man she had loved more than anything, before he had irreparably broken her heart.
Having him here, in their bed again, she felt the pieces starting to click back into place. Candace’s mind wandered back to the events of the night before:
Reilly’s review had come in just before the print deadline. She was just beginning her final edits, but it was in good shape. Reilly was an excellent writer and would make a solid reviewer.
Margolies had appeared unexpectedly in her doorway.
“What are you doing here?” She felt her face flushing guiltily. She had minimized the document in front of her, hoping he couldn’t see the deception that was written all over her face. She got up and pulled the door closed behind him.
“I found myself in the area and thought I’d get a sneak peek of Reilly’s review,” he’d said casually, though she knew it was not a casual visit. He had been checking up on her. It stung that he thought he needed to do it, and yet he was right to. After all, she had been attempting to double cross him.
“You shouldn’t be here. This is risky.”
“One visit in twenty years isn’t going to raise any red flags,” he’d said, helping himself to the chair across from her desk.
“So, what did our boy Reilly have to say about
Swan Song
? Was he suitably nasty?”
Candace had squirmed in her chair. That was not part of the plan, and she had never been good about lying to him face to face. “Yep, all good. I mean, not good. A good bad review was what I meant.” She was babbling.
“Candace…” He’d stood up and come around behind her desk. “What are you not telling me?”
“What are you talking about?”
“Can I see the review?” He was already bending over her desk to look at her computer.
“It’s not ready yet...” she’d said lamely as he brought up Reilly’s review. She spun out of her chair and stood facing the window. There had been no point in trying to stop him. She couldn’t watch. Even with her back to Margolies, she felt the anger radiating through the room.
Minutes had passed. He had to have finished reading, but she couldn’t bring herself to turn around. She couldn’t guess what he’d do. She’d never betrayed him quite so directly before.
She’d flinched when she felt his hands on her shoulder.
“Oh, Candy,” he’d said softly in her ear.
That certainly wasn’t what she had expected. Her body craved his touch while her mind shouted,
Warning, warning!
“I’m sorry,” she whispered. As the sun went down she could see his reflection in the glass of the window. His faced looked grim, but his hands were gentle. He turned her around to face him.
“It must be hard to be in your position,” he purred. “I should never have left this to you alone.” It was a backhanded compliment at best, but his benevolent tone had been soothing.
She could feel her anxiety ebbing away. “Reilly came to see me.”
“Of course he did. It’s okay. It will be okay.” He stroked her cheek. “I’m just glad I got here in time to fix this before you made a mess of everything.”
“Fix this?”
“Candy, Candy.” Still the soothing tone. “You know you can’t print this review. You know better. We had a plan.” He’d brushed his lips on her neck. She wanted the moment to last forever… If only the nagging sirens hadn’t been going off in the back of her mind.
She shivered in pleasure. She had trouble focusing on what he was saying. Reilly. The plan.
She turned away from him. “I hate you,” she said, though her voice lacked any trace of conviction.
“I know,” he said. His voice became suddenly hard. “But you need me.” Then he’d sat in her office chair and spun back around to the document on her computer screen. Candace had stood rooted to her spot in front of the window, her body still quivering from his touch. She knew she had lost the battle. A mix of emotions washed over her.