Tell Me Lies (9 page)

He couldn’t figure her out. One minute, she was practical y begging him to have sex with her, the next minute, she was kicking him out. Was it possible that she was just playing with him? That his karma had final y come back to haunt him, and now he was going to be the one who got used for sex?

He shook his head.
Focus,
he told himself. He couldn’t afford to mess this meeting up, especial y not because of some woman he hardly knew. Alexis was trouble.

And once they got back to New York, he was going to tel her she needed to move out.

Immediately.

***

Alexis hadn’t been able to sleep. Once Reid left, she just lie there, tossing and turning in her bed. Final y, at around eleven, she gave up. Being in the room was making her claustrophobic, and so she decided to head down to the lobby. She thought about going to lie out by the pool, but she knew that would do nothing to help quiet her mind. She needed more of a distraction.

So instead, she walked outside. The Florida air was warm and the morning sun was bright. The palm trees lining the street waved and danced in the breeze. She bought herself a cup of coffee and a muffin from the same café she’d eaten at yesterday, and sat and watched the people walking by while she ate.

She couldn’t get Reid out of her mind.
Stop thinking about
him,
she told herself.

He was just a guy she’d met a few days ago. So then why was he having this effect on her? Yes, she’d slept with him, but so what? Lots of women slept with men they barely knew and then moved on like nothing had happened. Look at the girls on al those reality shows. They were constantly having sex with men they just met.

It didn’t have to mean anything. Whatever emotions she was having about Reid obviously had something to do with her lack of sleep, mixed with the uncertainty and fear she’d been feeling ever since she left Philadelphia.

And hadn’t she read somewhere that women became very attached to their sexual partners, whether they wanted to or not? There was some kind of hormone that surged through your body when you had sex with a man, and it made you think you wanted to be with him, when real y, it was just your body playing a trick on you.

She finished her muffin and then walked slowly back to the hotel, the sun warming her skin. She would go back to New York, she decided, and then she would figure out what to do.

She would start over. How hard could it be? She’d find a new job and maybe go back to school. She’d talk to a lawyer. She’d make some friends. She’d find a therapist and start the process of healing.

There would be hard times, yes, but she’d get through it.

People had been through much worse.

Of course, she’d stil have to fly back to the city with Reid, she thought as she walked into the hotel lobby. She didn’t have any money for a plane ticket. But once she was back in New York, she’d get a new bank account and start forging her own life. It was time to stop being afraid.

“Excuse me?” the woman working the front desk cal ed as Alexis walked by.

“Aren’t you staying in room 306?”

“Yes,” Alexis said, hoping she wasn’t going to be asked to pay for anything.

“I have a message for you,” the clerk said pleasantly, handing Alexis a slip of paper. “You activated the privacy feature on your phone, so we take the messages here at feature on your phone, so we take the messages here at the desk.” Right. Reid had turned the privacy on in both of their rooms so that they could work last night without any interruptions.

Last night. God, it seemed like forever ago.

“Thank you,” Alexis said, taking the paper from the woman and heading for the elevators.

It was probably a message from Reid. Maybe he was cal ing to apologize, maybe he would want to talk when he got back from his meeting, maybe he –

Alexis froze.

The message wasn’t from Reid.

It was from Leo.

Sorry I missed you. ~L

Her palms started to sweat and her heartbeat accelerated.

Her mouth went dry and the wal s of the elevator felt like they were pushing in on her. She was somehow able to get to her room before the panic attack completely overtook her.

She sat down on the bed and tried to take deep breaths, but it didn’t help. The room was spinning, and she was afraid she was going to pass out. She didn’t know how, but Leo had found her. He would always find her, no matter how far away she managed to get.

He’d find her and he’d pul her back in, he’d make her stay with him no matter what. That’s how it had always been, and that’s how it would always be. Her skin felt itchy and hot, like she was breaking out in hives.

The room tilted.

Oh, God,
she thought,
please, not again.
She lied down on the bed until final y, her breathing began to slow.

Leo had found her. And now that he had, he wouldn’t stop until he had her.

***

The meeting at Vista Col ection had gone better than Reid could have hoped. The executives were thril ed with the idea Alexis had come up with, and the best part was that Richard Muel er couldn’t even try to take credit for it -- he hadn’t known anything about it until right before they got into the pitch room.

Reid had been the one to present, had been the one to answer questions, had been the one to meet with the head of marketing once the initial team had given their thumbs-up.

It was crazy, because the meeting was supposed to have been an extended briefing. Reid had taken a chance on bringing in something to pitch. If he’d been ridiculously off base, he’d run the risk of alienating the client. But instead, he’d nailed it.

They scheduled a lunch meeting for the next day to discuss The Lawson Agency becoming Vista Col ection’s agency of record. Becoming a company’s agency of record was a big deal – it meant that the client had agreed to work exclusively with you, not only on this campaign, but on others as wel . Advertising agencies made most of their money by becoming agencies of record.

The car ride back to the hotel was silent, with Richard silently fuming next to him. Reid didn’t know what the hel his problem was. Even though Reid was the one who had come up with the campaign, Richard was stil , unfortunately, part of the project.

He’d probably even get a bonus.

When the car pul ed up in front of the hotel, Reid decided he was going to celebrate with a nice dinner. He’d had steak last night, but maybe tonight he’d go al out

– surf and turf, caviar, and the best bottle of wine he could find.

The only thing that was keeping him from being completely happy was Alexis.

Landing Vista Col ection had been her victory, too. She was the one who’d come up with the campaign in the first place. And now he couldn’t even share it with her.
Forget
her,
he told himself as he got out of the car and walked into the hotel lobby.

He reached into his pocket and pul ed out his phone. He’d cal his parents, he decided, and tel them the good news.

His father would be thril ed.

His mom answered after three rings. “Hel o?” Her voice had an echo-y quality to it, probably because she had him on speakerphone. Reid’s mother loved speakerphone.

“Hey, Mom,” he said.

“Reid!” She always sounded happy to hear from him. “How are you?”

“I’m good,” he said. “Actual y, I’m real y good. I have some great news.”

“David!” she cal ed to his father. “David, it’s Reid. He said he has great news.”

The click of someone picking up the other line came through the phone. Reid’s parents, for al their money, were the kind of people who stil had a corded phone in each room. “Why would I use my cel phone in the house?” his dad was always saying.

“Those things give you brain cancer.” Plus his mother liked the decorative touch a good old-fashioned phone gave to a room.

“Reid, Dad’s on the line,” his mother announced, as if his father wasn’t capable of doing it himself.

“Hi, Dad,” Reid said dutiful y.

“Hel o.”

“Where are you?” his mother asked. “It sounds very loud over there.”

“The streets of New York are always loud, Diana,” his father said, like New York was the ghetto.

“I’m at a hotel,” Reid said. “In Florida.”

“A vacation?” his father asked incredulously. His father had never taken a vacation in his life. At sixty-five, he showed no signs of wanting to retire, and in fact spent most of his time traveling between the five different offices The Lawson Agency had sent up – Chicago, Atlanta, New York, Boston, and San Francisco.

“No, Dad, not a vacation,” Reid said. “I came down here to land a big client.

Vista Col ection, remember? In fact, I think we’re going to be their agency of record.”

How could his father not know that? He was supposed to be plugged in to everything that went on at The Lawson Agency.

“That’s wonderful!” his mother said. “Isn’t that wonderful, David?”

“Who’s the client?” his father asked, even though Reid had just answered that question.

“It’s a new women’s clothing company. Vista Col ection.”

Reid was moving through the lobby now, heading toward the elevators. He dodged women in bathing suits and short little summer dresses, taking a moment to stop and enjoy the view.

He couldn’t believe he’d ever gotten so worked up over Alexis. Who cared about Alexis? He was young, he was good-looking, he was about to land the biggest account of his life, and he was in Tampa. He should be out on the beach, out at the club, out having a good time. He’d have a nice dinner tonight and get some sleep. But tomorrow, once the whole deal was done, he was going out to celebrate. Big time.

“Never heard of them,” his father said. “Have you ever heard of them, Cheryl?”

“It’s a new company, Dad,” Reid told him. “They’re just about to launch.

Remember the brief I sent you?”

“I get so many briefs,” his father said, dismissing the idea that he’d actual y read any of them, even though Reid knew for a fact that he did. It was a power play. His father was trying to pretend that anything Reid did was below his radar.

Reid rol ed his eyes, and tried not to let his father get to him. It had always been this way. David Lawson was always pushing his oldest son harder and harder. Reid had been expected to make perfect grades growing up, to get into a good school, to work hard at everything he did. And yet nothing was ever real y good enough, no matter how much he accomplished.

“Wel , I think it sounds wonderful, honey,” his mother said.

Unlike Reid’s father, she didn’t know just how significant landing this client was. But she was a peacekeeper, and she tried to be supportive. She probably would have said the same thing if Reid had announced he was a drug dealer and told them about a big score.

Just then Reid looked across the lobby and caught sight of Alexis. She was sitting on one of the white leather couches, her hands folded in her lap. She stared down at the floor, and her long blonde hair fel over her face. Reid’s heart clenched. He’d just told himself to forget her, that she meant nothing to him, but now his first instinct was to rush over, gather her in his arms, and carry her up to his room.

“I have to go,” he said to his parents. “I have another cal .”

He clicked off before they could say goodbye.

When he got to her, she was stil staring down at the floor.

He sat down. “Hi.”

“Hi.”

There was a silence. “You okay?” he tried.

“How did the meeting go?”

“Forget the meeting,” he said, startled to realize that he meant it. He didn’t care about the stupid meeting. Al he cared about was Alexis. “What are you doing down here?”

She turned to him, and he could see that she’d been crying.

She took a deep breath in.
This is it,
he thought.
She’s
going to tell me what’s going on.
He braced himself. But al she said was, “Can I borrow some money?”

“What?” Reid looked at her, confused. “For what?”

“I need to get out of here.”

“You need to get out of here?” He felt like an idiot, repeating what she just said.

But he didn’t know what the hel she was talking about.

“Yes.” She pul ed at her hair nervously. “I need to leave Miami.”

“It’l probably be a couple of days before we’re done,” he said. “I have another meeting tomorrow. But maybe the next morning, if there’s an early flight.”

“No.” She shook her head. “I need to go now.”

“You need to go back to New York?”

“Yes. I mean, I can’t...” Her eyes fil ed with tears, and then the tears spil ed down her cheeks. Reid’s stomach turned.

He couldn’t bear to see her upset. Immediately, he reached out and pul ed her toward him. “It’s okay,” he said, rubbing her shoulders. In that moment, he would have done anything to make her feel better. “Whatever it is, it’s going to be okay.”

She sat back and wiped her eyes. “So then I can borrow some money?”

He took a deep breath and paused for a moment. He needed to choose his words careful y, otherwise he risked upsetting her even more. “Alexis,” he said final y. “I don’t understand.”

“Can I borrow it or not?”

“Are you going to tel me what the hel is going on?”

She shook her head.

He thought about it. Part of him wanted to just give her the money. She obviously needed it, and he wanted to do whatever he could to help her. But the other part of him thought that would be an easy fix, something that would only help her in the short-term. Alexis was obviously running from something, something bad. And if she kept running without facing it, things were never going to get better.

“Come on,” he said, “let’s go upstairs.”

She opened her mouth to protest, but then, after a second, she nodded. He put his arm around her and led her to the elevator and then upstairs to her room. He sat her down on the bed and pul ed her close. Al he wanted was to protect her, to make whatever it was that was bothering her go away.

He stroked her hair for a moment, and then he pul ed away, took her chin in his hands and made her look him in the eye.

“Alexis,” he said, “can you please tel me what’s going on?”