"So what? You're just going to pretend that you didn't bawl your eyes out last night? That you didn't pull as far away from me as you could? What the hell is going on with you, Calley?" Adam demanded as Calley raced around the kitchen, trying to get her breakfast and coffee, started and to get Adam out the door to whatever he did in that tall glass box in the sky. "Adam. I told you I was just over tired and that stupid movie put me in an even weepier mood, all right?" she snapped back at him. "I am fine, and you probably don't have time to stand here and debate with me." Calley dumped a little more vanilla creamer into her coffee and split her muffin in half, then put it in the microwave. She wiped her hands on the small dish towel hanging from the pewter towel bar next to the sink, keeping her back to Adam. "I don't believe you, CALLEY." he growled and grabbed her arm, spinning her to look at him. "Then DON'T. I can't help it if you are paranoid.
You don't even KNOW me anymore, you're never HERE. How would YOU know what kind of movies keep me crying for hours after I watch them? How would YOU know when I am tired or not?" she sighed heavily and pulled her arm from his grasp, glaring into his eyes. "YOU are making it worse by insisting there is something wrong. I TOLD you there's NOTHING, okay? Please Adam. Stop pushing where there's nothing to tell." She stared at him for a moment and watched the expressions cross his face, most of which she couldn't decipher. He continued to gaze into her eyes, unsure of what to make of her excuses, but wanting to believe them. Both were startled back into the moment when the microwave buzzed, letting Calley know her breakfast was warm. She moved quickly to take care of it, grateful for the distraction. "I want to have dinner with you tonight Calley." Adam suddenly stated, making her drop the butterknife on the counter. "Did you forget to mention the charity event you had planned for tonight?" she asked softly, knowing there was NO event.
"No. I want to see you. You ARE my wife..." he sighed heavily. "And you're right, so I think we should spend some time together and talk. About whatever you want. I wil meet you at the Kirby at eight o'clock, okay? Don't dissapoint me Calley. Please." he said and kissed her cheek. "See you at eight." he said, grabbed his briefcase and was out the door. Calley tossed her muffin in the garbage, dumped her coffee out and went back upstairs, wiping the fresh onslaught of tears from her cheeks. She climbed into bed, pulled the covers over her head and cried herself to sleep.
Calley woke up sometime later, her body heavy and her eyes puffy from all the tears she's shed in the last few days. She went back downstairs, to try and have some coffee and something to eat, and decide what she was going to do with the rest of her life. Even if she never saw Taylor again, she knew she couldn't stay here. It wasn't even fair to Adam, and she knew for a fact that she was not in love with the man, or even if she ever had been. She buttered her bagel, put cream and sugar in her coffee and sat down at the kitchen table. She stayed lost in her thoughts, picking at the bagel and sipping at her coffee, trying to figure out how she was going to get out.



Taylor wandered around the hotel all morning long, not really wanting to go out and face the crowd of screaming teenaged girls that had gathered outside. He and his brothers had made the customary smiles and waves from the window of the main area of their suite and today, for him, that was enough. He couldn't shake Calley out of his mind, and he couldn't stop berating himself for letting himself get carried away enough to kiss her like that. He wished he'd never even met her, because even though he knew in his heart he loved her, she was married to another man. And with what he saw at that charity function, he wasn't sure anything she'd told him about the man was true. He seemed to genuinely want to be in his wife's company, and care that she was happy, going so far as to make sure she got a chance to meet her favorite band. He groaned out loud. 'I am a fucking idiot..' he admonished himself and then jumped at the female voice that interrupted his
thoughts. "Taylor, I only said hello." Courtney chuckled. "Sorry. I didn't mean to startle you." she said.
"I was just..." he smiled down into her smiling, and very pretty face.
"In your own little world...I could tell." she grinned back.
"Hey..what are you doing here anyway?" he asked, glad for her company at the moment. One more thought of Calley and his head would explode. "Actually, I was supposed to meet Ike." she said, still wearing her warm smile, but laying her hand on his arm. "But I can't seem to find him." she finished.
"Well then.." Taylor grinned, "follow me. I'll help you track him down and you can keep me from slipping into another coma." he joked.
"Deal." Cortney giggled and linked her arm through the one he offered her. "What were you and my brother planning on doing anyway?" Taylor asked innocently. Courtney blushed and looked down at her feet. "I dunno. He said to meet him here and he'd take care of the rest. He said he wanted it to be a surprise.." she said shyly. Taylor chuckled.
"Well there you go.." he gave her that bright, winning smile and getsured broadly. "He's probably just getting his stuff together and waiting for you. He's kind of a perfectionist...you'll have a good time. I promise." Taylor told her, trying to put a good word in for Ike and hoping Ike didn't screw it up by jumping in head first. 'Ike must really like her already if he's planning a surpise date.' he thought to himself.
Taylor hoped it did work out, Courtney was very nice and also extremely pretty. She had a bubbly, talkative personality and to date her for even a little while would be a huge boost for his brother's ego.
"I bet he's in here.." Taylor grinned down at her and opened the door to the suite, motioning for her to go inside ahead of him. "Thanks.." she preceeded him through the door to see Ike on the telephone, talking angrily to whoever was on the other end of the line. He smiled broadly when he saw Courtney and gestured for to give him just another minute.


Calley stretched, rubbed her puffy eyes, and slowly climbed out of bed. Her body ached and her face still felt hot after all the tears she'd she d in the last few days. She forced herself into the shower, taking longer than usual to get herself washed, rinsed and out of the shower. She wrapped her body in a long, warm, fluffy bathrobe and sat in front of the vanity mirror to comb out her long blonde hair. She was startled at the face of the woman she saw staring back at her. Her slightly swollen eyelids, her sad expression, her flushed cheeks were not at all who she really was. She tried to remember the last time she'd spent ANY time with anyone besides Adam, or Taylor, or doing all the charity things that Adam insisted she do, to futher his career and fatten their bank account even more, and couldn't. She looked around the giant bathroom and slowly surveyed all the things in it, and the realization that NONE of this was actually hers, dawned on her.
There was nothing that could be called exclusively hers, except the clothes in the closet. She didn't even have a real, close girlfriend to talk to and there had been times that she needed another female's input concerning Taylor, but she'd been keeping it all in, trying to keep it from Adam, even trying to keep it from herself and it was starting to make her sick. She finished dressing, making herself into the vision of a woman she knew Adam expected to meet at the Kirby, and resolved that, Taylor or not, she was getting OUT. She did not want to live her life ill, sad, and so lonely she wanted to die at times.
Back
Home
Next