Breaking Free (18 page)

Epilogue

Two months later…

Flying when you were sick fucking sucked, but thankfully it was only a short flight between Barcelona and London.

They were a few weeks into the shoot in Spain, though she was in London today for interviews about
Unrecovered
. Claire and Kelly would be joining her, as well.

"You okay?" Daniel was waiting for her outside the bathroom at the airport.

She nodded weakly and stuffed four pieces of chewing gum into her mouth. "I don’t have time to be sick."

Yesterday had been awful. She'd woken up to Daniel bringing her breakfast in her hotel room, and she'd barely made it to the bathroom before she was puking her guts out. She'd felt okay enough to work, but around dinner she'd gotten so tired and physically weak she could barely stand on her own.

She'd spent the rest of the day throwing up and sleeping.

Nobody liked getting sick, but Sophie welcomed it whenever the nausea got to be too much because she felt better once she'd thrown up. At least for a while.

Daniel hummed as he felt Sophie's forehead. "You're not warm. Want me to call you a doctor while we're here? Just in case?"

She waved that off. It was probably a bug.

On the way into the city, she texted Noah, who'd offered to help her with the furniture that would be delivered to her new loft today. She didn’t expect any response since it wasn’t even five in the morning on the West Coast, but evidently he was up.

Can't wait for you to move in. We're out of milk and you're not here so I can borrow some. And no, I haven't forgotten the delivery. At ease, soldier, and have fun at the interviews.

Sophie grinned tiredly and leaned her head against the window, hoping to catch some sleep. "I'm hungry," she yawned. "Do we have time to stop somewhere before the hotel?"

"Of course. And you're certain you don’t wanna spend the night and fly back tomorrow?"

"I'm sure." Sophie closed her eyes and pulled the hood of her sweatshirt over her head. "I don’t wanna be away from Max." She wouldn’t have left him at all, but one of the actresses on set had brought her dog too, and they got along great.

A while later when they drove into the city, Daniel asked where she wanted to eat, and she had a wicked craving for pizza, so he looked up the nearest Pizza Hut.

"You gonna order a pizza without cheese?" he asked with an odd look.

Sophie chuckled. "Why would I do that?"

"Because you hate cheese, Sophie," he pointed out.

Oh. Well…she wanted it, okay?

*

It was amazing what a makeup artist and a stylist could do in half an hour. Sophie was still munching on her last pizza slice when they ushered her into a hotel suite to make her pretty for the cameras.

Her yoga pants and hoodie were replaced with skinny jeans and a cute, sleeveless blouse. The rubber band around her hair was pulled off, and various products made her chestnut brown waves look great. New shoes, subtle makeup, new accessories.

"Would you like the matching necklace to go with the bracelets, Ms. Pierce?"

She automatically brushed her fingers over the small silver feather. "No, thank you." By now, she'd gotten used to the painful twist of her gut whenever she was reminded of Tennyson. She could only hope it would fade one day.

Sophie was deemed ready after that, so she walked into the adjacent suite where they were setting up for the interview. A handful of people were milling about, but once Sophie spotted Claire and Kelly, she tuned out the others.

"Hey, you guys." She grinned.

"Hey!" Claire stood up from the couch and hugged her. "It feels like it's been longer than a couple months. You look good, honey."

"So do you. I love your hair." Sophie hugged Kelly next, and though they hadn't really gotten to know each other, it was good to see a familiar face. "How're you, Kelly? I heard you're in London to do a play."

"Yeah, we're busy with rehearsals right now." She smiled. "It's fun."

The three sat down on the couch, Claire in the middle, and a photographer came over to test the lighting. He also asked if it was okay if they started shooting stills now, and no one had any objections.

"You ladies just keep talking—don’t mind the rest," someone with a clipboard and two cell phones said in a posh accent.

Sophie had no issues with that because there was gossip she wanted from Claire. "Give me the deets, Claire. You've done some promo with Chris and Tennyson, right?"

"Last weekend." Claire nodded. "Tennyson's stressed out. They're still in editing, so I understand why he wasn’t in a good mood. It looked like he hadn't slept in months." She tilted her head at Sophie. "I thought—" She lowered her voice so nobody else would hear. "I thought the two of you became close with the whole showmance ordeal."

Twist, pang
. Sophie inhaled slowly and pulled off a soft smile. "We're friends, but we haven't spoken in a while. Work gets in the way—you know how it is."

It was close to the response she'd been advised by the studio publicists to give during interviews. Either that, or dodge answering.

Claire nodded in understanding. "Definitely get it. And I suppose that’s why Tennyson sent his brother here last week. He didn’t have time to go himself."

"What do you mean?" Sophie frowned.

Asher had visited the set in Barcelona last week, but she didn’t know he'd been in London, too.

"He went to some benefit," Claire answered with a nod. "Tennyson sent him to buy a painting. I didn’t even know he was so interested in art."

Sophie nearly swallowed her tongue.

Painting. Benefit. London. September.

That…that bastard. That sweet, confusing, romantic, heartbreaking, motherfucking
bastard
.

He'd bought the painting they'd created for Safe, Wild, and Sound.

Did he
want
her to fall apart even more? This wasn’t exactly helping her move on.

"You look a little pale, honey." Claire touched her arm in concern.

Sophie was about to choke out some bullshit reply, but a PA walked over with a tray of snacks and beverages. The scent of strawberries made Sophie's mouth water, but the strong smell of coffee, on the other hand…

The nausea came on so suddenly that she almost didn’t have time to prevent something she'd be mortified over. But she managed to slap a hand over her mouth and run out of the suite and into the nearest bathroom.

Oh, my God
.

She emptied her stomach into the toilet, then sat back on the floor and groaned. Goddamn flu—seriously? Like she didn’t have enough on her plate right now.

Standing up, she flushed the toilet and then rinsed her mouth. There was a small bottle of mouthwash among the other hotel products, so she used it all.

Makeup,
perfect
.

Smile,
could use some work
.

Hair,
flawless
.

Exhaustion,
pushed aside
.

Hurt,
hidden
.

Thoughts about Tennyson,
buried
.

Work called.

Sophie and Tennyson's story continues in With Brave Wings, which will be available in August 2015.

More from Cara Dee can be found at
www.caradeewrites.com
.

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