Pants on Fire (9 page)

“Are you all right?” Worry filled his eyes.

She laughed. “I’m fine. The taxi driver gets all the credit for that though. It’s the only time I got a free ride in a taxi.”

He shook his head. “Nothing fazes you, does it?”

She looked down at her lap. “Some things did. Part of why I blew up yesterday is because I’ve been hurt before, the kind of hurt that can haunt you for a while.”

 “We’ve all been there, Megan.”

“No, Tyler. We haven’t all ‘been there’. Have you ever thought you were in love before? Like you think you love me?”

“I do love you.”

She glared.

“Fine. Yes, I thought I was in love once before.”

“Did you ever come home early from your vacation to find her naked in your apartment? Sounds sexy until you realize she’s entertaining her lover, in your apartment, while you’re on vacation. That’s what happened to me, Tyler. I thought I loved him and one day I come home to find him fucking some woman in MY apartment.”

“No, that has never happened to me, but …”

“No, Tyler. You have to understand. For a moment yesterday I thought you were just like him, and you’re not. I’m not ready to love you yet; I can’t, not with this sort of thing messing me up. But I’ll admit that I care and that I’m not looking forward to this vacation ending.”

He kissed her hand. “The toast is all gone.”

“So?”

“Let me show you how much I missed you.”

He carried her to the bed and showered her with kisses, making her laugh. Since she was laughing anyways he tickled her ribs until she slapped his hands and tried to roll away. He laughed too and pinned her hands above her head. While she couldn’t stop him anymore he couldn’t exactly tickle her either, so he went back to kissing her until she forgot to laugh and just relaxed into the pleasure of him.

Playfully they undressed each other, giggling when she fumbled with buttons or when it took him three tries to unhook her bra. Of course he stopped first and said, “What a beautiful bra you’re wearing.”

She had laughed and tried to slap him again.

With their clothes scattered across the bed and in a mix-matched heap on the floor he pulled away, catching her wrist and pulling her along with him. “It’s too hot in here.”

“You haven’t been running the air conditioner.”

“It made the headache worse. Come on.”

She laughed and held back. “Where are we going?”

“The shower.”

She followed him eagerly into the bathroom and into the shower. They ran their hands over slick skin and she took him in hand until he was hard and eager. He lifted her carefully and she wrapped her arms and legs around him, leaning her head on his shoulder and letting him take her.

When they were both satisfied they washed up and returned to the bed to hold each other.

“What are we going to do with our last few days together?” he called from the bathroom.

Her cellphone, which had been blessed silent for the better part of two weeks, chose that moment to ring. She glanced at the call display and swore. “Hold on, I have to take this. Hello?”

“Megan, where the hell are you?”

She cringed. Her director had a voice that was wonderful on set, you could always hear the stage directions, but he never toned it down. “I’m on vacation, remember?”

“Didn’t you get Bernie’s emails?”

“I read them before I left, they looked pretty standard. Why?”

“You idiot! Bernie emailed you a week ago with the reshoot schedule. We were set to start TODAY! But we can’t very well reshoot the scenes for Miss Maizy Daisy’s weekly TV show without Miss Maizy Daisy, can we?”

Tyler stepped out of the bathroom to see Megan’s face had gone deathly pale. “What is it?” he whispered.

“Look,” she said into the phone. “I’ll be there, just don’t panic. Yes I understand how important this is. Yes. Look, I’m on my way right now.” She hung up and grabbed her purse. “I’m sorry, Tyler. This is an emergency. It’s … look, I just have to go.”

Bewildered he didn’t even think to grab her and steal one last kiss. “Call me!” he shouted as she disappeared out the door. He ran his fingers through his hair. “Now what?”

***

Tyler sat in his hotel room for the rest of his stay, with the exception of a quick run to the used book store to restock. When he wasn’t reading he was staring at the phone, willing it to ring. It didn’t.

He woke up on the very last morning of his vacation and ordered a large breakfast which he hovered over until he honestly couldn’t eat any more. Then he took his time packing and was just doing up the last zipper when there was a knock at the door. 

His heart leapt.
Megan.

The woman at the door was not Megan. She gave him a tired look. “Are you finished? I need to turn the room over for the next guest.”

Tyler nodded. “Yeah, I’m finished. The room’s all yours.”

Dragging his bags downstairs he stopped at the desk where a man about his age was slouched in the chair. At the sight of Tyler he plastered a smile on his face. “Are you ready to check out sir?”

“Yes, I guess I am.” He handed over his keycard. “Look, I’ve seen you at the desk before so you must have seen me come and go with a young woman.”

“Megan? Yeah, I saw you two.” He finished on the computer and turned to wait for the printer.

“Oh good, you know her. She left in a rush, an emergency, she hasn’t had a chance to call me and, well, I’d like to call her.”

He shrugged. “She doesn’t live in Kingsbridge. I don’t have a cell number for her.”

“Her dad used to work here, didn’t he? If I could have their number, just to make sure she’s all right? Or even the last name so I can find them myself.”

He frowned and scribbled a number on a scrap of paper. “This is the number her old man left us, for emergencies. He may be retired but he knows more about this hotel than a lot of us combined.”

“Thank-you.”

“Before you go, a word of caution. You’re not the first guest Megan’s been involved with. This is kind of her thing. We don’t question it because of her dad. I don’t know what kind of reception you’ll get if you call the house.”

“It was different for us.”

He gave Tyler a ‘yeah sure’ smile and nodded. “Well, I hope you enjoyed your stay with us, and enjoyed our small town
hospitality.
Have a nice day.”

With a heavy heart Tyler went to a quiet corner of the lobby and called the number. After three rings a woman said, “Hello, McCollum house, Deborah speaking.”

“Yes, hello,” he sat up a little straighter. “I’m looking for Megan, I was hoping you could help me.”

“I’m sorry, Megan doesn’t live here anymore.”

“I know,” he said quickly. “I’m a friend of hers. My name is Tyler, I’m not sure if she mentioned me.”

“Not by name,” the woman said. “What is it that you want?”

“She left in such a rush and hasn’t called me. I just want to know she’s all right and,” he paused to take a deep breath. “And I was hoping you could give me some way to get in touch with her.”

She sighed. “Tyler, as far as I know, she’s fine. She said it was an emergency at work and if she didn’t get back it would ruin everything. We haven’t spoken to her since either. Her work is very demanding at times.”

“Wow, I knew she was in television, but I didn’t realize she was so important. What exactly does she do?”

She hesitated. “Tyler, the last I heard from my daughter was that the two of you had been fighting.”

“We made up. Mrs. McCollum, I swear it.”

“I’m sorry, I can’t take your word for it. Until I hear otherwise from my daughter I cannot give out her personal contact information.”

“I understand that, but please, couldn’t I just give you my cell number? If she wants it …”

“I’m sorry. I can’t help you.”

The line went dead.

For a long time Tyler just sat and stared at his cellphone. Finally he dialed the number of Megan’s artist friend but got only voicemail. “Hi,” he said. “My name is Tyler. I know your friend Megan. Please, if you hear from her, can you give her my cell number?” He rattled off the digits, thanked the machine, and hung up. Ignoring the smug look on the desk clerk’s face he grabbed his bags and walked out of the hotel.

Stephanie sat in the waiting area reading the latest issue of her favourite Hollywood gossip magazine while hundreds of people crisscrossed around her and the robotic, yet distinctly feminine voice rattled off boarding calls and landing announcements. Airports were one of her least favourite places, and flying one of her least favourite experiences, but when the boss said, ‘be there to pick me up’ she listened because more than she disliked airports she loved her job.

The plane was late, of course, and she’d read the magazine twice through before a familiar figure overshadowed her. “Anything interesting in that pile of garbage?”

“I missed you too.” She folded the magazine into her purse and smiled up at him. “How was your holiday?”

She had been expecting some form of ‘great’ so when he only shrugged and said, “Where are you parked?” she frowned.

“Is everything all right? Last time we talked on the phone you sounded so relaxed. I was sure you were having a great time.”

“Something came up, something personal; it’s not a big deal.” He grabbed his bag. “Lead on.”

Stephanie put on her biggest smile and started talking. “You sure picked a good two weeks to high tail it out of here. I mean, I don’t think those emergencies could have been diverted by anything, so it’s not like it’s your fault, but did you have to leave me to deal with them all by myself? The paintings went a long way to smoothing things over, by the way.”

“Speaking of paintings,” he said and drew the smaller canvas out of his carry-on.

She stopped mid-stride to study it ignoring the man behind her who swore at her and stormed around them. Tyler shook his head and nudged her forward again. “Tyler, it’s wonderful. Okay, it’s nowhere near as polished or professional as those larger pieces you bought, but it’s still beautiful.”

“Well, since I bought this one at a farmer’s market and the others at a gallery I wasn’t expecting the same level of talent. But I bought two more from the farmer’s market for my own apartment.”

“Your apartment is so cluttered you won’t have room for them.”

He made a non-committal noise in the back of his throat. “Which one did you choose for the office?”

“Wait and see.” They loaded the bags into the back of Stephanie’s sedan and climbed in. “I’ll drive, you talk,” she said.

“Talk about what?”

“You just got back from a two week vacation and you have nothing to talk about!? What did you do the whole time?”

He just stared out the window.

“Stop acting like a wounded school girl and talk.”

He sighed. “First day there I went down to the pool and there was this girl. I thought, ‘hey, wouldn’t it be nice to have a casual affair while on vacation?’ so I started talking to her to see if she was open to the idea.”

“Was she?”

“Yeah, big time. Only I got stupid and started falling in love with her. And then I got even stupider and told her that I loved her.”

It was a good thing Stephanie had to stare at the road and not her boss because she couldn’t keep the grin from her face. “Did it scare her off?”

“It made her wary but she stuck around. We had a big fight the next day though.”

“About what?”

“You.”

“Me? I wasn’t even there!”

“She overheard our phone conversation and thought Matt and AJ were our kids.”

Stephanie started laughing so hard she almost ran a red light. “Our kids? Matt and AJ? Oh, that’s great! Wait until I tell Matt about that one.”

“Yeah, well she didn’t think it was all that funny.”

“Did I ruin things for you?” All trace of bubbly, smiling Stephanie was gone.

“No. We were patching things up, I thought, but then she had to take care of some emergency and just left. No phone number, no phone call, nothing. I have no way of contacting her and no idea where to look. I have a first and last name but no idea where she lives.”

“A regular Cinderella story.”

“Does Matt really let AJ watch princess movies?”

“No, but I watch them.”

It didn’t surprise Tyler in the least that Stephanie, a mature, educated woman, still watched children’s movies for her own pleasure. “Well, I’m not the prince and she’s not an impoverished, abused, girl.”

“Stop being so literal. She’s a mystery woman. What you have amounts to a glass slipper. Now you’ll have to go out there and find her.”

“Maybe she doesn’t want to be found.” He looked back out the window.

“That’s called giving up before you start. Tyler, you have to find her, at least so you can give her the chance to explain, and the chance to actually turn you down.”

“If I don’t find her then she can’t turn me down.”

“If you don’t find her you’ll regret it the rest of your life.”

He hated that she was right.

***

Miss Maizy Daisy sat in her dressing room staring at the mirror, not really seeing. She heard the door open and reached for the make-up removal pads on the dressing table and started wiping off the white face paint.

“Those were some good shoots,” Bernie said, already flipping through the pages on her clip board. “I think that was the last of them, and not a moment too soon. Will you be ready to fly out tomorrow morning?”

“Yeah, I’ll be packed and at the airport on time.”

“Sweetie, don’t listen to Allen’s threats, he’s just an old bear. There’s no way Miss Maizy Daisy is being cancelled over a little mix up like this. So you were a day late for …”

“I know Bernie. I’m not worried about the show.” She removed the wig and started pulling out hair pins.

“Well then, get over yourself. You have a tour to do. This cookbook is ambitious for a children’s star. Most of them put out picture books or toys.”

“Bernie, if you had any doubts of the book’s success you would never have let me go through with writing it.”

“Next you’ll be wanting to put out a craft book,” Bernie muttered.

“It’s a good idea, actually. But let’s get through one tour before we start on the next project.”

Bernie raised one hand, palm up. “Praise whatever god looks out for overworked production people. I thought for a moment that you might actually be stupid enough to start something new, thank-you for proving me wrong.”

“Bernie, tell me again why we’re friends?”

“Because we need each other. Now listen closely, and no letting your mind wander, this is crucial stuff.”

Megan took the stack of papers from Bernie and said, “What is all this?”

“It’s your itinerary: where and when you need to be for every flight, which hotels you’re staying in, check in and check out times, the locations, times, and durations of each of your appearances …”

“My lunch and bathroom breaks?”

“You’re getting the idea. I’ll go over it with you. Follow along, all right?”

Megan sighed. “All right Bernie, go ahead.”

An hour later Megan’s head was spinning, but at least she’d managed to get the last of her stage make-up off and change into her street clothes while Bernie talked.

“Bernie, stop it, you’re making my head hurt,” Megan begged.

“This is important!”

Megan muttered, “If you say that one more time I’ll …”

Bernie cleared her throat. “You’re not muttering quietly enough to be making threats.”

She grabbed her purse. “What about bribes? If I take you out for dinner will you please stop talking about schedules? You’re going to be with me the entire way and you’re going to tell me everything on this list a hundred more times anyways.”

“I don’t know why I bother. The ingratitude of some people.” But Bernie was already tucking her clipboard away in the minivan she called a purse. “Where to?”

They walked over to a little pizza joint where they often ate after a rough shooting schedule and ordered their usual double pepperoni thin crust. It was a little early for supper and the place was empty so Megan was doubly happy for Bernie’s company.

“Now, we have to work on your smile. Maybe the camera can’t tell when you’re faking it, but I can. And you’d better believe that those kids will notice it too.”

Or maybe she wasn’t going to be happy with Bernie’s company after all. “Don’t worry, it’s just the stress of the reshoot. I’ll go to bed early tonight and tomorrow I’ll be fine.”

“Try that again without all the lying.”

Megan shook her head. “Why do I bother?”

“You forget that I didn’t get us ahead in this business by being naïve. I can spot a lie a mile away. Spill it.”

“I should have called him. I completely lost track of what day of the week it was, with all this crazy reshoot nonsense, and by the time I even thought to call him it was too late, he’d checked out, and I have no way of reaching him.”

“Your friend Alicia, wouldn’t she have the number of the hotel chain he works for?”

Megan shrugged. “How many men named Tyler do you think work for that same hotel chain? I don’t have a last name.”

“Get the last name from the hotel in Kingsbridge,” Bernie said with a shrug.

“That’s illegal, Bernie. The hotel can’t give out that information.”

“Maybe he left you a message at the hotel, or with Alicia.”

A light went on in Megan’s eyes. “Alicia, of course. He convinced his employer to buy all her paintings, he’d have access to her number. Hold on.” She fished her cellphone out of her purse and dialed. After an agonizing wait the machine kicked in. She resisted swearing. “Alicia, this is Megan. Give me a call when you get this, I want to ask you something. Thanks.”

The waitress slid the large pizza onto the table and handed them each a plate. “Can I get you ladies anything else?”

Bernie shook her glass, making the ice clink. “A refill on the water would be great.”

“I’ll bring a pitcher,” the waitress replied and disappeared.

Bernie turned back to Megan. “Are you going to be okay with this mystery guy remaining a mystery?”