Tell Me Lies (13 page)

Then how come every time you’re around her all you want
to do is take care of
her? Why can’t you stop thinking
about her?
He pushed the thoughts away.
Focus,
he told himself.

“So who’s in that meeting again?” he asked Emily. He pul ed out a legal pad and started flipping through it, like he’d written the information down but just couldn’t remember where.

“Let’s see.” She tapped at her keyboard. “It was with The Phil ips Agency.”

“That’s it.” Reid snapped his fingers and tried not to betray what horrible news this was. Vista Col ection had decided on their campaign. So then why were they seeing other agencies?

His phone rang, and he pul ed it out his pocket and looked down at the screen, irritated. It was the hotel.

Alexis.

He stepped away from the reception desk.

“Hel o?”

“Hel o, Mr. Lawson?”

It wasn’t Alexis. “Yes?” he snapped.

“This is Laurie, from the front desk.”

“This isn’t a good time.” He looked over his shoulder to where Emily had begun to paint her nails.

“Oh, I understand,” Laurie said, sounding nervous. “I just had a quick question about your rooms. We have you checked out of 306, but we’re wondering if you’l be checking out of both rooms today, or wil you be keeping the remaining room for tonight?”

“What are you talking about?” Jesus. First a new agency coming in to steal his account, and now some kind of fuck up at the hotel.

“Wel , it says here you’ve checked out of room 306. Wil you be checking out of room 304 as wel ?”

“I didn’t check out of 306,” he said. “There must be a mistake.” But even as he was finishing saying the words, he realized what had happened. Alexis. She’d left.

Checked out. But to go where?

“It says here you did,” Laurie said, sounding even more anxious than she had before. Probably because she thought he was going to go ape shit on her.

“Thanks,” Reid said. He hung up before she could say anything else.

He had to find Alexis and stop her. He couldn’t let her just leave. Who knew where she was going or what might happen to her? So before he could talk himself out of it, Reid walked out of Vista Col ection without looking back.

***

The airport was actual y somewhat soothing, Alexis thought as she looked around. There were so many people, and so much security. You didn’t have to worry about things like stalker ex-boyfriends. If one popped up, a security guard would almost certainly stop him before he could cause too much damage.

Although she wondered if Leo could actual y be considered an ex-boyfriend if she hadn’t
technically
broken up with him. The thought was slightly alarming. If she didn’t have the break-up conversation, would they just be together forever?

She knew it was sil y – of course they were broken up, regardless of whether or not they’d discussed it--but it was creepy nonetheless.

Alexis had a few hours before her flight was scheduled to depart, so she sat in front of Starbucks and sipped a mocha while she watched the people walking by. A little boy started having a temper tantrum, screaming that he wanted to go back to Disney World.

“Mickey and Minnie need to sleep,” his mother tried to explain to him. She offered him a cup of cut up apple slices, which the boy grabbed and then dumped on the floor.

Alexis wished she could do something like that. It would be liberating to just scream and cry and have a tantrum in the middle of the airport.

After a few minutes, the boy’s cries had gone from being mildly amusing to completely annoying, and so Alexis got up and headed for the gift shop.

She browsed through the racks of magazines, final y selecting a Cosmopolitan.

Not that she would need any of the articles -- learning a hundred ways to please your man wasn’t something she would find particularly helpful right now. She grabbed a bottle of strawberry lemonade and a bag of pretzels, then added a paperback mystery to her haul and headed for the checkout.

After the cashier had rung up her purchases, Alexis pul ed out her credit card and handed it over.

“It’s denied,” the cashier said, a bored look on her face.

“What?” Alexis was startled. How could her card have been denied? She hadn’t bought anything with it, and she’d just checked her balance this morning.

The cashier shrugged. “I dunno. It’s coming up with an error code.” The girl pointed vaguely at the register, which, as promised, was blinking an error code.

“What does that mean?”

“It means your card was denied.” The girl rol ed her eyes, like she couldn’t take the stupid people she had to deal with.

“Yeah, I get that,” Alexis said, rol ing her eyes right back.

“But does it say why?”

“Um, no. You should, like, cal your bank?”

Alexis wanted to, like, punch the girl in the face, but instead she reached into her bag to pul out her wal et. She’d have to pay cash. But she took a moment to think about it. She wasn’t sure exactly what was going on with her card. It had just worked a little while ago, when she’d book her flight online. So why wasn’t it working? Was it something simple? Or was it something else, something Leo had done? Should she be saving her cash? How much money would she need to get back to Philadelphia? Al morning she’d been tel ing herself to just take things one step at a time, to just work on getting home and take it from there.

But now she was starting to think that might not have been the best plan.

Shouldn’t she be thinking ahead, figuring out what she was going to do?

“Do you want to pay cash?” the cashier asked, tapping her hand against the counter impatiently.

“Um…” Alexis thumbed through the bil s in her wal et. But before she could decide how much money she was wil ing to part with, someone slapped a twenty- dol ar bil down on the counter.

Alexis turned around.

Reid.

He was wearing a black suit and a crisp white shirt, and his hair was pushed back from his face. His eyes were blazing.

Relief flowed through her body.

“What are you doing here?” Alexis blurted. She was so happy to see him, it was al she could do not to fling her arms around him.

“Just stopping by the airport,” he said conversational y. “I got a cal that you’d checked out of the hotel, so I thought maybe I’d make sure everything was okay.” His friendly tone didn’t fool Alexis – she could tel he was annoyed.

The cashier took Reid’s money wordlessly and started counting out change.

“I can pay for that myself,” Alexis said, pul ing out her own twenty-dol ar bil .

She was happy to see Reid, it was true. But she couldn’t let herself start depending on him, no matter how much she wanted to. She needed to stand on her own two feet. If she started to let him in, and she was wrong about the kind of person he was, wel …Alexis didn’t want to think about how much it would hurt.

The clerk stopped, looking uncertain as she held out the handful of change. “I already rang it up.”

“Wel , ring it up again,” Alexis said.

“But I already shut the drawer.”

“I’m sure there’s a way to – ”

“She already shut the drawer,” Reid said, reaching over and taking the change from the girl’s hand. “We wouldn’t want her to have to go through any more trouble.”

“Thanks,” the girl said grateful y, like Reid had just saved her from a major trauma.

“No problem.”

Whatever. If these two wanted to stand here flirting, that was their business.

Alexis had a plane to catch. She grabbed her bag and started heading out of the gift shop.

“Where are you going?” Reid asked, fol owing her.

“Back out to the airport.”

“To wait for your flight?”

“Yes.” She kept walking, ignoring the spark of guilt that was beginning to flare inside of her. She reminded herself that she didn’t owe him anything. She hardly knew him.

“The flight that’s leaving in a couple hours?”

“Yes.”

“Okay.”

Alexis quickened her pace. Reid kept up with her, though, and by the time she got back over to the waiting area, he was walking right next to her. She sat down. He sat down.

She pul ed her lemonade out of her bag and took a sip. He didn’t say anything.

Why wasn’t he saying anything? Shouldn’t he be yel ing at her or something? She tried to glance at him out of the corner of her eye. He seemed to be sitting there calmly, his hands folded in front of him. It was very unnerving. She was just about to get up and move seats when he final y spoke.

“So were you going to tel me you were leaving?”

She thought about lying. Then, final y, she just said, “No.”

“Why not?”

“Because I don’t need your help.”

He took in a deep breath, and then opened his mouth to say something. He must have thought better of it, though, because he stopped talking and waited a moment before starting again. “That’s fine,” he said. “But don’t you think it was common courtesy to tel me you were leaving?”

“I guess.”

“You guess?”

“Yes. I mean, I can see why you would think that.” Her heart was hammering in her chest. She wanted to tel him she was sorry, that she never should have left like that, that she was thankful that he wanted to help her, that she did need him, that she wanted him to go with her. But how could she?

The only people she’d ever cared about in her life were her mom and Leo. Her mom had died. And Leo had threatened to kil her. She didn’t trust herself to know who she could trust – if anyone.

“So you’re sorry?”

“I’m sorry I left without tel ing you. I shouldn’t have done that.”

Reid didn’t say anything. Instead, he reached into her bag and pul ed out the pretzels. He opened them and popped one into his mouth.

“Hey,” Alexis said, “those are mine.”

He shook his head and ate another one without saying anything. Wel . He
had
paid for them, so she supposed he was entitled to eat a few.

And then she remembered something. “Hey,” she said,

“what about your meeting?”

“What about it?” He took another pretzel and put it in his mouth.

“Aren’t you supposed to be in it right now?”

He shrugged. “Muel er’s handling it.”

“Muel er’s…” she trailed off. “Muel er? The guy you hate?

The guy you said was a shit-sucking vacuum?”

He frowned. “I didn’t say that. I don’t say things like that.”

“Yes, you did.”

“No. I said he was a shit sucker. Not a shit-sucking vacuum.”

“Oh.” Vacuum or not, why had he let Muel er do the presentation? Was it because he was so worried about her that he was wil ing to miss his meeting?

She looked at him.

He was sitting there in his expensive suit, hunched over with his elbows on his knees. His profile was strong, his lips set in a pensive line. God, he was gorgeous. She remembered what it was like to feel his mouth on hers. Her stomach flipped and tingles pulsed through her skin.

A voice came over the loudspeaker, alerting her to the fact that her flight was boarding.

Alexis stood up and shouldered her bag.

“Wel ,” she said. “I guess I should go.”

Reid looked up at her. “You’re seriously going to leave?”

She nodded.
Tell me to stay,
she prayed silently.
Or tell
me you want to go with
me.

He’d basical y said those things to her already, back in the hotel room, and she’d freaked out. But now that he was here, now that she’d had a little time to calm down, al she wanted was for him to gather her in his arms and take her away from al of this. But her pride wouldn’t let her say it.

“Okay.” Reid nodded. “Wel . Good luck.”

“Yeah,” she said. “Thanks.”

She waited a beat, giving him another chance to stop her.

But he didn’t. And so final y, she turned on her heel and walked away, blinking back tears as she went.

***

Reid had tried to get on Alexis’s flight, but it was ful .

Once he’d found that out, he’d searched the airport for her until he’d spotted her in the gift shop. She’d been frowning at the cashier and shifting her weight back and forth from one foot to the other. He’d watched as she pushed a strand of her hair behind one ear and then began thumbing through her wal et. He’d instantly rushed over and plopped that twenty down.

And now she was gone. He watched as she handed her boarding pass to the boarding agent and went through security. She walked confidently, not betraying any of the fear or insecurity he was sure she was feeling.

Reid looked down, realizing he was stil holding her bag of pretzels. He shook his head, disgusted with himself. What the hel was wrong with him? He was acting completely crazy. How could he have just left that meeting like that?

Especial y after finding out Vista was meeting with another agency!

Richard Muel er had cal ed while Reid was in the taxi on the way to the airport.

That asshole had been annoyed at first, but he soon turned gleeful as he realized what Reid’s absence meant – that Reid had basical y just handed this whole project over to Richard, serving it up on a sliver platter.

If Richard Muel er landed the account, he’d be praised. If somehow they didn’t get it, even if it was because of Richard’s incompetence, Reid would be the one to get the blame.

Reid sat there for a moment, tel ing himself he should get back in a taxi and head back to the client’s office. If he hurried, he could probably get there before the meeting was over.

But he didn’t move. He couldn’t get Alexis out of his head.

He couldn’t stop thinking about her body, her smile, and the way she laughed. He remembered how much fun he’d had staying up late with her while they brainstormed ideas for his pitch. Anger surged through his body when he thought about anyone hurting her. If anything happened to Alexis, and he wasn’t there to stop it, he’d never forgive himself.

So he got up and walked over to the ticket counter. There had to be another flight to Philadelphia.

Chapter Ten

The flight was fil ed with turbulence, and by the time the plane touched down in Philadelphia, Alexis felt like she was going to jump out of her skin. She was a nervous flyer during the best of times, and bad conditions just exacerbated her anxiety. There’d been a layover in Richmond, Virginia, and her flight had been delayed for a couple of hours, giving her time to become even more nervous.