Kicking Reality

“Are you and Emerson Chase an item?”

The last question struck a nerve. People were onto us. I could have exposed our relationship, come out to the world and tell everyone how I felt about her.

But that would damage us more than it would bring good.

“She’s engaged to Wesley Chase. She’s like my sister.”

I pretend it didn’t hurt, and that the anger didn’t consume me, walking back to the restaurant where I’m forced to pretend Emerson Chase meant nothing me.

When in reality—I was in love with her.

“Another woman may have caught your eye, but ultimately, the heart is what matters the most.”

~ Emerson Chase.

Wes packs his final suitcase, zipping it up and placing it near the door.

I sit at the dining table, crunching numbers and emailing our lawyer about the contracts we signed for the fitness line launching in Europe. It was te

dious work and something I had been putting off. I also busied myself looking at other properties to purchase to build my portfolio—branching away from Wesley. There’s a pot of coffee beside me; cold and stale from when I made it earlier this morning.

“You know where to reach me.”

“I have your number,” I remind him, staring at this impossible equation on my screen.

“Will you be okay by yourself?”

I can hear the worry in his voice. This isn’t the first time he had gone away for the weekend but after what happened in London, he had been extra protective watching my every move. He even made Jimmy—our bodyguard—follow me around town.

The stalker had been arrested but nothing else could be done. He hadn’t breached any laws and the guy just needed a visit to the looney bin to regroup. Nina held bits of information from me not to stress me out.

“I’ll be fine. Tayla flies in tomorrow morning so we’re gonna hang out.”

“You never told me Tayla would be in town.”

I sigh, shutting the lid of my laptop to give him attention.

“Mom was supposed to come but had something last minute pop up so she sent Tayla instead. I didn’t tell you because I figured you didn’t care.”

“I care, Emerson.” He moves closer to me, resting his hand on my cheek.

Without hurting his feelings, I turn my face away allowing him to pull back. Since we got back from London last week, our schedules had been busy with no time to unwind. We had two more shows to film before final edits. We did a round of interviews, appeared as guests on talk shows, and had meetings with our business partners. Each night I came home utterly exhausted, fitting in small workouts here and there then crashing as soon as I hit the pillow.

It left little time to think about Logan and how we left things off despite the thousands of texts he would send each day which I continued to ignore.

“I should go.”

“Have fun.”

“Do you really mean that?” he asks in a civil tone, a small smile appearing on his tired face.

“I do.” I offer a small smile in return, hoping to reconcile our constant fighting. “We’ll get through this, okay? Just have fun with the boys.”

“I never meant to hurt you, Em. I don’t know what happened that night,” he admits quietly. “I know we’re not together but it doesn’t stop me from loving you.”

Letting out a sigh, my eyes meet his with forgiveness. “It’s done, Wes. We need to move on with our lives. We have two more episodes left to film. Cliff said they will show our argument at Scarlett’s party. The cracks are already there for those that want to read between the lines.”

“I know. But you know that season won’t air until the fall. In the meantime, the network doesn’t want to show any cracks in our relationship. They want it to be a surprise. Ratings soar higher that way.”