One Wish

CHAPTERTWENTY-FOUR

Eli

It takes a mountain of phone calls and a barrage of abuse from my assistant and agent before I eventually manage to find a few days off just to solely concentrate on Audrey. I even called Kendra “Audrey” to my assistant at one point, and I didn’t realize until he asked me who the hell Audrey was. In the end, I had to make up some excuse that Audrey was Kendra’s sick aunt who we had to visit for a few days. I detected he could sense the BS being spilled into the phone, but he never called me on it. At the end of the day, I decide what is best in my life, and right now it’s making sure Audrey finds any answers she may seek. Whether she will get any, I have no idea, but I am willing to try anything for her.

We’re on the private jet again, around halfway there, as Audrey stares out of the window for a while before eventually glancing my way with a smile. It’s in that moment that I think of a question that should have popped into my head last night when we were talking, but somehow got missed.

“What did you wish for?”

That cute little crinkle forms on her forehead, one thing I never see in Kendra. “Come again?”

I laugh at her question. “On your birthday you made a wish and it came true. Can you remember what that was exactly? What it is you asked?”

Her eyes focus on the chair in front of her before closing. Panic begins to surface wondering if she’s remembered something… something bad. Really bad.

Eventually, she makes eye contact with me and opens her mouth. “I wished that I could be your wife for a month.” Tears begin to well in her eyes like something terrible has dawned on her. “What happens after the month has ended?”

My heart drops at the prospect, but not wanting her to see my anxiety, I grab a hold of her hand and grip it tightly. “I don’t know, but whatever happens, we’ll get through it together. I promise.”

This seems to calm her somewhat as she smiles and glances back out the window. However, my mind is whirring. It’s already been over three weeks. I think back to the date when Audrey had her accident. The day before my movie launch. That was May seventh, and it’s now May thirtieth.

What’s going to happen June seventh?

Will Audrey wake from her coma? Will she… no, I cannot allow my brain to go there. I refuse. But, if she does wake up from her coma, then what will happen to Kendra? In fact, where has Kendra been all this time?

The headache that formed yesterday is suddenly coming back. I’m having a hard time coming to terms with the fact that a girl I met three weeks ago in a café is suddenly sat next to me, let alone anything that comes after that. I still struggle to believe it even though it’s been staring me in the face. It’s just… well, this is completely unheard of. Last night while lying in bed trying to sleep, I conjured up this idea that maybe I’m the one in a coma and currently inventing this idea of the coffee shop girl simply because I want to form a natural relationship with someone. She was the last person I saw before getting into the car and heading to a meeting with the director and producer of my latest movie. Maybe along the way, I got into an accident, and now here I am, in my head… needing this coffee shop girl to be my happily ever after simply because I need something special in my life. I need stability, warmth, love, compassion, and honesty. All the traits Audrey seems to have in bucketloads. She’s become my own perfect creation of how I perceive my soulmate would be, so is it any wonder I would be dreaming about her now?

Deciding to continue with my strange yet auspicious dream, I gently tap Audrey’s arm. “Where do you want to head first?”

One side of her lip curves up into a smile. “Well, considering I may split the space-time continuum or something, I thought it best to go in slow. My café is as good a start as any.”

Smirking at her sassiness, I reply, “Cute,” causing her to giggle. “Okay, the café it is then.”

She maneuvers herself to get a better look at me. “I haven’t had the chance to thank you properly for all of this, and that makes me a sucky person. I really do appreciate it, though. I understand you’re having to sacrifice a lot to do this for me.”

“Hey,” I scorn back at her. “No talk of this sacrificing to help you. There is no sacrifice. I’m doing this because I want to. I’m doing this because you need me. And, if I’m perfectly honest here, I’m doing this because I need you too. So, in a sense, I’m being selfish.”

She laughs at my choice of words. “I can’t see you being selfish.”

I wonder how she could possibly know. “How is it you have come to that conclusion, though? You yourself have stated that I hardly know you. I could say the same for you.”

She shrugs one shoulder. “I can just see it in you. Even when you were being mean to me these past few weeks, I could still see that struggle in your eyes. It was almost like it physically pained you to be cruel.” Her words cause my body to tighten and she notices straight away. “Don’t be hard on yourself,” she soothes, reaching her hand to grip round my arm. “Kendra turned you into someone you hated. You never wanted to be that man.”

I shake my head, amazed at how perceptive she is when she’s only known me a short time. It did pain me to be that man. I despised that man with a vengeance. I felt I had conjured up a monster.

“You really could tell all this?”

“Of course,” she sings back. “I didn’t know how I knew it at the time, but the way you spoke to me wasn’t like how I remembered you to be. You would get angry at me and turn me away, but not because you were mean. You were simply protecting your heart.”

She places her free hand on my chest and an intake of my breath causes me to startle a little. Did she just seriously take my breath away? I thought that only ever happened in movies. Sure, I’ve acted this part a thousand times, but it was never real. It was never… like this.

Her eyes full of wonder and surprise stare back at me. Does she feel it too? The undeniable electricity coursing through my body that’s making my heart jolt faster? I have this sudden, violent urge to reach my head forward and touch my lips to hers, feel the warmth of her mouth and the feathers of her soft kiss. To taste her sweet tongue as it dances with mine, and the overwhelming happiness that will no doubt dizzy my head like the last time we kissed.

As if sensing my longing, her eyes dart to my lips as she licks her own, and I take that as my cue to tilt my head forward. She mimics me and we’re inches away when…

“We will be starting our descent in ten minutes.”

The noise from the loudspeaker causes us both to jolt back, and just like that our eye contact is broken… the moment completely lost. In fact, I lose her so much that she furrows her brow like she’s thinking of something bad before completely turning her head away. I want to ask her what’s wrong, but I put it down to the fact that she’s rightfully nervous about the next few hours ahead.