Fake (West Hollywood 1)

In fact, he just blinked. “Right. Let me get the rest of this shoved in there; then we’re going to talk.”

“Car is arriving in five, Paddy,” yelled Mei. “Oh, forget that, it’s here!”

“There’s no time to talk. You have a plane to catch.” I took a deep breath. “Call me later.”

“Yeah. Okay.” He frowned. “Wish this wasn’t so rushed.”

“I know.”

“We’re going to be okay,” he said, like it needed confirmation.

“Of course we are.”

“Bags ready?” asked Mei, charging into the bedroom. “Kiss the girl, Paddy. Time to go.”

He did as told. A soft, gentle kiss I wanted to hold onto forever. A sweet thing full of adoration and regret. When he rested his forehead against mine, we stared into each other’s eyes for a long moment. Total love-struck stuff. But I needed it. Maybe it would always be like this. Him running off to the far corners of the world for work and me being left behind. Maybe one day I’d be used to it and send him off with a real smile. I looked forward to that day. Given there was no time and nothing to say that would change things, neither of us spoke. We just took that moment together, breathing in each other’s air, memorizing each other’s faces. Then we ran out of time. He was in a car on his way to the airport. He was gone.

“Your face right now is the reason I haven’t missed dating since my divorce.” Mei sipped her beer beside me on the couch. That we were pairing it with a selection of ice creams was kind of gross, but oh well. “You’re all forlorn looking, Norah. I hate to see it.”

“I didn’t know you were divorced,” I said, digging through the chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream for the good stuff. Only fats and sugars could save the day. Or night, as it were. Lovesick and heartsore, I sat there in a kind of a daze.

“Happened a few years back. He inherited a house in Toronto and we hadn’t been doing so well. I didn’t feel like moving countries was the right thing for me.” She sighed. “So he left and I stayed.”

“Did you try doing it long distance?”

“No. In all honesty, it was already over.” She took another pull on her beer. “You either grow together or fall apart, I guess.”

“I’m sorry that happened to you.”

She shrugged. “Eh. We got together when we were young and it just didn’t last. You change so much in your twenties and then heading into your thirties. Priorities, wants and needs, they’re all up in the air.”

“True.”

“I think you and Paddy have pretty good odds of making it,” she said.

I perked up. “You think so?”

“I mean, you either put the effort in or you don’t. But I think you two could make it.”

“We’ve only been together for like five seconds. That’s what worries me the most. That there isn’t this great big well-established foundation for us to build on.”

“Yeah,” she said. “Relationships are tricky. It’s not just how into each other you are, it’s how you fit into each other’s worlds. How badly you want it and what you’re willing to sacrifice.”

I slumped back against the couch, abandoning my pint of ice cream on the coffee table. “Do you think I should have gone with him?”

“I can’t make that decision for you.” She tapped her nails against the bottle of beer. “It was hard enough for me deciding to let him go alone and have a new assistant assigned to him over on set. But I want to get the production company rolling. I want to start moving forward, you know?”

“I hear you. It seemed so straightforward in theory,” I said. “Of course I wasn’t going to be his shadow. But now that he’s gone . . .”

“You’re all sad face.”

“Yeah.”

“Poor Paddy. He’s been abandoned by both of us.”

“He’s a big boy. He’ll manage.”

She smiled. “He’s come a long way since you walked in the door. I think Paddy’s one of those nothing-or-everything types. And no one else made him want to make the leap before.”

I made a humming noise. “Tell me about your plans for the production company.”

“Ah, I have two books I’m hoping he’ll be interested in getting options on. One is a romance and the other is more of an action-adventure thing,” she said. “I’ll leave you a copy of the romance. See what you think. It’s an angsty story.”

“That would be great. Paddy is an exceptional brooder.”

“Right?” she asked. “I think he’d be amazing as the lead. I figure we start out looking for a few vehicles for him. Then maybe expand and see about establishing new actors and directors and so on. It’ll be hard work getting everything together, but we’ve got the right connections to make it happen.”

“You’re going to be great, Mei.”