Commitment (11 page)

“Seriously. Does he look like someone who
shares
?”

g

When Shawn had done his rounds, Brendan quietly spirited them out a side door and down a corridor that led outside. A black SUV with tinted windows was waiting for them and they all piled in. The driver stared straight ahead, not once looking over his shoulder even to see who was in the backseat. Brendan rode up front and instructed him to take them to the Millennium Biltmore.

Once there, he led them inside to a modern lounge-style Japanese restaurant
for a late sushi dinner. The
maître d showed them to private table in the rear near the kitchen
and within
moments the sommelier brought over bottle of champagne. Shawn glanced at the label nodding his assent
.
Then he
reached for Riley across the table. Brendan’s eyes fell to their joined hands for a fraction of a second before he looked discreetly away.

“So are there clubs we could go to tonight?” Tracy asked. “I’ve only ever been to L.A. for work so I’d love to see what all the fuss is about.”

“We can show you what all the fuss is about,” Brendan promised. “The question is can you hang?”

“Oh, I can hang,” Tracy said.

“How
‘bout you? You feel like going to a club?” Shawn asked leaning in closer to Riley.

“Whatever you would normally do.”

Brendan laughed. “Oh, we couldn’t take you along for what we
normally
do,” he said.

Shawn gave him a look.
“We could hang out for a couple hours
and then head back to the
hotel,” he
said to Riley.

As far as she was concerned they could skip the club altogether, but there was Tracy to entertain
.
Under the table, Shawn was bouncing his leg up and down. He was still coming down from the high of the show and had excess energy not yet expended. He fidgeted with her hand, turning it over, looking at
his
fingers intertwined with
hers,
then
idly traced circles in her palm while glancing at the menu. Riley smiled and pulled away, gently placing her hand over his and just like that, he was still.

“Where are you guys headed after this?” Tracy asked.

“Seattle.” Shawn didn’t look up, still studying the menu. 

“Big hip-hop following in Seattle?” Tracy
asked
, taking a sip of her
champagne.

“Haven’t you heard?” Shawn said
evenly
. “There’s a big hip-hop following everywhere.”

Riley stifled a smile.

After two bottles of champagne were done and they’d made their way through what seemed like dozens of rolls of sushi, Riley was actually looking forward to the club. The drinks had loosened everyone up and Tracy
even
seemed to have lost interest in picking on Shawn
. Instead, she was
engaging in a little tipsy flirtation with Brendan who was eating up every moment of it.

When they pulled up in front of the club, there was a huge crowd and paparazzi snapping pictures of anyone even marginally famous as they went in. 

“Pull around to the side, man.” Shawn tapped the driver on his shoulder.

“Why?” Tracy asked. “Then we won’t get the full on L.A. vibe.”

“Pull around to the side,” Shawn insisted.

The driver maneuvered the SUV around the corner and into an alleyway.
After
Brendan made a quick call, someone came out of a door obscured by darkness to usher them in.

In no time they were seated in a semi-private area of the exclusive nightclub, sipping drinks and watching L.A.’s glitterati at play. Riley had never seen so many beautiful women in one place before – not even in Manhattan where beautiful people seemed to sprout from the sidewalks. In her jeans and black top, she must look positively dowdy next to them.

To make matters worse,
Shawn was
suddenly keeping his distance, sitting
at the other end of the sofa, his head bopping to the music. Riley watched him for a few moments
out of the corner of her eye
, but h
e seemed
oblivious to
the women who walked by
their cordoned off VIP section,
just happening to slow down, flip their hair or drop something precisely as they entered his line of sight. This was probably his standard
nightclub
experience
.
Riley leaned back and exhaled sharply
.

Of course it was; he was a
rap star
.

His fame and all that came along with it had always seemed so far removed from what went on between them in the quiet, dark hotel suites. In those rooms, there was just the two of them – Shawn’s hand on her face, her lips on his and the rest of the world ceased to exist.

But here, it was
being thrust into
their faces and though he seemed perfectly capable of ignoring it, she was not. Watching the parade of women walk by making eyes in his direction, Riley felt a
strange
hot ball form in the pit of her stomach and rise into her chest.

“Tracy,” she leaned over toward her friend. “Let’s go dance.”

Tracy shrugged and tossed her purse aside, getting up and reaching out to hold her hand. Riley allowed herself to be dragged onto the dance floor where they spun and moved together, the way they had when they were in college and date-less at a party.

Tracy’s head was thrown back, her eyes closed as she disappeared in the music. Riley did the same, turning herself completely over to the beat. After sometime, she didn’t even notice when, two guys joined them. They were clearly
way too
young, but it was a welcome distraction. The one dancing with her kept trying to pull her closer and she moved deftly out of his reach, smiling at him so as not to hurt his feelings. At a lull in the music, he leaned in and spoke in her ear.

“Can I buy you a drink?”

“No thanks,” she shouted back. “I’m good.”

“You sure?
You look thirsty.”

Riley laughed. “
Ok
, buy me a drink,” she capitulated.

Tracy motioned that she was going to sit and Riley waved at her. She would stay put and dance until she was exhausted, or until it was time to go, whichever came first. It was hard to maintain a coherent thought while she was dancing, and that was just what she needed right now. Her mother was always telling her she lived in her head too much, and it was true.

Even now, she was thinking ahead to Sunday when she would leave L.A. and Shawn. For the first time since they’d been together, she
was
finding
herself preoccupied with what happened when she wasn’t around. Thank God
,
she had plans for dinner with Brian to take her mind off things.
She would be way too distracted to think about Shawn on the road being deluged by offers from women far more attractive than she was.
But
Brian
– and New York – seemed so far away right now.

While she was daydreaming, her young dance partner had returned with two drinks in hand. She took one and smiled at him. It looked very sweet, like something she probably wouldn’t have ordered herself. Just as she’d made up her mind to take an exploratory sip, Shawn was there and took it from her, putting the drink on the tray of a passing server. Before he
turned and pulled her away, he leaned in to say something to the guy she’d been dancing with. Whatever it was, the guy took off toward the other end of the club.

Riley looked up at him quizzically.

“
Why are you
taking drinks from some dude you don’t even know?” he said, his lips pressed against her ear. 

Riley rolled her eyes. “Just a harmless kid.”

He led her off the dance floor and over to a quieter corner
, standing
so that his back was to the room and he was blocking both her view and access to the rest of the club.

“How do you know he’s harmless? He would’ve had his hands on your ass a few minutes after you had that drink.
He might have slipped you something.
”

“What did you say to him just now?” she asked. “I hope you weren’t rude.”

“I told him to
please
get the fuck out of your face, so no, I wasn’t rude,” Shawn said. 

“You’re not turning into that guy are you? You know the one who flips out when his girl talks to anyone else, or dances with anyone else?” Riley looked up at him.

She was only half joking.
Neither of them knew the rules of engagement when they were out together at places like this.
In New York, except for the occasional meal at a restaurant, all their time was spent alone together.

“No. I’m not that guy who doesn’t want his girl talking to
anybody
or dancing with
anybody
but him.”

Riley nodded, keeping her eyes fixed on his,
waiting for him
to
finish
his
thought
.

“But the fucked up thing is, you’re
not
my girl, Riley.
I don’t even ha
ve a right to let it bother me.
Shit, I’m the dude you’re sneaking around with. And that’s
all
I am.”

Riley shook her head.
“That’s not true.”

“If it’s not true, how come you didn’t stop me when I told the driver to pull around back? You didn’t want Brian seeing pictures of you and me together. Just admit it.”

Riley looked at him, incredulous. “That was your idea. I had no clue why you were doing that.”

But even as she said it, she knew it wasn’t
precisely
true. She’d
had an
inkling
that Shawn
had been
protecting her anonymity and she’d let him do it.
She’d been relieved that he had
,
unlikely as it was that Brian would ever happen to see a photo of them together, even if one were to wind up in a tabloid someplace.

Shawn shook his head. “I might as well be some guy climbing out
of
your window late at night.
What we do
is no different from that.”

“And that bothers you all of a sudden?” she demanded.

“What bothers me is that every dude in here has as much right to step to you as I do. No matter how many times we’ve been together, that never changes. You’re with somebody else.”

“But not tonight. Not this weekend. I’m here with
you
Shawn.”

“What did you tell him anyway, about this weekend?”

“That I was going to L.A. to see a friend.”

“A friend,” he repeated. “That’s what we are, you and me? Friends?”

“
Yeah
.
Sure, there’s more to it than that, but . . .” she trailed off into silence.

“
Exactly how many of your
friends
are you fucking, Riley?”

“
Just stop
,” she said, holding up a hand. “
Yo
u wanted me here and so I came
. I don’t understand why you’re picking
a fight
with me. Nothing’s different except the geography.” 

“
M
aybe
that’s the
fucking
problem,” Shawn said.

Then he was gone.

The sudden absence of his body heat caused her to shudder. A moment later Tracy was standing in front of her.

“What the hell just happened?”

Riley shook her head. “I don’t know anymore. Look, let’s just go, okay?”

Tracy’s eyes were wide. She didn’t protest, as Riley expected she would. “Okay. Sure. Let me get Brendan.”

“No, we’re taking a cab.” Riley pushed past her and toward the exit.

g

When Riley finally emerged from the mass of blankets and sheets on Saturday, it was well past noon, and Tracy was coming in from what was apparently a very fruitful shopping trip.

“I just saw Colin Farrell on Robertson Boulevard,” she said tossing her shopping bags in a corner and yanking
aside
the drapes. “And I swear to God he gave me a second look.”

“How exciting,” Riley said, her voic
e croaking. “Wait.
How’d you get to Robertson Boulevard?”

“Brendan. And no, Shawn was not with us.” Tracy sat on the edge of the bed. “Let’s go grab something to eat, okay? He’s not essential to your having a good time, Riley.”