Incidental Happenstance (39 page)

            “There isn’t anything in the world that would change my mind about wanting to be with you Dylan,” she said firmly. “Nothing.”

            He smiled at her thinly, then sat up and got out of bed. “Let’s do this over coffee, shall we? Once again, you had me up all night and I need some caffeine.”

            When they were seated on the balcony nursing steaming mugs, Tia looked at him. “Don’t try to scare me, Dylan—there’s nothing you could say to me that would make me feel differently about going forward. I love you.”

            “I love you too,” he started. “It’s not so easy, though Tia, being in love with me. You have to think about that.”

            “What do you mean?” she asked. “It’s the easiest thing in the world. Completely natural,” she smiled.

            He shook his head and scooted his chair closer to hers, putting his arm around her. “We still have some hard realities to figure in, though,” he said sadly, tucking her hair behind her ear and kissing her cheek. 

            “Yeah, I guess we do, huh,” she conceded.

            “I’m so glad it’s easy for you to love me. I feel exactly the same way—like it’s such a natural fit with us. Being in love with someone like me though…has complications. Tough ones, sometimes. I think you need to know what you’re in for if we…” his voice trailed off, and he pulled her closer.

            “I know,” she said.  “It’s hard to go out in public, I lose my privacy, you’re traveling all over the place, women are constantly throwing themselves at you…but as long as we love each other, I could learn to deal with it.”

            “But that’s not all. The paparazzi are relentless. I live on a ranch to try and keep them at bay, but even so, they have these long range cameras, they go through my trash, they lurk in hotel lobbies and outside restaurants… I avoid them as much as I can, but they’re always there. I absolutely never talk to them or give any statements; I don’t buy the tabloids, and don’t try to attract their attention. But I’m in the public eye and they’re determined to give the public as much gossip as they can—especially after that ‘sexiest man’ thing. And when they don’t have any real stories, they make them up. They try to link me with other celebrities, fabricate relationships—there has to be a whole different level of trust between us than the usual relationship.”

            “I do trust you Dylan. I’m not going to lie and say I haven’t had a few pangs of jealousy here and there, but I fell in love with the person you are, and I have complete faith in you.”

            He kissed her again, and smiled. “I’m glad you know that, and I’d never betray your trust; but it still isn’t easy when you see articles in those damned magazines that allude ings that aren’t real. People believe them, and they can be awfully hurtful.  When they find out about us they’ll pick your life apart, baby. You’ll be a story—the girl who landed the sexiest man alive,” he said, making air quotes with his fingers. “They’ll dig up info about you any way they can—they’ll talk to your co-workers, former students—anyone who’ll give them a crumb of information. They’ll find out about Nick—are you prepared to have that dragged through the media? To have them say that I was your rebound relationship?” Tia looked pained, but she had to know it all in order to make the right decision for her.

            “You don’t always know who your true friends are, either,” he continued. “People suddenly come climbing out of the woodwork pretending to care about you, but all they really care about is what they can get from you. Believe me; I learned that lesson the hard way, more times than I can count. They could make life uncomfortable, at least for a while. Of course, there is the travel aspect of my job too. This tour is different, and I’ve chosen to spend the money so that we could spend quality time together. But when we tour the States it’s totally different. Mostly we sleep on the bus when we travel between cities and it keeps me away for months at a time.” He sighed, and pulled her closer. “It’s a lot to think about, I know,” he said, “but you do need to think about it. I’ll be gone for a few hours today, so you’ll have some time to make an informed decision,” he finished, kissing the top of her head and resting his lips there.

            Tia moaned deep in her throat. “Oh, it’s not fair!” she exclaimed. “I said it on our first night—why can’t you just be a normal guy? And you said, ‘I am a normal guy, Tia, I’m just not in a normal situation.’ I know it’s going to be hard sometimes, Dylan—I’ve seen the tabloids and the TV shows. But it all comes down to the same thing anyway, don’t you think?” She hugged him tight. “If we love each other, we work it out. We just figure it out as it comes. Because I do love you, and can’t imagine my life without you in it anymore. I just can’t.”

            “I know—I feel exactly the same way. I just need to give you all the facts in case you…” he didn’t want to finish the sentence; didn’t want to give her an out, but he had to be fair, “…decided that it wasn’t right for you,” he finished.

            Tia sat up straight and looked into his eyes. “I don’t need a single second to think about it, Dylan Miller,” she said, taking his face in her hands and kissing him gently. “
You
are right for me, and life without you wouldn’t have any meaning. I’m sticking, and you’ll have to get used to it. I do trust you completely—I’m working really hard to get over the jealousy thing, and I will. We’ll face whatever happens together, because you are my life now.”

            Dylan felt relief sweep through him and he planted gentle kisses on her cheeks, her forehead, her nose, her lips, running his fingers through her hair and down her back, pulling her to him. “I was hoping you’d say that,” he whispered. “Because I want you to be mine, Tia. Exclusively.”

            “I’ve been yours since the start, Dylan. Didn’t you know?”

            “And I’ve been yours. It’s just that I’m a guy, and it took me a little longer to figure it out,” he said with his famous half-smile.

            She entwined her finger through his. “I’m so glad you finally did.”

            “Me too,” he said, kissing the back of her hand. “But there’s one more thing we should talk about. Something else we need to get figured out.”

            “What’s that?”

            “I was thinking, that since you’ve already made the decision to keep me a secret…”

            “I’m not keeping you a secret, Dylan. I’m telling people
about
you, I’m just not telling them exactly who you are.”

            “And I think that was a smart decision on your part. The last thing I want to do is make your life difficult. This is going to get tricky for you, Tia, and going public with our relationship right before I go off to make a film on the other side of the world would definitely create problems for you.”

            “That was the main reason I made that decision. I want to tell everyone in the world that I love you, but I’m afraid of how some of them will react. I knew I didn’t want to deal with the hassle when I thought I might only have a couple days to spend with you, and then I had so much to do to get ready for this trip…”

            “I want to tell the whole world, too. But it’s going to a big story, and the paparazzi will be all over you; and I won’t be there to help you deal with it. I was thinking we might wait until I’ve finished the film before we go public—how do you feel about that?”

            Tia didn’t have to think about it for long—she’d been considering all of these things since the first day she met him, and had no desire to deal with the publicity alone. “I think it’s a good idea too,” she agreed. “I definitely want you by my side when I have to deal with that.”            “You could tell your friends, though,” he said smiling. “While you still know who all your real friends are. I don’t have to be a big dark secret.”

            “I could,” she said, noncommittally. She wanted to desperately, especially now that she knew he returned her love and that they had a future together. But she was still nervous about how much her life would change once that knowledge was out there, especially when she’d have to face it alone until spring. She’d cross that bridge when she came to it, she figured.

            August came way too soon, and the realization began to sink in that they were going to have to say goodbye long before either of them wanted to. Tia’s last stop was Florence, and although it was a beautiful city, it was a bittersweet part of the summer for her. Mostly bitter. InHap still had two stops left in Europe before wrapping up the tour, and then it was on to New Zealand for Dylan, who had barely a week to spend with his family in Melbourne before filming began.

            On their last night together, they held each other in silence as each dealt with the reality that they wouldn’t see each other for months. Tia’s schedule didn’t allow her any significant time off until hristmas break, but Dylan had invited her to Melbourne to meet his family and spend Christmas with him in Australia. She knew that her own family would miss her over the holidays, but was confident that her parents would want her to follow her dreams and to be happy, and she gladly agreed to join him. She was nervous about meeting his family, but thrilled that he wanted her to. He’d send her plane tickets in November, he said, once he had his own schedule worked out and knew exactly when he’d be able to get away.

            There were no more words to be spoken between them—they’d said everything they’d needed to say over the past three months—so they just held on, wishing the minutes would tick by more slowly as her departure grew ever nearer. Neither of them slept but a couple winks, and even those were spent entangled in each other anyway. Parting was something neither of them wanted to do.

            “It isn’t goodbye, remember that,” Dylan whispered as he rode with her to the airport. It was hard for her to believe that the next day she’d be back at work, setting up her classroom for another school year, on the other side of the world from the man she loved. Somehow, putting up bulletin boards and designing lesson plans seemed the furthest things from her mind, yet it was her reality.

            “I know,” she whispered. “It’s just going to be so long before I see you again…oh God, I don’t know how I’m going to go through the motions.”

            “I know, I know,” Dylan said softly. “It’s going to be the same for me, you know. I’ll be thinking of you all the time and we’ll talk, and email…” but they both knew that was going to be difficult. There was an eighteen hour time difference between Chicago and Auckland, and with both of them working, it would be tough to stay connected. Somehow, she thought, she had to get through the next four months without him. She’d become so accustomed to seeing him every day, spending the nights with him in their shared bed, and now she would go home to the boring normalcy that was her life before she’d met him. There was no plan for how she was going to make it—there just didn’t seem to be an easy way. She also didn’t know how she was going to talk about the amazing summer she’d had without bursting at the seams. She was in love with the most incredible man and wanted to tell everyone, but she still didn’t know if she should tell anyone who the love of her life really was.

            Dylan went in disguise to the airport, so he could spend every possible moment with her before she had to go through the security line and out of his sight—out of his life. They held each other until the last possible minute, kissing and whispering “I love you” until it was time for her to go. One last kiss, and then he watched her as she constantly looked back to him, tears spilling freely down her cheeks, until she turned the corner and was out of sight. It was going to be a rough few months, he knew, and he would miss her terribly, but he felt certain their love was strong enough to survive time and distance; and there sure would be plenty of both.

            The tears wouldn’t stop as she turned the corner and Dylan was out of her sight. For months. Her breath hitched in her chest and she had to wipe at her eyes just so she could read the signs and find her departure gate. She finally found the right place and fell into an empty seat while the people around her either openly stared or glanced at her from the corners of their eyes.  She didn’t care that people were staring—she was going to have to ride out this wave of emotion—it was pointless to try and stop it.

            A woman about her age sat across and a few seats over from where Tia had landed, surrounded by half a dozen purses and backpacks.  She rose from her seat and handed Tia a tissue. “Are you OK?” she asked tenderly.

            Tia nodded and croaked, “Not really, but I’ll be alright eventually. Thanks.”

            “Is there anything I can do? Anything you need?”

            Tia was grateful for the kindness, but knew that there wasn’t anything anyone could do to make her feel better. “Thanks,” she said again, “but there’s nothing.” She wiped the tears from her face and added, “I just had to say goodbye to my boyfriend, and I won’t see him again for four months.” More tears spilled, and she dabbed at them with the already sodden tissue.

            The woman reached into her purse and pulled out a travel-sized pack. “Oh, that sucks,” she said, handing Tia the package. “You’re probably going to need the whole pack, then.” Tia took the tissues gratefully and the woman nodded sympathetically and went back to her seat.

            Tia did the only thing she could—she pulled out her iPad, popped in her ear buds, cranked up some of Dylan’s music, and started scrolling through her pictures. It didn’t make her feel better; she could feel the sense of loss becoming a physical hole; but she had his voice in her ear and his images in her hand; two empty hours before they started boarding the plane, and a whole pack of tissues.