Incidental Happenstance (40 page)

            Each picture was a treasured memory and she was still amazed that they had done so much in just two and a half months. She took in the pictures slowly, savoring each memory: the two of them hiking the Alps near Vienna, Dylan leaning casually against a tree with the majestic mountains in the background, them zipping around Munich on Segways and walking the English Gardens. Other shots showed Dylan in his punk rock disguise, scowling at the Brandenburg Gate; in front of the Kibble Palace glasshouse; her smiling with the whole band back stage in Glasgow…

            She was so engrossed in pulling forth the details from each picture that she didn’t notice the small crowd that had gathered behind her; hadn’t heard the first exclamation from the guy who’d inadvertently noticed, over her shoulder, the primary subject of her photos. A light touch on her shoulder jerked her from her revelry and she flinched, turning to see the interested expressions on the dozen or so faces that had been watching from behind her. She clutched her iPad to her chest and pulled out her ear buds, Dylan’s voice suddenly tinny and distant, and looked at the strangers questioningly.

            “That’s Dylan Miller, isn’t it, in your pictures?” a scrawny young man asked reverently.

            There was no point in trying to hide it, Tia thought, they’d obviously already seen that it was. “Yeah,” she answered.

            “Holy hell!” Tissue Woman exclaimed. “He isn’t the boyfriend you had to say goodbye to…is he?”

            Tia just nodded. Part of her was thrilled that she could actually tell someone about Dylan, but the way they were all staring at her was making her uncomfortable at the same time.

            “Whoa, wait a minute…” the scrawny guy interjected. “You’re the mystery woman—from the London show—the one who sang on stage with Incidental Happenstance—I saw you on the monitor; I thought you looked familiar!”

            “You were at the Wembley show?” Tia asked, surprised that she was running into him now, in Italy.

            “We spent the summer backpacking,” he said, indicating with a toss of his head an equally scrawny and scruffy looking companion, “and pretty much followed them around, catching as many shows as we could. It was you, wasn’t it?”

            “Yeah,” Tia admitted, “it was me.”

            “You were really good, by the way!” the companion added.

            “Thanks.” She was feeling crowded and anxious now; several other people had heard the exchange and were expanding the group, and they started firing questions at her all at once.    

            “What’s he like?” “You were on the whole tour with them?” “Do you know the rest of the band?” “Are they all as cool as they seem?” “Was he really here, at the airport?” “Can we see the rest of your pictures?” And dozens of others that were lost in the din.

            Tia held up her hands to stop them. “I’m sorry,” she said, “but I’m really emotional right now, and I just want to have a little pity party for myself. I will tell you, though, that Dylan is the most incredible person I’ve ever met, and that all the guys in InHap are awesome.”

            She started to put her ear buds back in, hoping they’d get the hint and leave her alone, but they weren’t swayed so easily.

            “Wait!” another voice called from the crowd. “Today’s my sister’s birthday and she’s like, totally hot for…” he caught himself, and changed his tone. “I mean, she’s a huge fan of his. Do you think you could get him to call her and wish her a happy birthday? It would mean the world to her, really.”

            Tia was flabbergasted that some total stranger expected that she’d just call him up and ask him something like that. Before she could answer though, another voice rose up. “Maybe you could call him and we could pass the phone around—that would be so cool!”

            “Sorry,” Tia said, “but he’s on a plane right now on his way to Greece.” Or at least he would be very soon. She wouldn’t have done it anyway, but it made it easier for her that she didn’t have to come up with a story or be rude. Of course, she thought it was incredibly rude for a complete stranger to ask that of her, but that was the kind of thing that would happen always, she realized, when you were dating someone as well-known and popular as Dylan, and it would become her reality as soon as their relationship was public knowledge. She instantly had a better understanding of his need to go out in disguise—it was kind of creepy having a bunch of people who didn’t know you crowding in on your personal space. They were fans, of course, which would be flattering, but they were strangers, nonetheless.

            “Hey, do you think I can I get a picture with you?” the tissue woman asked.

            Tias face scrunched up in question. “Why in the world would you want a picture of me? I’m not the one who’s famous.”

            “Not yet,” she answered, “but if you’re seriously dating Dylan Miller I’m sure you will be eventually.”

            Tia was floored, and as she glanced around wide-eyed at the sea of interested faces, it dawned on her then that she couldn’t share Dylan’s identity with the people back home—not yet. If total strangers were unabashedly asking her to impose on Dylan for their own whims, what would her friends do? Dylan would do pretty much whatever she asked of him—he’d gladly signed a picture for Lilly—but he’d said so many times that one of the biggest drawbacks of  his celebrity status was that everyone seemed to want something from him, and she’d never take advantage of their relationship that way. Once they went public all her real friends would meet him; he’d probably even go with Sean to poker night when he could; but she’d tell them beforehand in no uncertain terms that they needed to treat him like a normal person.

            She knew all too well that it only took one slip of one tongue to spread juicy news like wildfire and unfortunately, there were tongues at both work and at the club that she didn’t trust; and one of them was her own mother. They wouldn’t betray her purposely, she truly believed that, but this kind of news could prove too good to keep, and she definitely didn’t want to deal with this kind of attention on a regular basis—not without Dylan by her side.

            Tia grabbed her carry-on and hastily stood up. “Sorry,” she said, “but I really just need to be alone right now.” She made her way quickly to the first class lounge. She hadn’t wanted to go in there while she was having her emotional meltdown, but now she pushed through the door and went up to the bar, ordering a drink and taking a seat at a little table in the corner with her back to the wall so no one could look over her shoulder. She waited for the final boarding call before she slipped onto the plane, knowing she’d be one of the first ones off and that she could quickly disappear at JFK when she caught her connecting flight.  Her seat was like a little private cocoon, and she sank into it gratefully, ordering a glass of red wine and popping in her ear buds.

             She’d saved the videos for last. There were hours of them—she was really glad she’d spent the extra money to get the most storage space on her iPad—and she had a nearly 12 hour journey ahead of her. She watched them in order, and marveled at how obvious it was that she and Dylan were falling in love as the trip progressed. She saw what Jessa had seen—the way they looked at each other, the comfort level building, their shared experiences bringing them closer. She watched Dylan performing the song he’d written for her and sung atop the Eiffel Tower—the first time he’d told her he loved her. He sang it for her camera sitting shirtless on the balcony of their suite in Madrid and she smiled as she remembered how she’d gone to him after and they’d made love. When it ended, she hit play again and watched it three more times, smiling through her film of tears. It wasn’t until the very end that she saw Dylan had left her with a goodbye video, knowing that she’d see it after she was gone. She touched the play button, and his voice filled her head while his image held steady on the screen.

            “Ah, Tia,” he said, his voice full of melancholy, “you’re sleeping in the next room right now, and I just couldn’t shut my eyes for even a second. I’ve been watching you slee, and thinking about how tomorrow night I’ll be in yet another strange bed, but you won’t be with me; and you’ll be too far away for me to reach you. You snore, you know, but it’s just tiny little sounds that you make and it’s really cute.” She smiled, tears once again spilling over her cheeks. “Sometimes you murmur my name in your sleep,” he continued, “and it makes my heart sing every time you do it. I know you’ll see this—I’ll be pouring over my pictures and videos too, reliving the incredible summer we just spent together—and I want you to know that I love you more than I can say, and that we’re going to have a lot more incredible times together. I dread saying goodbye to you tomorrow, but I know that our love is incredibly strong—God, how did that happen in just a few short months?” He did that one eyebrow thing that she loved, “—and that we’ll be together again. That’s what I’m going to be holding on to, you know, the sound of your laugh and the feel of your lips against mine and the…well, you know,” he waggled his eyebrows. “We’re pretty great together in every way, don’t you think? I just wanted to tell you one more time that I love you, that I’ll be thinking of you every minute while I’m away, and that I’ll be counting down the days until I can see you again. You have my heart—don’t doubt that for a minute—and I trust you’ll keep it safe. I miss you, and I’ll be thinking of you all the time—I already said that, didn’t I? You are by far the best incidental happenstance to crash into my life, and I’m so glad that we found each other. So anyway, my love, think of me too, OK?” His image on the screen turned toward the open door behind him. “Well, I’m going to get back to watching you sleep—I want to hold you as much as I can before you have to go; so I’ll say farewell, but not goodbye, because we’ll be together again.”

            Dylan’s image blew her a kiss, and then froze, the play arrow obscuring his face. She hit the button again, and watched the video over and over, tears falling freely and silently. She reached into her purse and pulled out a notepad and immediately began writing him a letter. She’d write him constantly, she figured, and that would help her through the next four months—at least a little.

            Arriving back at O’Hare sent Tia’s spirits in a downward spiral that was beyond her control. She called Lexi, who was circling the airport, waiting for her, and met her at the arrivals lane. She dumped her suitcases unceremoniously into the trunk and jumped into the car. Lexi hugged her, but the look on Tia’s face said that she was less than thrilled to be home.

            “Oh, sweetie, you miss him already, don’t you?” she asked rhetorically.

            “From the minute I left him,” she said. “I knew it was going to be hard, but right now it seems damned near impossible.”

            “But you’ll see him at Christmas, right? It’s not so far away.”

            “Christmas is four freaking months from now—it’s still summer!” She pouted, but she’d cried herself out on the plane. There were no more tears left. “And then when I do see him again,” she added, “it’s not going to be just the two of us; I’m going to be meeting his whole family. That part already scares me to death—I’m just a flipping elementary school teacher—how am I going to measure up?”

            “Measure up to what?” Lexi asked. “The fake people he’s dated in the past? Do you even know if he’s introduced any of his other girlfries to them? Just be yourself—who can help but love you?” She leaned over and kissed Tia on the cheek. “You know I do.”

            “Yeah, and that’s worth a lot,” she barked. It came out sounding really bitchy and she instantly regretted saying it. “I’m sorry, Lex, I don’t mean to take it out on you. I just can’t get my head in the right place. I have to go over to school tomorrow and start setting up my room for another year. After the summer I had, I can’t even imagine going back to my simple little life. Alone again.”

            “But you’re not alone!” Lexi soothed. “You still have Dylan; you just aren’t in the same country right now. It’s different than with Nick. You and Dylan’ll be together again, it’s just a matter of time.”

            “God, I hope so,” Tia said. “I just can’t seem to wrap my head around how long it’s going to be before I see him again. We’ve been living together for three months, for chrissake, and now I’m not even going to see him for longer than that.”

            “I know, honey,” she said sympathetically. “But you’ll still talk to him and be in touch—and the time will fly by. Just keep busy, and take it day by day, and you’ll be back together before you know it.”

            “And what about after that?” Tia moaned. “We’ll have a couple weeks together before he has to go to Bora Bora to finish the movie, and then he won’t even be in the States again until February. And then he has to go into the studio, which is in Seattle…”

            “Stop it!” Lexi yelled. “You can’t do this to yourself. You can’t keep worrying about the next obstacle that you’re going to have to face. When you’re in love, you work things out. The two of you’ll figure out something that works.”

            “Oh I know it, I do.” But she was going to worry about it, just the same. “I’m just feeling really sorry for myself and I have to get over it. It’s just going to take some time, that’s all. Right now all I want is a bath and my own bed, and to sleep away at least a little of the time.”

            “Actually, I was thinking we could swing by the club for a drink or something. Your parents’ll be there, and they’d be glad to see you. It’s only six o’clock.”