Love Unscripted (75 page)

“
Would you like some soup now?” he asked, testing the temperature of the container with his hand. “It’s still slightly warm.”

I nodded and started to stand up. Some hot soup sounded appealing for my sore throat.

“
Sit down!” he insisted. “I’m pretty sure I can figure out how to use your microwave.”

My eyes traveled to watch his incredible body and his nice ass walk towards my kitchen. I covered my eyes and rubbed my face to banish the thoughts. I had to get him out of my apartment – as soon as possible. Then another thought flashed through my mind. This wasn’t just
my
apartment anymore. This apartment was a home that I chose to share with Ryan; a home where we were living together in happiness and where no other man should be standing.

“
Careful, it may be too hot now,” Kyle cautioned, handing a mug of soup to me.

“
Thanks,” my voice strained as I set the cup down on the table. “Kyle? I appreciate all of this, but why… why are you here?”

“
What, we’re not allowed to be friends?” he quickly replied.

I thought about his question for a moment and replied with one of my own. “If your girlfriend was traveling out of town for work, do you think she’d appreciate another woman being in her home while she was gone?”

“
What does that have to do with us being friends?” he countered.

As sick as I felt, I still wasn’t falling for his bullshit. “I don’t think you’re here because you want to just be friends.”

“
You think I have some ulterior motive?” Kyle questioned my glare.

“
Please!” I squeaked. “You’re a man; you have a pulse. Don’t question my intelligence.” I wiped my snotty nose with a tissue, hoping that would discourage his thoughts even more.

“
All right. To tell you the truth, when I saw that you were flying home alone I thought that maybe you and pretty boy broke up. I mean, you’ve got to admit that being with him definitely has its drawbacks!”

His little dig on Ryan really irritated me.

“
Oh, and I suppose things would be a lot better for me if I was dating someone else? Someone like you perhaps?” I hoped my tone was sarcastic enough.

“
Your life would be a hell of a lot more private, that’s for sure! No cameras, no photographers, no fanatics.” He tossed a pack of crackers over to me.

“
Wait. Let me see if I got this straight. So instead of being with someone like Ryan, who is trying to do everything possible to shield me from danger, you’re saying I’d be better off with someone like you, who willingly risks his own life every day to put himself in front of danger to protect complete strangers. Is that right?”

He looked away and then a little cocky smile appeared on his lips. “You’ve at least thought about it. That’s a good start. And I would protect you a hell of a lot better than he would. Besides, being with me doesn’t come with risk.”

“
Don’t be so sure of yourself. You are the one who’s forcing me to compare the two of you. And to tell you the truth, there is no comparison.” I got up from the couch, irritated now by his presence.

“
Kyle, I appreciate the soup and the kindness, but we can’t be friends.”

He crossed his foot up on his knee, getting even more comfortable in the chair. “Why not?”

“
Because you don’t want just a friendship!” I scornfully stated the obvious. “Kyle, I love Ryan. I have committed my heart to him.” I picked up Kyle’s coat. “I’m sorry, but I think it’s time for you to leave now.”

“
That’s a shame. You’ll never know what could have been.” I noticed he didn’t even attempt to get up. “You’re not married to the guy, and I don’t see a ring on your finger, so the way I see it, you’re still available.”

“
Available? Did you not just hear what I said?” I was no longer just irritated; I was starting to get angry now.

“
I heard you,” he muttered. “I also know that it won’t be long before he screws up and cheats on you. They
all
do eventually. He’s not the first actor I’ve had to watch over. You’d be surprised to know the great lengths they go through to keep their little affairs hidden. Even the married ones screw around.”

“
Oh and I suppose if I was dating you, you’d be totally different from that. You’d
never
cheat on me.” I laughed mockingly.

“
No, I wouldn’t. And if you were with me, I’d only take local assignments so I wouldn’t have to travel and be away from you,” he continued. “There would be no reason for you to ever doubt me.”

“
I have no reason to doubt Ryan either. You’re a man, he’s a man; either it’s in your nature to cheat or it’s not.” My throat felt like I’d been swallowing razorblades and I was starting to run a fever again. It was time for him to go.

“
And I can tell you, Kyle, that it’s not in my nature to cheat either. I love Ryan. That’s all you need to know. Now if you don’t mind, I’d really like to rest.” I shook his coat in my hand so he’d get the message.

He stopped to look at me before taking his coat from my hand. “I’ll be watching and waiting. You’re an intelligent woman. You’ll come to your senses soon enough.”

His assuredness was getting a bit creepy.

I was glad when he finally left. I watched him walk halfway down the alley to make sure he was leaving before locking up and setting the alarm.

Back in my apartment, I picked up my cell and hit the first entry in my phone book. It was time to come clean with Ryan.

By Monday my cold had morphed into something altogether more atrocious and wicked. The pain in my sinuses and chest was almost unbearable and I could not stop coughing. My ribs and stomach muscles hurt badly from all the hacking and it was getting harder and harder to breathe. Marie helped me into her car which was parked by the back door. I was relieved just knowing I would be seeing a doctor today.

“
I told Ryan about Kyle,” I whispered between coughing up lung tissue.

She looked at me, waiting for my further explanation.

“
He was livid.” I wiped my nose. “But then after he calmed down he was glad that I told him. He doesn’t know everything though. I spared him some of the details.”

“
What details?” she asked, patting me on the back as I coughed severely.

I shrugged, not knowing how to say it. “Kyle pretty much said that I’d be better off with him instead of being with Ryan.”

“
No! He didn’t! What the hell else did he say?”

“
He said I should consider dating him instead. He’d be better for me. He also brought me soup.” I coughed out my last words.

“
Soup?” She laughed. “Oh, he’s good! What did you say to him then?”

“
I told him I love Ryan and that he should leave. He sort of worried me a bit at the end. Like he didn’t want to take ‘no’ for an answer.”

Marie stayed in the waiting room while I went in to see my doctor. He informed me that I had a sinus infection and bronchitis. For as terrible as I felt, I was wondering if there weren’t a few other lung infection terms missing from his diagnosis.

We stopped at the local pharmacy where I got a multitude of antibiotics, nasal spray, and an inhaler. I mistakenly glanced over the front of Celebrity Weekly while standing in line at the checkout. The cover of the magazine had a by-line that stated distance was tearing Ryan and me apart. He just left for Scotland this morning; how could we be split apart already?

“
Why are you buying that shit?” Marie scowled. “As if you aren’t in bad enough shape already, you need to torment yourself more?”

“
I’m not buying it.” I coughed violently into my sleeve. “I hate the media. Why do they do this?” I showed her the cover.

I had no intentions to spend even a penny on that crap. It was lies like these that enticed people to buy the garbage in the first place. And every time someone bought one of those magazines, it allowed some idiot to keep his job as a purveyor of lies and gave another idiot incentive to exist as an intruding photographer. Every dime spent on those rag magazines perpetuated the nonsense.

That’s when Marie informed me that a photographer approached her the other day and offered her two thousand dollars if she’d get him pictures of the inside of my apartment. These leeches were now going after my friends. Of course Marie declined, but it was apparent that the magazines wanted to get their hands on actual photos of our “love nest” as they put it. Now I was even more paranoid about having anyone in my apartment.

Ryan called me every day while he was in Scotland, even if it was for only five minutes. He tried to describe the landscape and architecture so I could visualize the experience he was having; he even sent me a few cell phone pictures, but I still wished I was there with him to experience it firsthand.

It didn’t take long for pictures of the cast in Scotland to surface on the Internet. Ryan’s fan site was quite reliable with the latest selection of candid photos. Tongues around the globe were sent wagging once the photos of Ryan and Suzanne’s “love scene” were leaked. Even Kat called me to make sure I wasn’t going to go ballistic from seeing the scandalous photos.

For some reason the lies about Ryan and Suzanne’s rekindled romance didn’t bother me as much as it did when I first met him. I guess I knew both of them well enough to know that Ryan didn’t have any romantic feelings for her despite how often his lips had to touch hers. I knew Ryan harbored deep resentment for Suzanne and her antics. She had wronged him too many times in the past for him to ever let go of his grudge, let alone ever love her.

I did however worry about Suzanne. Many of the little stunts she pulled all pointed to her being madly in love with him. I was onto her little game; after all I too was once young and foolish. She didn’t try to break us up for Francesca’s benefit – I was wrong with that assumption. Her comments and evil tongue only had one beneficiary. She had made additional comments after her little failed tryst with Ryan’s friend Scott, indicating that she had hoped that if his friends thought she was good enough to sleep with that maybe he might feel the same way. Unfortunately, her actions had the opposite affect on Ryan.

The media sure had fun with all these rumors and lies. According to the reports, Ryan was back with Suzanne, Suzanne reportedly told me to stay away from her man, our relationship was over, and I was having a secret affair with my former bodyguard behind Ryan’s back. It was beyond ridiculous.

“
You feeling up to getting out of the house today?” Marie asked, interrupting my private viewing of several old Ryan Christensen interviews on the computer. I clicked the video pause button and gave her a bit more of my attention. I’d been holed up in my apartment for an entire week.

“
Tammy wants to take us to lunch. We have to stop at the jewelry store and then we need to go look at bridesmaid dresses,” she rambled through the telephone.

I was feeling a lot better and getting out into the fresh air did sound appealing. I was also hoping to squash some of the new worries that mysteriously cropped up in my brain.

Marie and Tammy had been acting, I don’t know - strange towards me for the last couple of days. I couldn’t pinpoint the specifics; I could just sense it. Maybe it was the new way they both awkwardly smiled at me that caused me to feel weird?

I had been really ill and I was extremely thankful that my two best friends were there for me, but I couldn’t help but worry that they were getting tired of me and my new life of drama.

“
Tammy, your wedding band is beautiful!” I gushed, watching the diamonds sparkle in the light. She handed a check to the sales clerk.

“
Thanks!” Tammy glowed. “Only six more payments and it’s mine.”

“
Hey Taryn, come look at this one!” Marie called out. She was looking at emerald rings.

“
How much is that ring right there?” Marie pointed to a very gaudy ring.

The lady took it out of the case and checked the tag. “This one is three thousand.”

My eyes bugged out. It was an ugly ring for three thousand dollars. Marie tried to put it on her finger, but it wouldn’t go past her knuckle without a good shove.

“
Here Tar, you have tiny fingers. Model it.”

I slipped it on my right hand and held it out to her. It was the kind of stacked setting that would take a layer of skin off someone if you brushed up against them accidentally.

Marie played with the ring on my finger, checking the look of it from several angles. I was surprised that she even liked this style of jewelry.

She held my hand out to the sales clerk. “So, what do you think? Does it fit her?”

“
She would need to be sized,” the lady answered, twisting it freely on my finger. “You could probably go down a half size smaller.”

I took it off immediately and handed it back to the clerk. I didn’t want anyone to think I was interested in buying this ugly ring.

“
This ring is tiny. What size is it?” Marie placed it back on her finger.

“
It’s a six,” the lady droned. “It’s the standard stock size.”

“
There you go, Taryn. Your next job could be a hand model since all of these would fit you,” Marie teased.

I thought about modeling my middle finger for her.