Love Unscripted (93 page)

“
I guess he was in such a hurry to see her that he forgot to throw her love note away?” I muttered, thoroughly disgusted with the lies. “Ask him how long he’s been fucking her.”

Marie gave me a dirty look and covered her phone with her hand so Ryan wouldn’t hear me.

“
Let him cover his tracks,” I said scornfully. “Go ahead and believe him because I sure don’t.”

Marie groaned. “Ryan, she hasn’t been answering your calls because apparently she no longer has a cell phone.

“
Quit yelling in my ear!” she yelled back at him. “Stop it, Ryan! You love Taryn and Taryn loves you. She’s a mess; you’re a mess. You both need to chill out!

“
Ryan, listen to the facts! Does
any
of this sound logical to either one of you?”

Marie spent another twenty minutes trying to calm him down. Eventually, she snapped her phone shut. “He’s going to call back.”

While she talked, my mind collapsed from the strain.

“
When he calls back, tell him he can come and get his shit out of my apartment, because I’m done with all of this. I’m done with the lies, and the rumors, and the photographs, and having my boyfriend shove his tongue in some other girl’s mouth when he thinks I’m not looking. It’s over,” my voice cracked. The familiar pain rippled through my chest again.

“
Just calm down. Nothing is over. You’re overreacting,” Marie patronized me.

“
Get out,” I seethed. “Just get out and take the rest of the Ryan Fan Club with you.” I stormed past her, wishing my bedroom door wasn’t broken so I could slam it shut.

“
Tar, don’t be like this.” Marie followed me.

“
I don’t get it, Marie! I thought you were
my
best friend? Aren’t you supposed to be on
my
side? Or are you so blinded by worshiping mister actor man that you believe him?” I yelled at her. “Call him back. I’m sure he’ll fuck you too.”

Marie gritted her teeth and before I could react, she slapped me across the face.

My hand covered the sting she left on my cheek. She smacked me hard enough that my eyes started to water. Tears formed right after that. Everyone I loved in this world had just betrayed me.

“
Get a grip already, damn it!” Marie screamed at me.

“
I told you that if you ever screwed this relationship up I would kick your ass myself. And here you are, royally screwing up the best thing that has ever happened to you! Ryan loves you, you idiot! He’s not screwing Lauren!”

Marie started to pace my bedroom floor. Tammy was trying to hold me as I sobbed on my bed.

“
Pete! I’m gonna…!” Marie stated emphatically, losing her patience.

“
No, Marie, don’t!” Pete lunged forward. “Last resort…”

Marie held her breath for a moment before turning her glare back to me.

“
If you want a future with that man then you need stop thinking this way - immediately! Do you think that Ryan Christensen, the man who has been insanely in love with you since the first day he met you, would do that to you? Do you honestly think he would put you on a plane, fly you first class to stay in a luxury suite so he could
accidentally
let you see some bogus love note and break up with you?”

She gaped at me, waiting for my response. I had none.

“
What was waiting for you in his hotel room?” Marie asked angrily.

“
Marie!” Tammy cautioned.

Marie waved her off. “Taryn!”

“
Nothing.” I sniffed. “Heartache and devastation… and some skanky ho’s panties.”

Marie groaned. “No, Taryn. I’m talking about the dresses.”

“
Oh, yeah… the rest of Lauren’s clothing,” I muttered. “A whole rack of her glamorous things. More evidence of her staying in his room.”

“
Taryn!” Tammy scolded. “All those gowns were for you!”

I rolled my eyes. “I don’t think so. Wait, how do you know about the dresses?”

“
Versace, Vera Wang, Jimmy Choo… sound familiar?” Marie asked. “Please tell me you at least looked at the dresses!”

“
I did. I thought I was in the wrong room; I mean why would Ryan have evening gowns on a rack?” I asked.

“
They were for you!” Marie insisted. “Ryan arranged to have a variety of dresses there - he wanted
you
to have your pick of what you would wear to dinner.”

I looked at Marie, surprised that she knew all these details and shocked that the dresses
were
for me.

“
And why do you suppose Ryan would want to dress you up in an expensive dress and Jimmy Choos? So he could leave you for Lauren?” Marie shook her head. “He made a ton of arrangements…”

“
Marie!” Tammy and Pete both yelled at the same time.

Marie gave them both a reproachful look and continued. “To take you on a private, romantic dinner on Biscayne Bay for your birthday,” she finished.

I felt my heart lodge into my throat.

Marie crouched down in front of me. “All of us want to see you happy, not miserable and broken like this. Ryan is so in love with you!” She smiled. “Don’t give up on him.”

“
Tar, pull your end over a bit more,” Tammy asked, fixing the clean bed sheet on my bed. “Marie, we need one more pillow case.”

Pete had gathered overnight bags together and everyone was staying with me. My friends weren’t about to leave me alone.

“
We could always play cards,” Pete suggested. He looked hopeful.

“
That’s up to Taryn,” Tammy answered.

I crawled onto my bed and pulled the quilt up over my shoulder. “Not tonight,” I muttered.

Marie had her pajamas on already even though it was only nine thirty. She hopped onto Ryan’s side of the bed and turned on his bed lamp.

“
I’m sorry for slapping you.” She snuggled behind me, patting my back.

“
You really hit me hard,” I whispered.

“
I didn’t mean to.” Marie sounded remorseful. “You were getting irrational. I hope you forgive me. I promise I’ll never do it again.”

“
That’s what you said when we were fifteen and you told Adam Caldwell that I wanted to kiss him.”

Marie chuckled lightly. “Well you did!”

“
Yeah, but the entire baseball team didn’t need to hear you,” I groaned.

We both laughed.

“
Ryan never called back,” I said sadly.

“
Give him time,” she whispered. “He is just as upset as you are. He is trying to figure out who did all of this and film a movie at the same time. He’s crushed right now too.”

Marie sighed and fluffed the pillow up under her head. “Someone sure went out of their way to try and break you two up, that’s for sure.”

“
I should have never opened that envelope on his bed,” I sighed. “I thought it was a hotel bill or something at first. Maybe if I wouldn’t have seen it…” I took a deep breath. “Ah, who am I trying to kid? Nothing changes the fact that Lauren wrote the note.”

“
Tar, Lauren didn’t write that note. Ryan confronted her about it. He said Lauren’s handwriting didn’t even come close to what was on that paper. Even Mike was there to verify it.”

I tried to remember what Lauren’s handwriting looked like. I had seen it once on the card that I found in the front of Ryan’s suitcase, on the day that Ryan told me he wanted to stay with me in the apartment.

“
So the note
was
bogus and Ryan was really filming?” I asked. My chest was starting to feel tight again.

“
Wait, back up,” Marie said quickly. “Where was the note again?”

“
When I went to the bedroom, the bellboy had parked my suitcase at the foot of the bed. The note was on top of his bed by my suitcase.”

“
It was on the bed?” Marie asked. Her eyes were all scrunched together as she questioned me.

“
Yes.” I motioned my answer. “And the panties were on the floor, right next to my suitcase.”

“
If you were going to leave a note for someone who was supposedly still asleep, wouldn’t you put it where they would see it, like on a table or the nightstand? How did it get on top of the bed?” she asked.

“
I don’t know,” I answered. “And it doesn’t change the fact that there was some girl’s black panties on his floor, Marie. Maybe he’s not sleeping with Lauren, but he had some girl in his bedroom.”

“
Taryn! Ryan is not screwing around on you! Was his bed made or was it still slept in?” she asked.

“
It was made,” I said, wondering what her point was.

“
Housekeeping,” she said, drawing some conclusion.

At this point the damage was already done. The only thing left to question was whether the damage was irreparable or not.

“
I’ve been feeling like all the odds have been stacked against us from the very beginning,” I muttered. “As if that wasn’t hard enough, fate keeps throwing Kyle at me on top of it. If it wasn’t for him, I’d probably still be wandering around in a daze in the Miami airport.”

“
Taryn, what was Kyle doing in the airport?”

“
You know, I asked him that on the plane. He said he was there on a job but his assignment was finished. Ryan said he saw Kyle on one of the sets last week. Ryan called Kyle’s company to have him removed, so Kyle wasn’t supposed to be in Miami anymore. Ryan told me that Kyle was instructed by his company to stay away from me.”

“
I know,” Marie admitted.

My wide eyes locked onto her face. I hadn’t told her about Kyle being in Florida. That was a fight between Ryan and me that I kept to myself.

“
You know the paparazzi took your picture with him in the airport. That’s why Ryan is so pissed,” Marie informed cautiously. “There are pictures of Kyle hugging you.”

I threw the covers off and hurried to my computer. Pete and Tammy were in the living room watching Sunday night television.

I searched one of the online sources for paparazzi photos that I knew of. It was hard to get past the viscous headlines.

“
Oh God!” I groaned, viewing pictures of me looking like a drowned rat. “Does Ryan think I look happy to see Kyle in any of these shots?”

I studied the picture of Kyle hugging and consoling me. “Look, my arms are straight. I’m not even hugging him back. And here it looks like I’m pushing him away from me. How could Ryan even think that I have feelings for this guy?”

“
How could you ever doubt Ryan’s love for you?” Tammy whispered.

“
I never doubted Ryan before, but when I saw the love letter and the panties… and then got a phone call telling me that he was with the other woman at that moment – what was I supposed to think?” I retorted.

I looked back at the pictures on my computer. “When I was on the plane to come home, I guess I started to agree with Kyle. He said that all things happen for a reason and maybe it was better that all this happened now instead of having Ryan leave me after we’re married and bring children into this world. That’s usually when all the celebrity marriages end.”

Marie groaned angrily. “That slick bastard.”

I looked at a few more pictures, reliving the devastation I felt at the time they were taken all over again.

“
The note said that he’d let this go on long enough. I didn’t know what to believe.” My fingers trailed down my computer screen.

Marie couldn’t wait any longer; she punched a few keys on her cell phone. “Ryan, what did you find out?”

I knew Ryan had Marie’s cell number; I never knew Marie had his.

“
Housekeeping said there weren’t any undergarments on the floor when they made his bed,” Marie whispered over the phone to me.

She informed him about how the bellboy must have put the note on the bed and her suspicions about Kyle’s involvement.

“
He wants to talk to you.” Marie smiled, holding out her cell.

“
Hi,” I whispered apprehensively. I didn’t know how he would react to me.

“
Hi,” Ryan said softly. “Are you okay?”

“
No,” I admitted; the burn of remorse seeped into my chest. “I thought I lost you.”