More Than Comics (10 page)

“Is something wrong?” she asked.

“No.” I realized I’d been chewing on my fingernail and forced my hand down. “It’s just that I’ve already accepted a job in New York at Ostrich Books in their comics division.”

“How much are they offering?” she asked. “I’m sure I can beat it.”

I swallowed hard. The job didn’t pay much and New York was crazy expensive, but…I still wasn’t sure. “Thank you, but it’s not about the money, it’s about the direction I want for my future career. Can I have some time to think it over? I’d love to work for you, but I have to be sure I’m making the best decision for me.”

“I completely understand. I can give you a few days to think it over, but after that I’ll have to look for someone else.”

“I’ll get back to you by the end of Comic-Con.” It was Friday and Comic-Con ended on Sunday. That didn’t give me much time, but I preferred it that way. It forced me to make a decision instead of waffling on it forever. And I had a feeling that once I talked to Hector he would help make the decision easier, one way or the other.

“That would be perfect. Let me give you my direct number.” She handed me her card. “When you’re ready to accept my offer, give me a call.”

The food arrived, and as we ate she told me more about her show and asked me questions about
Misfit Squad
. It was hard to give coherent answers, because the entire time I kept thinking about how I had a job offer in Los Angeles, and what that could mean for me and Hector.

CHAPTER TEN
HECTOR

I
’ve never been good at parties. Give me a beer and somewhere to sneak off to with my sketchbook and I was happy. But that wouldn’t work at the Black Hat Comics party, not when Tara and I were the guests of honor.

The party was on an actual pirate ship docked in the marina and had a pirates vs. ninjas theme. The invite had said to pick a side and dress in costume, and upon arrival guests were handed either a pirate hat or a ninja hood. The Black Hat staff all had on wizard hats so they were neutral in the battle, while hired actors hung from ropes and engaged in sword fights in the shadows.

The most I could bother with was wearing all black—which I would have done anyway—so they’d given me a ninja hood. Miguel had insisted I wear it, and I’d only agreed because I thought it would give me some anonymity in the crowd. But, no. Everyone wanted to talk to me—about the book, about the band, about
The Sound
. About Tara.

Where the hell was she? I was already on my third beer and there was no sign of her. I kept chugging them, hoping talking to people would get easier, but it never did. How did Jared do this shit? To think I’d actually gotten mad at him for hogging the interviews on
The Sound
. Now I’d give anything for him to be here to take some of the attention off me. But he was with Maddie and I was in the middle of a crowd of people who wanted to talk to me when all I could think about was Tara.

“When’s the next book coming out?” someone asked, a question I’d heard about three hundred times already. I wanted to make a sign with the answer and hang it around my neck so I could point to it and grunt. Shit, I could do a whole FAQ, including other winners such as:

“Is there going to be a
Misfit Squad
movie?”

“When’s your band’s next album coming out?”

“What was it like being on
The Sound
?”

Over and over, the same annoying questions, nonstop. Even when I got a moment to myself the crowd of ninjas and pirates pressed around me, yapping away with their incessant small talk, making the warm summer air heavy and thick. I was sweaty and tired and just wanted to get the fuck out of there.

If I could escape before Tara arrived, even better.

Was she ditching the party on purpose to avoid me? If so, I didn’t blame her. I’d been dreading the party for hours, knowing we’d have to face each other. Hell, I’d been a total asshole all day. Jared, Maddie, and Kyle had dragged me to a couple panels, but I barely remembered any of it. At least they’d known better than to ask me any questions. And I’d made sure to steer us clear of the diversity panel, knowing Tara would be there.

But I couldn’t avoid her forever.

She walked onto the ship, her golden hair trailing from under a black pirate hat, and my chest tightened like a fist at the sight. Especially once the crowd parted enough for me to see her entire costume: a frilly, white, shoulder-less dress with a tight black corset over it that gave me an amazing view of her large breasts. It was so short it only just covered her curvy ass and left her shapely legs bare except for knee-high black boots. She looked so fucking hot I couldn’t help but imagine bending her over the rail of the ship, pushing that skirt up, and taking her from behind.

Great, now I was hard as a rock and even more miserable.

She looked around like she wasn’t sure she was in the right place, and then was swarmed by people. Somehow through the crowd she spotted me across the ship and our eyes met for a fraction of a second. I looked away quickly, unable to take any more of her gaze. If I had to actually talk to her I’d be really fucked.

I dove into the crowd in the opposite direction, debating whether I could avoid her for the rest of the night. How soon could I leave before it was rude? Maybe if I slipped out without Miguel noticing…

I was dragged into another conversation with two pirates about
The Sound
and suffered my way through it. Ten long minutes later, I saw Tara’s pirate hat heading toward me, and I had to dart away again.

Hiding worked for another twenty minutes, until she found me at the front of the ship. She emerged from the crowd and backed me into the railing, with nothing but the ocean behind me. “There you are.”

She looked determined, like a sexy pirate captain about to make me walk the plank. That corset was killing me with its tempting view of her chest. She had no idea how much I wanted to bury my face in her breasts. I chugged the last of my beer, my jeans growing uncomfortably tight again.

“Are you avoiding me?” she asked.

“No.”

She frowned at me with those rosy lips. “Yes, you are.”

I crushed the red cup in my hand and tossed it into the nearby trash can, turning away from her. But she wouldn’t have any of that and grabbed my arm, pulling me back.

“Hector, please. Talk to me.”

“What’s there to say? Look, I’m sorry for this morning. I was a jerk. Let’s just forget it, okay?”

Her fingers tightened around my bicep. She hadn’t let go. “I don’t want to forget it. I want to talk about it.”

“There’s nothing to talk about.” The words were forced out through gritted teeth. “We live across the country from each other. After Comic-Con, things have to go back to the way they were before.”

“What if they didn’t?” She glanced around and lowered her voice. “I had my meeting with Giselle. She offered me a job as a writer on a new superhero TV show with a female lead. And the position is in LA.”

“No shit?” I struggled to keep my face a blank canvas, but it was tough. That sounded like a pretty sweet gig, and she deserved it. And I didn’t want to get too excited, but damn, the idea of her moving to LA was almost too good to be true. New paths opened up in my head like a sunrise dawning over a dark sky, and I was tempted to pull her into my arms and cover her face with kisses. For the first time ever I had real hope for a future with her.

But then reality crashed back in. She already had a job lined up. A job she’d been really excited about, that she’d worked her ass off to get, that she’d spent hours telling me about. She’d dreamed about working in publishing her entire life. How could she give that up?

She watched my reaction closely. “You don’t seem as excited about this as I hoped you’d be.”

“What about the job in New York?”

She turned to face the ocean, where the setting sun painted the sky in pink and purple. “I’m so torn. Both jobs are great opportunities. My heart was set on moving to New York and working in the comics division at Ostrich Books, but…”

I held my breath. “But what?”

“But this other job sounds like something I’d be stupid to turn down.” She turned back to me, her eyes sparkling. “And you’re in LA.”

The words hit me so hard I stepped back. “Me?”

She closed the distance between us and placed a hand on my chest. “This morning you said you couldn’t do long distance, and I get that, I do. But if I move to LA, you and I could try to be more than friends. That is, if you wanted to…”

Fuck yes I wanted to. Hearing that she wanted to try made something inside me ache in the best possible way. The selfish part of me wanted to get down on my knees and beg her to take the LA job so we could be together. I could already picture it: working with her on
Misfit Squad
in person instead of through email or chat; watching a movie with my arm around her, no longer thousand miles apart; being able to spend hours talking to her with no screen between us. And of course, all the hours I’d get to spend with her in bed. And against the wall. And in the shower…

But I’d be the biggest asshole in the world if I made her give up her dream for me. How could I live with myself if she chose the LA job to be near me and then hated it? Or what if things didn’t work out between us? I didn’t want her to resent me for the rest of her life because she’d followed me instead of her dream. Above all, I wanted her to be happy. Even if that meant it was without me.

“Please, Hector, say
something
,” she said. “What do you think about all this?”

“I think…” I didn’t know what to say, or how to express the thousands of conflicting feelings racing through me. Her hand was still on my chest and I pressed it against my heart, which I’m sure she could feel hammering away. “I don’t want you to move to LA for me.”

Her face crumpled. “Oh.”

Shit, that wasn’t the reaction I wanted. I was so bad at this. “Wait. Let me explain.” With my free hand I cupped her chin and made her look up at me. “I want you to move to LA. More than anything. But I don’t want to be the reason you pick one job or the other. I think you should choose the one you want the most, no matter where it is.”

“I don’t know which one I want the most.”

“Take some time to think about it. When do you have to decide?”

“I have until Sunday. I hoped that talking to you would help me...”

“Sorry. You need to make this decision on your own.”

She nodded, but still didn’t look happy. I pulled her into my arms, wrapping her in a hug, burying my face in her silky hair. She relaxed into my body with a long sigh, and I knew she needed this as much as I did, if not more.

“If you decide to move to New York, we’ll still be friends,” I said. “Everything will go back to the way it was before.” That was such a lie. Nothing could ever be the same between us. But I wanted her to believe it anyway. “Whatever happens we’ll be okay.”

She peered up at me, her lips dangerously close to mine. “I don’t want to lose you, Hector.”

“You won’t. I promise.”

She lifted on her toes and kissed me, a soft, quick one, right on the border between friendly and more. I wasn’t sure whether to return her kiss or not. I voted for not, only because if I kissed her I wouldn’t be able to stop.

“What are we going to do for the rest of Comic-Con?” she asked, her hands still on my chest. “Today was horrible. I missed you so much.”

“I missed you, too.” Another repeat of today would kill me. I couldn’t spend the next few days avoiding her, even if there was no hope for us beyond Sunday. If this was my one time to be with her in person I wanted to enjoy every second of it. “We have two more days together. We should have some fun, try to enjoy them.”

“I like that idea. Just living in the moment. No worrying about the future or what will happen with us. And then when it’s over…I guess we’ll figure that out later.”

“Exactly. What happens at Comic-Con stays at Comic-Con.”

She laughed, and it was all worth it just to hear that sound. “I thought that only applied to Vegas.”

We were interrupted by two artists in ninja costumes who wanted to introduce themselves. For a few minutes we talked shop, and I let Tara do most of the speaking while I admired the way she handled them. She was much better with people than I was.

Once they moved on, she said, “We should probably mingle.”

“I don’t want to mingle. I don’t want to talk to anyone but you.”

“Me either. We should leave before more people corner us.”

“Miguel will be pissed.”

“True. We’ll have to sneak out.”

“Good thing I have a ninja hood,” I said, pulling it lower on my face with a grin.

She giggled. “Please, you’re built like a tank. You’d be the worst ninja ever.”

“Hey, I’m super stealthy! Besides, you’re way too pretty to be a pirate.”

She flashed me a coy smile. “You think I’m pretty?”

I took a piece of her golden hair in my fingers. “Girl, you know I think you’re smoking hot. You’re the sexiest pirate on this whole ship.”

She gave a little shiver, even though it wasn’t cold. “Let’s get out of here.”

CHAPTER ELEVEN
TARA

I
t took longer to sneak out of the party than we’d hoped, thanks to all the people who stopped us on our way off the ship. Thirty minutes later we were finally free, and together we headed back to the hotel we were both staying at courtesy of Black Hat Comics. Not a single person we passed gave me an odd look for walking around downtown San Diego in a skimpy pirate costume. One of the perks of Comic-Con.

Hector had taken off his ninja hood and donned his Villain Complex hat again. I was relieved things were back to normal between us (or as normal as they could be), although I wished he’d made my decision easier. I couldn’t tell if he was truly happy about my job offer or not. I’d wanted him be thrilled that I might be moving near him, but he seemed especially closed off tonight. He was right though, I had to make that decision on my own, independent of my feelings for him.