Pants on Fire (13 page)

“No, I’m not afraid of that! I …” She cocked her head. “You wouldn’t care if the press called you Mr. Maizy Daisy?”

“AJ would love it if his Uncle Tyler was Mr. Maizy Daisy, and honestly I don’t really care what people say of me, especially something this harmless.”

She felt herself tearing up and forced them back. “I won’t be left waiting at airports or hotels while your meetings run over time.”

“Megan, meetings are part of my job and they go over time. You can’t tell me you never had a shoot run over. In fact I seem to recall you left me waiting at a hotel for a phone call that never came.”

“So you turned around and did the exact same thing?!” she shouted. “You had my cell number!”

“I was in a meeting!”

“Take a five minute break and call me. Hell, send me a text from under the table! You could have, should have, called and told me you couldn’t make it.”

“Is that why you didn’t return my calls?”

“No. I was ignoring your calls because I decided to listen to the cynical friend instead of the optimistic friend. And that’s the last time I make that mistake, I promise. I know I didn’t call you, and losing track of time isn’t a great excuse. But at least I had the excuse of not having a number to reach you at.”

“Yeah, all right, I was dumb. Can we make a deal?”

“What kind of deal?”

“One that will make sure we never run into this problem again? I promise I will be on time whenever possible. And if it’s not possible I will call. I will never lie to you about where I am, what I’m doing, or who I’m with, unless it would ruin a surprise for you.”

“I guess you want me to promise the same thing?”

He nodded.

“Okay,” she said, slowly letting out a deep breath. “I promise. No more lying, no more disappearing.”

“Now that that’s settled, will you marry me?”

“How do you get back around to that question again?!”

“Megan, I love you. I loved you enough to call you every day even when you wouldn’t answer me. I loved you when I found out what you do for a living. Isn’t that enough? Don’t you love me?”

“I think I do, but I don’t know if I’m ready for marriage just yet. Tyler, what about work? We can’t get married and live halfway across the country from each other. We have our jobs to consider.”

“Hold on a minute.” He set the roses and the bottle of champagne on the table in front of her and pulled out his cellphone. A minute later he asked for a name that sounded vaguely familiar to Megan and she started paying close attention to his half of the conversation.

“Thank you for speaking with me again, Sir. Yes, she’s here. No, I haven’t explained that yet. I have a question of a slightly technical nature to ask you. How crucial is the location of Miss Maizy Daisy’s set? And how easy would it be to move it?”

Megan blinked.
Move the set? Move the studio? What about Bernie? What about the production team?

She realized she was missing the conversation and tried to focus. “-can’t be that difficult. Of course I would never dream of telling you how to do your job. Look, I’m sure the press has contacted you regarding certain rumours, rumours that are only half true. Yes, Megan and I have become involved, but we can’t really move on from here because of distance. No, I never assumed you were a romantic. Look, Sir, is moving the shooting of the Miss Maizy Daisy show possible? Thank-you. No, I’ll take care of that for you.”

“What did you just do?” Megan whispered when he’d hung up.

“I just took distance out of the equation. Your producers are willing to, if absolutely necessary, move the set of Miss Maizy Daisy. All that’s left is you, Megan. Do you love me?”

“I think so. Tyler, this is crazy!”

“You’re crazy, I love you anyways.”

“We can’t get engaged until I’ve met your family. And you need to meet my parents. And …”

“You need to tell me you love me.”

She looked at him, looked at the roses and the champagne, and looked deep inside herself. “I love you Tyler.”

“Then let me take care of the rest.” He handed her the apology gifts, took her bags, and led her back out to the airport lobby where the ever persistent press waited. He hopped up on one of the benches, stuck his fingers in his mouth, and whistled. “You came for a story? I’m Tyler Mathers and I would like to address certain rumours that you may have heard. I met Megan McCollum, more commonly known as Miss Maizy Daisy, while on vacation. We are not having an affair. We are involved and once certain family traditions have been honoured we’ll likely be announcing our engagement. No, I will not answer questions, and neither will she. We have a plane to catch.”

With the help of the security guards they pushed their way through to the private gate to peace and quiet. 

They walked across the bustling tarmac to the waiting plane and Tyler suddenly let go of Megan’s hand and slapped his thigh. “I almost forgot!”

“Forgot what?” Megan asked, eyeing him cautiously.

“I have one more present for you. It’s waiting, on the plane.”

“What? Like a bribe? I only get it if I get on the plane?”

“Well, yes,” he said. “And no. I left it on the plane because I like it and if you had turned me down flat I would have kept it and never mentioned it to you.”

“Now I’m curious. Of course, if it’s a big box of chocolates you do know that I won’t share.”

“It’s not chocolates. Come on.”

She climbed the stairs, walked through the door, and started laughing. “What is it?” he asked. “What’s so funny?”

“I’ve seen it before,” she said, leaning against him as she continued laughing. There, propped up on the seat, was the painting that had been on the easel in Alicia’s house, the painting of the King’s Bridge under looming thunder clouds.

“What do you mean? I had it commissioned just for you.”

“I went to Alicia’s for sympathy and she was working for it. We didn’t know that Mr. Mathers of the hotel chain was you so we didn’t know it had been commissioned as a gift for me! That’s what Alicia was talking about last night on the phone, the little rat. Oh, this is just too much.”

“So, you like it?”

“I love it. I love you!” She spun around and hugged him tight. She looked up at him with a mischievous twinkle in her eyes. “How private is this jet?”

“Well there’s a pilot and a copilot up in the cockpit. Why?”

“Because I owe you an apology and I’m not sure I want to wait until we get to my apartment.”

He kissed her until her head spun. “I’ll see what I can do about privacy.” Another kiss. “I love you Megan.”

“That’s good, because I think you’re stuck with me.”

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