Pants on Fire (7 page)

Megan just stared. It was all so simple, so easy, and possibly even true. But every excuse from every cheating male was always simple and easy and possibly true.
If he’s lying I can walk away. I don’t have to care anymore. I don’t have to admit anything. If he’s telling the truth then walking away now makes me the bitch and him the victim.

Tyler could practically see the wheels turning in her head. He pulled his cellphone out of his pocket. “Her number’s on speed dial. You can call her and ask. She’ll tell you that I’m her boss and nothing more and we both like it that way.”

“Damn it.” She broke down crying and he held her close. “I’m sorry,” she managed between sobs.

“Hey, it sounded pretty incriminating, especially when we don’t know a lot about each other yet. I was almost ready to kick my own ass for being a complete jerk.”

She looked up at him with red, bleary eyes. “How can you say you love me when we don’t know anything about each other?”

“Because I know YOU, Megan, without all the complications of social connections, or jobs, or history, and I love you, as you are, here, in your home town.”

She shook her head and was about to say something when a knock at the door made them both look up. “Room service,” someone called.

“Will you stay for lunch?”

She nodded and let him get the door.

When they were alone again she crossed to the couch and dropped, hiding her face in her hands. Her words were completely muffled and Tyler shook his head.

“Sorry Megan, I completely missed that last part.”

She moved her hands. “I said I’m a complete and total idiot.”

“Apology accepted.”

They stared at each other for a long moment and then Tyler said, “If I asked you out on a date would your answer be the same as the answer to this question?”

“No … Yes … wait, that’s not fair!” She laughed. “Why do I like the pick-up lines?”

“I don’t know, Megan, but I’m glad you do.”

As they ate their lunch Megan tried not to think about what had just happened. Having a fight changed things. In a casual fling you didn’t fight, you just left when it wasn’t fun anymore.
He wouldn’t let me leave and we had a fight, a real yell at each other break down and cry fight. And he’s forgiven me. I don’t even know if I want him to forgive me.

“Stop thinking about it,” he said. He pushed his plate back. “Look, Megan, you said it yourself that this felt like more than a fling. Do you want it to be more than a fling?”

“I’m not ready to confess my undying love for you.”

“That’s not what I asked.”

She took a few deep breaths. “I just don’t know, Tyler. Obviously I care or I wouldn’t have been curious enough to listen to your phone call. Beyond that, I just don’t know. Love doesn’t happen in a week.”

“And I thought I was the down-to-earth cynical one.”

She chuckled. “Yeah, what happened there?”

“You walked by again.” Silence. “I’m sorry. No more declarations. All right, what should we do for the afternoon?”

“Could we maybe spend the afternoon apart, so I can get over my shame and embarrassment and generally get my feet back under me?”

He nodded. “If that’s what you need. But you’ll come back?”

“I’ll come back.”

***

Megan was very aware of her mother’s almost constant stare as they sat at the antique dining room table that night. Of course Megan knew that her silence and lack of appetite would be enough to raise flags in her mother’s mind but she couldn’t mask this confusion behind a happy-go-lucky front. That didn’t mean she was looking forward to the chat that would come later.

She sighed and her mother set her fork down on the table. “All right Dear, that’s the fifth sigh since you sat down at this table. You’ve barely touched your dinner and you haven’t joined the conversation. What’s wrong?”

“I wasn’t expecting this talk until bed time,” Megan grumbled.

“Well, I’m tired of this moping. What happened this time? Did you actually fall in love?”

“No. I mean, I don’t know. Mom, I’ve known him less than two weeks! How could I possibly know if I love him?” She sighed, again, and poked her meatball across her plate. “He said he loved me yesterday.”

Deborah smiled indulgently. “Megan, have I ever told you how your father and I met?”

“Sure, you’re the original high school sweethearts. Everyone knows that.”

“We went out for pizza with a fairly large group of mutual friends.” Deborah’s eyes took on a faraway look. “There I was, squished against the back wall of the booth, five of us trying to sit on a bench designed for three, and your father peers over the wall at me. I’d seen him around school before, but the way he smiled down at me just took my breath away. I made four of my best friends pile out of the booth just so I could go around and sit at his table. Everything he did that evening left me breathless so when he asked me to go steady a week later I said ‘yes’ and here we are, nearly forty years later.”

“I don’t believe in love at first sight, Mom. I was in love with Bryce from the start, remember? He wouldn’t even come back to Kingsbridge to meet you two. And when I went back early because I missed him so much, he was fucking another woman in my apartment.”

“Language, Megan,” her father said.

“Sorry Dad. He was intimately and athletically embracing another woman in my apartment.”

Her father nodded once and went back to his dinner.

“Bryce wasn’t the one for you and you weren’t in love, you were a small city girl infatuated with a big city boy and he took advantage of that.”

“And what if this is the same thing?! He’s another big city boy, Mom. He doesn’t have time for the simple little things in life, how the hell  …”

Her father cleared his throat.

“How the heck would he have time for a family? Does he think I’ll give up my career and move to wherever he lives and be a charming wife, entertaining all his business guests and ironing his ties?”

“Damn ties,” her father muttered.

Megan rolled her eyes and was about to continue her rant when her mother cut her off. “Have you asked him? How should I know what the man thinks? Honey, you’ve been off sleeping with him for almost two weeks, against my advice, and now you’re afraid you’re about to get your heart stepped on. Well, you made the physical and emotional commitment to this relationship, now you go and sort out where it’s going.”

Megan watched in shock as her mother cleared the plates from the table. “I wasn’t finished.”

“Go figure out what he wants. And if it’s what you want, then why can’t you fall in love with him?” Deborah called from the kitchen.

“You’re kicking me out?”

“Only for a few hours. Now go.”

Megan pushed back from the table, retrieved her purse and sandals, and stormed out of the house. She drove to the rose garden because it was open all day and because she had no intention of going to the hotel to talk to Tyler.

She settled on the bench across from the fountain and glared at everything while her thoughts bubbled around in her head.

“I didn’t ask for this,” she told the evening air.  “All I wanted was a quick fling, a few nights of decent sex to take the edge off before going on tour and being on my best behavior.” She hmphed and crossed her arms over her stomach. “I don’t want love, especially not from some big city workaholic. I don’t even know his last name, or where he works, or where he lives! This is not how you fall in love with someone.”

With a sigh she got up and walked around the garden. She loved roses, though any plants she bought for her apartment withered and died in a matter of months. She was content just to look at other people’s gardens and admire from the safety of a walkway or patio, where she couldn’t kill the beautiful flowers.

Checking the time she saw it was still early evening and decided to take a chance. She called Alicia’s number and continued to walk about the garden as she counted rings. At ‘five’ the phone picked up. “Hello?”

“Hi, Alicia, it’s Megan.”

“Hi! I didn’t expect to hear from you so soon. But then I guess your vacation is almost over.”

“Yeah, any chance you’re free tonight?”

“I’m just finishing up a painting but you can come over if you want.”

“I’ve never minded watching you work. I’ll be right over.”

Alicia’s house was a little one bedroom with barely enough grass to call a yard. She had painted it aquamarine with navy trim, it was attractive but it stood out against the white washed houses on either side. Megan let herself in the back and found Alicia in the living room which had been converted into a studio. The canvas on the easel was mostly complete and the King’s Bridge, complete with stony creek and scrubby pasture, was captured there.

“Hey Megan! I’m just working on the sky, it’s giving me some trouble. Did you want a drink or anything?”

“If there’s wine in the fridge I’ll get us both a glass.”

“Grab me a sandwich while you’re there! They’re ready made. Grab one for yourself too!”

“No thanks,” Megan called from the kitchen. “I just ate, sort of.”

“What do you mean, sort of? You’re not on a diet again are you? I told you being a celebrity would ruin your self-image.”

“I’m not dieting. My mom stole my plate before I was done and kicked me out for the evening.”

Alicia’s eyebrows shot up. “Why did she do that?”

Megan took a deep breath and poured out the entire story, in a lot more detail than she could ever tell her mother. When she was finished Alicia’s eyes were wide.

“He bought every single one for hotels? My paintings are going to be on display in hotel lobbies? This is too amazing.” She took a deep breath and held it before leveling a very serious gaze at Megan. “Enough about me, we’ll celebrate later. This is about you.”

“Does it have to be? Can’t we just get drunk and celebrate your big success in style?”

“Later, I said. Do you love him?”

“Alicia!”

“No excuses. No wishy-washy crap. Do you love him?”

“I don’t know. Alicia, it scares me. Last time I fell in love he ended up being a total jerk. This casual fling thing works for me. I don’t want it to get complicated.”

“When you started this casual fling thing you had to know there was a chance you’d one day fall for one of your flings, didn’t you?”