Chapter 8

“Lia, you need to come,” Brianna begged.

“You’ve been around the girls for a long time now. I don’t need to be a buffer anymore. Just go to the party on your own,” I insisted.

She was trying to convince me to go to another party the team was throwing. After my talk with Ileana I wanted to avoid her and Corey at all costs. I hadn’t quite figured things involving Corey out in my head yet and I wanted to stay away from him as much as possible.

“So you’re going to abandon me?” she asked.

“You’ll be fine,” I assured her.

She hung up the phone a few minutes later in defeat. I walked back into the office for my wardrobe fitting. Filming was going to be starting soon so they had to get wardrobe done and figured out before then. It was kind of fun to wear the clothes from that time period. I couldn’t help but laugh at my reflection more than once. On my way home my phone rang again.

“Hello?” I answered without checking the number.

“Amelia, it’s Caroline Marchant,” the female voice on the other line said. I was caught completely off guard.

“Oh, hi. How are you?”

“I’m great, thanks. Brianna said you weren’t going to come to the party tomorrow night. Are you busy?” she asked. I shook my head knowing Brianna had gone pretty low blow on this one.

“No, not busy. I just didn’t want to intrude at all,” I explained.

“That’s ridiculous. You really should come. It’s at my place, so don’t bother arguing that the host didn’t invite you personally.” I sighed.

“What time should I be there?” I asked, giving in. Caroline gave me the details and I hung up the phone.










“You’re in a good mood,” Corey said to Ileana when he picked her up for dinner that night. She just smiled and shrugged.

“I talked to Amelia.” He hit the brakes harder than he intended to at the red light.

“Why would you talk to Amelia?” he demanded.

“I needed help.”

“You needed help on what?” he asked.

“I needed help with you,” she replied. Okay, now he was dying to hear what advice Amelia had given Ileana about him.

“What have I done?”

“You’ve been an asshole.”

He sighed. This was it. Amelia had said something to Ileana that was breaking them up. He wouldn’t put it past her. She didn’t like Ileana and if she saw that there was trouble, she’d stir it up. She’d wanted Corey to break up with Ileana anyway. This would be her perfect opportunity to ensure that it would happen.

“Ileana, I’m sorry. I’ve told you that.”

“I know. Amelia made me realize that your mood swings weren’t about me. She told me how seriously you take hockey and that it can really affect you. She made me understand that it would end eventually and our relationship would only be stronger because we made it through a rough patch.”

His eyes widened in surprise. Amelia had given Ileana good advice? He hadn’t seen that coming. He was also shocked that Ileana had admitted that something wasn’t about her for once. Of course, he wasn’t about to tell her the mood swings had been about Amelia and not hockey.

“She told you that?” he asked. Ileana nodded.

“Yep, she did. It really helped me a lot. I thought I was on the verge of losing you, but she made me see that I would only lose you if I let it happen. I’m glad I talked to her.”

Corey pulled his car into valet and got out, following Ileana inside. He still couldn’t believe Amelia had given Ileana advice to save their relationship instead of using the opportunity to sabotage it. Maybe he’d been wrong about the kind of person he thought Amelia had turned into. It was still tough for him not to know why she’d disappeared from his life three years ago, but he suddenly didn’t feel any anger towards her anymore.










I grabbed a couple of bottles of wine and headed over to Caroline’s house. I hadn’t told Brianna I’d decided to go, so when she saw me walk through the door she was pleasantly surprised. I gave Caroline the bottles and made my way into the living room where the majority of people were hanging out. I was greeted by everyone and made my way towards the area where the girls were talking.

“Hey, Amelia, I just wanted to thank you for the advice again. I talked to Corey and things are good between us again. Thank you so much,” Ileana said to me as I walked over. Brianna looked up at me in surprise, knowing how much I hated Ileana.

“It really wasn’t a problem. I’m glad I could help.”

I heard someone mention ordering pizza for dinner. I groaned inwardly knowing that pizza was hardly my ideal food to eat in front of a bunch of people. They always made fun of me. At the same time I hadn’t had pizza in months and couldn’t wait to have some. A short while later the pizza was delivered and carried into the kitchen.

“Hey, Amelia, this box is for you!” Ryan called over to me. I walked into the kitchen confused. He handed me a pizza box that had my name scrawled on the top of it.

“Did you have a special request or something?” Erin Morrison asked me, spotting the box.

I shook my head at her as I put the box down to open it. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I looked in. Sitting there was a whole pizza without any cheese with extra sauce and pepperoni, just like I loved it. There were only two people in this house that knew how much I hated cooked cheese, and that I would have had to pick it off of the pizza before I ate it. I also knew I’d been by Brianna’s side all night and she hadn’t had anything to do with the pizza order. I looked up and found Corey standing across the room. I jerked my head towards the box and he smiled and nodded.

“Thank you,” I mouthed over to him. He held up his beer to me.

“You’re welcome,” he mouthed back.

I grabbed a plate and stuck a couple of pieces on it. I walked back into the living room to find a place to sit and eat. I just couldn’t wrap my mind around the fact that Corey had made sure to place a special order just for me. Just days ago he’d hated me. What had changed?

“How’s the pizza?” he asked making his way over to me. The fact that he’d approached me to talk civilly surprised me even more.

“It’s good. Thank you so much for doing this for me. It was really sweet,” I told him.

“I knew you’d be bitter if you had to pick the cheese off of the pizza in front of everyone. You always hated getting made fun of for not liking it. I thought this way you could hide the fact that you’re a freak,” he joked. I laughed.

“I really appreciate that, thanks. I guess it also saves you the embarrassment of having me pick the pepperoni off of your slices because I feel jipped about losing toppings,” I joked back.

We smiled at each other for the first time since we’d run into each other again. We managed to stand next to each other for a good portion of the night talking and joking around with everyone else without a fight. Corey had been my best friend along with being my boyfriend, and I felt some of that connection coming back.

“I should also thank you,” he said to me later when we were separated a little from everyone else.

“Thank me for what?” I asked.

“The advice you gave Ileana. It really means a lot that you didn’t take advantage of that situation. I guess I was wrong about you. I’m really sorry for the things I said,” he apologized. So that’s why we were getting along now.

“I’m sorry too, Cor. I said a lot of things I shouldn’t have. I should just stay out of your business. It’s not my place to interfere anymore.”

We smiled at each other and I felt a mutual understanding pass between us. We weren’t together anymore, and it hadn’t exactly ended well, but we could still be civil. In fact, if this continued I knew that we’d be friends.