Chapter 18

I walked out of the hotel restaurant and gave valet my ticket. I pulled my sunglasses off of the top of my head and put them on while I waited for my car. The valet opened the door for me and I got in, handing him his tip. I smiled at him as he thanked me and got into the car.

I’d just finished an interview for the following month’s Glamour. I was on the cover and was doing the photo shoot for it tomorrow. I sighed as I thought about it. I hadn’t exactly been motivated to do much lately, which was a problem considering the buzz about the movie. I heard my phone ringing and checked the call ID.

“We’re good,” Brianna said to me when I picked up the phone.

“What’s the story?” I asked with a smile. She sounded so happy.

“Well, apparently Ryan’s ex was a bit of a psycho. She didn’t allow him to have any female friends. Thanks to her he was terrified of telling me that a friend from home was coming to town and wanted to go to a game if they were playing while she was here. He just panicked when he found out I knew it was a girl on the phone. She’ll be here this weekend, and I’ll be meeting her, so there really isn’t anything to hide,” she explained.

“Good. See, I told you that there would be an explanation for it. You told him you’re not that insecure, right?” I checked.

“Of course. I could care less if he has female friends. That just means that I don’t have only guys to hang out with when I visit him this summer.” I laughed.

“Exactly.”

“So how did the interview go?” she asked.

“It was pretty good. Basic stuff. You know the drill,” I told her.

“Good to hear. As far as I know the shoot is still at 10 tomorrow morning. Then there’s another interview set up at 2 about the movie. I’ll get you the details later.” I groaned.

“Alright, thanks.”

“Is something bothering you? You’ve been kind of weird since yesterday,” she commented. Yeah, something’s bothering me. I cheated on Jordan with Corey and I still have feelings for him.

“I’m just still tired, I think. You know it takes me forever to adjust to a normal routine after filming,” I responded.

“Yeah, I guess. Okay, I’ve got some phone calls to make so I’ll talk to you later to confirm everything.”

“Sounds good.” We hung up and I drove home.

I sat down on the couch and put in a movie. I began to think about Corey again. How could I possibly have done what I did? I wasn’t like that. I’d never been like that. I told myself it was just a one time mental lapse in judgment and tried to leave it at that. Unfortunately my brain kept conjuring up memories of the feel of his hands and his lips on mine.

I groaned and covered my face with a pillow as if that would block the images. I forced myself to think of Jordan. Those memories just didn’t seem as good. I shook my head and looked back at the TV screen. The movie was almost over. Had I really been thinking about Corey that long? I suddenly knew what I needed to do to end all of this. Either I had to avoid Corey at all costs, which wasn’t exactly practical since Brianna was dating one of his best friends, or we had to find a way to be around each other.

I grabbed a jacket and a purse along with my car keys. I locked up and got into my car. Brianna called to confirm everything for the next day. By the time I was off the phone I was pulling up in front of Corey’s. I wasn’t positive that Ileana wasn’t back, but I was hoping she wasn’t. I had something to prove to myself. I walked up to the door and rang the bell. He answered it with a shocked expression on his face.

“Amelia, what are you doing here?” he asked stepping aside to let me in.

“Experimenting,” I replied walking into the living room and sitting down.

“What does that mean?” he questioned.

“Is Ileana here?” He shook his head. “I need to prove to myself that we can be around each other and not let anything happen. I need to know that we can just be friends and nothing more.”

“Okay, sure,” he said not sounding at all convinced. I shrugged and saw that he had the NHL Network going on the TV.

“You never change,” I joked. He laughed.

“I was just about to make dinner. Interested?”

“You cook now?” I asked in shock. He made a face.

“I can put pasta in boiling water and pre-cooked chicken and vegetables in pasta sauce. Then I can combine them. Oh, then there’s the whole opening a bag of salad. That’s the most difficult part.” I shook my head and rolled my eyes as I laughed at him.

“Game tomorrow?” I checked. He nodded.

I got up from my spot on the couch and walked into the kitchen with him. I helped him prepare dinner and my smile grew as I worked. Maybe we could do this. Neither of us had made a move for the other and it didn’t even feel awkward. We made it through dinner without a problem and I began to load dishes into the dishwasher.

“You don’t have to do that,” he told me. I looked at him over my shoulder.

“Yeah right. These dishes would probably sit here until you ran out, crusting over. I’m putting them in.”

He laughed and carried dishes to the counter as I put them in. We chatted as I added the pile of plates and silverware that had already been sitting on the counter into the dishwasher as well. He cracked a joke that caused me to laugh just as I reached for a knife. I laughed so hard I stabbed myself.

“Shit!” I yelled as I saw blood immediately start flowing from my finger.

“Are you okay?” he asked rushing over.

I stuck my finger underneath the water flowing out of the faucet and began to look around for a towel or something to put over it. Corey was one step ahead of me and handed me one that he’d grabbed. I put pressure on the cut for a minute before checking to see how bad it was. Luckily it wasn’t deep and was already starting to stop bleeding. I let out a breath, happy that I wouldn’t need anything more than a bandage to put on it. Corey handed me one and I put it on.

“You’re still as accident prone as I remember,” he joked. I glared up at him, but couldn’t stop the smile from forming.

“It’s your fault! Stop being funny!” I yelled at him. He laughed.

“I can’t help it. Let me see it,” he said grabbing for my hand.

“You’re not going to see anything now,” I told him. Even so he studied my already bandaged finger.

“It doesn’t look like it’s going to bleed through at all. You’re lucky. You really could have done some damage,” he said, his tone taking on a more serious note.

“I’m fine. I always had a high pain tolerance,” I insisted. I looked up at him and our eyes locked. I noticed that he was still holding my hand.

“Why are you here?” he asked.

“I told you. I wanted to make sure that we could be around each other without anything happening,” I responded. I noticed that we had moved closer to each other.

“Right, your experiment. How’s that going?” My heart was pounding now.

“It was going well until now.”

I barely had time to get the sentence out before his lips were on mine. I didn’t make a move to pull away and neither did he. I felt one of his hands cup my face while his other hand, which had never let go of mine, gripped it even harder. I wrapped my free hand around his waist and pulled him closer to me. So much for being around each other without a problem.

I wanted to pull away from him. I thought of 100 different excuses I could use to get out of there right now but my brain didn’t seem connected to my body. I gave up and just gave in to what I was feeling. We stood in the kitchen with our lips locked together for what seemed like an eternity. We only stopped when we heard his phone ring.

“Is it important?” I asked as he looked over my shoulder at it.

“Not at all,” he replied as he hit ignore.

I caught sight of the name on the screen and saw that it was Ileana. I should have felt terrible, or guilty, or something, but I didn’t. Instead I followed Corey into his bedroom. I pushed him back onto the bed and crawled on top of him. He smiled as I pulled his shirt over his head and ran a hand over his chest. He reached up and pulled my shirt off as well. I straddled him and kissed him hard.

“What are we going to do?” I whispered into his ear.

“I’m not sure what you’re confused about,” he joked, kissing my neck.

“That’s not what I meant.”

“I know. We’ll worry about that later.” I agreed and focused only on how good he made me feel. I curled up to him after and kissed him.

“I have to go,” I told him. He turned his head to look at me.

“Just stay here tonight,” he offered.

“I can’t. I have a photo shoot and an interview tomorrow. Otherwise I would,” I declined. He pouted but nodded. I got up and got dressed and he did the same. He followed me to the door as I grabbed my stuff.

“Do you have the right phone?” he joked. I smiled and held it up to show him that I did.

“When does Ileana get back?” I asked.

“Sunday. Why, you want to get together again before?” I shook my head ‘no’ but smiled despite myself.

“I’ll talk to you later.” I stretched up to give him a kiss. Then I turned and walked out to my car. I was a terrible person, and right now I just didn’t care.