Chapter Twenty-Two
Jessica
Looks like this pop star is on her way to rehab. Again.
“Wasn’t it wonderful?” Susanna says from beside me in the middle of the reception, both of us holding champagne glasses. “I swear when he comes home, I’m sitting him down and scolding him for doing all those stunts,” she whispers, and I laugh. The movie was amazing, his stunts were real nail-biters, and he looked like the superstar that he is. I watch as he makes his way around the room, thanking people for coming. “He wasn’t the one who didn’t want you by his side.” I turn to his mother now. She looks around to make sure it’s just the two of us. Frank’s standing at the bar to get another beer. “I saw him checking his watch five times waiting for you.”
“It was a misunderstanding,” I tell her, trying not to make it a bigger deal or look like a bitch in all this. “It all worked out.”
She nods her head at me. “I don’t know about you, but I’m starving.” I laugh at her, knowing exactly how she feels. There have been people going around with “amuse-bouches” as they call it. “The last crab cake I had was the size of my pinky nail.”
“How much longer?” Frank asks when he finally gets back to our side. His parents haven’t left my side since we walked out of the movie. They stand with me, and I introduced them to all the journalists. “Susanna, I love you and my son, but this collar is getting tighter and tighter as the night goes on.” He pulls at it. “I swear I’m suffocating.”
I look at the clock on my phone. “It’s almost eleven.” Looking around, I see that it’s still fully packed. “Why don’t we get in the car, go back to the hotel, order a bunch of room service, and make the superstar pay?”
Susanna and Frank both laugh. “I like her,” Frank says. “I’m going to go tell him we are leaving.” I watch him make his way to Tyler and lean in to talk in his ear. Tyler’s eyes fly up to mine, and he just smiles and nods. Frank walks back to us. “Let’s go.”
I nod at him and walk out of the event with his parents, walking down the steps to the limos lined up waiting for people to leave. We walk to the front of the line, and the chauffeur opens the door for us. “The Four Seasons please,” I say, getting into the car after his parents, his father already taking off his tie. “I forgot to get Tyler’s key,” I say, putting my head back and closing my eyes.
“That’s okay,” Frank says. “He told us he’d meet us in our room anyway.”
“Are you sure?” I ask them. Frank just smiles, and Susanna is the one to talk.
“If we let you leave, he might have a nervous breakdown.” She laughs, and the car comes to a stop. “Now let’s go order all that room service,” she says, and the man opens the door for us to walk into the hotel. The lobby is quiet at this late hour, and I get into the elevator with them to go up to their room. Frank opens the door for us, and I see the marble is almost the same as the entrance. We walk into the room, and I see a pantry on the right-hand side, so I follow Frank, and he stops in the living room. “This room is massive,” I say, and Susanna sits on the ivory couch, slipping off her shoes. The whole room screams elegance and money. The walls all have mirrors on them. Two huge windows show the balcony outside. “Go see how beautiful it is outside, and I’ll call room service.” She smiles and then looks at Frank. “Get her a glass of wine.” He nods at me, and I smile at the two of them. “Is there anything you don’t eat?”
I shake my head. “I eat just about everything.” I walk to the balcony door, passing the marble fireplace with a gold framed mirror hanging above it and vases of white roses. I push aside the sheer drapes and open the door, walking outside. A black table is in the middle of the long balcony with four chairs. Two white loveseats sit on either side of the table. Huge potted cement blocks hold up round green balls with lights on them. It’s magical. I walk out farther, looking up at the stars and feeling the warm breeze.
The door opens behind me, and Frank comes out. His tie is gone with his jacket, three buttons are open at his collar, and his sleeves are rolled up. “Here you are,” he says, handing me a white wine while he holds his bottle of beer. “Cheers.” I hold up my glass and clink it against his.
Susanna comes out holding her own glass with slippers on her feet now. “I ordered more food than we are going to eat, but that’s what you get when you give me bird food,” she says, going to her husband’s side. She puts a hand around his waist, and he bends to kiss her lips and then her head. Smiling at them, I take a sip of my wine, and when I hear the door open again, it’s Tyler.
He smiles at us and comes right to me. His arm goes around my waist, and his lips crash on mine. “Hey,” he whispers, then kisses me again. “Sorry I took so long.”
“Um . . . you just kissed me in front of your parents . . . again,” I whisper to him.
“Yeah, I guess I did.” He turns to look at his parents who are looking at us. “Did you order me a burger?” he asks, not letting go of me. His mother nods, and then his father walks toward the loveseat, leaving just the two of us. “I’m starving,” Tyler says, pulling his tie away from his collar with one hand and unbuttoning the first button. I try not to think about him kissing me in front of his parents. “Relax,” he says softly, kissing me again. “We are safe here.” I nod, then reach up with my free hand to wipe my gloss off his lips. “I made plans for us tomorrow with my parents.”
“You think that’s a good idea?” I ask him. “The whole town knows you’re here.”
“Yeah, well, Alex just came out with his new girlfriend. Trust me, no one is going to be looking for me.”
“Okay,” I say quietly. I don’t fight him on this. “You good?” I ask him.
“I am now,” he says, letting me go finally to shrug off his jacket and roll up his sleeves like his father. The food comes as soon as he sits in one of the chairs, and we spend an hour getting way too full, all of us overeating.
We walk out of his parents’ room hand in hand, his fingers intertwined with mine, his jacket draped over his other arm. I don’t ask where we are going because I don’t care as long as I’m with him. He opens his door, and we walk in. He pulls me to the living room, and as soon as I see the room, I stop. There are red and white rose petals everywhere, and the lights in the room are off. The whole room glows from about a hundred candles, all in their own glass vases, floating on water. I spin in a circle, and they are everywhere. The rose petals make a path to the bedroom. “What is this?” I ask him as he tosses his jacket on the couch.
“This is the only way I can publicly tell you how sorry I am,” he tells me, coming to me. “I’m sorry.”
I shake my head. “It wasn’t your fault,” I tell him honestly, wrapping my arms around his neck. Finally, for the first time today, his hands go from my hips to my ass, pulling me into him. “But there is a way you can make it up to me,” I say with a twinkle in my eye, and he spots it. His cock is already hard, pushing into me.