feeling began in my toes and worked its way up. There was a smile on my face but I was apprehensive of what our admissions meant. There was no denying that we were dating. What would we tell the media? Would we even acknowledge our relationship?
My phone chirped in my hand. Mason replied.
Plug in the night light. Someone’s getting lucky tonight.
I didn’t bother to reply. All I could do was laugh.
Mason was still out practicing for his first tour with his band when I started dinner. I found that cooking was something I enjoyed and it seemed to calm my nerves. Without Lynn or Mason around, I got bored. At the rate I was going, I would eat everything in my cabinet. I stared at my painting while eating my dinner on the coffee table. When Mason showed up, I was already on dessert.
“Hey you,” he swept in and kissed me on the cheek before shedding his jacket and shirt. “Did you make brownies?”
I nodded and gestured toward the pan on the counter. “All I had was the mix with walnuts and I hate walnuts so I’ve been picking them out.”
He slid his left hand under my chin and back into my hair. Slowly he cocked his head to the right and moved in to press his lips softly to mine. “You taste like chocolate; it’s nice.”
“You taste like beer and cigarettes.”
“I’ve been with the guys. We drank beer and smoked cigarettes.” He laughed and opened the fridge to grab a bottle of water. “You’ll never guess who I saw hanging out by the gas station down the street.”
“No!” I said, already suspecting who it was. “Jill?”
Mason nodded. “I don’t know if she saw me but I saw her. She was sitting against the side of the building.”
I looked toward the floor and I actually felt guilty. Even though that bitch deserved what she got I couldn’t help but remember how it felt to have nowhere to go. The feelings were still alive inside me and it was hard to hate her in that moment.
“Thank you for the painting. How did you find it?”
He watched me as if he was trying to decide if he really wanted to let me change the subject or not. “I tracked it down. It wasn’t that hard.” His cheeks blushed pink.
I grabbed his hand and pulled him in for a hug. “It’s the best gift I’ve ever been given.”
“So far,” he said with a smirk. “I got a call about the Open Skies premiere today. I want you to go with me; as my date.”
It didn’t sound like it, but going out together like that was a huge step for us. Mason and I were hermits. We liked to lock ourselves away in a room and pretend there was no one else. Bringing in the media and others was scary as shit. Hopefully he had thought about how that would affect us beforehand. Either way, it was hard to say no to him.
“Of course I will. I get to buy my own dress though; no complaints.”
“As long as I’m taking it off afterwards, I don’t care who buys the thing.”
“Are you always planning out our sex life in advance?” I joked with a slight poke to his bare chest.
He lifted me to the counter and moved so he stood between my legs. “I’m not planning anything. There’s less chance for disappointment that way.”
Truer words were never spoken.
Chapter 13
October 2009
For the seventh time, I stood in front of the mirror and admired my appearance. I was ten minutes late to my lunch date with Lynn but I just couldn’t make myself leave the apartment without one more look. Mason had made an offhand comment the night before about how thin I looked and I could tell by his facial expressions that he wasn’t happy about it.
Of course, I didn’t quite see it and I wasn’t caught up in my weight to begin with. I was eating less because I was busy all of a sudden. My minor supporting role ended and led to a larger role in another movie that I’d been working on for at least a week. The one thing I was supposed to leave behind refused to separate from me. I was still carrying around Percocet but it wasn’t in the rusty brown prescription bottle anymore. It was packed away neatly in a small change purse in my bag where I hoped Mason would never find the damn thing. He would have