Chapter 8
Mallory is here.
In the flesh.
Right in front of me.
She’s a vision in pink plucked straight out of my dreams.
I couldn’t hold back my smile if I tried. I found her. I finally found her after three years of searching.
“Obviously not very hard.” She snorts.
I press my lips into a firm line. If I’d known all I needed to do was show up at this coffee shop on a Saturday morning, I would’ve been here the week after I met her and saved myself a lot of trouble.
“You could’ve just called me. You know there are these devices called phones now.” Mallory is as sassy as I remember, except her words feel more biting than playful.
“If I hadn’t dropped the napkin with your phone number on it into a puddle of muddy, snowy slush, I would have.”
She rolls her eyes. “Likely story. I’m sure it’s what you say to all the girls.”
“All the—” I cut my sentence off, shaking my head. “Can we please sit for a minute? I’ll explain everything. Then if you never want to see me again, I’ll leave you alone.”
Mallory eyes me up and down. Her gaze slowly drags along my frame like she’s trying to decide if I’m worthy of being in her presence.
Honestly, I’m not even worthy to walk on the ground she walks on.
But I’m trying to be. And I’d be a fool if I let her go now that I have an opportunity to explain what happened three years ago.
“Please,” I say before she can tell me no.
With a long, exaggerated sigh, Mallory says, “Fine. You have five minutes.”
That’s all I need. I gesture to a more secluded table in the back of the coffee shop, wanting to be as far away from prying eyes as possible.
I already saw multiple people with their phones out.
I send up a prayer that this interaction doesn’t go viral.
That’s not the kind of publicity I need when I’m supposed to be maintaining the facade of dating my costar.
But this is the life I signed up for when I chose to be an actor.
Any of my public interactions are subject to scrutiny for the rest of my life.
I love my fans—it still feels wild to say I have fans. They call themselves Griffies.
But the woman who captured my heart called me Griff.
I’m pretty sure my Granny is the one who started the Griffies with the ode to the nickname she’s called me my whole life. Even though I love them, it can be hard to feel like I’m living my life under a microscope. Especially in this moment where I want the world around us to fade away.
Mallory presses her lips into a thin line as she walks to the back of the shop. She takes her pink beanie off, revealing her wavy, light-brown hair that’s just as gorgeous as it was three years ago. I want to wrap my fingers around each strand and memorize their feel.
When I finally drag my eyes away from her hair, I find her glaring at me, arms crossed and lips pursed. “You have four and a half minutes now, so you’d better make this quick.”
I sigh. “I know you have every reason to hate me. Heck, I would hate it if I went on as amazing a date as we had and never heard from that person again.” It’s hard not to hate myself for losing out on this amazing woman for three years.
“But I promise you, it wasn’t intentional.
After your friend and her brothers picked you up from the restaurant, I drove to my parents’ house.
I grabbed the napkin with your phone number from my cupholder, but when I got out of the car, it fell number-side down into a slushy pile of snow.
I tried to save it, but the numbers were too smeared.
” It was truly a scene from a rom-com, except I didn’t end up with the girl.
Mallory doesn’t say anything, but her expression softens the slightest bit.
“When you didn’t hear from me, did you ever consider looking me up?” I ask.
Mallory crosses her arms. “I forgot that you existed.”
I press a hand to my chest, prone to dramatic flair. But I’d be lying if I said her words didn’t hurt. “Ouch, am I that forgettable?”
“Yes.” But the way her eyes move down to my lips before slowly dragging back to my eyes says no. She takes a sip of her replacement drink before crossing her arms again.
“I tried to find you after my audition. But when all the information I had was your first name, your hometown, and the school you went to, it wasn’t much to go off of.”
She nods slowly. “You actually didn’t even have my first name.”
I raise an eyebrow. “You gave me a fake name?”
“Not exactly. Mallory is my middle name. It’s what I’ve gone by since I was a kid.”
It’s better than her giving me a fake name, but it explains why my team was unable to find her.
“What’s your first name?”
“Wouldn’t you like to know.”
“Yes, that’s why I asked.” I grin.
She rolls her eyes. “Fine, it’s Veronica. Veronica Mallory Porter.”
“Veronica…” I say the name slowly. “Doesn’t quite roll off the tongue like Mallory.”
“Yeah, I’ve never really felt like a Veronica. Even my parents have always called me Mallory.”
“That explains why I couldn’t find you. Well, that and I had no chance of finding you on social media without your last name.”
“Oh, you never would’ve found me on social media.” She takes a sip of her drink.
I blink. “Why’s that?”
“I don’t have it.”
“Really?” I laugh.
She shrugs. “I always wanted to be a teacher, but I didn’t want my students to find embarrassing pictures of me online, so I never created a social media account.”
“You know that makes you really hard to find, right?”
Her eyes narrow. “That’s kind of the point.”
This conversation is not going how I’d envisioned.
In my mind, I always thought that if I ever saw Mallory again, it would be this grand moment when we would see each other across the way and run to each other.
She would jump into my arms, and we would ride off into the sunset together, kissing until we couldn’t breathe.
“Why are you even here?” She sounds annoyed, bursting my dream bubble of our reunion.
“I wanted coffee.”
Mallory sighs. “No. I mean, why are you here? In Louisville?”
“My granny had hip-replacement surgery. She’s in a rehab facility now while she recovers.”
She frowns. “She couldn’t have gotten the surgery in your small town?”
“Not unless the town nurse suddenly became a surgeon overnight.” I laugh. “One of her friends had the same procedure from a doctor in Louisville, so she felt comfortable getting it here.”
“That still doesn’t explain why you’re here.” She glances around the café, anywhere but at me.
I look at Mallory until she finally meets my gaze, and I’m taken aback when I see a hint of emotion in her eyes. It’s obvious she’s trying to hide it, but I can see there’s something she’s grappling with, even if she’s trying to make herself look composed.
I know the feeling. I’ve been trying to rein in my emotions from the moment I caught her in my arms and realized who she was.
If this were a movie, I would’ve lifted her off the ground and spun her around, shouting her name like a victory cry, knowing I’d finally found her.
Then the cameras would cut to slow motion as our lips met.
Instead, I’ve got a cold front on my hands, and I don’t mean the one outside.
“I wanted to make sure Granny had the best care. My parents are still working, and I’m on a break between movies, so it made sense for me to be the one to come.”
Mallory’s eyes seem to soften slightly at that. I hope she’s seeing the same man from the café all those years ago under the new Hollywood shine. I may have a slightly better haircut and whiter teeth, but I’m still me.
Plus, part of me was holding onto hope that I would run into Mallory, that I’d find her again. It seemed unattainable, a fantasy. But here she is, sitting across from me in a coffee shop just like three years ago.
Although it’s nothing like my fantasy.
Mallory doesn’t say anything, so I continue. “Are you seeing anyone?”
“No.” She lets out a dry laugh. “I don’t think love is for me.”
“Love is for everyone.”
“Debatable.” She tilts her head. “Although it appears you’ve found it.” I furrow my brows. “Shouldn’t you be in LA with your costar girlfriend?” She spits out the words like they’re venom.
I look around, trying to make sure no one is listening in on our conversation. “I can’t talk about Brittany here, but I’ll tell you everything in a private setting, if you’re willing to hear me out.”
“I don’t need to hear any more lies from you.” Mallory glances at her phone. “Lucky you, I graced you with six minutes instead of five.” She pulls her beanie back on and grabs her drink, raising it toward me. “Have a nice life, Griffin.”
I open my mouth to say…anything. But I don’t know what to say to the woman I’ve been waiting three years to find again, who seems glad to have lost me.
My hand itches to reach out and stop her as she breezes past me.
But I don’t even get out so much as a goodbye before she’s out the front door of the coffee shop and my life.
Yeah, this chance encounter is nothing like the movies. Because if it were, we’d be walking out of this shop hand in hand.
And I’d never let her go again.
“I don’t need you to fuss over me.” Granny swats my hand away. “It was just a hip replacement. I can hold a fork.”
I place the utensil on her napkin. “Sorry, go ahead.”
“Your kind, caring heart is my favorite quality about you.” She leans forward and pinches my cheeks. “That’s why you’ll always be my Griffie boy.”
I take it like a champ, even though it hurts like the dickens. For such a small woman, her fingers sure have a mighty grip.
“Are you ready to fess up to naming my fandom the Griffies?” I ask as she takes a bite of salad.
She offers me a closed-lip smile, her eyes crinkling at the corners. Once she’s finished chewing, Granny shakes her head. “Never.”
I walk into the small kitchen in her room at the rehab facility, making two plates of tri-tip steaks and baked potatoes with all the fixings. I carry them to the table, placing one in front of her and the other in front of my chair.