FIFTEEN
Bella
As we walk into the bar, a few people give me a long look, but no one says anything. I pull the baseball cap down lower over my face, anyway. Will slings his arm around my shoulders and I get a warm, fuzzy feeling inside. The kind I can’t remember feeling since I was a teenager.
We find Jane and Harry holding seats for us at the front, near the tiny stage that looks more like a plank of wood on some overturned crates where someone has propped a microphone. Jane stands and pulls me into a hug, and Harry leans across the table and gives me a kiss on the cheek. By the time I’m sitting and they push the jug of beer toward me, a grin is stretched right across my face.
It’s been a hard week.
The thing is, I haven’t done anything I wouldn’t normally do. The schedule hasn’t been abnormally grueling, and the interviews were quite pleasant. I have two new scripts to read over. I should be on top of the world.
In reality, I was counting the minutes until I could come back to London and see Will again.
Raucous applause signals a tall, lanky man has finished his set. I catch a glimpse of Candy’s familiar feathery hair and bright smile from the bar before she jumps up to claim the mic. The clapping dies down. Candy clears her throat and gives us a shy smile. Then she launches into some of the filthiest jokes I’ve ever heard, all while looking like butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth.
I’m whooping and stomping my feet along with them when Candy gives a little bow and hands off the microphone to a pretty unicorn with a long red mane.
Candy’s flushed and breathless as she collapses into her seat at our table. “Oh. Ian didn’t make it?”
Will snorts. “You know he doesn’t come out in public apart from the shop.”
Candy looks crestfallen. “Yeah. I know. He promised, though.”
Makes me wonder if there is something going on there. “You were great!” I tell her.
Her smile returns. “Really?”
“Really. Amazing. I haven’t laughed that hard in ages.”
“Aw, thanks. It wasn’t too rude?”
I grin. “Not at all. You’re so good.”
“That was nothing. You should hear her sing.” Candy jerks her head to a siren with long blue dress sitting to one side of the stage. “She’s brilliant.”
The unicorn finishes her set and the audience claps. It’s polite. I clap, too, but we weren’t really listening.
The siren steps up to the stage. She has an aura of energy. Everyone immediately goes quiet. She clears her throat. Music from a portable speaker starts. Suddenly, the space is full of her voice. The words she sings are like magic. It’s like I’ve heard the song a hundred times and immediately know the tune. Yet every time she comes to the chorus she injects an unexpected joke which has the audience roaring with laughter, only to hush when the song continues in order to hear her.
When she finishes, we all clap and cheer, but I lean close to Candy as the siren sits down. “I still say your set was better.”
Candy blushes and Will throws me such a huge smile across the table. I know he heard. He probably thinks I’m sucking up to her, but I’m not. She was so clever and funny.
Not much later, he takes my hand as we leave the club and I love the way our fingers curl together. It feels natural to walk hand in hand down the street after waving the others goodbye.
“Coffee?” he asks me.
“I shouldn’t.” I should probably be more careful out in public. It’s been like a dream that no one has recognized me, but that will all come crashing down if they do. “Come back to my hotel.” I glance up at him anxiously.
I can see the moment I say it what his answer will be. His brows knit into a furrow. “I shouldn’t.”
“Why not?” I understand he’s a sweet guy. That’s exactly what I like about him, but haven’t I made it clear I’m not just a one night stand?
Only, that’s all I am, isn’t it? No one could think of me as more than that and how can I blame them? Look at what’s all over the media about me. Flirting with every male director I ever worked with, a series of boyfriends, one after the other, seeing multiple guys at once. It doesn’t matter. It’s all nonsense. That makes no difference.
Because this can’t be forever, can it? The life I live... I couldn’t condemn him to following me around, or waiting endlessly for me to be free.
Will surprises me by turning me to face him and taking my other hand. He lowers his voice. “Bella, I want to. Believe me. And I don’t want to scare you, but I’m a werewolf. Not a human.”
“Uh huh.” I’m not really following. I’m trying, but I don’t get what he means.
He sighs. “Things don’t, ah... don’t work the same way for us as they do for humans. I just... Give it some time, OK? I need to figure out if this will work.”
“OK.” I look down to our joined hands.
Will’s voice is even softer when he speaks next. “I really want to.”
I look up. The truth is written in his face when I search it. That relieves the little knot of tension in my chest. “I really want you to.”
He pauses. “God, I’m being a fool, aren’t I?”
I laugh. “No. Yes. Maybe a little, but I think I like it. It’s sweet. I’m not sure what you’re protecting me from, but I like that you want to.”
He sighs. “Sometimes I’m not sure, either. How long are you in London for this time?”
“Another week.”
“Then can I—would you like to see me again? I understand if you don’t.”
“What? Are you kidding? I’d love to. Only I can’t tomorrow. Or the next day.” I grimace. “I’m sorry. I’m a pain.”
“Not at all. Can I take you out on Friday?”
Glancing around, I can’t see anyone looking, so I stretch up on my toes and press a quick kiss to his lips. “I’d like that. Where are we going?”
A little smile creeps over his mouth. “A surprise, but I think you’ll like it. At least I hope you will.”
Still holding his hand, we begin walking in the direction of my hotel. “I know I will. What should I wear?”
“You look perfect in everything, but exactly what you’re wearing right now would work.”
I laugh. “So glamorous!”
He grows serious. “You don’t need to be glamorous, Bella. Don’t you know how beautiful you are?”
“Hmmm. Maybe you’d better tell me again, just to make sure.”
He laughs. “Bella, you are beautiful. You would make a potato sack glamorous.”
I’m glowing. I brush invisible hair back over my shoulder, since my own hair is pinned back under my cap. “Oh, I know. But feel free to keep saying it.”
Will walks me back to my hotel, and as he does, he somehow finds a hundred ways to do just that. “Gorgeous.”
He slings his arm around me as we walk across a zebra crossing.
“Stunning.”
“Mhmm. Keep going.”
“Radiant.”
“Oh, really?”
“Succulent.”
I burst out laughing. “Succulent!”
“Too far?”
We stop outside the hotel. “Just far enough. Why are you so amazing?”
He shifts uncomfortably. “I’m not sure I am, but if I’m even approaching amazing, it’s less than what you deserve.”
I’m speechless for a moment. I’m going to bungle this. I am. “Come up?” I plead with him.
He shakes his head sadly. “Not yet.”
I sigh, but it’s a better answer than he gave before. Maybe I’m wearing him down slowly.
I’m lighthearted as I ride the elevator up to my room. I can’t wait to find out what Will has planned. I’m bursting at the seems to see him again, anyway.
I’m disappointed to check my phone and see a message from my agent, not from Will.
Such a let down I can’t make the call right now. Instead, I put down the phone in disgust and take myself to bed.