CHAPTER 14 Unexpected Visitors
October 9, 2010
It was almost 9:00 a.m. when Nina and I were done running. We were headed to get some coffee because we both needed our morning fix.
“I feel weird without my phone,” Nina said. “It’s like a limb is missing. I don’t know what to do with my hands.”
“You’ll survive,” I said, pulling Nina into the coffee shop. Aaron waited outside. “I need caffeine more than I need my phone right now.”
Nina had forgotten to charge her phone last night, so she plugged it in at my apartment. I left mine, too, in solidarity. But I wasn’t as attached to it as Nina was. It was nice to be able to disconnect completely.
“I feel like Aaron’s been grumpier and more quiet than usual,” I said as we waited in line to place our orders. The delicious smell of coffee was making my mouth water. “I know he has a tough, cold exterior, but he’s usually a bit more … I don’t know. I can’t help but feel like he’s still mad about everything that happened last month. About me escaping and the domino effect it generated.”
“Have you tried talking to him?”
“I have not.” I shook my head and looked over my shoulder at him standing right outside the glass window of the small coffee shop. “At least not since we flew back. But it’s not that easy. With Caleb, talking came naturally. That’s what we did. Talk all day. But Aaron is so hard to decipher sometimes.”
It was our turn to order, so we did a short intermezzo from our conversation to get that done and then stepped to the side while we waited for our coffees.
“A lot of things have changed,” Nina said. “Caleb died, you escaped, your dad probably wanted his head because of it, his job was on the line, and he went from having two partners he could rotate schedules with to having all the responsibility of your safety on his shoulders. And now you’re dating one of Hollywood’s most famous celebrities, which will only make his job trickier, and he knows it.”
I rolled my eyes at her about the celebrity thing because of how she said it, but she wasn’t wrong.
“In conclusion,” she continued, “he’s working more and becoming more stressed by the second.”
“Could be.” I shrugged. “I thought dating William would be harder in terms of logistics, but it hasn’t been. Everyone keeps telling me, ‘Oh, you don’t know how crazy it can get,’ but everything’s been fine so far.”
“That’s because you guys haven’t been dating out in the open,” Nina said. “You stay in, order takeout, spend weekends at his place in the Hamptons with his family, or attend dinner parties. But try going out for dinner or a night out in the city, and then we can talk.”
“You make a good point.”
I was happy with how things were going with our relationship. The privacy aspect was important for both of us, and William knew how overwhelming it’d been when I attended Tobias’s premiere. The red carpet, the cameras flashing our way, and the people screaming William’s name. He was shielding me somewhat from that world—the wild celebrity world—and I was thankful.
Regardless, I knew the time would come for me to attend red carpet events and parties with him, and to be honest, I was excited about it. But I didn’t know what to expect either. At least, not entirely. So to say that I was comfortable not knowing the full extent of what it meant to be William Sj?berg’s girlfriend out in the public eye was an understatement.
I didn’t want to give this topic much thought.
Luckily, our order was called, and we grabbed our coffees and stepped out into the bustle of the city, both of us savoring our well-deserved coffees and enjoying the after-run endorphins.
But not Aaron. He was the only human on Earth who could manage to get in a bad mood after a run. Not that anyone could tell, but I knew him well enough to detect it. His blue eyes turned a shade darker. And the characteristic broodiness that embodied his persona only intensified. He was a weights-at-an-indoor-gym-kind of guy.
“Drink.” I handed him the black Americano I got for him so he would cheer up. “It’s burn-your-esophagus kind of hot, just like you like it.”
Caleb once told me Aaron’s coffee had to feel like lava pouring down his throat or else he wouldn’t drink it. He said Aaron would always complain about the coffee machine at their apartment, claiming it was malfunctioning because his drink wasn’t poured at the “proper” temperature.
“I bet he orders caramel Frappuccino with extra whipped cream and rainbow sprinkles when no one’s watching,” Caleb used to joke, playfully annoyed about Aaron’s attitude regarding what he thought was a coffee’s correct temperature. He always knew how to make me laugh with the silliest things.
“Mmm.” Aaron hummed as he sipped on his extra hot coffee that I had asked the barista to bring to a boiling point. He clicked his tongue and nodded once, sharply. “Thank you, miss.”
He approved.
Not that I should care, but I felt relieved that he did.
“Cheer up, Aaron,” Nina said as we started down the street. “You’ll be the one suggesting to Billie to go out for a run in no time.” She chuckled, and a low groan rumbled in Aaron’s throat, making Nina and I laugh.
Making fun of “Moody Broody Aaron” would’ve been even more entertaining if he had allowed himself to let his guard down. And that was my best attempt at loosening him up. But formalities and protocol always came first for him. He would never step out of his role.
“Always happy to go for a run, Miss Lewis.”
Lies.
“He needs to get laid,” Nina whispered in my ear as we rounded the corner onto Park Av. “He’s so uptight.”
“Oh, I’m sure he has a regular,” I whispered back. “Knowing how methodical he is.” I took another small sip of my coffee. It was still scorching to the tongue, and unlike Aaron, I needed to wait for the coffee’s temperature to drop a little to enjoy it.
“Nah, I don’t think so,” she said, sounding sure of herself. “Let’s find him a regular.”
Nina shimmied her shoulders with excitement as if that were a viable and reasonable plan.
Aaron cleared his throat behind us.
“Shit, I think he overheard.” Nina laughed, and I followed. She turned around and said, “Don’t worry, Aaron. We’re talking about another Aaron who goes in my class. He really needs a good fuck so he can relax and enjoy life.”
Nina! I widened my eyes at her with shock.
“Oh, come on.” She waved a carefree hand as she took another sip of her coffee. “He loves it.”
I wasn’t so sure.
Taking a deep breath to avoid laughing again, I peeked over my shoulder at Aaron and grinned apologetically. He pressed his lips in reply, but his eyes narrowed slightly as if the repressed smile had found an outlet through his glance.
I wondered what he would say if he weren’t forcing himself to always stick to protocol.
We walked the last few blocks talking about my plans for tonight with the Sj?berg family to celebrate their mom’s birthday. But when we approached my apartment building’s main entrance, we spotted four men with cameras standing under the green shade. Senad was shooing them away unsuccessfully.
I thought it was a cruel joke from the universe because I’d mentioned to Nina moments before we arrived how being in a relationship with William felt like dating any other guy, and now we had paparazzi standing outside our apartment building proving me otherwise.
The law of attraction sucks.
The photographers became aware of our presence, and by the time the flashes got to us, Aaron was already covering Nina and me from them and herding us quickly inside the building.
“What the heck was that?” I spotted a young, petite woman with thick, brown, curly hair pulled up into a stylish messy bun, hugging a laptop by the elevator. She was wearing an all-black ensemble with black sunglasses, which she hadn’t removed yet. On her shoulder, a chic leather designer bag hung from a thick strap, the kind you pay extra to enhance the bag. “Is she famous?” Maybe the paps had followed her here.
“I don’t think so.” Nina frowned and shook her head. “Not anyone I recognize, at least.”
The woman’s sunglasses didn’t allow me to determine her age, but my guess was early 30s.
Nina and I stood next to her and said good morning. She said good morning back as we waited for the elevator to arrive. Aaron remained silent.
We stepped into the elevator, and Aaron clicked numbers 3 and 9 and asked the woman what floor she was going to.
“Nine, please,” she replied, looking at her phone.
Huh. She was here to see William, no doubt about that. I wondered who she was.
“Excuse me, miss,” Aaron said, trying to get the woman’s attention, but her gaze was still glued to her phone’s screen. “Who are you here to see?”
She looked up at him through the thin crevice between her frames and her eyebrows and lowered the sunglasses down the bridge of her nose with an elegant finger. “That is none of your business, big guy.”
She looked tiny beside Aaron’s massive frame. But her attitude matched his height.
The door opened on the third floor, but Aaron didn’t step out. Instead, he allowed the door to close so the elevator would continue moving up to the ninth floor with him inside.
Jesus.
Pressing my lips, I closed my eyes because I knew if I even glimpsed at Nina with my peripheral vision, I was going to start laughing at the woman’s sass directed at Aaron.
“It is my business, miss,” Aaron replied, his voice deeper and laced with threat and suspicion. “And I’m gonna need to see some ID if you plan to step onto the ninth floor.”
She scanned him from head to toe with a snort of disgust. That’s when I spotted the Star of David necklace hanging around her neck from a delicate gold chain.
The plot thickened.
I was still refusing to look at Nina, fearing she would elicit a reaction out of me when I wanted to be as invisible as possible during this tense exchange.
“Ah.” The woman rolled her eyes, seeming unimpressed. “Bodyguard?” She tilted her head to the side, staring at the curly earpiece attached to Aaron’s ear. An earpiece that wasn’t even operational. Aaron didn’t have a partner anymore, so technically, he didn’t have to wear it. Still, he did, because he wanted people to know he was a bodyguard, just as Caleb explained to me once upon a time in Paris: security should be obvious. He insisted it allows people to think twice before trying anything.
Aaron replied with a quick nod.
“Yeah, I don’t do bodyguards,” the woman said in a dismissive tone, returning her attention to her phone’s screen.
Nina snorted, and I pressed my lips even harder to swallow back the laughter that was building up in my chest. She was a feisty little thing, and even if I didn’t know who she was, where she was going, or what she was here for, I already liked her.
It was funny, though, that she was meeting Aaron in running shorts and a hoodie when 99% of the time, he was in a perfectly tailored black suit. So maybe that’s why she wasn’t taking him seriously.
The woman seemed harmless, but Aaron was gonna be Aaron. And I’d learned not to meddle in these types of situations, but he was exaggerating, and he knew it. The caffeine probably hadn’t hit his nervous system yet, so he was taking it out on her.
Ugh. I was going to have to meddle.
“I’m sorry. He’s a bit cranky today,” I said as the doors slid open on my floor. “Are you here to see William?” Aaron blocked the exit, clicked the door close button, and pulled the emergency stop switch.
Goodness.
“Oh, no, no, no,” Nina said, retreating a few steps with panic-filled eyes until she hit the wall behind her. “I’m slightly claustrophobic.”
“Don’t worry,” I said, trying to ease her anxiety. “Aaron, can we do this out in the hall?”
“Let me handle this, Miss Murphy.”
“Oh! You’re Billie Murphy?” The woman pulled off her sunglasses with a smile and tucked them in her shirt. She extended her hand, ignoring Aaron’s presence altogether. “I’m Naomi Lieberman, William’s new publicist.”
“Oh my gosh, yes! William told me about you, but I didn’t know you were coming today. Nice to meet you, Naomi.” I shook her hand with a smile. “This is my friend Nina.”
Nina waved a quick T-Rex hand at her and tried smiling but failed miserably.
“Okay, you have enough intel on her, Aaron,” Nina said in a shaky voice. “She’s Naomi Lieberman. She’s William’s publicist. And she has a great fashion sense.”
“Aw! You’re so sweet, Nina,” Naomi said, sliding her phone into her bag.
Nina stared at Aaron, who kept staring at Naomi.
“Now jot her name down on your phone and open the goddamned doors, Aaron,” Nina said through her teeth. “You can run a full background check in the comfort of your apartment.”
“Aaron.” I stared at him and widened my eyes, but he wouldn’t budge. “Enough. You heard her. She’s William’s publicist, which means she’s authorized to come up. Nina is going to hyperventilate any second now.”
“No one comes up to the ninth floor without providing an ID, Miss Lieberman. It’s protocol,” he said while resting his hands in a single fist in front of him, his powerful frame towering over Naomi’s presence. “Mr. Sj?berg agreed to this procedure and didn’t notify me of your visit. So I have to escort you back to the lobby until that’s settled.”
Aaron wasn’t lying. Since the day of the shooting, William agreed to cooperate with this simple task: providing Aaron with the names and IDs of his guests. It was done as a precaution. But William’s guests couldn’t be denied access because Aaron said so without evidence of them being armed, suspicious, or dangerous.
William agreed because he rarely had anyone over at his place besides close family members and a few friends on his permanent guest list. But that didn’t mean he couldn’t forget to do so. It had happened before, and Aaron would request the guest’s ID upon arrival, and that was that. It never was a big deal, but Aaron was being difficult and excessive today.
The woman cursed under her breath as she rummaged through her bag. “Hold this.” She gave Aaron her laptop to free her other hand so she could pull out her ID from her wallet.
Aaron passed the laptop to me and grabbed his phone to snap a photo of her ID from both sides.
This situation was lagging, and all I wanted was to get off the elevator before Nina had a panic attack. But she took matters into her own hands. Since Aaron was distracted, she seized the opportunity and pressed the emergency stop switch back in place in an almost comical, frantic way, making the doors slide open again.
“Thank God!” Nina ran out, and I followed her. She bent over, resting her hands on her thighs and taking a few deep, calming breaths.
Aaron returned Naomi’s ID to her with two fingers as one would hold a cigarette.
“That one time I spent the night in jail in Budapest wasn’t my fault,” Naomi warned, walking toward the elevator’s button panel. “This drunk woman at a nightclub confused me with someone else, threw a punch at me, and things got out of hand.” She pointed a finger at the panel. “Three, right?” She clicked away and strutted out of the elevator. “Other than that, my life is pretty boring and predictable. But have fun investigating me.”
Aaron glared at her as the doors shut before him and then he was taken down to the third floor, where he would probably spend a considerable chunk of his time doing just that.
“Fuck, that was intense,” Nina said to herself, brushing the sweat off her face with the back of her hand.
“I’m so sorry about all that,” I said to Naomi, handing her back her laptop. “Aaron and I have been through some ugly stuff together, and he can be paranoid and exaggerated sometimes. I’ll make sure something like that never happens again.”
“Oh, don’t worry about it,” Naomi replied in a sincere and carefree tone, starting toward William’s door. “I’ve been around my fair share of security agents due to the nature of my clients’ field of work. They’re all the same. Cocky, paranoid, and at least a foot taller than me.”
“Aaron’s all right,” Nina intervened. “I mean, I hate him right now for trapping us inside the elevator, but he’s a good guy. We were saying how he probably needs a good fuck.”
“Nina!” I shoved her shoulder playfully, and she laughed.
The olive skin on Naomi’s cheeks turned slightly pink. But she raised a brow, clicked her tongue, and knocked on William’s door before saying, “Don’t we all?”
A moment later, William opened the door and seemed surprised about seeing the three of us together. “Hi?” He chuckled. His hands were stained with white frosting. He was probably finishing up his mom’s birthday cake.
“We saved Naomi from Aaron’s wrath,” I said, taking a step forward and pressing a quick kiss on his lips.
“Oh, shit. I forgot to send your information to Aaron,” William said to her in an apologetic tone. “I’m so sorry. Please come in. Let me wash up, and I’ll be back in a second.”
“It was lovely to meet you, Naomi,” I said with a smile. “I’ll let you two do your thing. I’ll be next door with Nina if you need anything.”
“It was nice to meet you, Billie,” she smiled back.
“Where do you think you’re going?” William shouted from the kitchen. “You’re trying the strawberry shortcake! I made an individual portion just for you!”
“No way.” I grabbed Nina’s arm and fled his apartment. No strawberries for me this early in the morning, thank you very much. I wanted to have something good and savory for breakfast. Not strawberry shortcake. “He’s on a mission to get me to like strawberries.”
“You are such an alien.” She laughed as I pushed my door open. “Who doesn’t like strawberries?”
My phone was ringing in my bedroom when I shut the door. I rushed to see who it was, but I was too late.
“It was Liam!” I shouted at Nina, who was washing her hands in the guest bathroom. “And you also have a few missed calls from him!”
Sitting on my bedroom sofa, I called Liam back, and he picked up on the first ring.
“Hey, Red.”
“Hey, how did it go with Belén last night?”
Liam cleared his throat but remained silent. I could hear what I assumed was the Porsche’s engine roaring in the background on the other side of the call. William went ballistic when I told him they’d taken his car. And on top of that, Tobias didn’t replace the strawberries as promised, so Cooper took William to get some—because he wanted to choose them himself—when Nina and I left for our run.
“Did you guys spend the night over there?” I asked, trying to get him to start talking. That’s when Nina joined me in my bedroom. She unplugged her phone from the electrical outlet next to my nightstand and sat beside me.
“We did.” He sighed. “We’re driving back from Montclair.”
“Liam, what’s wrong?”
He was breathing heavily, sniffing. Nina widened her eyes at me with apparent distress.
“What’s happening?” Nina mouthed, and I shrugged.
“It’s over, Red. Belén and I … we’re done.” He cleared his throat again. “Is Nina with you? I’ve been trying to reach her too.” His voice sounded sad, angry, and heavily disappointed.
“Oh, Liam. I’m so sorry.” I met Nina’s gaze, and I could tell she was a second away from ripping the phone out of my hands. “She’s sitting next to me. We just came back from Central Park, but we both left our phones behind.”
“Can you put the call on speaker?” he asked.
“Of course.” I quickly tapped the icon. “You’re on speaker now.”
“Hey, Liam.” Nina smiled as if trying to cheer him up from a distance. “What happened?”
“It’s her coach,” he said drily. “She says she’s confused and confessed to kissing him last night when she came back drunk from the party. I fucking knew something was going on between them.”
“I’m so sorry,” she muttered. “So, are you guys …?”
“Not together anymore. Yeah.”
“It’s probably for the best,” I added. “You don’t deserve to be with someone who doesn’t know what she wants, Liam.” I felt like a hypocrite saying that because, for months, I was torn between two men. Two wonderful men. But I never kissed William when I was dating Nathan. No lines were crossed. And as Liam’s friend, I couldn’t help but want to protect his heart.
“Fuck, I know, but …” He paused to let out a heavy breath through his mouth. “I love her.”
“I know,” Nina said in a steady tone. “Maybe you guys can come back from this one. You’ve had issues in the past, and you always figure it out.”
“No. I’m done. For good.” Liam sniffed again, but his voice was graver, resolute. “Anywho, I wanted to give you the news myself before Tobias went spoiling it for me.” He chuckled, but it sounded painful and heartbreaking.
“We’ll talk later,” I said. “It’s going to be okay. You know you can talk to us about this all you want.”
“Thank you, darling.” He sounded more like himself now, although I knew he was probably making an effort to do so. “I’ll catch you girls later.”
I ended the call and met Nina’s gaze.
“I know Liam’s hurting, and I should be considerate. But I’ve never been happier in my entire life,” Nina said so quickly that she had to stop short to catch her breath after she said that last word. “Damn it.” She closed her eyes and pressed her hands on her forehead for a second. “Does that make me a terrible person?”
“It does not.” I chuckled, rubbing a hand up and down her arm to ease her concern. “If the girl’s got a thing going on with her coach, then I don’t want her having anything to do with Liam either. And I know he’ll get through this. You’ll make sure of it, won’t you?” I winked at her.
“Oh, yes, I’ll take good care of him.” She laughed with an edge of nervousness and excitement all the same.
“So what’s the deal with this coach?” I asked, feeling somewhat worried for Belén. “Isn’t she seventeen? How old is this creepy dude?”
“So check this,” she said eagerly. I loved how Nina had all the juicy gossip straight from the source. The Liam source, to be precise. And it was fruitful in information. “Belen’s lifelong coach quit after she pulled that little scene at the US Open women’s finals last month.”
“Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.” How to forget that monumental tantrum? I felt so bad for Belén, though. She was crying, cursing, and overall miserable.
“Anyway, Belén has no coach yet. So this tall, hot—Liam’s words, not mine—nineteen-year-old guywho was a family friend and neighbor of Belen’s family growing up is coaching her in the meanwhile.” She lifted her eyebrows a few times in a suggestive way.
“Makes sense now.” I was glad the coach in question was someone around Belen’s age. She was still a teenager.
“Liam just texted me.” Nina clicked into the thread with a grin and took a few seconds to read. “He wants to know if we can meet up later today to talk about everything that happened with Belén.” She stood and gathered her things. “I should get going then.” She smiled, and I smiled back, getting up from the couch to follow her out.
“Let me know how it goes,” I said, pulling the door open. Nina hugged me goodbye and stepped out. I was about to close the door when the elevator chimed, and the sound of quick footsteps approaching appealed to my curiosity, so I peeked through the gap to see who it was.
“Hey, kiddo.”