Chapter 25 #2
I casually slung my camera bag over my shoulder, grabbed the extending handle of my rolling luggage, and forced my expression to smooth into a calm mask. I finally turned around to face him, looking up into those eyes I've grown to love looking into.
"Uh... I'm really tired tonight, but I'll call you," I said softly, my voice barely a whisper in the empty coffee shop.
Before he could process the shift, I leaned up on my tiptoes and gave him a small, brief kiss on the cheek.
I didn't let my lips linger against his warm skin.
Without another single word, and completely refusing to give him another look back, I turned on my heel and walked straight out the front doors.
I stepped onto the humid Houston sidewalk, walking at a significantly faster pace, my heels clicking a furious rhythm against the concrete.
I didn't slow down, and I didn't glance behind me, desperately moving so he didn't have a single chance to follow me, catch my arm, or change my mind.
I crossed the street toward where my car was parked, the heavy knot in my throat tighter than ever, completely aware that while I had just protected my future from heartbreak, I had officially turned the upcoming training segment into a frozen war zone.
A couple of days went by in a torturous, agonizing silence.
My phone remained completely quiet, and I spent hours pacing the modern floors of the Airbnb mansion, genuinely not knowing what the hell to do with my own feelings.
I was caught in a vicious tug-of-war between the breathless memory of Aaron's touch and the terrifying reality of my own expiration date.Unable to take the suffocating quiet anymore, I decided to seek sanctuary in the only people who truly knew me.
I invited the girls over for a much-needed girls' night on Wednesday evening.My professional logic was already locked down.
Friday was the final high-intensity training shoot for the campaign.
After that, the raw camera production was officially wrapped.
Realistically, for the final month-long post-production phase in August, Aaron and I could easily correspond via digital technology and secure cloud servers.
I didn't actually need to be physically present in the Houston editing bays to finish retouching my print assets; I could execute my entire billboard layout from the comfort of my own studio back in Japan.
By seven o'clock, each of my girls arrived at the house dressed in ultra-comfy loungewear, matching bottles of premium wine held in their hands.
I had a full spread of our favorite foods catered, and the plan was simple: we were going to curl up and watch Waiting to Exhale on the massive 75-inch TV, exactly like we used to do growing up whenever life got entirely too heavy.
For the first two hours, the treatment worked perfectly. We sat in the dim living room, laughing loudly at the funny parts, shouting at the screen, and getting quietly emotional at the raw, vulnerable scenes we could all deeply relate to. It was a classic, beautiful throwback to our youth.
But the moment the credits began to slowly roll down the screen, the comfort vanished.
Mars shifted on the sofa, turning her head to lock her gentle eyes onto me. "What's wrong, Pepper?"
I forced a tight, defensive chuckle, adjusting the blanket over my lap. "Why do you say something is wrong?"
"Because we completely know you, Pep," Stormy responded softly from the adjacent armchair, setting her wine glass down. "You’ve been staring right through the screen for the last hour."
I let out a long, fractured sigh, the weight of the secret crushing my chest until I couldn't keep it in for another second.
I finally told them everything. I told them about Elena confronting us, the threat to freeze our multi-million-dollar funding, and the exact, clinical words Aaron had used to protect our jobs. A silly kiss for the crowd.
"Ouch," Nia murmured, wincing slightly as she pulled her legs up. "But... like you said, Pepper, you logically know he didn't mean it maliciously. He was just covering your butts."
"Yeah, I know," I whispered, my eyes stinging as I stared down at my hands. "But isn't this whole entire situation just so crazy anyway?"
"What exactly is crazy?" Mars asked. "That you're scared?"
The word hung heavily in the quiet room, stripping away the last bit of my high-fashion armor. "For once in my life... yes. I am terrified. I am so incredibly scared of where this might go, and how it's realistically going to work out."
Mars slid across the velvet cushions, moving right next to me, and began gently rubbing my shoulder. "I've never seen you like this, Pep. Never."
Truth be told, she hadn't. Throughout my entire adult life, I got over romantic situations fairly quickly.
Most of the time, guys checked out or walked away long before I ever had a chance to react, purely due to my brutal international work schedule and constant traveling.
I was used to being the one who left. I was used to being untouchable.
But Aaron Fields had penetrated my defenses with terrifying ease.
I took a deep, shaky breath, hardening my jaw as I made my final declaration. "I’ve officially decided to send over a trusted replacement photographer on Friday morning to handle the final training shoot. My flight back to Tokyo is leaving Friday morning at nine sharp."
"What?! Pepper, no!" the girls shouted in unison, their voices a synchronized chorus of total shock and utter confusion.
Nia stood up half-inch from her seat, her eyes wide. "You cannot be serious, Pep! You're just going to run away?"
"I know it completely seems like I’m running," I said, my voice turning into pure, unyielding stone as I looked at each of my best friends.
"But I have a whole, beautiful life and an entire studio in Tokyo that I genuinely need to get back to.
The professional pipeline is secure, and Priscilla can handle the routing.
You guys love me, I know you do... but you cannot change my mind on this. "