Page 18 of Something Borrowed

Chapter Seven

“Everything okay, Miss Laurant?”Becky, the studio’s makeup artist and one of her closest friends, asked as she dapped a bit of pink gloss onto Adrianna’s lips. “You seem a bit distracted today.”

Adrianna looked into the mirror – the only way she could look at her stylist without being scolded – and offered her a wistful smile. She hadn’t spoken to anyone at work about her relationship. It wasn’t that she was ashamed, or worried what people would think, she didn’t want to jinx it. For years she’d dreamed about calling Jaxon her boyfriend, and whether or not he actually had that title at the current moment, it sure felt like hedid.

“I’m fine, though I probably am more distracted than I’d like to admit.”

Becky smirked, her bouncy brown curls shaking as she laughed while applying a touch of blush to Adrianna’s cheeks. “That screamed man problems so loudly I’d be remiss if I didn’t pry further.”

Genuinely smiling, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “I’m seeing someone. It’s only a few weeks old and I didn’t want to put bad juju onit.”

“Well, then you don’t need to tell me anymore. You know I’ve been trying to set you up for the better part of three years so I’m excited someone was finally able to win your attentions.”

Chuckling, she couldn’t help but talk about Jaxon. “It’s more that I snagged his attention.”

Becky’s eyes widened as she pulled off the makeup bib. “Now I feel like I need more.” She titled her wrist to look at her watch. “Good thing I never need time to do a full coverage makeup on you, you’re beautiful with just the basics.”

Becky had been commenting her skin for five years, so all she did was smile politely. “When I was younger I had the biggest, stupidest crush on my best friend’s older brother.”

“The one that got married last month?”

“Mhm. That’s the one. At her wedding we sort of . . . ah . . . fell into bed together. I was caught up in such a haze it wasn’t until after he left I realized he was interested in me and it hadn’t all been some wedding inducedlust.”

The smile on Becky’s face was wide enough to be seen all the way in the French Quarter, which they were nowhere near. “Well I’ll be damned. So where is this handsome older man you pinned over for yearsnow?”

Sighing, she stood up from the chair. “Deployed.”

Becky’s expression faltered slightly, like a mom trying to conceal her sadness in front of her child. “Well, I’ll keep his safety in my prayers tonight.” Becky patted her shoulder. “Well then, you’re allset.”

“Thank you, Becky. I know he’s in mine and a little extra couldn’thurt.”

Walking toward the break table she couldn’t help but think of Jaxon. True to his word he had given her a video call pretty much from the airfield. She’d seen couples hugging just behind him and only her training to remain impassive as a news anchor had kept her from falling apart as they’d said what could potentially turn into their final goodbye. There had never been a moment in her life where she’d wanted to be in a different place more than that goodbye. She’d wanted to hold onto him, to memorize his touch one last time in case something had happened. Instead, she’d smiled as brightly as she could and wished him well, reminding him he now had someone else anxiously waiting for his return.

“A return that is still at least two months away.” She grumbled, grabbing an apple and taking abite.

“You say something?” Tommy, her co-anchor, said around a mouthful of salad.

“Just venting. Sorry.”

“Well, if it’s enough to get you to talk to yourself aloud about, I’ll be sure to steer clear and not set you off tonight.” He winked and walked away, off to talk to production assistant.

She needed to shake off thoughts of Jaxon, it wasn’t like her to bring her personal life to work and she hated that she clearly had. Probably because you’ve heard from him once in the past three weeks. The bitter thought sounded terribly hostile in her mind and guilt instantly washed over her for thinking she had any right to be annoyed.

Jaxon had done everything he’d promised to do – which meant the real reason she was being so snarky and unwound was that not hearing from him made her worry. She knew if anything bad had happened Kailey or Mr. Donovan would have let her know, but she couldn’t shake the feeling of unease that not everything was going as smoothly as it shouldbe.

In undergrad, she’d been friends with a girl dating a man in the Air Force. When he’d deployed it had been one girl’s night out after the next as a way to distract her. Adrianna had watched as her friend had taken every moment of silence as a negative sign, when in reality it was probably perfectlyfine.

“Too bad when it’s the person you care about on deployment you don’t really care too much about the stupid adage no news is goodnews.”

“Five minutes, places.” A new production assistant called out through the large space. “Five minutes tilllive.”

Sighing, she pushed all thoughts of Jaxon out of her mind and took her place behind the large, white counter-likedesk.

Tommy sat next to her and smiled. “Good luck, kid.” He whispered before turning to face the cameras.

It was something of a tradition between them. Ever since the network thought it would be wise to pair up a seasoned anchor with a newbie, he’d been wishing her good luck. The small gesture did always seem to calm herdown.

“Hello, New Orleans, and welcome to the five o’clock evening news.” Tommy started, sounding just as loud in their earpieces as he did to the cameras. “Tonight, we bring you the newsyou –”.

---