Page 26 of Fragile Kiss (Fragile 2)
Midnight rolled around. Lillian tried to sleep but it was impossible. The cats were irritated with her constant tossing and turning, and eventually gave up on trying to sleep on the bed with her. Angrily, they stalked out of the room down the hall.
Lillian sighed, at a loss for how to pass the time. She sat on the floor, picking through her bags to make sure she hadn’t forgotten any of her vitamins or prescriptions. They were all there. So were all her outfits—too many outfits for a trip that wouldn’t last longer than a week.
I’m so bored, she admitted, and the instant she thought it she realized she knew nothing about Katharina. Picking up her phone, she curled up in the bed and did a search to find out as much as she could about this woman that Cayden may or may not be hooking up with.
Katharina Solberg is an actress, film producer, and director. As Lillian read her official bio, her eyes grew to twice their usual size. Katharina was definitely in Cayden’s clientele, and had a resume impressive enough that her owning a house in Los Angeles only made sense.
Lillian wondered if she was going to get star-struck when meeting this woman for the first time. She hoped not. She’s just a human, too, she reminded herself. She’s no different than me. Only she’s probably met every celebrity in the industry at one time or another.
Trying to shift her mental image of Katharina from untouchably famous to personal, she clicked the links to her social media. The first thing she saw: 1.2 million followers.
Keep trying to tell yourself she’s the same as everyone else, Lillian. Sighing, she scrolled down. Photos of a gorgeous garden she assumed was Katharina’s personal one. Outfits branded from head to toe. State-of-the-art gym equipment, workout selfies, motivational quotes...
Then, a series of photos of Cayden. Some with her, some only him.
Lillian’s heart flew into her throat. Without thinking, she clicked on one. A photo of him leaning against the railing of a picturesque wooden bridge.
This handsome man! The best personal trainer. Always challenging me to do my best but never going easy on me. I have never looked or felt better. He has room for more clients, ladies!
She felt sick as she scrolled through the photos and read every caption. How many had Cayden been the photographer of? Katharina obviously was infatuated with Cayden, showering him with compliments for every photo he was in. According to her, he was a Greek god, pun intended. He was the best trainer she had ever hired. He had the best attitude. The best body. Deserved to train all the top celebs for their action movie roles. She was going to make sure he was the next big sought-after trainer in Hollywood.
Lillian closed the app, praying for some miracle that the time wouldn’t be too late for her to call Katharina and cancel the trip. It was after 1o’clock in the morning. Definitely too late. And her flight departed at 7:00. She wracked her brain for some way to get out of this, but in such a short time frame it seemed impossible.
I could just not go to the airport. I could blame it on being sick. It seemed too desperate, and Katharina had already spent money on the plane ticket. Lillian tried to convince herself that the woman wouldn’t even miss the money for a business-class flight, but to no avail. Her conscience got the best of her.
She felt her stomach begin to gurgle, the warning sign of a flare-up. Suddenly, not being able to fly due to sickness didn’t feel like such a great idea.
The conversation with Andrew earlier can’t be for nothing. If I don’t go, our argument is pointless. Andrew was already planning to get up an hour earlier than usual to drive her to the airport, anyway. She couldn’t do that to him. Nixing the plans was out of the question.
I guess I’ll just have to go and prove that I’m moving on. She knew she was far from it, but the phrase “fake it till you make it” echoed in her mind. That’s what you’ve got to do, Lillian, she told herself firmly. Pretend that you’re fine, especially if you’re around him. Maybe Katharina knows about your past, maybe she doesn’t. Either way, you can’t let yourself show it. Not on a business trip.
One of the cats drowsily wandered back in and leapt onto the bed, snuggling hard against her. Nestling down in her mass of pillows Lillian switched off her lamp and lay there, trying to give herself a pep talk. Eventually, just before the first rays of morning sunlight touched the stars, she fell asleep.
Chapter 06
The sun was particularly brilliant this morning—or so it seemed to Cayden. As he woke, he shielded his eyes and groaned at the light, acting something like a vampire in daylight. His whole room looked like Heaven: impossibly bright, like the light was bouncing off every surface and reflecting straight into his eyes. Even with his hands covering his face, he could still feel his eyeballs burning.
Muttering a few nasty words that he felt bad for saying in retrospect, he stumbled out of bed and made his way to the window, kicking the corner of his dresser in the process. Adding to his string of curses, he felt for the curtains with one hand and pulled them together forcefully. He dared to look through a crack between his fingers, and was relieved beyond belief to see the room enshrouded in darkness.
“That’s better,” he croaked, only to discover that his throat felt like it was on fire. He walked on nine toes over to his little kitchen, and chugged most of a bottle of water. It helped, but his head still had the sensation of having been opened and put in the middle of a desert to dry.
He scowled at himself. That’s what you get for having a crazy night when you haven’t partied in a long time.
Little snapshots of the night before came back to him in flashes. Katharina had invited him over. A “small gathering,” she had called it. He knew that didn’t mean what it did for him back at his house. When he said small party, he actually meant it. When Katharina said it there were at least fifty people on the guest list, not including the ones who showed up throughout the night.
He let himself fall onto the bed, propping his head up on two of the memory foam pillows Janine had provided him with. He draped his arm over his face and tried to ignore the remnants of the spins. In the fogginess of his thoughts, he tried to remember how many shots he’d thrown back and who he’d danced with. All he remembered was that Katharina bought a round for everyone, and then everyone else bought a round for the group. A lot of laughter. Too much alcohol. The details were too fuzzy to recall, aside from the club’s great DJ.
Cayden made a mental vow never to jump into the party life so suddenly after such a long period of doing the opposite.
He fell asleep in that position, and so did his arm. When he woke up again, he had lost all sensation in his upper limb and had to physically move it with his other hand. The pins and needles trickled down his arm as the blood flowed back into it; watching his arm rest so helplessly on the bed brought a chuckle to his throat. Out of habit, he reached for his phone to text Lillian. He didn’t realize what he was doing until he opened her messages and saw the one about moving on.
Crestfallen, he stared at her name and was tempted to read through their whole message thread to feel like she was still there—like she would reply with a silly joke and then ask how his weekend was going.
He loved hearing from her. In their distance, the technology connection became something extra important for him, whereas before it never had been. The miles between them didn’t seem like such a terrible thing when they could call each other and talk for hours every night. But now, with no exchange of any call or message, the pain grew bitter. Especially today, no thanks to his hangover.
Finally his arm was back to normal, but he still didn’t move. He zoned out, letting his mind explore all possibilities to get her back. It wasn’t going to happen if he was still in Los Angeles.
He had to get out of here and go back home.
