He opened his eyes. "Glad I decided on a long lunch break."
"Best break I've had in a long time."
Chapter Twenty-Five
Aidan
It had been three days since Jane heard the news. She had a late afternoon meeting with her agent to sign papers and then I was taking her out for a night of celebration. She was still constantly pinching herself, and I couldn't blame her. It was a big fucking deal.
I had showered and finished dressing. I decided to play some video games while I waited for her to come home. Two seconds after I sat on the couch, there was a knock on the door.
"That was fast," I said loudly so she might hear it out in the hallway. I'd expected her to be a few hours longer. I opened the door.
Diane from marketing and Bonnie from shipping were standing in the hallway. Diane marched in on her high platform shoes, without waiting for an invite Which was usual for Diane. Bonnie was barefoot, with her heels dangling from her fingers.
"Oh my God, this place sucks, Aidan. How can you stand it?" Diane went straight to the refrigerator for a beer.
I hadn't noticed the grimace on Bonnie's face until she stepped farther into the apartment. She held the shoes out as if they might bite her. "Gum. All over my brand new shoes. I'm so disgusted I want to just throw them in the incinerator. Do you have one in this building?"
Diane emerged with her beer. "No, don't burn them. I think they can still be saved. Aidan can clean them for you. He has strong fingers."
I returned to my game. "Sorry, I'm with Bonnie on the incinerator. Only this building doesn't have one."
Diane pulled up a kitchen chair to the television. Bonnie went into the bathroom with her gummy shoes.
Diane watched me as I played the game. "You clean up so pretty, big guy. Expecting company?" She sat forward. "Ooh, are we going to meet the new girlfriend? Chase said she's very cute. When is she coming?"
"Sometime after you leave."
"Ah, that's no fun."
"Where are you two headed?" I motioned toward her leather mini skirt. "You look like you're ready for a night of dancing."
"Yep. That's where we're headed. Only now my wing girl has bare feet. So Chase says she's a movie star or something like that," Diane continued.
I sighed and put the game on pause. "She's an actress. She's going to be starting her first big role soon."
"How cool. Aidan and the movie star. I still can’t believe all you guys are settling down with women. I thought you'd be running the playboy circuit until you were all too old to get it up."
"Ugh, I hate gum. What kind of pig leaves his gum on the sidewalk?" Bonnie complained from the bathroom.
Diane tilted her head toward the hall. "She has a big crush on Heath."
"She's not alone. He's quite a distraction in the warehouse."
"I'll bet."
Bonnie came out of the bathroom and dropped her shoes on the floor. "They are ruined. I hope you've got something strong to drink somewhere in this apartment because those shoes cost me a week's pay."
My face shot up. "You're kidding, right?"
"I wish I were." Bonnie went to the kitchen to look for something to drink. She found a bottle of tequila. "Jackpot."
Chapter Twenty-Six
Jane
I was distracted enough on the way home that I'd missed the parking lot entrance to the apartment. Russell kept warning me not to read anything into the contract not arriving to his office on time. 'Maybe the courier got hit by a car,' he'd said enthusiastically before realizing how bad it sounded. He had put a call in to the casting director while I sat there in his office trying not to crumble into a million pieces. But when he didn't hear back, Russell told me I should just go home so I could go on my celebration date with Aidan. He insisted everything was fine and that they had probably just not gotten the final copy back from the lawyers. And so I left his office with no signed contract, which meant, technically, I didn't have the part yet.
I found a parking spot and trudged through the building to the side elevator. It was going to be hard to enjoy a celebratory dinner. I hoped Aidan wouldn't mind putting it off until I had a signed contract. He would no doubt tease me about being superstitious.
I stepped into the elevator. My phone rang as the doors slid shut. It was Russell.
"Hi, did you get it? I knew it would come the second I left your office."
The pause that followed made me want to throw up my lunch. "Russ?"
"Jane." It was all I needed to hear. The tone of his voice said it all.
I pressed my arm against my stomach and leaned against the elevator wall for support.
"I'm so sorry, sweetie. In the last minute, Katrina Blake decided she wanted the part after all. That bitch. I will never watch another one of her movies. Jane? Are you all right? Shit, you're not driving are you?"
"No," I sniffled. "I'm in the elevator having a nice little meltdown. I knew it was all too good to be true."
"You got so close, Jane. It'll happen again soon. You'll see. And anyhow, you still have that big hunky boyfriend with the magnificent hugging arms."
Russell always worked so hard to help me through the rejections, but this one was major. This was an equally big blow for him. His success was directly related to mine.
The doors to the elevator opened. My feet felt heavy as I stepped into the hallway.
"I'll call you later, Janey. Drink some wine and go hop in bed with that incredible man. He'll make it all better."
I sniffled and was hardly able to speak. I muttered good-bye and hung up.
It took me forever to get the key in the lock with my unsteady hands and blurry eyes. I could hear voices coming from Aidan's apartment. Female voices and lots of feminine laughter. It seemed they were getting closer to the door.
I quickly slipped inside my apartment, not wanting to see anyone in my moment of despair. I closed the door and pressed my ear against it to listen to the voices in the hallway.
"Bye, handsome, we'll see you later. Thanks for the tequila," a woman said with a laugh.
"Wait, Bonnie"—Aidan's deep voice rumbled in the hallway—"You forgot your shoes."
A round of giggles followed, and small feet plodded down the hallway back toward Aidan's apartment.
The anguish from the last few moments was now compounded by the unexpected scene in the hallway. I felt as if I was made of stone as I moved toward the couch and collapsed down onto it. A few seconds later, loud footsteps sounded outside my door.
"Jane?" Aidan called through the door. "Are you there, Jane?"
I stayed perfectly still, not making a sound, until I heard him walk away. Then I curled up into a ball on the couch and cried.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Aidan
“Everything fell apart just like I knew it would."
I stared down at Jane's text as the elevator made its slow crawl up to the third floor. I had no idea what the hell was going on. I had called her and knocked on her door a few times the night before. Finally, around midnight, she sent the text. It was easy enough to interpret the words. She had not gotten the part after all.
I was more than a little hurt that she hadn't wanted to see me. Somehow I'd managed to convince myself that I meant enough to her that she would come to me when she was hurting. I was sure unexpectedly losing the part was nothing short of devastating. I could only figure that the disappointment had been so terrible, she just didn't want any company. Not even mine.
The work day had dragged on, and I never heard one word from her. I knew she had given up her job at Bulk Mart because of the movie role. That was probably weighing heavy on her mind. I hoped at least in that, she'd come to me for help.
I stepped out of the elevator and a loud vacuum roared through the hallway. It took me a second to understand the scene in front of me. Jane's furniture was sitting along the wall in the corridor, and the door to her apartment was open.
As I reached her apartment, Milo stepped out of it wearing his coveralls and carrying a bucket of cleaning supplies.
"What the hell is going on? Where's Jane?"
Milo's eyes were nearly lost in the bulk of his fat cheeks as he stared up at me with surprise. "Didn't she tell you? She left town. Moved out. She left me an envelope with the three months rent to pay off her lease and the keys to her apartment. By the time I got up here to find out what was going on, she was gone. Closet and bathroom shelves empty. She left the furniture. I guess she took just what she could fit in her car."
None of what he was saying was making sense. Had I fucking misread everything about our relationship? I had never had someone who I counted on and who counted on me, but I thought that was the level we'd reached. Maybe I was just a big idiot in thinking she cared about me at all. I should have gotten my first hint when she wanted nothing to do with me after losing the movie part.
I stood in the hallway stock-still as if someone had just thrown a fist in my face. I was stunned and hurt and feeling like a fool. Milo walked into the apartment and returned with a trash can. He set it down next to the cleaning bucket.
My eyes swept down. A lemon yogurt container sat on the top and I thought about her sitting at the kitchen counter laughing about something while she ate her yogurt. It was going to take a long time to get the sound of her laugh out of my head.
As I lifted my eyes, I noticed a pile of business cards had been jammed into the trash. I reached inside and pulled them out. They were identical copies of the same card. Russell Darby, talent agent. I rubbed my thumb over the embossed phone number a few times before deciding to make the call. Jane had talked fondly about her agent as if they were close friends. There was a good chance he wouldn't tell me a thing, but it would help me if I knew why she left without telling me.