Page 67 of Kayla in Paris
Suzie was right about me not rushing out there to take part in another scene. But I found myself making a motion for her to put down the conference room’s handset because I wanted to hear the answer to those questions myself.
“Good questions,” Mick answered. “You, like Kayla and plenty of those smug media bastards, probably think I misled her for some deal and a little bit of holiday fun. And ya know what? I did do that? At first, I saw it as an opportunity within an opportunity, if ya know what mean. Plan was to get in, get out, then move right on. But here’s where the story gets complicated…”
The glassed-in offices and conference rooms were located on the opposite side of the sprawling cubicle farm than the reception desk where the P.A. system lived. So, I couldn’t see Mick.
But by this point, several more of the hundred-plus people who worked in the Suns front office’s cubicle farm popped up like gophers from their desks to listen to Mick’s side of the story.
Even Suzie was mesmerized. She not only put down the phone, but she came over to stand with me beneath the conference’s intercom system to hear what he said next.
“I couldn’t move on cos Kayla is wonderful, addictive, the most easy person I’ve ever met to be around—not to mention incredibly beautiful, innit she?” Mick continued. “And, when you meet somebody who’s wonderful like that, someone who gets you—even the bad parts, what are you gonna do when she tells you she’s gone off professional athletes because of her wanker ex? Tell Miss Most Wonderful Woman Ya Ever Met, ‘Ah, well,’ that’s a’right, then, maybe next lifetime’?”
Mick made a scoffing sound in response to his own question. “Nah, I couldn’t bring meself to do that. So, I ended up doin’ somethin’ way worse. I misled her. I decided to do whatever it took to keep her, including outright lie.”
Several boos went up from a few of the people in the office as if the opposing team had just fouled one of our players.
“That’s right. Boo! Boo!!! Fuck me all the way back to England!” Mick replied, in seeming full agreement with his naysayers. “Truth is, I deserved that slap and a good kick in the goolies besides. But what ya don’t understand, what I don’t think she understood, the guy I was pretendin’ to be so I could remain in her orbit—not just her knickers—thatwas the guy Iwantedto be—not whatever Frankenstein of branding and ego Andrew Michael Atwater was supposed to be.”
His voice grew softer. “More than anythin’, I wanted to be somebody who could make a woman like Kayla look at him like he was worthy of her, like he deserved a role in her universe. So yeah, I lied and all that. But not about the important stuff, not about how totally, completely, impractically in love I was with her from day one. And not about how much I love herstill?”
He loved me? Like, truly loved me? Still? Even after the deal had gone through and he’d gotten everything he wanted.
I exchanged a stunned look with Suzie, not sure how to process all of this.
“So, why am I here, one of you asked?”
Mick came back to the earlier question. “Short answer. Sleep Deprivation. I had it in my mind after that slap that I was going to leave Kayla be because the truth is she deserves better than me. But that was a week ago, on a full night of sleep, and I haven’t really slept since I left Paris without the woman I love, have I? That’s another thing about Kayla. When I was with her, I’ll tell you this, mate, I slept like a baby. Now that she’s gone… no sleep. Just tossing and turning, replaying how it all fell apart. Wondering if there was anything I could’ve said or done to make it go different.”
“So, you decided to humiliate her again at her office?” one of the people standing close enough to get picked up on the system’s microphone asked, her voice full of outrage on my behalf.
“I tell you, it wasn’t even a decision.” Mick’s voice sounded weary. “One moment, an assistant coach is telling us we’ve got two mandatory rest days after our last match. And the next thing I knew, I was at Heathrow, booking meself a flight to Los Angeles, taking a taxi from the airport directly here cos all I really know ’bout Kayla’s life in L.A. is that she has great parents, she has a best friend who’s also her boss, and she works in the payroll area for the Suns. To be frank, I’m not even sure if I’m in the right office. This stadium office is loads bigger than the one in London or Paris. You Americans really like to build your spaces big. That’s not just a rumor.”
Another chuff, then his voice grew serious again. “But I had to try. If you’re listening, Kayla, I need to give you the honest truth. I had no business calling you a coward in that lobby. It was me who played scared ball with you. Hiding my true intentions and motives when you told me from the start—I mean, from our very first conversation how important it was to be honest with you.”
I’d been successfully holding back my tears since Paris, but I lost the battle in an instant. My eyes filled with them as I listened to Mick talk directly to me through the overhead.
“So, here’s me being honest. I honestly love you, Kayla. I honestly want you to quit your job without notice and come back to London with me right now.”
A few of my co-workers booed again.
But Mick’s voice was unrepentant. “I’m just being honest here, mates—like I said. Like I promise to be from now on.Kayla,I got a burnin’ need to marry you and start a family—preferably two girls cos if I learned anythin’ from this experience, it’s that boys are stupid. I want us to pick a place in Paris together—somewhere we can look down at the city glowing at night when we move there in August. Whatever dream you have for your life, love, I want to make it come true. Because you are the dream I was too scared to have before we met, and now, all I want to do is spend the rest of my living this dream with you. Don’t say no, Kayla. Please, one last time. Don’t say no.”
I could barely breathe, my heart was beating so fast.
I looked at Suzie, who stared back at me wide-eyed.
“What are you thinking right now?” she said in that careful way she always used when she was withholding her opinion to see what I said first.
“That he’s crazy,” I answered.
But then I added, “That I must be crazy, too, because I’m so happy right now. And I really want to go to him, even if it is in no way safe.”
“Good, we’re on the same page.” Suzie let out a relieved breath. “Girl, that was so ridiculously romantic—I will write your letter of resignation my own damn self. You better go to that man!”
I ripped open the conference room’s glass door and ran down the main row of the cubicle farm until I found Mick leaned over the microphone at reception, his neck craning around.
“Kayla? Kayla? I’m beginnin’ to suspect she’s out to lunch, and none of you lot got ’round to tellin’ me that before I made a fool of meself. If so, let me tell ya, that’s completely outta bounds—oh, there ya are, love!”
Mick’s face crumpled at the sight of me. Then completely lit up. “Is that a yes, then?”
Was that a yes?
My answer to that question came in the form of me closing the space between us and throwing myself into his arms without any warning.
But Mick didn’t need any warning. He caught me easily and kissed me like a man long deprived of oxygen, holding onto me like he would never let me go. And at that moment, I knew one thing for sure….
No more playing it safe.
My one-night stand with the stranger on the plane had just been extended to a lifetime.
* * *
