Page 58 of Country Road Romance

He turned around. Sheri was standing there in her usual pantsuit, arms crossed, one stilettoed foot tapping up and down while her fingers.

“Well?” she asked when he didn’t say anything at once.

“Let’s just say that things didn’t work out quite as well as I’d hoped,” he said.

There was a flicker of something that might have been sympathy on her face, but then it hardened again, no doubt as she thought about all of the complications that his being here was likely to cause.

“Please,” he said, holding up a hand, “I really don’t need any ‘I told you so’s’ right now.”

“Actually,” she said, “I was going to say that if you don’t want to do the talk before the film festival you don’t have to. In fact, it might be better if you didn’t. Perhaps we should just get back to California and forget that all of this ever happened.”

Charlie couldn’t deny that there was a part of him that was desperate to do just that, to get away from all of the mess and madness that had characterized his time coming home. In particular, he wanted to get away from all of the memories of Jared that being here would continue to conjure.

Jared, how did this all go so wrong?He wanted, desperately, to believe that this had all been a blip, that he hadn’t meant all of what he’d said. The more he thought about it, however, the more convinced he became that the ugly side of Jared that he’d revealed back at his parents’ house had, in fact, been the real person. Oh, he was sure there was something else there, that there was a core to him that was really beautiful and as sensitive as Charlie had thought at the beginning, but it was so buried beneath all of the other baggage that Charlie didn’t think he’d ever be able to dig his way out of it.

As he’s made clear, that’s someone else’s problem,he thought sourly. It was time to get this whole festival over with and put in the rearview mirror so that he could resume his life back in California.

“No,” he said. “I’m done with running away. We’re going to see this through to the end.”

Something about just saying those words aloud made him feel confident about his choices in a way that he hadn’t been in a long time. Whatever else happened during this trip–and he had a feeling that there was a lot more to come–he could at least take comfort from the fact that he’d seen it through to the end.

“Now that you’re back,” Sheri said, breaking into his thoughts. “I have something important to give you.” She walked over to his desk and grabbed a folder, which she then handed to him without even the slightest bit of ceremony.

“Do I want to know what this is?” he asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Since I figured you’d decide to go through with the speech no matter what I said, I took the liberty of writing a draft. Trust me, it’s already made it through all of the revisions that it needs. This is the type of speech that will impress everyone and not piss anyone off, let alone the members of the Huntington City Council, who have been on the warpath ever since you left. If you just read this, I think we can smooth this whole thing over and take control of the narrative.”

Charlie reluctantly opened the folder and skimmed the speech. He could tell right away that this was exactly the opposite of what he would have liked to say even if, as Sheri had said, it was exactly the type of anodyne speech one might expect from such a gathering. It was full of expressions of gratitude to Huntingotn and to speaking in general terms about how much had been gained but how much there was still left to do.

Yeah, I’m not reading that,he decided right away. He didn’t say that to Sheri, of course, because she wouldn’t understand. In fact, he knew that she would reprimand him for being foolish enough to do what he was thinking about doing.

But if being here in West Virginia this past weekend had taught him anything, it was that it wasn’t worth bending yourself out of shape for someone else. You had to be honest about what you were doing, and let the chips fall where they may. What he was about to do might cost him his career, it might cost him everything that he’d already built, but he was going to go through with it.

There was no going back.

After getting rid of Sheri,Charlie spent the next several hours writing a new version of his speech. He decided to write by hand, because that always made him feel more connected to his thoughts and, as the hours passed and he kept writing, he found that it was a lot easier, and also a lot harder, than he had expected. There was a lot he needed to cram into a relatively short speech but, by the time that three hours had gone by, he felt like he’d written something he could be proud of.

He also realized he was incredibly hungry, so he ordered some room service, had a light dinner, and then went to bed. It was going to be a very busy day tomorrow.

As he drifted off, his thoughts kept returning to Jared, wondering where he was and what he was doing. Charlie tried to resist the effort, but he even checked his phone several times, just to see if somehow he’d missed a message. He hadn’t and, after about the dozenth check, he decided that it was time to go to sleep. Tomorrow he’d face the world.

The next daypassed in something of a haze. Sheri informed him over a light breakfast that she’d already made plans for the jet to take them back to California after his speech was done that night. She’d already booked him a meeting with several producers of a new project, and she thought it was in his best interests to capitalize on at least a bit of the goodwill from the festival in order to get some things set in stone.

If only you knew what was coming,he thought but didn’t say.

Still, he packed all of his bags and got things ready for his departure. He resolutely kept Jared out of his thoughts, because he knew if he started to give in to thinking about him–and about the fact that he hadn’t even tried to reach out–then he was goingto lose his focus, and he needed all of his resources to be able to focus today.

You can do this,he kept reminding himself.

At last all of his belongings were packed away, and he was left staring at yet another empty hotel room. For the briefest of moments his mind flashed back to that first night, and the way that Jared had brought him here after the incident at the Stonewall. A small smile flickered across his lips at the memory.

If only things could have stayed like that,he thought.

Then Sheri was knocking on the door, and it was time to go.

When they gotto the theater it was clear at once that there was an even bigger crowd than they’d expected. Part of Charlie was excited and happy–and even a little proud–to see that so many people had come out to see him. Or, at least, he assumed they’d turned out to see him and his new movie, rather than the controversy of a few days earlier. As they started clapping and waving, though, he smiled, knowing that they really were there for all of the right reasons, so he plastered on the usual smile and waved in return.

The Keith Albee was one of the oldest theaters in Huntington, and even though its best days had seemed to be behind it, it had experienced a bit of a renaissance thanks to some wise investment. Being inside of the building, Charlie could see why it was a true local landmark, and he almost felt like he was walking through one of the old theaters from the early days of Hollywood, with its pillars and its carpeted floors and its magnificent painted ceiling.

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