Page 35 of Resisting You
I was already halfway toward the coffee maker, hand outstretched when Kristen stopped me with merely a look that could freeze lava. “Meetingfirstfor both of us. Coffee later,” she said. “You’ve evaded me for long enough, don’t you think?”
“Fine.” I sighed and flopped down onto the couch, then gestured to the chair in front of me. “Have a seat.”
“I can get your coffee, Noah,” Rosa chimed in. She turned to the cabinet, grabbing a plain, white mug, setting it on the counter. With the coffee carafe in one hand, she paused mid-pour. “How do you take it?”
Kristen rolled her eyes. “Okay, you two, if this is going to bebelievable, she’s going to need to learn, at theveryleast, how you take your goddamn coffee… among other things,” Kristen muttered.
My face blanched. “Believable?”
“Yes,believable. Please. You two didn’t think I would fall for this whole star-crossed lovers elopement thing, did you?”
I snuck a quick glance at Rosa who looked just about as shocked as me. “Um… I’ve been in love with Rosa for years—” I started to explain.
“Uh-huh,” Kristen interrupted.
Rosa’s rose colored lips pressed together and she looked at me, swallowing. “It doesn’t bode well for us if she figured us out in less than five minutes.”
“Lucky for you, I’m smarter than most,” Kristen said, finally sitting in the chair across from me. “And just fyi, he takes his coffee black.”
Rosa finished pouring, then with her coffee and mine in hand, she crossed to hand me the mug.
“You might as well have a seat and join this meeting,” Kristen said.
“Why’s that?” Rosa asked, carefully as she lowered herself beside me on the couch.
“Because,” Kristen said. “If you two are going to keep up pretenses that this elopement was really a spontaneous, whimsical act of love, then we need to come up with a game plan so that both of you make it out of this with your professional reputations intact. Thatisthe goal, isn’t it? For you to grow your therapy practice, Rosa? And…” Kristen paused, her gaze shifting to me. “Remind me. What exactly wasyourgoal in all this, Noah?”
My throat tightened. I couldn’t exactly answer:To convince Rosa we belong together. And getting out of the charity bachelor auction wasn’t quite enough of a reason to put on a year-long ruse of marriage.
“I want to be taken more seriously as an actor. I’m tired of being applauded more for my good looks than my actual talent, ” I finally answered. And it was true, too. If I had to answer another set of interview questions that focused on my ‘ideal woman,” I might barf.
And if Rosa happened to fall madly in love with me in the process? Even better.
Kristen knowingly lowered her eyes at me as if she could read right into my thoughts and see my little plan.
But instead, she merely said, “Okay, then.”
I nodded, glancing at Rosa who looked like she’d been caught tied to the railroad tracks with a train barreling straight for her.
Clearing my throat, I took Rosa’s hand and gave it a squeeze. “Maybe we can start small,” I offered. “Begin with an announcement including Rosa’s name?”
Kristen rarely showed her emotions on her face. She was calm, cool, and collected almost every second of every day. But for the briefest moment, her mask lifted. A flash of confusion, then apprehension tilted her eyebrows into a v. “Her name? Have neither of you been online yet this morning?”
Gulping, I shook my head as Rosa said, “I only just woke up.”
Kristen sighed. “Well, then, let me be the one to tell you… Rosa, your name is out there. Headlines with you and your parent’s identities went live this morning and they’ve been picked up by almost every source available.”
Shit. I looked at Rosa whose face was now whiter than the ceramic mug she held in her hands. “I–I never told my parents about the wedding.”
I winced as Kristen’s sharp intake of air displayed her disapproval of that fact. “Well, I can guarantee they know now. Or—they will as soon as they wake up out there in California.”
Rosa closed her eyes and took a long inhale. With her eyes still closed, she lifted the mug to her lips and slowly sipped her coffee. “Well,” she said quietly. “I guess there’s nothing that can be done about that now.”
“You could still call them,” I offered. “Now. Before they wake up and see the headlines for themselves. I’m sure they’d rather hear the news from you than from their manager.”
Full, wet lips pursed together before Rosa said, “I’ll think about it. Maybe after this meeting.”
Calmly, Kristen asked, “Do you and your parents not get along?” When Rosa didn’t answer immediately, she pushed a little harder. “If there’s skeletons I should know about, I’d rather find out now fromyou?—”
