Page 112 of The Love Lie
The hockey player crouches down, retrieves a credit card from his wallet, and gets to work. The soft scrape of plastic on metal fills the silence.
“I gotta ask,” Tyler says after a few moments, his focus remaining on the lock. A concentrated wrinkle forms in the center of his brow. “Why do you want out so badly?”
“I’m trying to win back my fiancée,” Cooper says carefully, still not entirely convinced this isn’t some hoax Nina set up to catch him in a lie. He’s starstruck, yes, but not stupid. “Why did you want in?”
“I’m hiding from my agent.” The man tilts his head to the side, then adjusts the angle of the card. A little bit of venom leaks into his tone. “He thinks I’m risking my carefully cultivated image by going on the show. He’s convinced I’m going to do or say something that’ll get me into trouble, but contrary to popular belief, I’m not a total idiot.”
If Cooper had a drink, it would be all over the right winger’s back right now. “You’re going onthisshow? OnThe Love Match? The dating show?”
“You’re looking at next season’s lead.” Tyler pauses to offer him a thousand-watt grin that Cooper knows will make half the female viewers combust at first sight. Then the man’s eyes go wide. “Oh shit. I don’t think anyone is supposed to know that. Keep it between us, okay?”
“Sure,” Cooper says automatically, and then because he can’t help it, he adds, “How the hell did they get you to sign up for the show?”
Tyler clenches his jaw. His entire demeanor shifts, the light seeping out so fast it’s as if a curtain has been thrown closed to block out the sun. Nina’s grubby little hands are written all over this reaction.
“Sorry, I didn’t—”
“Don’t worry about it.”
They fall into an awkward silence. Cooper swallows and shifts his weight uncomfortably, hoping he didn’t totally mess up his one chance to get out of here and find Emily. But the guy is still doing, well, whatever it is he’s doing.
“So how does a professional hockey player learn to pick locks?”
“Let’s just say you can take the boy out of the trailer park, but you can’t take the trailer park out of the boy. Now…” Tyler stands and pulls up with one arm while he twists with the other. The door pops open. Cooper takes a step forward, but the right winger keeps ahold of the knob, blocking his path. “One question.”
“Fair trade.”
“Filming the show. How bad was it?”
“The dates are hokey. The reshoots can be painful. The cameras definitely get annoying after a while. And there’s a cutthroat undercurrent that at times made me feel like livestock just waiting for the slaughter,” Cooper answers truthfully, thinking about where that strange and windy road has led him, “but it’s the best decision I ever made in my entire life.”
“Huh,” Tyler grunts in surprise and releases the door. “Then, good luck with that fiancée, I guess.”
“And good luck finding yours.”
Cooper charges into the hallway without looking back. At some point when he has time, he’s sure he’ll reflect on just how ridiculously bizarre the past five minutes of his life have been, but right now he has one thought and one alone—Emily.
As luck would have it, she’s two doors down from him and the hallway is miraculously absent of any production crew he recognizes. They must all be busy getting things ready onstage, a fact for which he is eternally grateful as he opens the door and slips inside, holding a hand over his eyes, just in case.
“Sorry to barge in like this, Em, but I need to talk to you. Are you dressed?”
She sucks in a breath so sharp it sounds as though she’s been possessed by the antichrist, which he takes to mean he caught her in a bad spot.
“Let me just turn around,” he says hastily, giving her privacy but not time as he races on. “I have no idea what Sam told you, but I’m guessing most of it was complete horseshit if I know her as well as I think I do. And, trust me, I do. You must know that we accidentally got engaged in the Maldives. And I’m sure she said the plan was to break up on air tonight with some lame excuse like we realized we just weren’t right for each other or the long-distance relationship was too much to overcome. But the most important thing you need to know—the part I’m absolutely positive she left out—is that I am so fucking in love with her I can’t even breathe right when she’s not around. You probably don’t know that she came to visit me in Nebraska, but ever since she left, it’s like I’ve been walking around with a piece of myself missing. There’s this knot in the back of my throat I just can’t shake. I can’t draw air. I can’t think. I can’t do a goddamn thing except miss her.”
He sucks in a ragged breath, that ache pulsing steady beneath his skin as his lungs burn. He waits a moment for Em to say anything. When she doesn’t, he just plows onward.
“Look, I know I sound insane. We’ve only known each other for three months. We only spent a little bit of that in the same place. You probably think I’ve lost my mind. But I haven’t. I actually think I’ve finally found it. There’s this settled feeling deep inside me I’ve never felt, like for the first time in my life, I’m in the right place doing exactly the right thing at exactly the right time. And I’ve never had that before, that sense like I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be. But I do with Sam. Lord help me, I do. She drives me nuts, don’t get me wrong. You know how she is. She pushes every one of my buttons and takes a perverse sense of glee in doing it, but fuck if it doesn’t turn me on every time. I don’t want an easy life if she’s not in it. I’ll pick her competitive ass every time, and shit, I’ll even let her win if it puts that satisfied little smile on her face, that’s how gone I am. I want her face to be the first thing I see in the morning, and the last thing I see at night. I want to spend the day knowing she’s waiting for me back at home, not in some misogynistic way, I promise. I want her to take over the world if that’s what she wants. She’s smart as hell and it only makes me want her more. I just mean, I want to know that she’s out there keeping me in her heart the same way I’ll be keeping her in mine. Because she’s there, whether I want her to be or not. Even if she doesn’t want me back, she’ll still be there, like a goddamn tattoo I don’t want to erase. And here’s the real kicker, Em. Even though she left me, even though she hasn’t reached out, I’m pretty sure she loves me too, which is where you come in.”
He pauses to run a hand through his hair before settling his hat back into place, hoping for a word of encouragement, hating that he’s saying all of this to an ugly white wall devoid of any character. But Emily is utterly silent.
“I know this is a lot.” He cuts into the quiet. “And I’m sorry for ambushing you like this. I’m not asking you to come clean out there. Hell, Sam will kill me if you do, so please, let’s makea pact to lie through our fucking teeth. All I really need, if you’re willing to provide it, is her address. My flight to New York leaves as soon as the show wraps. I just want to see her. I just want to talk to her, face-to-face, without the pressure of tonight hanging over our shoulders. We can keep it quiet for a while if that’s better for your business, wait until all this publicity blows over. Or you can let the tabloids run wild and go with the scorned woman angle. I don’t care if the rest of the world calls me a sleazebag for breaking up with you tonight and going out with her tomorrow. I just want her, any way I can get her. I know she thinks it’s weak to need someone, but it doesn’t scare me. I need her like I need air, and I’m not afraid to admit it. I’m drowning without her. So please, Emily, help me go get her.”
Cooper waits for her to say something, anything. He tries to give her space to process, but in the back of his mind, all he can hear is the tick of a clock winding down. The show is supposed to start any minute. Someone is going to come get her. Someone is going to find him. It’s only a matter of rapidly diminishing time. And he needs that address. He needs it more than he’s ever needed anything in his entire life.
“Emily, I—”
“Cooper.”
