Incidental Happenstance (58 page)

            They looked at her like she’d lost her mind, but they shrugged. When she held open the door and Dylan stepped in, the air was nearly sucked from the room with the collective gasp, then the voices started in unison, “Oh my gosh! You’re…I can’t believe it…What the…”

            Tia sat glued to her seat, frozen in place. For months she’d been hoping to see him again, and now he was standing just a few feet away from her. Her breath caught and her heart instantly started hammering in her chest. Part of her wanted desperately to go to him, to wrap her arms around him, but another part wanted to beat him within an inch of his life. He’d hurt her so badly, and until she knew why he was here, she would maintain her dignity. At least she still had a little bit of that left.

            Dylan’s eyes swept the room until they met Tia’s, on the left side of the long table around which the fifteen or so staff members sat. She was the only one not making a sound. His heart nearly melted at the sight of her, but he knew she wouldn’t accept his embrace. He could only hope that she would after she heard what he had to say.

            “What are you doing here, Dylan?” she asked finally, softly.

            For a moment he was struck speechless, unable to take his eyes off her, lost in the timbre of her voice. Immediately, all eyes turned to her and the rest of the women at the table were suddenly all talking at once… “Wait a minute,
this
is
your
Dylan? The one you went to Europe with? You were dating Dylan Miller all this time and you didn’t
tell
anyone? You were in love with Dylan Miller??” The questions were being fired at her from all directions, but her eyes never left his. There was so much emotion tangled in them, he thought, that they were impossible to read.

            “Oh God, Tia,” he said, breathless. “There’s so much I need to say to you, but just seeing you, I don’t know where to start.” His breath caught again when he saw her unconsciously raise her hand to her throat where the Eiffel Tower glittered on her neck.
She still wears it
, he thought hopefully,
she still remembers
.

            “I didn’t think you had anything else to say to me,” she said. “Or so you told me in your email.”

            “Oh, I have a lot to tell you, believe me, the first being that I never sent you an email. Not the one you think I did, anyway.” Her eyebrows rose, and he continued. “I’m sure I don’t have a lot of time before you have to start work, so all I ask is that you hear me out.”

            Tia motioned with her hand, shrugging, telling him to go ahead with his story. He took a deep breath and started at the beginning.

            “I never dumped you, Tia, and I’m guessing—bloody hell I’m hoping—you never dumped me.” She looked at him with confusion in her eyes, but didn’t answer. “I got an email too. From you, supposedly, telling me that you were done with me, that you couldn’t stand how different our lives were…”

      l     “I never sent you an email like that!” she exclaimed.

            “And I never knew you got one like that, supposedly from me,” he continued. “It was Penelope,” he said. “She hatched a huge elaborate scheme to get you out of the picture, and it worked.”

            “I don’t understand,” she said, her mind racing.

            “The other day, I walked into her trailer, to return her phone,” he said, “and I found out the truth. Some of it, at least. The police are still working on the details.”

            “Whoa, the police?” she asked, sitting more upright in her seat.

            “Penelope’s going to be arrested as soon as she sets foot back in the States, and I’m going to make sure she pays for everything she’s done,” he announced.

            Tia’s head was swimming. She was still trying to get past him saying he never sent the horrible email, and that he got a similar one from her. “What are you talking about, Dylan?”
            “Mail fraud, computer hacking, libel, for starters,” he said. “She set us up. I walked in and she had pictures and letters spread out all over her place, pictures and letters I’d written to you that were never sent. She cut your face out of the pictures and put herself in. She erased your name on the letters and wrote in her own. It was some sick fantasy that she was trying to make come true, and she needed you out of the picture so she could get what she wanted.”

            “But I saw the pictures in the tabloids…” Tia said, but as soon as the words were out of her mouth, she remembered what Dylan had told her in Paris, on the day he’d laid out the complications they’d face as a couple…
They try to link me with other celebrities, fabricate relationships—there has to be a whole different level of trust between us…
A spark of hope flickered at the back of her mind.

            “All fake. Most of those shots were taken by her assistant while we were filming the movie. We look like a couple because we were acting at the time. I didn’t know that she was selling them to the tabloids—hell; I didn’t even know she was taking them. No one did. She’s going to be in trouble with the studio for that, too.”

            “Wait a second. I can’t believe Jessa would let this happen. She’d see right through her!”

            “Jessa was her first victim,” Dylan said sadly. “Penelope’s assistant, Angela, hired someone who looked just like Jessa to pass out my private mobile number at the airport—that’s what started the whole thing. She even had the nerve to take Jessa away on a girls’ weekend first, and talked her into buying a really unique scarf, then bought an identical one for the actress to wear to make it look like Jessa was the one who betrayed me…”

            “Oh no, poor Jessa!” Tia said.

            “I know—it was terrible. I fixed it with her yesterday,” he said quickly, “but at the time I fell for it and I fired her on the spot—and Angela became my new assistant. She was working for Penelope the whole time of course. I had to change my phone number, and Penelope, pretending to help me deal with the catastrophe, changed your number in my phone so I couldn’t get in touch with yu. Then they sabotaged my computer while I was out in the wilderness, sent the emails and changed the addresses, intercepted our letters—they cut off all our communication. Apparently, they thought that if I believed you’d dumped me, I’d just fall for her.  She ruined our lives, Tia. She stole us from each other, and I don’t even know the whole extent of it yet.  She took months away from us.”

            “How could she do that?” Tia asked, shaking her head. “How could anyone be so cruel?”

            “I don’t know how to answer that, because I can’t even begin to figure it out myself,” he answered.  “It may be a long time before we know the whole truth, but Person to Person is running my story—it’ll be on the newsstands tomorrow.”

            “But you never talk to the tabloids!” Tia exclaimed.

            “I had no choice—it was the only outlet to get it out there quickly. Plus, it’s the way she manipulated the whole fabricated relationship, so they had to save face too. I worked on it on the plane ride over. They agreed to let me tell my own story, and my lawyers approved the copy before it went to print. I got a restraining order against Penelope, refused to work with her for even one more scene…the last few days have been hell, Tia. I had to finish up filming what I needed to, and they have to piece the story together without our big love scenes—I refused to do them. Once I found out what she’d done…once I found out you didn’t dump me…I couldn’t even look at her again—all I could do was find you, to tell you…”

             “Tell me what, Dylan?” she asked softly, hopefully, her heart drumming in her chest and every nerve in her body tingling in anticipation.

            He reached into his bag and pulled out a stack of papers tied with a red bow. “These are copies of all the letters I wrote to you, Tia. The police kept all the originals as evidence, but I insisted they give me copies. I had to give them to you.” He handed them over the table and they were passed down until Tia held the large bundle in her hands. There were dozens of them, and her eyes filled with tears. On the top of the stack was a first class ticket to Australia. Her heart nearly melted as she looked back up at him with real hope in her eyes.

            “Oh Tia,” he breathed. “No matter what, I never stopped trying, never stopped thinking about you, never stopped wishing that you’d call me.” He paused, and looked deeply into her eyes. “I never stopped loving you Tia, not for a second. Please tell me that you’ll…” But he never got to finish the sentence, because she had leaped from her chair and into his arms and finally he was holding her, touching her, smelling her, kissing her…

            “Oh Dylan, I never stopped loving you either,” she whispered frantically into his ear as she held him close. “I couldn’t ever stop loving you. Oh God, I’ve missed you so much…” Tears of joy spilled from her eyes as she pulled him closer, breathing in his scent, kissing him, and feeling his arms wrapped tightly around her.

            The burst of applause from the room was almost as deafening as a concert venue, but neither of them heard it. There was only the whispered love, the frantic kisses, and the desperate need for contact between them.

            Finally, Tia turned and looked to her coworkers, her friends, and said, “Well, you’ve obviously figured it out already, but now I can finally introduce you to the man I love,” she said, her smile taking over her face and tears still spilling down her cheeks. This is my Dylan,” she whispered, smiling up at him and snuggling closer. He leaned down and kissed her again, full on the mouth, before looking up and saying, “It’s, ah, nice to meet all of you.” The applause and whistles continued, and then they were all rushing up to shake Dylan’s hand and to hug them both. It was near chaos until the principal held up his hand and called for order. When they were finally quiet, he spoke.

            “You know Tia,” he said with a wink, “I don’t think you’re looking very well, and I think maybe you need to take the day off. I can have an aide cover your room until a sub can get here. Are you OK with that?”

            She looked at him, then at Dylan. “More than OK with that,” she replied. “I can honestly say that I’m feeling a bit feverish,” and she wrapped her arms around him again, amazed at how comfortable, how right he felt even after such a long time away and the pain they’d both been through.

            “Actually,” Dylan said, “I’m booked here for the weekend, but once this story breaks, it’s going to be crazy. I’m scheduled to do the whole talk show circuit early next week, and I’m not waiting another minute to go public with us. Any chance you can get a few days off? I really want you to be with me.” He looked hopefully at the principal.

            “You haven’t used your personal days yet,” he said. “I’ll take care of it for you—it’s probably better that you aren’t here when this story breaks—it’s going to bring a lot of attention to our little school, I’ll bet.”

            Dylan nodded. “You’ll definitely want to keep the doors locked, and probably get the cops out here for at least the first few days,” he said. “The paparazzi will be out in force, I’m afraid.”

            He looked at Tia. “Call me on Tuesday. I’ll talk to the superintendent and see about getting you more time. It’s only a week until Christmas break; by the time we get back in January, hopefully things will have died down.” Then, he addressed the rest of his staff. “This school isn’t a newsroom, either. I trust that all of you will keep this to yourselves until Tia decides how she wants to handle things. We certainly don’t need the media making an early appearance. Any questions will be deferred to me, OK?”

            Everyone nodded their agreement.

            Dylan looked at Tia. “You’ll still come for Christmas, right?”

            She laughed, and Dylan thought he’d never heard a more beautiful sound. “Wouldn’t miss it,” she smiled, snuggling against him. “Not for anything.”

            The bell rang then, signaling the start of another school day. The other teachers had to head back to their classrooms, stopping to hug the couple once more on the way out. Dylan and Tia stood in the teacher’s lounge, listening to the pounding of children’s feet and the sounds of their voices. They waited until the start of day bell rang, and then slipped out the side door and into the limo.

            “God, I’ve missed you so much!” he said between tender kisses. “I was so scared I’d lost you!”

            “I’m so glad you came back for me,” she breathed. “I missed you terribly—oh Dylan, it just feels so good to hold you again!”

            “I’ve got a room in the city,” he said, kissing her again.

            “My house is closer,” she breathed, running her fingers through his hair and pressing herself against him. God, he felt so good. 

            “Even better,” he whispered. They had the weekend together before they went public, and he was looking very forward to making up for lost time. He pulled her in tighter and pressed his lips to hers. He was going to spend the rest of his life making it up to her, he figured, and he couldn’t wait to get started.