AllFreeNovel
Share Us
"No, tomorrow's bad, too, I'm afraid. I have to go into the studio in the morning, and Kline’s son is home, so we’re going to have dinner together and make the big introductions before he’s off to do a Canadian press junket.”
“Oh–that’s big, meeting the kiddo.”
“Yeah. You know. We’re not just faking things for our photo sets.”
There was a long pause. “Okay. Well… Rollie said Kline was taking you to the Oscars. I’m going with August, so maybe I’ll see you there? Or at least at the Vanity Fair party after.”
“I have no doubt," Rhiannon said, "I'm sure I'll see you there."
Jill sighed. "Well, you keep Kline on one side of the room, and I'll keep August on the other. Can't have them combusting in front of everyone."
Rhiannon gave a snort. "Sure. I'll try. But it's his show, you know? I'm just his largest accessory."
"He’s just presenting. When you're up for your Emmy, he can be your jewelry. That's just how it works.You sound--busy? Should I just wait for you to call back?"
"Actually, I am on my way out. I'm sorry that I've been so unavailable, but life got hectic all of the sudden. You know how it is."
Jill's tone changed again, this time to something cool and breezily distant. "Of course. I won't bother you again. Have a good weekend."
"You, too," Rhiannon said, just as breezily, "bye."
Jill Parker
Jill put the phone down with a dark expression, then wandered down to August's workshop. He'd finished her dress a day before and was now putting the finishing touches on a small clutch. "Hey," she said, entering. "Rhiannon hates me now."
He looked up from his work confused and tilted his head. "What?"
She recounted the conversation and slumped into a chair. "All I can think is that it's something to do with Kline. I haven't seen her to do anything offensive."
"Well, the press has been on and on about the two of you since New York, love," August pointed out. "That may have something to do with it. And the Grammys. You were quite a pair. I doubt he's handled things well since returning."
Was it just three weeks ago, they had been walking through Central Park together after Kline’s Today Show appearance?
"So," Jill had asked him. "So now what?"
He had given her hand a squeeze and swung it along with his. It was cold and his hair was damp with snow, curling up tightly, making him look more angelic than rakish. "So now I go back to LA in a few hours and face the music there. When are you back?"
"Saturday night, for the Grammys."
Kline nodded and stared straight ahead as they walked. He squeezed her hand again. "I'll be glad when you get there."
"Is this just a New York thing? What's happening with us?"
"I don't want to think so. Jill," he slowed his pace and looked down at her, as conflicted as he'd ever felt in his life. "I can't just give Rhiannon the brush off. I don't want to really, but I especially can't in light of all this. I've asked her to go to the Oscars as my date and those are weeks away. I need to keep things even until then at least.
“After that we can talk--she and I. By then the photos will have blown over. I haven't made any promises to her, but I think the ground was laid for them anyway, and I owe her an explanation. I'm not cheating on her, but I haven't been very open about our past together. If I'd met her a day later it wouldn't be an issue, but it is an issue. I really like her. She's brilliant. I don't want to hurt her. I don't want to hurt you. I need some time to work things out. Okay?"
"That's fair." They walked further in silence before Jill asked, "So I won't see you at all after the Grammys? Or what?"
"You know," Kline said after they'd gone a little further, "I don't even want to think about not seeing you for even a day." He stopped and leaned to kiss her forehead. "But we're just going to have to see how things work out."
"Okay,” she’d said. She knew what that meant. She still wasn’t enough to hold his interest.
He smiled and stroked her cheek. "Come on. Let's go get a hot dog before I have to leave."
She had watched him eat a hot dog, even let him kiss her with hot dog breath, then watched him climb into the back of a cab before she’d gone back to her apartment and packed a few things she’d left behind before. Then, deep in a misery of her own making had called her travel agent and asked to change her flight.
She wasn’t going to hear from Kline again and she knew it. Unless it was business, it was done and dusted. That jagged piece of her heart that had been stuck like shrapnel in the pit of her stomach for so many years dislodged, and she sobbed like her world was ending. When she’d managed to stop crying, she realized that in a way, her world had ended. At least, that part of it had.
