Falling Into You (13 page)

I
swing the door back
and my mouth falls open
.

Chris.

Of course it had to be him.

Chapter 8

CHRIS

I ha
ng up the phone, both pissed and impressed.

She hadn’t even waited for me to say yes to her
ridiculous
plan of hanging out with her little pet all day. Jesus, she had only been home for one day and
she
was already dumping off the
poor girl. I was abou
t to call her back to tell her hell no
when a thought crosses
my mind.

A mysterious friend staying with
Sophia
?

Flip
flops?

It would make sense, I
think
. She had been invited to that party, and she clearly wasn’t a New York
er
. It could definitel
y be her. Was
I willing to waste my whole day on the off chance
that it would be her
?

I spent part of the night thinking about
James Ross
and the paparazzi
and my fucking asshole father and what my sister needed an
d everything else that was crammed into my head.
But
flip flops
had been creeping into my consciousness
al
l night. It was the first time since I was a kid that Sophia Pearce hadn’t been the last thought in my head
before I fel
l asleep.

I didn’t have time for playing tour guide
. I had promised Marcus that I would devote all of my time and
energy to slaying my audition.
I should stay in and work on the script, try to figure out who this character was.

But t
he flash of a smile and the lingering memory of the current that had gripped me when she had touched my hand had me reaching for the door instead of my phone. It was worth
the risk. I was just going to have to get some serious character development in on the car ride to
Sophia
’s.

I threw on a pair of jeans and an old t-shirt, called out good morning to my sister, ignored my father, and jumped in a cab.
As the driver races
across the park,
I
think
about
the old
James Ross
movies.

He was a tough guy
, a whiskey-drinking badass who cared about nothing and no one. There
was always a parade of girls
,
usua
lly three or four in each film, and their names were usually something like Candy or Diamond or Jubilee. Stripper names. W
hile
the directors and producers and special effects people
had done a great job with the action scenes, there had been no character development.
It was the kind of movie that men loved and women
only went to because they lost the coin flip
.

Diana had
let out a disgruntled snort
when I had mentioned the
audition
in passing to her
that morning
.
My little brother, the asshole action star,
she said before messing with my hair and kissing me on the cheek.

So, w
hat
kind of character development was I supposed to do, exactly
? My glances through the script told me that they hadn’t exactly hired the A-te
am to work on the dialogue. There
was
some
potential there,
other
directions
the script could go.
I c
ould give
James Ross
an edge,
something that makes him tick. Maybe his heart was broken at some point. It’s about the best I can do in the fifteen minute cab ride.

Mission accomplished. Kind of.

Marcus still wouldn’t be happy.

***

I knock
on the door to
Sophia
’s apartment
again
.
I’m impatient.
Would it be her?

I hear a voice starting to say something as the door starts to open. I catch a brief glimpse of impossibly blue eyes, and she abruptly stops talking when she sees me. I let out a sigh of relief. The gamble paid off, then.

She’s standing before me in a low-cut black sweater and a soft blue tank top that matches her eyes perfectly, and long waves fall around her face as she pushes them away. A little tremble runs through my stomach as my eyes rove over the rest of her.
I have no idea how I could have ever dismissed her as a girl next door type—she’s biting her lip and all I can think about is sex.

Worst of all, she’s wearing these boots that are completely incongruous with the rest of her, these black leather high heels that make her legs look absolutely endless. A small groan escapes my lips as I think about taking the boots off.  I’ve been rendered totally speechless.

She isn’t saying anything either, and there’
s a look of shock on her face
. She hesitates,
but she does open
the door wide enough for me to step
inside
. I want to touch her,
to see if I was imagining the lightning the night before
. I’m temporarily unable to say anything. I can’t breathe.

“Hey,” I say
when I’m able to recover my voice. “I think I’m your date for the day.”

She recovers.  “Hey. You didn’t…”

“I’m sorry…”

We speak at the same time.

“You first,”
I offer
.

She takes a long deep breath, and the words come out in one long rush.
“Listen, I’m sorry
Sophia
roped you into this. I’m not some total country hick who’s going to walk straight into traffic while she’s looking up at the oh-so-pretty big b
uildings
. I do live in a city, you know. Atlanta’s pretty big, too
, and we even have things called cars
.
”

She lets out a short puff of air, like she’s been holding her breath.
“
I don’t know why she felt the need to ask you to play tour guide all afternoon, bu
t feel free to leave
. I can just tell her that we had a w
onderful day and you can be out
of here and on your merry way
.
”

What the fuck is
she talking about? T
here is no way I am leaving this apartment without her.

“No way.
” I’m as firm as she is.
“
In case you haven’t noticed,
Sophia
can be…”
I
hesitate
for a second.

“Demanding? Impossible? A terror when sh
e doesn’t get what she wants?” she suggests
,
her eye
s flashing with amusement
.

“Nailed it.
You certainly don’t want to spend your time in New York with an angry Sophia.” I shudder in horror. “
So, we will go and get breakfast and you will tell me about the top three things that you want to see in New York City and then we will
get those things accomplished.”

More hesitation
.
I can’t tell whether it’s because she doesn’t want to be a burden or whether she doesn’t want to spend the day with me. If it’s the first, I can take care of that right away. If it’s the second, I’m just going to have to convince her that I’m worth spending the day with.

Eventually, her face relaxes, and I can tell that she’s caved.
“
Ok.
But you have to tell me more about Hollywood. That’s the deal.
If I’m going to feel terrible about taking you away from your real life, I better at least get some stories about movie sets out of it.
”

“I have another part of the bargain
. You have to tell me your name.
”

She looks momentarily horrified.
“I haven
’t eve
n introduced myself? My mother
would
kill me.
How could I have been so rude?
It’s
Hallie
.
Hallie
Caldwell.
I’m from Ohio. I go to Greenview with Sophia. So that’s why I’m here. I mean, not because I go to Greenview, but because I know Sophia.
”

The words come out in a rush
, like she can’t stop talking. She covers her mouth and I want to brush her hand away, to tell her to keep talking. I like the
way that she just says whatever is
on her mind. I laugh instead and offer a hand to her.
“Well,
Hallie
Caldwell. You ready to hit the streets?”

I didn’t mean for it to sound like that. Apparently, saying the first thing that comes to mind was rubbing off on me.
An interesting choice of words
. Maybe she missed the tone.

“Well, if you put it that way…”
she says
with laughing eyes
.

I’m a little bit embarrassed
, but
it’s outweighed by the slight thrill
I feel
when
s
he
takes
my arm in the elevator.

The electricity is definitely there and it’s stronger than I remembered. She doesn’t seem to notice, although she does draw her hand away.

“Since we’re hitting the streets, I think I may need some sustenance. You know, long days on the corner.”

“Oh, um.” I’m stumbling over my words, trying to forget the feel of her hand
under mine
. “Do you want to get some breakfast or something?”

“Yes. Breakfast would probably save my life.
I’m starving.
Sophia
easts approximately one strawberry for breakfast and that just isn’t going to cut it.
What’s good around here? Real food is preferable to raw fruits and vegetables.” She’s looking at me hopefully, and I laugh.

“
Real food it is, then.
There’s a place called Sarabeth’s that has g
ood omelets and amazing bread
, if that sounds good.”

“Perfect
.
”

Sarabeth’s
is a decent walk
from
Sophia
’s place, and
I’m wracking my brain for topics
of conversation
that will somehow convince her that I am not a total psychopath who wants to become her pimp
.
When
I
finally come up with something,
I turn to her
and
abruptly close my mouth
when I see her face
.

Her eyes are darting around and she’s
gazing
at the architecture and people and the craziness that is New York
with a look
of
pure
wonderment
.
She’s so wrapped up in taking in everything around her that
I’m
able to stare at her for long moments
. It had been a long time since I had seen anyone so curious, so obviously impressed
and not ashamed to show it
.

We had almost reached our destination when
she stops and looks at me with wide eyes
.

“What?” I ask
, as she opens
her mouth slightly.

“Ok, so I said before that I wouldn’t walk into traffic just because I got so caught up in the city?”

I nod
.

“That might have been a little bit of an overstatement. There’s a good chance that I would make a thousand first-visit-to-New-York mistakes.
It’s so crazy. How can a
ll of these people…” she trails
off.

“Go on,” I say
.

“Well, you know. Everyone here has a purpose, or they’re pretending like they do.
” She points at a man in a black business suit. “Look at him. He hasn’t looked up from the ground once and we’ve been walking ri
ght next to him for all this time
. It’s like he’s managed to block out everything around him, like he doesn’t even see that he’s in the middle of this insanely exciting place.
And it’s the same with almost everyone else I’ve seen.
Even the guys in the middle of running the
40-yard dash at the combine
have nothing on the people on this street. They look like they’re
taking a break for a donut or so
mething compared to this
. I can’t
ever
imagine being so used to this that I wouldn’t take a couple of seconds every day to just think about it.”