Page 22 of Once Upon a Beast

He had stepped away, as if he couldn’t wait to get away from me, as if I smelled, or he was just repulsed by being close to me. I hadn’t counted on his reaction, nor me being so hurt by it. I shrugged it off, I didn’t have any other choice. The man had been hiding for most of his adult life, he had been hiding his emotions too. It was plain to see that he had been putting on an act when he had asked me to help him. Now that we were doing this, reality had set in, and he didn’t want to be with me now any more than he had before.

We had agreed to do this. For the foreseeable future I had to pretend to be in love with him, that I liked being around him. I thought it would be easy but by his reaction I wasn’t sure but there was nothing I could do about it.

We rode down the elevator in silence. Nic was tense and wouldn’t look at me. I racked my brain trying to come up with something to say, but nothing came to mind. The awkward silence stayed with us while we got into the waiting car and drove to the event.

As we pulled up to the line of waiting cars, I saw all the paparazzi and let out a long sigh. Nic reached over and put a hand on my shoulder. I flinched, the feeling of his hand on my skin was so unexpected. I turned around to see him lifting his hand away from me as if he didn’t want to touch me any longer than he had to.

Even in the darkness of the car, he must have read my questioning look because he said, “It’s going to be okay.”

“Let’s hope so,” I muttered.

I turned back to look at the window. I didn’t want to look at him. He looked too sexy with the glow of the street lights making his hair seem almost golden brown. The shadows made his chin and cheek bones look even more pronounced. I wanted him to take my hand, reassure me some more, but I knew he wasn’t going to, and it wasn’t right for me to think much less ask him to.

“You don’t have to do this,” Nic whispered. It was said so softly that I barely heard him.

Turning back to him, I said, “Yes, I do. We’re in this now. There’s no turning back. The only thing we can do is make the best of a bad situation.”

I didn’t allow him to answer but stepped out of the car and toward the waiting paparazzi. The lights of the cameras immediately blinded me. I put my hand up to shield myself from the light. I had been to the event before and knew how crazy it could be. It was all very different when I was the one standing in front of them and the object of their attention.

“Ms. LAYLA, Ms. LAYLA. Congratulations. How are you feeling? When is the wedding? Who are you wearing?” The questions came at me from all sides. I wished that Ara was there, she would have known how to handle everyone. She would have smiled in her perfect way, made some sort of witty comment, and had everyone eating out of her hands. All I could do was stare with my mouth open.

The feeling of Nic reaching up and taking my hand immediately calmed me down. I took a deep breath as he brought my hand to his mouth and kissed it. He smiled down at me and looked at me as if I was the sexiest woman he had ever seen. I could hear the snapping of the cameras and in the back of my mind, I knew that moment would be the one that the tabloids and websites had of us the next day. He looked like a man who was in love, who was crazy about the woman whose hand he was holding, and felt like he was the luckiest guy in the world.

It was easy to smile up at him, to look back at him in the way he was looking at me. The fairy tale was back, the dream that this was real was front and center into my mind. I let myself believe it as it seemed the only way I could get through it. If I allowed myself to think it was fake, my smile would falter, I would get scared, and I just might run away. It would be too difficult to explain away, so instead, I went with what I was feeling and what I wanted.

“Over here! Over here!” The paparazzi yelled to Nic and me.

He brought my hand down but kept it in his as he brought me to his side and we smiled as we turned towards the cameras. I had no idea how long we stood there, smiling, looking like the loving happy couple, but all too soon and not soon enough we moved up the stairs and into the event.

He held my hand as we walked up the steps. There were a few more calls for pictures but we didn’t pay them any attention. When we got to the top of the stairs, we turned one more time and waved to the crowd. They ate it up and the fans that were on the sides screamed out names.

“NicLa! NicLa!” I heard them call.

“What are they saying?” I asked.

“Oh, we already have a relationship name. Apparently, we are NicLa.”

“You have got to be kidding me? How and why would we have a relationship name? We aren’t that important, are we?”

Nic smiled at me and shook his head. “I guess we are. They certainly seemed happy to see us.” We turned away from the crowd and walked inside. “You did a great job out there. You’re a natural,” he said.

“More like I was scared and could only stand there. Thank you for helping me out with them back there.”

“That’s what I’m here for. Though you’re helping me out more than the other way around.” Nic stepped off to one side and I followed him. We moved to a corner away from the crowd and I got the impression that Nic had more he wanted to say to me.

“I’m sorry if this is so hard for you, Layla. I don’t want to cause you any more problems or harm than I already have. I promise you as soon as this is done, you won’t have to talk to me or see me ever again if you don’t want to.”

His words didn’t make sense to me. I put my hands on my hips and said, “That isn’t what I want. You’re the one who’s acting like you can’t stand to be around me. I’m only feeding off your vibes and actions.” I was hurt and angry enough that I told him exactly how I was feeling. I didn’t normally do that, but if we were going to do this, we needed to be honest with each other. If he didn’t want to be around me then we needed to find a way to fix that.

“Layla, it isn’t that at all. I’m sorry if I made you think that. I’m nervous about the night, about what is going to happen. I want this evening to be a success for both of us. I know the event means a lot to you. I just want to make it a memorable one. And as usual, I’m doing it all wrong.”

He looked so dejected. I could see how much he was trying to make this work and how bad he was doing. I was doing the same thing. Were we both making a bigger deal of it than it needed to be? Was our worry going to make things worse, not better? It certainly seemed like we were.

“Okay,” I said, feeling a little better about everything.

“How can I make this easier for you?” He gave me an expectant look.

“Nic. Stop being an idiot. I’m nervous, too. We were friends once, we used to enjoy each other’s company. Can we try and do that now? If I must be stuck doing this, I can’t imagine doing it with anyone else.” It was true. I might not like the situation I was in but it was more bearable because Nic was there.