In Flight (Up in the Air #1)(83)
Aside from his words to Melissa, Stephan was both quiet and affectionate that morning. I got reassuring pats and hugs that actually did reassure me.
I might be stupid when it came to romantic relationships, but maybe it was fair, since I had Stephan.
Who needed more than that? Who deserved more? Not me.
We never got much downtime during full morning flights. It was hours before we got a spare moment to relax and scarf down some food in the galley. We ate our usual rejected greek yogurt, leaning against the beverage carts as we took quick bites, our shoulders touching.
“I’m going to research James online. I should have from the start. I guess I just wanted to get to know him as a person, and not his image. But now I see that what I don’t know could hurt me,” I told Stephan quietly, after I had finished eating.
I had an old computer, and I used it when I needed to, but I wasn’t the type to spend much time online. I didn’t really care about the news. When I had spare time, I almost always preferred to paint or spend time with Stephan and our other friends. I avoided Facebook and anything similar like the plague. I was sure James probably had a Facebook page, though I’d never thought of it before.
I wondered dejectedly what his relationship status would say. I shook the thought off. A simple name search would probably tell me plenty.
Stephan nodded, sliding his finished food tray into the trash cart. He held a hand out for mine, discarding it as well.
“That sounds like a good idea, considering. I should have researched him better, but I didn’t. I just trusted him. I saw the way he looked at you, and I knew that he cared. I thought it was enough. And I didn’t want to interfere with the one guy you’ve ever been interested in. Want me to be with you when you look?”
I shook my head. “No, I’ll be fine.”
He straightened, moving close to rub my shoulders comfortingly. “I’m sorry I got so violent last night. I almost lost it.”
I patted his hand. “Don’t, Stephan. It was my fault, for bringing my mess to your doorstop. You were just being protective.”
“James keeps texting me. I had eight texts when I checked my phone before the flight. He’s asking to speak to me. Should I? Or would you prefer that I not?”
I shrugged. “It’s up to you. Deal with him however you need to.”
“I do believe that he has strong feelings for you. There’s no doubt in my mind that he cares about you.”
I held up a hand. “I don’t want to talk about that. It doesn’t matter to me what he feels if I can’t live with what he does.”
“He never threw a punch last night, never even tried, but he’s apologizing to me.”
I turned to meet his eyes, letting him see my resolve. “Drop it.”
He leaned into me, kissing the top of my head. “Of course, Buttercup. I’ll drop it.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
Mr. Celebrity
It seemed like it took an eternity to make it to my house. And when I did, I passed out for an unprecedented six hour stretch.
I had turned my phone off first thing that morning, and I left it off. I had told James that I would speak to him on monday, but that hadn’t kept him from calling and texting me, over and over again.
Just thinking about reading those texts made my stomach churn, so my phone had stayed off.
When I awoke, I ate some eggs and sat down at my computer with no small amount of dread.
My computer was an old, refurbished piece of junk, but it served it’s purpose. I typed the name James Cavendish into the search engine with trembling fingers.
What came up was overwhelming, and filled with even more unpleasant surprises than I was prepared for. I had been aware that he was a young but well-known billionaire. I had expected some attention from the media in his direction, just from his looks and money alone. But I couldn’t have anticipated what I found.
I was out of touch with current events, to say the least. I didn’t watch the news, and you couldn’t pay me to watch some of the celebrity entertainment shows that were on television, and I certainly wasn’t interested in print tabloids. I’d never understood the appeal of things like that. I had just never been able to relate to anything about them. They usually centered around spoiled rich people, and I just didn’t get the appeal. That could perhaps excuse the fact that I was utterly clueless about the man I’d had a brief affair with.
I clicked on the images portion first. It was mostly shots on red carpets. He seemed to have endless pictures posing with countless women, though Jules was in a sickening majority of them.
He wore tux after tux, some fashion forward, some classic. She wore gowns in every color, always looking beyond stunning. The two of them together made a dauntingly beautiful pair. He wore suits in other pictures, to what I assumed were less formal red carpet events. I was shocked to see that I even recognized some of the other women he had dated.
I recognized a very famous actress. I hadn’t realized she was so tiny until I saw her standing beside James’s tall figure. She barely came to his chest. I had liked a few of her films, but I felt an unreasonable rush of dislike for her when I saw that she had attended at least three events with him.
I recognized yet another woman, a voluptuous, dead behind the eyes reality star. She was dark-haired and dark complexioned. Her curves very nearly ran to fat, I decided cattily. She was so short that they looked ridiculous side by side.