Crash Into Me(100)

As I wrapped my arms around his neck, I answered with the honest truth. "All the wrong kinds."

"Well, I'm happy to be able to help you remedy that."

My emotions were ready to overflow, so before I began crying tears of complete and utter happiness, I whispered in his ear, "What do you say to remedying my hunger with some Tony's pizza?"

He stood back from me and looked at his watch for a long moment before he nodded. "I think it's about time."

We walked toward the car and as he opened the door for me, I said, "I probably look like a disaster. That lump on the back of my head doesn't hurt anymore, but it's like I have a stegosaurus ridge back there."

He leaned in and kissed me. "That will sound great on Page Six."

Page Six. My stomach did a funny somersault. This was the first time he'd ever mentioned anything even remotely related to being with me in public, and the idea was at once thrilling and terrifying. This was everything I'd wanted and now that it was happening, all I could think about were my deficiencies.




I wasn't a tall, willowy, supermodel type whose clothes hung perfectly off her. I had a tendency to make silly comments when I was nervous. For God's sake, there were times I couldn't even get my hair to lay right and not look all flyaway.

Tristan got into the driver's seat and started the car, but one look at my expression and he knew something was wrong. "Did I say something? What's going on?"

"I just remember you saying you never took girlfriends to those events that land you on Page Six, but then you just mentioned it. I'm just wondering if I'm the right type to be on the arm of someone like you."

He cradled my face in his hands and shook his head. "Don't say that. You're a beautiful, intelligent, charming woman who makes me smile. That's more than I can say for anyone I've ever met at those things. If you don't want to go to them, I'm fine with that. But it would be nice to have someone to talk to at them."

"You're trying to guilt me into going?" I joked. "But what about the idea of people seeing you smile? What will that do to your reputation?"

He rolled his eyes and turned to drive. "I hadn't thought about that. Well, then. It's settled. I'll remain cold and impersonal in public and nobody will know the real me. Except you."

I knew it was selfish, but I liked the idea of the world thinking he was cold. There was something very special about Tristan only feeling comfortable enough to drop his cool facade with me.

We got to Tony's to find the entire restaurant deserted. Peering in through the front window, I saw no one inside. Disappointed, I turned toward him. "I don't think they're open."

Tristan brushed it off and took my hand to lead me inside to a table in the back. A waitress appeared almost instantly to take our order, and as he told her what we wanted, I wondered where all the other customers were.

She walked away toward the front of the restaurant and I asked, "Don't you think it's weird there's no one here?"

He got a strange grin on his face. "No. Not at all."

The lights dimmed throughout the building except where we sat, making me feel there was definitely something odd going on. "Tristan, they're turning the lights out. I think they might be closing early tonight."

I looked around to see where the waitress had gone to and when I looked back at Tristan, he was on one knee on the wood floor next to me and beside him sat a small robin's egg blue colored box. In the palm of his right hand was a smaller black velvet box. He pulled back the top and there sat a gorgeous diamond ring. I'd never seen anything so stunning, and even in the dim light of Tony's, the stone was brilliant.