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“Until you proved me wrong.” I felt more than a touch overheated thinking about how thorough of a job he’d done.
“Twice,” he bragged as he pulled up to the curb in front of the Delta terminal.
“Show-off,” I teased, my laughter cutting off abruptly when I felt tears welling in my eyes. “Saying goodbye shouldn’t be this difficult. We didn’t even know each other nine days ago, but now I can’t imagine not seeing you every day.”
“It’s going to suck,” he agreed, leaning over the console to capture my mouth in a swift kiss. “But we’ll get through it.”
I squeezed his hand tight, not wanting to let go. “Between the time difference and our schedules, keeping in touch is going to take some effort.”
“We’ll figure it out,” he reassured me. “If I have to pick between sleep and being able to talk to you, there’s always caffeine to keep me awake.”
“I’ll call you every night,” I promised.
Vaughn brushed his lips over mine again. “And I’ll see you in twelve days.”
One of the traffic cops tapped on the window of Vaughn’s car, and we broke apart from each other. “I guess that’s my cue to leave.”
“I’ll help you with the luggage,” he offered, popping the trunk before climbing out of the driver’s seat.
I moved so slowly that he’d already pulled my suitcases out of the car and had them up on the curb by the time I joined him. “I don’t wanna go,” I grumbled.
“Of course, you do.” He wrapped his strong arms and pulled me close. “This is your big break, and I’m not going to be the reason you miss out on it. So give me a kiss and get your ass on that plane.”
“Fine,” I huffed, pressing my palms against his chest as I rose on my toes to plant one on his mouth. I didn’t care about the traffic cop glaring at us, or the whistles from onlookers. The only thing that mattered was getting a proper goodbye kiss before I left because too many days were going to pass me by before I got the chance again.
By the time we broke apart, my panties were drenched, and my vision was hazy. “I l—” I barely caught myself before I used the four-letter word I’d never said to another man besides my dad. I must’ve been more messed up about leaving than I realized since I hadn’t even used it in my head before now. Shaking it off, I said, “I’ll text when I land and call after I get settled in.”
Vaughn didn’t seem to notice my verbal stumble. “I’ll be waiting. Travel safe, baby.”
I rolled my luggage toward the doors, looking over my shoulder before walking through them. Vaughn was back in his car, idling at the curb. Our eyes met, and I blew him one last kiss. I was still giggling at him making a big show of catching it when I reached the baggage drop, but I was holding back tears over missing him already as I boarded the plane.17VaughnWith James out of commission, I wore more hats than usual at work. On the one hand, it gave me a chance to prove to him that his faith in me wasn't misplaced. On the other, I was exhausted. I'd carved out an unusual amount of time away from the office the week prior in order to spend whatever time I could with Allie. As a result, I was playing catch-up with some things.
While there were still eight weeks to go, I had a fuck ton of work to do because our network would be holding our very first upfront presentation in New York to announce the fall lineup. It was a hugely important rite of passage that James and I had been working toward for the past five years. We were segueing our channel from being purely entertainment-based to having original scripted programming, which was a big deal. I'd spent the afternoon in meetings with a trio of event coordinators who were busy getting everything into place. Aside from award shows, the upfronts were one of the biggest deals for any network. Although I was excited about it, I was stressed as fuck too, which was why even after I left work for the day and went home, I wound up in my living room working on my laptop.
I was waiting for Allie to call, but I knew it would be a while since her movie was doing a lot of shooting at night. A lot of filming involved extremely early call times. For Allie's film, the call time for the production crew was ten in the morning while actors had to report an hour later at eleven. Allie was on set as a script advisor, so she was due at one in the afternoon. The schedule called for filming to wrap around midnight each night for the entirety of the shoot.
