Hollywood Remake (A Celebrity Love Story)

Chapter 40: Friends (The Movie)

Kate fastened the airplane safety belt and closed her eyes. She silently cursed herself for failing to reserve an aisle seat when she originally booked her ticket. She knew she was screwed the moment she picked up her boarding pass at the check-in counter and saw her seat assignment: 22E.

She'd just stood there in the departures hall for a full minute, staring at her ticket – willing the seat number to change before her eyes. Make it a D. That would be good. 22D. Or even 22F. A window seat, but still... far preferable to the seat assignment printed there in dark, undeniable black.

There was no changing it, of course. The flight was sold out. She was stuck in 22E – the third ring of hell. Otherwise known as a coach-class middle seat, sandwiched between a man in a suit talking on his cell phone and an elderly lady clutching a tote bag full of yarn and crochet hooks. At least the man would have to put his phone away once the plane took off. Kate could already tell the lady on her right was the type who'd want to talk her ear off the entire flight.

Normally she wouldn't have minded a chat, but not today. Not this flight. Not with this hollow feeling in her chest. She hadn't been able to shake it, ever since she stood at the curb of the airport drop-off zone and watched Aidan drive away.

She couldn't stop thinking about it. The way he had looked, sitting next to her in the car this afternoon. He hadn't even been able to meet her eyes. She could see he was fighting just to keep from breaking down. It had surprised her, seeing him like that. From the look on his face, you would have thought he was saying goodbye forever.

"Kate," he had said. "Is there anything I could say right now to make you stay?"

She'd been taken aback by the question. She hadn't been expecting it. She thought they had agreed – she would go back to New York at the end of the two weeks. It didn't mean anything was ending. It was just the beginning. Wasn't it?

"What do you mean?" she had said to him in confusion. "I have to—Aidan, I have to be in court tomorrow. I told you."

"Right."

"I'll see you soon. You're coming through New York on tour in a few weeks."

He hadn't responded.

"I'll see you then, right?"

"Yeah."

His answer came out as little more than a grunt. She'd pulled back out of his arms in order to look up at his face and put one hand on his cheek in silent question.

"Aidan?" she had whispered, watching his adam's apple bob up and down three times before he managed to reply.

"Yeah, we'll be in New York for a night. I can try to see you for a few hours after the show."

"A few hours?"

"Unless you want to come to Massachusetts. We've got another show in Boston the next day."

It hadn't occurred to her that he wouldn't be able to stay longer – at least turn it into a long weekend. She'd already been making plans in her mind. No wonder he looked so upset.

"We'll talk on the phone," she'd said. "I'll call you when I land."

He only nodded in response.

"Aidan, I love you."

"I love you too."

For some reason, the look on his face when he said it – like he was half a second away from either bursting into tears or throwing up – she felt like she had seen it somewhere before. Recently. But not on Aidan's face, she realized now. It was Paul. She thought back to that conversation in the hotel suite after Halley dumped him. Paul had sat on the couch next to her with that same look of hopelessness. "It's a piece of cake getting laid," he'd told her. "But to actually find a girlfriend? A real girlfriend who actually means it when she says she loves you? Way easier back when we were nobodies."