Love Unscripted

“What, we’re not allowed to be friends?” he quickly replied.

I thought about his question for a moment and replied with one of my own. “If your girlfriend was traveling out of town for work, do you think she’d

appreciate another woman being in her home while she was gone?”

“What does that have to do with us being friends?” he countered.

As sick as I felt, I still wasn’t falling for his bullshit. “I don’t think you’re here because you want to just be friends.”

“You think I have some ulterior motive?” Kyle questioned my glare.

“Please!” I squeaked. “You’re a man; you have a pulse. Don’t question my intelligence.” I wiped my snotty nose with a tissue, hoping that would

discourage his thoughts even more.

“All right. To tell you the truth, when I saw that you were flying home alone I thought that maybe you and pretty boy broke up. I mean, you’ve got to

admit that being with him definitely has its drawbacks!”

His little dig on Ryan really irritated me.

“Oh, and I suppose things would be a lot better for me if I was dating someone else? Someone like you perhaps?” I hoped my tone was

sarcastic enough.

“Your life would be a hell of a lot more private, that’s for sure! No cameras, no photographers, no fanatics.” He tossed a pack of crackers over

to me.

“Wait. Let me see if I got this straight. So instead of being with someone like Ryan, who is trying to do everything possible to shield me from

danger, you’re saying I’d be better off with someone like you, who willingly risks his own life every day to put himself in front of danger to protect

complete strangers. Is that right?”

He looked away and then a little cocky smile appeared on his lips. “You’ve at least thought about it. That’s a good start. And I would protect you

a hell of a lot better than he would. Besides, being with me doesn’t come with risk.”

“Don’t be so sure of yourself. You are the one who’s forcing me to compare the two of you. And to tell you the truth, there is no comparison.” I got

up from the couch, irritated now by his presence.

“Kyle, I appreciate the soup and the kindness, but we can’t be friends.”

He crossed his foot up on his knee, getting even more comfortable in the chair. “Why not?”

“Because you don’t want just a friendship!” I scornfully stated the obvious. “Kyle, I love Ryan. I have committed my heart to him.” I picked up

Kyle’s coat. “I’m sorry, but I think it’s time for you to leave now.”

“That’s a shame. You’ll never know what could have been.” I noticed he didn’t even attempt to get up. “You’re not married to the guy, and I don’t

see a ring on your finger, so the way I see it, you’re still available.”

“Available? Did you not just hear what I said?” I was no longer just irritated; I was starting to get angry now.

“I heard you,” he muttered. “I also know that it won’t be long before he screws up and cheats on you. They all do eventually. He’s not the first

actor I’ve had to watch over. You’d be surprised to know the great lengths they go through to keep their little affairs hidden. Even the married ones

screw around.”

“Oh and I suppose if I was dating you, you’d be totally different from that. You’d never cheat on me.” I laughed mockingly.

“No, I wouldn’t. And if you were with me, I’d only take local assignments so I wouldn’t have to travel and be away from you,” he continued. “There

would be no reason for you to ever doubt me.”

“I have no reason to doubt Ryan either. You’re a man, he’s a man; either it’s in your nature to cheat or it’s not.” My throat felt like I’d been

swallowing razorblades and I was starting to run a fever again. It was time for him to go.

“And I can tell you, Kyle, that it’s not in my nature to cheat either. I love Ryan. That’s all you need to know. Now if you don’t mind, I’d really like to

rest.” I shook his coat in my hand so he’d get the message.

He stopped to look at me before taking his coat from my hand. “I’ll be watching and waiting. You’re an intelligent woman. You’ll come to your

senses soon enough.”

His assuredness was getting a bit creepy.

I was glad when he finally left. I watched him walk halfway down the alley to make sure he was leaving before locking up and setting the alarm.

Back in my apartment, I picked up my cell and hit the first entry in my phone book. It was time to come clean with Ryan.

By Monday my cold had morphed into something altogether more atrocious and wicked. The pain in my sinuses and chest was almost

unbearable and I could not stop coughing. My ribs and stomach muscles hurt badly from all the hacking and it was getting harder and harder to

breathe. Marie helped me into her car which was parked by the back door. I was relieved just knowing I would be seeing a doctor today.

“I told Ryan about Kyle,” I whispered between coughing up lung tissue.

She looked at me, waiting for my further explanation.

“He was livid.” I wiped my nose. “But then after he calmed down he was glad that I told him. He doesn’t know everything though. I spared him

some of the details.”

“What details?” she asked, patting me on the back as I coughed severely.

I shrugged, not knowing how to say it. “Kyle pretty much said that I’d be better off with him instead of being with Ryan.”

“No! He didn’t! What the hell else did he say?”

“He said I should consider dating him instead. He’d be better for me. He also brought me soup.” I coughed out my last words.

“Soup?” She laughed. “Oh, he’s good! What did you say to him then?”

“I told him I love Ryan and that he should leave. He sort of worried me a bit at the end. Like he didn’t want to take ‘no’ for an answer.”

Marie stayed in the waiting room while I went in to see my doctor. He informed me that I had a sinus infection and bronchitis. For as terrible as I

felt, I was wondering if there weren’t a few other lung infection terms missing from his diagnosis.

We stopped at the local pharmacy where I got a multitude of antibiotics, nasal spray, and an inhaler. I mistakenly glanced over the front of

Celebrity Weekly while standing in line at the checkout. The cover of the magazine had a by-line that stated distance was tearing Ryan and me

apart. He just left for Scotland this morning; how could we be split apart already?

“Why are you buying that shit?” Marie scowled. “As if you aren’t in bad enough shape already, you need to torment yourself more?”

“I’m not buying it.” I coughed violently into my sleeve. “I hate the media. Why do they do this?” I showed her the cover.

I had no intentions to spend even a pe

time someone bought one of those magazines, it allowed some idiot to keep his job as a purveyor of lies and gave another idiot incentive to exist

as an intruding photographer. Every dime spent on those rag magazines perpetuated the nonsense.

That’s when Marie informed me that a photographer approached her the other day and offered her two thousand dollars if she’d get him

pictures of the inside of my apartment. These leeches were now going after my friends. Of course Marie declined, but it was apparent that the

magazines wanted to get their hands on actual photos of our “love nest” as they put it. Now I was even more paranoid about having anyone in my

apartment.

Ryan called me every day while he was in Scotland, even if it was for only five minutes. He tried to describe the landscape and architecture so I

could visualize the experience he was having; he even sent me a few cell phone pictures, but I still wished I was there with him to experience it

firsthand.

It didn’t take long for pictures of the cast in Scotland to surface on the Internet. Ryan’s fan site was quite reliable with the latest selection of