Meet me in Room 1276 after your fiance falls asleep. You know who this is.
Layla stared at the text from the unknown number. Luke was already in bed, but she was propped up on the sofa in their suite, scrolling through Twitter and checking out the pics starting to show up from that night's award show. She was still in awe that she'd won. And still freaking out a little about how she'd made out with Jeff, unable to help herself. She typed a quick response back to him:
Really? I don't think I know anything about whoever this is. Stalker much? How did you know we were staying here?
Stop it, Layla. Everybody stays here. Will you meet me?
Yeah, I guess so.
He didn't reply, so she deleted the messages and picked up a magazine from the cocktail table.
"Coming to bed, hon?" Luke's sleepy voice called from the bedroom.
"I've got a bad case of heartburn. You go to sleep, I'm waiting for this medicine to kick in before I even think about laying down," Layla told him. At least she didn't have to lie to him.
"Alright, well, goodnight, I love you," Luke replied.
"Love you, too," she said softly.
Layla waited twenty minutes for good measure before tiptoeing out of the room in her fuzzy socks to the sound of Luke's soft snores in the background. She walked down the carpeted hall wearing her gray robe and pajamas and took the elevator down to the twelfth floor. In less than two minutes, she knocked lightly on Room 1276's door, keyed up with way too much curiosity, anger, and, infuriatingly enough, love.
Jeff opened the door and took in her appearance- tousled bed hair, rounded basketball poking out of her robe and striped socks.
"Really dressed to impress there, huh?" he laughed.
She scowled at him and punched his shoulder as she walked past him and into the room.
"Like you have room to talk. Besides, I came for answers, and I don't want to end up spending the whole time I'm here fending you off," she replied, giving his lounge pants and t shirt a once over.
Jeff closed the door and stood in front of her, staring down at her, as if he was trying to memorize every inch of her face.
"Let's not do the fighting thing- especially if you're not going to let us make up the way we make up," he said quietly, wrapping his arms around her.
"Okay," she whispered, irritation and anger flying away as he pulled her close. He had to lean over a little to accommodate her new silhouette. With her cheek against his chest, she was home. She closed her eyes and breathed in the scent of his woodsy cologne and listened to the beat of his heart. She could stay like this, in his arms swaying a little back and forth, forever. But like so many times in the past couple of months, the moment she was comfortable, the baby decided to completely change positions or something.
"What the heck was that?" Jeff asked, jumping back a little. Layla laughed at his freaked out expression. She took his hand and lead him to the edge of the bed, pulling him down to sit next to her, and placed his hand on her stomach. The baby continued it's re-positioning- moving so strongly that they watched her stomach jump and a wave of motion move across it.
"This is seriously freaking me out," Jeff admitted as he stared at the movement.
"What's freaking me out is the fact that you're sitting on this bed me with me right now," Layla told him, ready to find out some answers.
He turned to face her, propping one leg up on the bed as she leaned back on her hands. He raised an eyebrow at her.
"You're not comfortable," he said, standing up and holding his hands out to her.
"I'm fine," she lied.
"Layla, come on. I know you. That little wrinkle between your eyebrows and the way you're biting your lip means you're uncomfortable. You looked just like this on the way to LA that time when your foot kept falling asleep on the plane."
"Okay, you got me," she rolled her eyes and let him help her up. "My back is killing me pretty much all the time now, but after tonight it's really achy."
He guided her to the head of the bed and helped get her situated with three pillows behind her. "Better?" he asked.
"Much. Now stop stalling."
Jeff walked around the bed and sat down beside her, leaning against the upholstered headboard and crossing his ankles. Layla folded her hands and laid them on her full lap, waiting him out.
"I really did fall. And I got hurt bad. Broke my arm in a few places, my hip and a bunch of ribs, too. But I didn't hit the pavement. I hit the balcony two floors below that rooftop. Juliette was so far gone...I'm really surprised she didn't end up following me down. Anyway, Luke's publicist called when I was taken to Atlanta Medical and no joke- I'm going in and out of consciousness and she's telling me that if I want this job, I need to fake my death in hopes that Juliette will get scared straight and stop wreaking havoc on Luke's label. I'm so out of it from the pain and loopy from the meds, I just agreed. I immediately got moved, quite uncomfortably, I might add, to another facility outside of the city. They contacted my family and got them on board with selling the story of my death- they're a cold bunch, and it made them money to be quiet, so they were happy to play along."
Jeff continued, "Knowing I would want to get back to work as soon as I recuperated, her team contacted Jade St. John, who she also works for by the way, and they placed me here to work with her branding team incognito last month while Juliette works on her sobriety. Jade doesn't give enough of a damn to tell anyone whether I'm alive or not and she's still pissed as hell at you.
"I bet she hates me. But Jeff, if you could tell your family and Jade that you weren't dead, why didn't you tell me? And what did Juliette have to do with your falling?"
"I'm still on strict orders not to contact anyone from Nashville, especially you, or it's all for nothing. It had to be believable, and Gabriella didn't think you would be able to keep it a my girlfriend was a crying mess, then no one would doubt the realness of the situation. Juliette was on the roof about to jump and I tried to stop her. That's how I ended up losing my balance and falling."
Layla stared at him as she gripped handfuls of coverlet. A lump rose in her throat and hot, angry tears stung her eyes. After a couple of minutes passed, she swung her legs off of the bed and struggled to get up.
"Wait. Say something, please. What are you doing?" Jeff asked. Finally on her feet, she whipped around, straightening her robe and pulling down her pajama shirt that liked to creep up and show off the baby.
"There's not really anything for me to say. You pretty much made choices to put Juliette and a job over me. You went as far as to let me believe you were dead. Trying to save Juliette was a brave thing to do, but it was dangerous. You really could've have died, but faking your death for a job? Jeff, that's low...even for you. And Luke's brand is hardly a thing anymore. SO you've been cozying up with Jade while I'm crying myself to sleep for months on end, pregnant with your baby and it's all for nothing now!"
"You've got it wrong, Layla. Luke's brand may be down the toilet, but his label is going strong. Gabriela told me that for all I've gone through, there WILL be a place for me among the directors and a huge percentage of shares. Don't you understand? Even managing you and Juliette, I couldn't keep my head above water- the debt was getting out of control. I was just waiting for the go ahead to contact my clients, family...and you now that things have settled down. God, it's been so hard, Layla. I've picked up the phone so many times to call you. When I heard you were dating Luke...I'm not going to lie, it hurt- I was ready to call the whole thing off. I managed to stop myself, because I knew you didn't know- I couldn't expect you to grieve forever, but when you showed up here tonight...engaged...and pregnant, I couldn't take it anymore."
"I mean, what was your plan? Waltz back into Nashville and into my bed conveniently no longer dead? Everything was just supposed to return to normal? I would just dump Luke like it wasn't a big deal?" Layla questioned as she paced the small floor.
"No, I knew it would be difficult. But it's not like I'm some major public persona. And the right PR firm can spin the right story for the media."
Layla crossed her arms. "I really don't know what you expect me to do. Wait around for you? What if you end up changing your mind and staying here with Jade? Speaking of...have you slept with her?"
"No, of course not. I haven't cheated on you all these months because I knew you were alive and I hoped you would find a way to forgive me. But in all fairness, you don't hear me asking about you and Luke."
"You most certainly did, Jeff. I told you I slept with him not long after your fake death because I was out of my mind trying to dull the pain."
"Layla, you're pregnant. It's not his. It's mine. I think that makes things a little more complicated, don't you? And gives me a bit of right to know when you slept with him. I'm sorry if it bothers you that I have a problem with the whole Luke thing," Jeff griped.
"He doesn't know that the baby isn't his, and anyway, he's really good for me," Layla shot back. "Being with him makes me feel safe...and good."
Jeff hopped up from the bed and grabbed her arms, his brows furrowed.
"You're really going to stay with him, continue this lie, even though you know I'm alive? You know what we mean to each other," Jeff argued, leaning in close.
"I don't know, Jeff."
"How could you not know?"
"Well, I mean so little to you that you had no problem letting me grieve your death. If you felt anywhere close to the way I feel...I mean felt about you...the way I loved you...you would have never let me go through that," she hissed, struggling to remove herself from his grasp.
"Listen to me, Layla...I didn't want to do that. The way it was presented gave me no choice- it's not like I planned the whole thing. I told you I was going to contact you- it was going to be very soon since Juliette is out of rehab and finished with treatment."
"But Luke doesn't even work with Gabriella now, and he thinks you're dead, too."
"I know- one of the reasons I've kept quiet while I waited for it to work out. I'm in contact with her and she's working diligently to get me on the board. In the meantime, working with Jade hasn't been all bad. I've learned a lot about overseeing a brand- even if that's not what I'll be doing at Wheelin' Dealin' Records. If I end up with a position there at all now- seeing as you're engaged to the head of that label, and he thinks he is the father of my child, I'd say we have a problem that won't clear itself up anywhere in the near future."
"Let me go, Jeff. I have to go." Layla couldn't take it anymore. She didn't care about his job prospects. She just had to get out of there. Her insides were boiling as she clenched and unclenched her hands and any second now, she was going to crack and burst into tears and she refused to let him see her cry again tonight.
He released his grip on her arms. "Where are you going? We have to figure this out."
"There's nothing to figure out. As far as I know, you're dead, remember?" She stormed at him before turning on her heels and stomping out of the room. Trudging to the elevator, she pressed the button and hung her head as the tears started to fall. She put her hand over her heart in disbelief. How could she have ever guessed that her heart could hurt more than it did the day he "died"?
Two gentle hands rested lightly on her shoulders. "Layla," he whispered near her ear, "Please don't go. Please, not like this."
"Why should I stay?" her voice cracked and she sniffled.
"Because...I love you." The words washed over her, words she'd ached to hear for months on end, but now...how could she even believe them?
"You choose to tell me that now?" she sobbed.
"I loved you long before now, and...I'm so sorry I never told you."
"This is all too much for me. I don't think I can do this." She shook her head.
"So, you're going to go back and crawl into bed with Luke?"
"He is my fiancee, you know." She took in deep gulps of air as her stomach tightened painfully.
"But what about us? What about the baby? You're still going to pass the baby off as Luke's?"
She winced and hunched over as a pain shot around her stomach.
Wait, Layla, you don't look so good. Are you okay?"
"I'm fine. I have to go now- she deserves better than this. She deserves a stable home, a mother and a father who'll always be there when she needs them," Layla cried as the elevator opened. Jeff's eyes glanced down to where her waist used to be.
"Did you say 'She'? Are we going to have a girl?" he asked.
She stepped onto the elevator and punched in her floor number. As she stood there in her pajamas, unable to hold in the sobs any longer, the door closed, leaving Jeff in the hallway, eyes full of worry and questions.
