Chapter 9
Her heels clicked against the marble flooring of the hotel, heading toward the receptionist desk and wheeled her bag of luggage behind her. A smile adorned her face as she ran a hand through her long, black hair, finally arriving at the desk, and looked at the receptionist, waiting patiently for his attention. He looked up, staring at the beautiful woman before him, and felt his palms get sweaty instantly as he smiled at her and asked, "How may I help you, ma'am?"
"Yes, I have a reservation under the name Carlson." She replied, causing him to smile gently back at her, and typed the last name in the computer system.
"Alright, one reservation under the name Keira Carlson, room 295" He confirmed, smiling softly back at her, and handed her over the key card.
"Thank you." Keira said and walked away from the desk, toward the elevator, and walked onto it. She quickly walked inside her room a few minutes later and placed her bag near the door, running a hand through her hair, and couldn't believe she was actually here.
It had been a year and Keira had worked incredibly hard on her stories, completely throwing her attention into it, and Janet became very intrigued with them. They were filled with raw passion, love, deceit, heartache, everything a great book should have in it, combined with mystery. She finally started working on getting Keira a book published and landed it with a publishing company in New York City. They made the deal for Keira to do a three month book tour across the entire country and Keira was more than willing to do so. She was sick of sitting at home, crying her eyes out over John, and figured this would be a great way to get over him. Keira hadn't thought about him in months, ever since Janet called her with the fantastic news, and remembered how thrilled it'd made her with the news.
"I'm finally here." She whispered softly and walked over to the window, staring out at the beautiful lights, and couldn't believe her book signing was that morning.
A knock sounded at her door, causing Keira's head to whip around, and walked over to answer it, smiling when she seen Janet on the other side. "You're looking stunning." Janet complimented, hugging her friend tightly, and grinned.
"You're beautiful." Keira replied wholesomely, breaking the friendly hug, and ushered her inside, closing the door behind her. "Take a seat, what something to drink?" She asked, causing Janet to smile softly with a nod.
"Scotch on the rocks." Janet answered, causing Keira to roll her eyes playfully, and poured the liquor in the glass. She then poured a shot of Jack Daniels for herself before walking over to Janet and handed it to her, sitting down on the bed. Sipping the liquor slowly, Janet, ran her fingers over the glass, and asked, "Nervous about tomorrow?"
"Petrified." Keira admitted, looking down at the liquor in her glass, and started swirling it around absentmindedly. "But this is my dream and I'm going to live it up to the fullest."
They clinked the glasses together, smiling softly at each other, and downed the rest of their drinks before setting the glasses aside. "I came here to tell you that there's going to be a signing beside yours tomorrow. We found out at the last minute so I hope you're not angry with me." Janet gently confessed, running a hand through her golden blonde hair, and bit her bottom lip.
"No, of course I'm not mad at you. I'll have my own fans and they'll have theirs. It'll be a special occasion either way." Keira stated confidently, winking over at her publicist, and Janet smiled back at her in relief.
"Good, I'm glad to hear that. Now, I wanted to talk to you about the upcoming book tour. You're going to be starting it here in the Big Apple and ending it back home in L.A." Janet informed her, causing Keira to nod in understanding, and couldn't wait to travel the country. "Three huge cities every week. You're first cities are going to consist of here, Washington D.C., and Raleigh, North Carolina. That's the first week. The second week will be Washington D.C., Atlanta, Georgia, and Disney World in Orlando, Florida…" Janet was about to go on, but had to stop when Keira started squealing with pure delight.
"DISNEY WORLD!?" She shrieked and jumped up from the bed, not believing her dreams were coming true. "Oh my GOD! Ever since I was a little girl, I've always DREAMED of going to Disney World! How long will I be?" Keira asked excitedly, causing Janet to laugh at her, and ran a hand through her hair.
"I believe they said two or three days." Janet responded, causing Keira to frown a bit, knowing that wasn't long at all, but was happy nonetheless that she was going to Disney World. She proceeded to tell Keira the rest of her schedule, which consisted of 36 different towns, most being capitals of the states, altogether.
Janet finally took her leave, leaving Keira alone, and she decided a shower was in order. She walked over to her bag, pulling out some sleeping clothes, and peeled out of the ones she had on, walking into the bathroom. As soon as the hot, steamy water hit her face, Keira was in pure heaven as her eyes drifted shut, sighing in contentment and suddenly, John entered her mind. They hadn't spoken in a year and Keira hoped he was happy with the way his life was going just she was with hers. She had to admit, if she had to do it over again, she would've told him the real reason behind not starting up a relationship with him, but that was behind her and it was time to move on.
The following day, Keira walked into the building where her book signing was taking place, carrying her book, and had a huge smile beautified her face. Her outfit was sexy, but professional and consisted of a dark gray skirt that went one inch above the knee and hugged all of her curves nicely. The top was a white blouse that buttoned up the front and had a matching cardigan over it. Her hair was curly and down, hugging her waist perfectly, and had natural makeup on, except the black eyeliner that outlined her midnight blue eyes. To finish off the outfit, she had white high heels that had a two inch heel and clicked softly against the granite flooring of the building.
Janet was standing on the sidelines, speaking with the leader of operations, and smiled when she seen Keira walk in. She excused herself and walked over, hugging Keira tightly, and pulled back as she stated, "You look fantastic! Are you ready?" She asked, smiling softly, and Keira nodded, taking deep breathes to calm her racing heart. "Great! Come on, I wanna introduce you to Manager who made this all possible." She stated and Keira let her drag her over, causing the man to turn around to stare into her eyes. "Mr. Swinger, this is Keira Carlson, the author and novelist of Forever."
He smiled softly back down at her and extended his hand, causing Keira to shakily slip her hand in his, and greeted, "It's nice meeting you, Ms. Carlson. You did a fantastic job on that novel."
"Thanks." Keira softly replied, not believing how nervous she was, and walked away from him as Janet guided her over to the table.
The book signing went off without any problems, much to Keira and Janet's relief, and it lasted four straight hours. Keira refused to leave any fan unsatisfied so she went an extra two hours just to sign the remaining books. Janet thought this was extremely sweet and Mr. Swinger didn't seem to mind, not believing what passion and initiative this woman had in her. When the final book was signed, Keira was exhausted and starving to say the least. She hadn't eaten because of too much anxiety and nervousness running through her, but now that her first book signing went off great, she was ready to chow.
Walking out of the building after bidding Janet and Mr. Swinger farewell, Keira started walking down the sidewalk, her heels clicking against the gravel below, and stopped when a voice sounded behind her. Slowly turning around, Keira's eyes widened in shock at who it was as she covered her mouth with her hand and surprisingly asked, "John?"
He smiled sheepishly back at her, his hands shoved in the front pockets of his jean shorts, and nodded as he softly replied, "Hi Keira." John was the one who had the autograph signing next door to hers and had noticed her walk into the building, wondering what she was doing in New York City. His assistant told him that it was a book signing and it would be inside, which intrigued John. He didn't know for sure if it was her or not and clarified his suspicions when she walked out of the building just now, causing him to run away from his assistant, who was talking to him about the next signing.
Keira simply looked back at him, not sure what to think or say, and took a deep breath, shock still evident in her eyes. Finally finding her voice and swallowing past the lump that had formed in her throat, Keira softly replied, "Hi."
"It's…surprising to see you here." John hesitantly said and adverted his gaze to the ground, wondering if it was smart approaching her like this or not.
Running a hand through her hair and nodding in the same respect, Keira sighed as she bit her bottom lip and said, "Yeah…This is so…unexpected. How have you been?" She asked, seeing there was no reason why they couldn't have a civil conversation.
John nodded in agreement with her, not believing he'd actually ran into her again, and simply answered with a shrug of his shoulders, "I've been alright. Keeping busy. How about you?" He asked, curious as to how she'd made it all the way to New York City.
Keira smiled a little, hearing how he'd been doing, and ran a hand through her hair as she replied, "I'm actually here for my book signing…or WAS my book signing. I ended up top seller on New York Times Best Seller list so they flew me out here with accommodations and everything for the weekend."
"That's amazing!" John praised, not believing how far she'd come in the past year, and was honestly proud of her for accomplishing her goal. "Congratulations, Keira!"
Smiling proudly at him and nodding, a huge smile crossing her lips, Keira stated, "Thank you. I'm pretty damn proud of myself for it too. It's my dream and it finally came true after years of hard work and determination. I didn't get here on a pedestal. I had to EARN my way here."
"You should be proud. That's amazing and you deserve it." John honestly replied, truly proud of her accomplishment and actually felt pleased that she was standing before him at that moment.
"Thanks John, that means a lot." She softly responded, suddenly growing quiet as she bit her bottom lip, wondering what else they could talk about. "well, I should get going back to the hotel…"
John nodded in understanding, knowing she was probably exhausted from the signing, and said, "Yeah, I don't want to keep you. So…Good luck with everything." He watched as she nodded, telling him the same thing, and started to walk away, out of his life again, and felt his heart quench with pain. 'I can't let her slip through my fingers again.' He thought and immediately ran after her, seeing she had crossed the street, and bolted, not wanting to get hit by any cars, and finally reached out, grabbing her by the arm, only this time, it wasn't hard and fierce.
Keira stared up into his eyes, her own sparkling back at him, and smirked, looking down at his hand, and murmured softly, "Déjà vu."
Smiling back down at her, his eyes intense with emotion, and not releasing her, John softly asked, "Do you want to go get some grub with me? We could catch up on things." He suggested, causing her to look back at him in surprise.
Her entire body began responding to his touch, remembering it like it was yesterday, and bit her bottom lip as she looked up into his beautiful blue eyes before responding, "Sure, I'd like that." Keira giggled when he extended his arm to her, causing her to link it through his, and proceeded to walk down the street together toward a little Italian café. They were seated at a table and just the smell alone caused Keira's mouth to water with anticipation, smiling softly at John. She took her cardigan off, draping it over her chair, and ran a hand through her hair as she commented, "This is a beautiful diner."
John smiled back at her attentively and couldn't help, but think, 'Not as beautiful as you.' Of course, he wouldn't say that out loud and took a sip of his water that was set down in front of them. "So, how's life been treatin' ya?" He asked, wanting to start a conversation with her, and couldn't believe they were actually in a restaurant instead of a bedroom, couch, or anywhere that they could screw each other's brains out. It was a nice change of scenery and John didn't want it to end.
"It's been wonderful. This is just so surreal to me still, like something out of a dream." Keira replied thoughtfully, taking a sip of her own water, and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear before folding them in her lap. "How about you?"
"It's been good. I'm the champ again so that's been a busy road." John answered, chomping on a breadstick after the waitress set it down in front of them, winking at John flirtatiously in the process.
Keira narrowed her eyes a bit, wanting to poke her eyeballs out, but thought better of it as she simply smiled sweetly at John. "That's wonderful, John! Congrats on doing that." Just to tick the flirting waitress off, Keira reached across the table and took his hand in hers, stroking it gently with her thumb, and smirked wickedly as the waitress stormed off angrily from them.
John was fixated on Keira before him, still not believing this was happening, and didn't even notice what she'd done to their waitress as he stared in her eyes. It was so great seeing her again, being here with her in New York City, and wondered if she still felt those old feelings for him as she did a year ago. They ate their food in silence, both famished from their signings that day, and John ended up paying the bill, much to Keira's dismay. She put up a Hell of a fight though, being stubborn as ever, and grumbled the entire time as John paid for her meal. He also decided to walk her back to her hotel since it'd gotten dark outside, and shook his head when he realized they were in the same hotel.
As they arrived outside of her hotel room, Keira smiled up at him gently and spoke softly, "Thank you for dinner, John. It was great seeing you again."
"You too, Keira." He murmured back in a low, husky voice, and couldn't help himself any longer. Cupping her face in his hand, their eyes locking together, John dipped his head and brushed his lips against hers, causing Keira to moan softly against them as her arms instinctively wrapped around his neck.
