The Eleventh Hour

Chapter 24

Melody said many shows took full advantage of my ‘free time’ in America and me announcing I was open to attend interviews, I found myself bombarded with requests.

Melody was a saint. She always had everything planned for me, and she always talked through every single thing before I headed off for an interview. I was fully in the loop, so I instantly found myself relaxing around her. Something I didn’t think would happen after Tanya.

It was crazy the amount of appearances I had lined up, and some pretty big interviews as well. I was invited on Jimmy Kimmel’s Late Night Live show, which was by far my favourite interview ever, and I also appeared on the Today show.

There were no new mysterious false mentions of my sister, for which I was grateful. It was so weird, it’s as if that little blip didn’t happen, but I could hardly forget about it.

I knew Nathaniel said he was sorting all that out, but one night it was bugging me so much I had to bring it up at dinner. His grunting, yet irritated response told me he hadn’t actually found anything out yet, and I knew that aggravated him, because he had the best people working for him and if they couldn’t get to the bottom of it, nobody could. All that just seemed to make me feel worse.

Nathaniel was good with the distractions though. We’d dined out most nights that week, though he was still weird and distant like that time in the bank. I tried not to let that get to me or think too much of it, otherwise I’d go crazy.

From the first day of my hectic schedule, Nathaniel started going back to his office to work as well as heading to different meetings and conferences – and of course I was out all day, so by the evening when it was time to go back, I was literally bouncing on my seat like an overactive child.

I never, ever thought I’d be like that over somebody. I was always one to want and need my space from someone, but with Nathaniel, I missed him every second I wasn’t with him. It just wasn’t in my nature to be like that, but it didn’t scare me. I definitely wasn’t clingy, but I relished the fact I’d met someone I never wanted to part with. It was so different – it was... nice.

I’d come in from another hectic day, jumped straight into the shower, then changed into comfortable clothes. I lay on my bed and blushed, realising in the nine nights I’ve been here I hadn’t actually slept in this bed, I always woke up in Nathaniel’s.

My return flight to England was in four days, and I was still stuck with what to do. Predictably, I’d absolutely fallen in love with America, I could easily live here, especially with Nathaniel. But I missed home, even though I didn’t really have anyone to come home to. Liv was somewhere in the Caribbean and Joey was with my parents in Spain. Grant had been constantly texting me and asking when I’d be back, and I always gave him the same reply with ‘soon’. He didn’t hesitate to go into details about how he seemed to be even more ‘lucky with the ladies’ after announcing to everyone that we were close friends. I rolled my eyes as I thought about it. He was an ass, but I adored him.

I tried not to think about my limited time in the US, because it left me feeling edgy and even a little worried. If I went back to England, where would that leave Nathaniel and I?

It plagued my mind, but he hadn’t mentioned me leaving at all, so I didn’t. I’d have to soon, though. I couldn’t ignore the fact that my home was actually thousands of miles away.

I sighed and rolled over on to my side as I thought about it. If I found it hard to be apart from Nathaniel in the daytime, knowing I’d see him that evening, how the hell was I expected to cope when we were in different countries?

Just thinking about it made me feel sick, I even felt an overwhelming amount of sorrow take over me. But I’d left it long enough, I’d have to mention it to him tonight. For all I knew, what we have could just be a temporary thing to him. I didn’t even know whether he intended us to last longer than my trip. That thought made me feel even more nauseous.