I wasn't the least bit surprised when three days later Zac was completely gone and I was on a flight to Rome where Kris and Ginger were, picking up where they left off on Ginger's promotional tour. A flight to Italy by myself seemed almost not worth it, but that completely changed when I saw Kris again. It'd only been three days but that was three days of torture. It was terrible being away from her and I'd been trying to talk to Zac, but his only way of getting me to leave is to hit me. I have quite a few bruises, luckily all hidden by my clothes.
"Taylor!" Kris ran up to me and threw her arms around me. She kissed me. "So I guess the negotiations didn't work out then, eh?"
"Unfortunately, no," I said. "They didn't."
"Well, come on. You said you would take me sight-seeing."
"All right." I walked with her out of the airport. "How's Ginger doing?"
"Okay. I mean, okay for her situation. She made a decision though," Kris said. "She's keeping the baby."
"Well�that's good."
"You don't sound happy," Kris said.
"No, I'm happy she's keeping it. I mean, I'm really happy that she didn't decide to, you know�"
"Yeah, me too."
"But I just can't help but think about Zac. Ginger's going to keep this baby and raise this baby and she's not going to tell Zac! Zac is going to go around living his life not knowing that he has a kid! You know, years from now he or she or whatever is going to want to know its father and he's going to be happily living his life at thirty and suddenly this thirteen-year-old kid comes up to his door and goes 'Hey Dad! I'm your kid! Love me!' "
"Actually, if Zac is thirty, the kid would be twelve, because it's not going to be born until after Zac turns eighteen."
"Whatever! It just doesn't seem right."
"I don't think it's right either but you have to respect Ginger's decision. It's her decision, not any of ours. Unfortunately this sort of thing happens and it happens all the time. But, to tell you the truth, Taylor�"
"What?"
"I seriously don't think that Ginger's going to have this baby by herself. It may be a couple of months but they're going to find each other again. I don't know if you saw their relationship like I did, but they loved each other so much, Tay."
"Don't call me Tay."
"Pfft�whatever."
"I'm serious! I don't like that!"
"Do you think I like it when people continuously call me Kris? No! But I put up with it!" she said.
"You don't like Kris?" She shook her head. "Then what do you want me to call you?"
"You're going to continue to call me Kris and if I slip up and say Tay every now and then you're not going to get uppity about it, all right?"
"You are a wife!" She smiled.
"No I'm not�"
"You are! You tell me what to eat, you control what people call me�geez, Kristina."
"Kris."
"Whatever!" She smiled and kissed me. "I love you, baby."
"I love you too." I followed her out of the airport and into a cab that brought us back to the hotel. Kris took the time to learn how to say "please take me here" in enough languages to get around, and I was impressed. The most I'd done to prepare for my European tours was learn to enjoy American food while I still could�that and a round of inoculations that left my arms sore for a good three days.
"I didn't know Ginger was this big over here," I said as I looked out the window and saw a billboard with Ginger's latest book and a lot of Italian words on it.
"It's insane," Kris said. "She's booked solid for two more months and she's got countless radio and television appearances. The new book has sold twenty million copies in seven different languages�neither of us expected this."
"Wasn't she popular here before?"
"Nothing like this. She sold a lot of books, but it was definitely not as crazy as it is now." The cab stopped and Kris insisted on paying, only because the expense was coming out of the publisher's account. "The view is amazing," she told me. "I've never been here before and I just cannot believe the culture! I have a lot of free time so I've been going to the art museums whenever I get a chance."
"Have you been to Florence yet?"
"Tomorrow," she said. "But I'm going to busy almost the whole time we're there. I'm really mad." We went upstairs to Kris's room. Now that I was traveling with them, Ginger didn't feel right sharing a room with Kris so we got a room to ourselves. Kris felt bad because she didn't like leaving Ginger alone, but apparently Ginger was very pleased to be by herself for a change.
I put my suitcase down and Kris pulled me out to the balcony. "You have to see this," she said. She opened the door and we stepped out. "Isn't it amazing?" She turned around, putting her hands on the railing. I put my arms around her waist.
"Yes it is," I said. I didn't want to tell her I've been in this hotel before and I've seen this view before. It was still breathtaking but probably the best part about it was this time, instead of seeing it alongside my two brothers, I was seeing it while holding the first girl I've ever been in love with.
"It's kind of like a nice vacation," she said. "Or like a honeymoon or something. Not to scare you, of course."
"You already scare me," I whispered in her ear. "That's not going to make it any worse." She turned around and looked up at me.
"You seem like the kind of person who would run out of the room screaming if I mentioned anything that has to do with marriage."
"To be honest," I told her, "if you were anybody else I would have."
"Really?"
"Yeah. You're different, babe. I've told you a million times. You're�special." She smiled and kissed me. Behind us the door opened and Ginger came in.
"Oh, good, you're here," she said, not the least bit fazed that she just interrupted a touching moment between me and my girlfriend. "Kris, I need you." Kris and I walked back into the hotel room. I closed the door behind me.
"What for?"
"I have an interview in a half hour and it is imperative that you to be there. You may be my best friend but don't expect to not work the entire time! I didn't bring you along so you could go to art museums and make out with Taylor all day."
"By the way, hello Ginger," I said.
"Shut up, we don't have time," she snapped. "Get changed and be downstairs in five minutes."
"What's wrong with what I have on?" Kris asked, looking down at her clothes. "It's not like anybody's going to see me."
"Everybody's going to see you." She huffed, obviously not wanting to have this conversation. "What you have on is okay but for God's sake put on some heels! You're 5'1, Kris, you look like a fucking midget next to Taylor." Ginger turned around and left quickly.
"What the hell was that about?" I asked when the door closed.
"Hormones," Kris said, shaking her head. "She's been like this since we got here. I'm starting to wonder if this is worth it." She took off her flip-flops and put on a pair of high heels that she complained about. "Ginger is always like this. She hates my shoes. I like to be comfortable but if I ever go anywhere with her I have to be four inches taller and frankly my feet begin to hurt after a while. I don't have wicked high arches like she does."
"At least they look nice," I said, trying my best not to sound too gay.
"True. Are you going to be okay here? There's not much to do."
"When're you going to be back?"
"I have no idea," she said. "I don't know exactly how many interviews she wants me for. If it's just the one it shouldn't be more than two hours, but you never know." I looked at my watch. It made no sense to me because it was still set on Tulsa time. Come to think of it�I brought the watch to my ear and found it was dead. Well it's going in the trash in a second. "I love you and I'll try to be back as soon as I can." She kissed me.
"Don't worry about me," I said. "I've got plenty to do." She smiled, knowing full well that I was lying, and kissed me again before walking quickly out of the room. I looked around. What the hell was I going to do for the next two hours?
I was in bed already when Kris came back. The only reason I hadn't fallen asleep was because I wanted to wait for her. She left here, I found out, around seven o'clock. I roamed the hotel for a while, spent some time on the balcony, and talked to Leo on the phone before I got tired and settled into bed. I didn't want to go to sleep without Kris so I grabbed the first book I could find and turned on the light beside the bed. The book turned out to be Ginger's latest novel (there were copies all over the place). I'd been interested in reading Ginger's work ever since I found out she was a writer and I guess now is as good a time as ever to do so.
Kris had called me to tell me that the interview was going to be on TV if I wanted to watch it, so I did. In the interview, from what I could hear when the translator took a breath, Ginger described her novel as a book everyone could enjoy (except for little kids, of course) and I found out that was true. Unlike my stereotype of romance novels, there was a plot line, awesome character development, and of course a lot of steamy sex in a lot of sneaky places. Despite that, I found myself incredibly interested in her work and she'd won me over as a fan, even if she was a bitch to Kris earlier and took my girlfriend away from me for the evening.
"If I have to wear these shoes for another minute somebody's going to get bitch smacked," Kris was muttering as she walked into the room, taking off her shoes. She looked at me. "Oh, honey, I didn't know you were still up. It's late, you should be asleep."
"I was just reading," I said.
"Oh really? What?"
"Um�Ginger's book." She smiled. "Well there were a billion copies lying around so I figured I might as well thumb through one of them."
"Whatever, Taylor," she said. She changed into a little nightgown that I couldn't help but like, but unfortunately she sat down at the table instead of getting into the bed. She opened up a laptop I'd noticed she walked in with.
"What are you doing?" I asked.
"Oh," she said, looking at me, "I do this every night. Ginger writes and when she goes to bed I read over what she's written. I don't fix anything except for typos but I do write down what I don't like or what I think needs to be changed."
"You look exhausted," I told her.
"I am, but this is my job. All that other stuff Ginger just does so I keep busy, this is my actual job."
"Well," I said, putting the book down on the nightstand next to the bed, "I'm going to sleep."
"All right, honey. When I'm done I'll join you." I sighed a bit and turned out the light next to the bed. Kris's face was illuminated by the computer screen. "Does this light bother you?" she asked.
"No."
"Okay." I laid down and looked at Kris, but she couldn't see me looking at her. She read a few words, glanced at me, then sighed and snapped the laptop shut. "Okay, okay you convinced me." She got into the bed.
"I didn't say anything."
"You didn't have to. You were thinking it." She put her head on my chest and I began to absently stroke her hair. I was surprised at myself; I hadn't seen Kris for a while (if three whole days is considered a while) and we hadn't made love since the first time, but I didn't make any attempt to do it now. I'm sure she would have said no anyway; she's exhausted and I've got a massive case of jet lag. I was just incredibly comfortable lying in bed with her, just lying there falling asleep together. Don't get me wrong, first thing tomorrow I'm going to be asking for sex, but at that moment I realized how completely in love I am with this girl, and I don't even know her.
Kris fell asleep quickly. When I realized she was gone I kissed the top of her head and let myself go to sleep as well.