Free Blind Love by Jasmine Bowen Page B

the
friendship bracelets that he wanted to be a ring. He loved Emily
more than anything on the planet, and he was a Hollywood superstar
now; he should have been able to have any woman he wanted. Any
woman… except the one that would not have him.
    Rising
over him with a seductive look, the bar-find raised an
eyebrow.
    “Well,
let me change your mind,” she said, and then there was no more
talking, only the sounds of the night.
    *
    When
Emily’s plane landed in LA, Phil was there to meet her. In recent
years, Caius had stopped coming to the airport, his presence always
causing a stampede that was hard to navigate him through. She tried
to tell herself it was for that reason alone, and not because he
didn’t think she was important. But she felt a little angry when
she pulled her suitcase towards Phil.
    “Good
flight?” he asked her, giving her a hug.
    The
pair had come to know each other well over the years, often
exchanging text messages, and Caiustmas cards.
    “Usual. For all they claim first class is, it really isn’t
that much more comfortable,” she replied. “Where are we
going?”
    “Probably just the house, unless you need something first.
Caius is filming until at least 6 p.m., so you’ll have some time to
relax.”
    “Take
me to set,” she said, suddenly, as they exited the airport and
headed for the waiting limo. “It’s been awhile since I’ve seen how
he operates at work.”
    “To
set?” Phil raised an eyebrow, and then shrugged, pulling out his
phone. “Sure, why not.” He made the necessarily arrangements and
then they pulled out into LA traffic, crawling towards the
soundstage where Caius was filming.
    Emily
was anxious to see him again. They were used to being separated for
long periods of time, of course, but lately it felt especially
painful. Of late, their conversations were more frequent, feeling a
sudden surge of closeness as they spoke late into the nights. Caius
had recently gotten voice-to-text on his phone, and they texted up
a storm most days, with daily tidbits and anecdotes. Still, they
had been apart six months, and things might be
different.
    Caius
was filming when they snuck onto set, locked in a scene full of
rage and emotion. Still, the second the director yelled cut, he
turned his head in her direction, a grin on his face. To the blind,
every other senses are heightened, and he heard her coming even
when she was tiptoeing.
    “EMMY!” he cried, and she went to him at once, hugging him
tight.
    It was
instinct, to go to him, rather than have him come to her. It was
just one more little adjustment one made for their blind best
friend.
    “I
thought you were going to go home.”
    “And
miss out on the chance to see what happens to Calvin?” she asked,
referring to his character on his long running TV show. “What’s the
use of knowing you if I don’t get insider information?”
    “You
sneak,” he said, laying a kiss on her cheek. Her eyes flicked up
immediately, out of habit, trying to meet his. He looked tired, a
five o’clock shadow growing rapidly on his chin, in his natural
brown. He looked so much different from the nerdy boy she had taken
under her wing at school. But it was that kiss, something he had
almost never done, that startled her. She and Caius had always been
best friends. But lately, his affection poured out from him in ways
she had never seen.
    “Please, let it be lunch time,” she said, smelling the craft
service table.
    Emily
was curvier, with an appetite that always amazed him. However, in
the land of Hollywood size 0s, she stuck out like a sore thumb. He
laughed, throwing an arm around her shoulders. All the pent up
emotion from the scene was fading away, now that she was
here.
    “It
is. Let’s go feed you, before you fade away.”
    “Not
likely,” she replied, watching an impossibly skinny girl give her a
look of disgust as she headed to the table with him. He laughed,
and she forced herself to join him, as they picked