Fairy Tale Fail

Last Chapter

Naturally, being a girl who obsessively planned things, I didn't just daydream. Certain life events I already plotted out in my head, complete with agenda, outfits, and lighting. But I didn't exactly plan for finding myself in my Office Crush's hotel room in a foreign city.
   I thought I would be lost and panicky; instead I felt... unburdened.
   It helped that Lucas knew exactly what would make me feel better: reciprocity. Whether he wanted this too wasn't a mystery. I could tell in the way he kissed me, and when he reached for the buttons of my jacket after I fumbled clumsily with them, and when he disposed of his shirt in one movement before I even thought of it. He knew what he was doing. It was like I could, for once, let my life actually happen and not obsess over every detail.
   It just worked.
   I let him set the pace and he responded with a long leisurely kiss that zapped me of conscious thought for who knows how long. Without the jacket I would have shivered in the cold room but he kept his body close, so close, and his shoulders were surprisingly warm and smooth in contrast to the stubble that he took care not to scratch against my skin. I didn't know what I was supposed to be doing but he would gently shift my hand, my hip, my shoulder, my chin, so I would be right where he wanted me to be, and it was as if I knew where things went. It was nice of him to save me the embarrassment of asking.
   Or maybe I spoke too soon, because some things needed asking.
   "Shit," Lucas said. "You wouldn't happen to have...?"
   "What? Oh." No, my clutch bag had lip gloss and a cellphone, not contraception. "No."
   "Shit." Lucas looked adorable even in a frustrated state, as he pushed me back slightly and struggled to gather his thoughts. "I didn't think I'd be needing it."
   I giggled. "This is what happens when you don't have a plan."
   "No, this is what happens when I – wait." He gently lifted me off his lap and headed to Anton's side of the room, and found what he was looking for in a pile of crumpled receipts and foil.
   And then at the same moment we realized that he had fished through Anton's trash for an unused condom, and that killed the mood faster than anything.
   Um, yuck.
   "We don't have to right now," I said, biting my lip to keep from laughing.
   "Yeah, well, I'm going to wash my hands." He threw the packet back into the pile and headed toward the bathroom.
   The second and third tattoos were on his back, I discovered right then, on top of each other, in the general area of his left shoulder blade.
  
***

"Thirty minutes."
   "Can't do it."
   "Twenty minutes."
   "I don't think you can get the essence of Patpong in twenty minutes. Plus we both have to be at the airport before nine PM. Might as well skip it and try again next time."
   "See, this is my punishment for not doing my research."
   "You could have gone tonight. I'm sure there's at least one group out there now. Why didn't you?"
   "I was thinking of how to sabotage your dinner."
   "Seriously?"
   "Well, maybe for an hour. And then I gave up and just stayed in."
   "It would have been easy to sabotage, you know." I peeked at the clock on the nighttable. "It's three AM. I should go back."
   Lucas stuck his head between my shoulder and a pillow and faked a loud snore. It tickled.
   After he emerged from the bathroom earlier, we laughed for a bit about the situation, but didn't dwell on it. Lucas asked if I wanted to eat, and I said I wanted dessert. I didn't get to have dessert.
   Soon, we had a selection of goodies sent up to the room. It was expensive, and I might as well have eaten my per diem money right then and there. Hours later, cakes and chocolate all gone, I just lay there beside him thinking of what to do on my last day in the city.
   "Anyway," I said, casually talking up to the ceiling, like any of this was normal, "I have errands to run tomorrow. Stuff to buy in Pratunam."
   "How about I join you? I have nothing planned tomorrow."
   "You had an entire day in Bangkok and didn't plan for it?"
   "This day would have ended differently if I had a plan, remember?" Lucas turned to lie on his stomach, raising himself up on his elbows. "You look beautiful tonight. In case I haven't said it yet. Did you do all this for him?"
   "I thought so, but I probably did it for me. I think I look great in this dress."
   "I completely agree."
   I laughed and reached over to touch his hair, intending to smooth down a patch that was sticking up, realizing that I could.
   I could do that now.
   "I'm a little nervous," I admitted. "I just gave up what I thought I wanted."
   "You regretting it?"
   I pushed myself up against the headboard, my brow furrowed. "I guess not. I just realized earlier that even if I got him it wouldn't be the kind of relationship I wanted. I'm just... well, give me a minute to grieve."
   He smiled and pressed his lips together. And waited. And then, in less than a minute, "Was that enough time?"
   "You think you're funny," I said ruefully. "I have no idea what my life is going to be like now."
   Lucas pushed himself up, closer to me, and lifted my hand up, our fingertips touching. "You told me that your life wasn't all about work. That you had a lot of things you looked forward to when you got out of the office."
   Yes, I remembered that.
   He pushed himself up, even closer, our fingertips still touching. "Then that's exactly what your life is going to be. You've still got your family, your hobbies, your friends, none of that will change."
   "Really." It wasn't a question.
   "And I'm probably going to, you know, start calling. Driving you home. Taking you to movies you hate."
   I started to smile, but he wasn't done yet.
   "And then you'll probably want to introduce me to your mom. Your nephew Dylan will love me because kids like me, and I'll tell him about my brother's job and our pirate story, and he'll just be so attached to me. And then you'll want me to go to church again, and we'll probably discuss that at length. But I probably will go to church with you at least once, and it will be in your college church, to erase the memory of what that douche did there."
   I opened my mouth to speak, but no, he wasn't done yet.
   "And then we'll hang out with my friends, who apparently like you, and I'll meet your friends, some of whom spread rumors about me, and we'll talk about them behind their backs to each other. You'll want to take another trip abroad, and I'll want to take you to a small town in the province where we have to share bathroom with our host's neighbor, but we'll compromise by agreeing to go anyway and tolerate any whining that may happen."
   It didn't sound at all like happily ever after, but I couldn't keep from smiling. "Are you done?" I asked.
   "So that's the plan," Lucas said. "Sorry, I only had a minute to come up with it. Will that do?"
   "It's already better than any relationship I've ever had."  
   What mattered was that despite the reasons why he didn't have to be there with me, he wanted to anyway. And that despite my original plans, the guy I was kissing right then was the one who gave me my confidence back, not the one who took it away.
   Fifteen minutes later I took the elevator back to my room, but I felt like I floated three floors up instead.
   Not a bad end to the day when I decided to let my fairy tale go.


The End

===

OMG THAT'S IT! It's done! The entire book is here on Wattpad! (breathe, breathe)

They lived happily ever after.

Anton his officemate is the same Anton from That Kind of Guy.

Even though the Summit edition of That Kind of Guy was released BEFORE Fairy Tale Fail, chronologically FAIRY TALE FAIL came first so don't worry, Anton was not cheating on Julie. (Haha thank you sharp eyed readers for being concerned about this.)

Fairy Tale Fail is a bit hard to find now in the bookstores. You might have better luck getting it in NBS Greenbelt, Mini Stop or 7-Eleven branches. Or you can order from me, I have a few print copies left.

Thank you so much and please recommend this story to friends, if you love it. :)

So hmm... what book do I post next? Hahaha.