Page 13 of Searching for Sadie (Mystic Falls #5)

SADIE

She sat down on her small twin bed, and she ran a comb through her damp hair. She'd come home and count her tips and there was only one thing left to do.

But before that there was a knock at the door. She made her way downstairs hoping it would be her handsome neighbor demanding she let him fix her car. Of course, she would say no. But then he would demand it, and she would say yes. And then maybe she would repay him with a kiss.

She knew that was nonsense, but that is what this little town made her think was possible...

Only when she opened the door those dreams were quickly dashed by a cold dose of reality.

"There you are! You went off grid!" said Zara, the producer she'd been ignoring.

"Zara! What are you doing here?"

But the short woman just stood there with her hands on her hips. Her short bob cut exaggerated the small shake of her head. She final answered, "I finally convinced your sister to tell me where you are. What on earth are you doing here?"

"I live here."

"Here?!"

Sadie squeezed her eyes shut and ran her hand through her hair. "Yes, here."

"Can I come in?"

"Oh... ummm. yeah," she said, as she held the door open and allowed Zara into her calm.

It wasn't that she didn't like Zara. Zara was nice enough, and really if she had to be in contact with anyone from the show, she's the producer she would have chosen. But Sadie knew, even if she liked Zara, she was here to do her job. And using Sadie’s life to make good TV was her job.

"I was going to set my socials public today."

"Oh, babes. We're past that. You made the show runners nervous with your little disappearing act. They wanted to come here and get you to turn your socials on, but then I'm also taking you to a meeting with a lawyer to go over your contract."

"You can't be serious. I’ve done everything they asked of me."

"Well... That's not true," she said as she picked up one of her aunt's ceramic teddy bear figures and scrunched her face at it. "What is this place?" she asked with a disgusted look on her face.

"I inherited this place from my great aunt and just in the nick of time since I lost my job," she said pointedly to Zara.

"I heard about that. Why did they fire you?"

"Because of the show."

"But it hasn't even air yet?"

“The entertainment industry is small.”

“I really am sorry about that, Sadie.”

Sadie just shrugged. "Let's get this over with," she said as she took out her phone.

Sadie had been running away from all of this, but all these attention hungry little chickens were coming home to roost. She went into the setting and turned her profile public.

"Okay, now if you could be friends with your castmates."

"All of them?" Sadie asked.

Zara nodded. "All of them."

Sadie took a deep breath as she accepted the friend request she dreaded most.

She showed her phone to Zara. "Happy?"

"Was that so hard?"

Sadie just glared at her. No, the mere act of accepting some requests and moving a toggle was not hard... But all the nonsense that was about to hit when promos for the show dropped, yeah, all of that was going to be excruciating.

"I'll be here tomorrow morning at nine to pick you up for the meeting."

"Zara, please it's not necessary. I’ll play nice."

"You should’ve been answering your phone, babes. It's out of my hands. They wanted me to move here and be your minder, but if you play nice then that doesn't have to happen."

"Fine."

"Okay, well, I'm going back to the inn, but I’ll be there tomorrow to pick you up and we’ll have our meeting there."

"I'll be here," she said as she walked Zara to the door.

Sadie watched her pull out. She looked at the clock on the wall.

It was only 3:30 and she was already climb into bed and hide from the world.

In fact, she thought she might do just that, load up some movies and hide.

In the morning, she would have to face everything she'd been running from, and she was not ready for that.

When she was already in bed, blankets pulled up around her and she heard a knock at the door. She just couldn't do it right now, even if it was her handsome neighbor. She couldn't face anything right now.

The next morning, sure enough, at nine, Zara sent a car for her.

All she had to do was get through this meeting. Then she could go home. She hadn't checked her social media except to see that the little red circle with notifications was climbing higher and higher.

As she walked into the inn her heart almost fell out of her chest.

There sitting at one of the tables was Zara, a lawyer she didn't recognize, and Ryan. Fuck. Zara had not said he was going to be here. She didn’t want to do this. The dread she'd been running from hit her smack dead in the face and it felt just as painful as an actual punch to the face.

Zara smiled and waved her over and Ryan turned and smiled at her. Fuck.

"Sadie, come on over. I went ahead and ordered us all breakfast so we could just talk and get a game plan on how to proceed."

Sadie crossed from the front desk into the dining room.

"Sadie. I've been trying to get a hold of you," Ryan said with a smile that seemed genuine, but it was one she could see through now.

"I didn't know you were going to be here," Sadie said, looking between Ryan and Zara.

Ryan smiled his charming smile and his blue eyes sparkled. She fought the urge to punch him in his face. Zara at least had the good sense to look a little sheepish and she tucked her black hair behind her ear.

"Shall we get down to it?" Zara said, taking a seat at the table.

The dark cloud that had been hanging over Sadie’s head opened up and stormed down as she sat down at a table with these people. These fake people she would do anything to get away from, but sadly, it was going to get worse before it would get any better.

"How are you?" Ryan asked as if he actually cared.

"I'm fine."

The table was quiet as everyone shared a couple uncomfortable glances.

"Why are we here? I turned on my social media accounts. I accepted friend requests. I will be at the reunion. What else do you all need from me?"

"We're here to help, Sadie. We just want to get a game plan."

"Game plan?"

"We need to figure out how they are going to handle our storyline," Ryan said.

"Handle our storyline?"

"Yes, and we all think," Ryan said, nodding and glancing at everyone around the table. "That we need a united front, so people don't get the wrong idea."

"I'm sorry... the wrong idea?! And what would that be?"

"I just think that we need to show that after everything we went through we're still friends," Ryan said as he reached for her hand on the table.

Sadie snatched her hand away and glared at him before turning her gaze to the lawyer and Zara. "I have my social media ready to help promote the show. I haven't disclosed anything, I will be at the reunion show. Is there a contractual obligation I'm missing?"

"No ma'am, that is all you are obligated to," said the man in the suit with a curt nod.

"Thank you. May I go?"

"Sadie, please," Ryan begged. "I'm worried our story line could cause me to look bad."

"How is that my fault?" Sadie asked.

"Please. I apologized for what happened on the show. I would really love a united front."

"And I would really love to not be embarrassed in front of a million viewers, so pardon me if I'm not interested in whatever this is," she said as she gestured to the meeting at the table.

"Sadie, be reasonable. I could lose my job. And you aren't blameless in this."

She scoffed and slid her chair back from the table. "What in this is my fault? Is it my fault you weren't attracted to me? Is it my fault you called me fat behind my back to all the cast members? Where is my fault in that?"

"I apologized."

"I don't accept."

"Sadie," Zara warned.

"And honestly, I could care less if you lose your job. I already lost mine because of the show. So, no.... I'm not going to do whatever this is."

Ryan scoffed at her and rolled his eyes.

"Sadie, could we get you to film with any of the girls? Maybe you could show you have a good relationship with them," Zara asked.

"I’m not interested in any further filming."

A hearty sigh left Zara as Ryan crossed his arms over his chest. "I told you she would be a bitch about it."

"Is there a legal reason for me to be here?" Sadie asked the lawyer before standing.

"No, ma'am," said the lawyer before closing his folder.

"Well, then I'm leaving."

Sadie turned on her heel and left the table.

Anger coursed through her veins. She wasn't surprised.

Of course, Ryan wanted to make up and have a friendly front, but that was not going to happen.

Without looking back, she walked through the front door and headed down the stairs only for the door to open behind her.

"Sadie, wait!" Zara called as she trailed after her.

"What is it?"

"I'm sorry."

"For ambushing me? That was your choice, and you could have told me he was going to be here. I would have still come. That was bullshit. The whole premise of the show is bullshit for that reason."

"Sadie—"

"I’ll be at the reunion show. I’ll keep my social media account public until the reunion airs. Anything further you need from me can be done over email."

Zara's shoulders slumped, "Okay."

And at that Sadie turned around and made her way back to her house. It was only ten and she was already over today.

Once the surprise and anger of the ambush had worn off, she was realizing just how far the inn was from her house. It hadn't seemed that far when they drove there, but after a few minutes she realized it was going to be quite a hike.

But that was good. It would give her time to think, and she needed that. She'd been trying to hide here like all the problems from Nashville and that damned show wouldn't follow her here and today had proved there was no running.

Her phone rang in her purse. She checked to see who was calling, surely it wasn't Ryan or Zara... and she was right. It was her sister. Another person she was not going to talk to.