Grace threw the stack of bills and payment plans to the side. She was deluding herself into thinking the answer would magically appear. No debt collector was writing hidden escape routes in invisible ink. They'd be more likely to hide ways to screw her out of more money, if anything.

"She's in the office. Careful, she's grumpy," Carla warned. A blender drowned out whatever she said next. It was probably for the best.

The door to the office opened fully and Reid shut it behind him quickly. "Hey there, angel face. Oh, or should I call you long face?" His tone shifted like a professional Nascar driver shifting gears. "What's wrong, Grace?"

She gestured to the official looking letters scattered across her desk as if they'd jump to life and explain everything. "Just money, as always."

Reid turned her to face him, wheeling her chair closer at the same time. "It's going to be okay. I promised you I would help you figure this out and I will." His hands were warm on her shoulders and she leaned into the touch. "Let's start by getting you out of this office and into some actual sunlight. What do you say?" He held his hand out to her, wiggling his fingers invitingly.

A barrage of notifications greeted Grace in the morning. The screen swam in her vision. It rocked side to side in time with the boomerang pinging around the inside of her skull. Crying into the night had in fact been one of the worst choices she could have made. Grace shoved her phone aside and climbed out of the crumb filled covers. There was nothing that couldn't wait until she'd taken a shower.

She was wrong about that.

Grace pulled the bathrobe on tighter and rescued her phone from the cookie remnants. It was more than just missed texts from her parents and friends that she had to scroll through. It looked like everyone she knew had decided to send her a message. Nearly every bubble, both blue and green, had a link for her to click. They were all a bit different but the articles they led to were all the same.

Headlines were plastered at the top of each web page.

Reid Bennet and Mystery Woman

Time for a New Pair of Dancing Shoes

Hollywood Dancer Makes a Big Splash in Hawaii

Further down the pages were plenty of photos of Reid and some truly terrible photos of Grace bent over to empty her stomach. She was used to news moving fast, especially when it came to the stars. When she and Reid had been working on their videos together she'd stopped underestimating how easily strangers could dig up dirt on her life. There was no way actual tabloid writers wouldn't have been able to find her in Hawaii.

The better writers had her name and were hinting at a deeper history between her and the star. That she could at least keep private. No one had been around to watch their entire relationship dissolve into an apocalyptic battlefield. On top of that they'd both deleted every photo of each other they'd posted online. Grace had checked his accounts more than once while trying to get in touch with him.

A knock at the door startled her enough to drop the phone and clutch the robe tighter to her chest. Now she really was being paranoid. It didn't say where her room was anywhere in the articles. The one paparazzi who had snapped the photos had even seen her get kicked out for trespassing. No one was going to be looking for her here.

Grace opened the door, looking down at the cart loaded with food. "I didn't order room service," she told the fidgeting man trying to maneuver the cart into her room. The smells coming off the cart were enough to set her stomach rumbling. That was definitely a relief after the mass exodus the previous night.

"It's compliments of Mr. Bennet,"the man said. He finally managed to slide the cart between her and the doorframe and wheeled it into the room. The coffee wobbled after the sudden stop but stayed as perfect looking as everything else.

Reid had remembered her preferences, or the hotel had a very basic and limited set of options. Waffles were stacked across a plate like a hand of cards, strawberries sliced to go on top. There was the coffee, of course, but also a pitcher of orange juice. Bacon and hashbrowns took up the last of the space. It looked like a meal for two and Grace could imagine why.

"Can you deliver my thanks to him?" Grace asked, batting her eyelashes at the flustered young man.

"Of course, I'll let him know right now." He made a beeline for the door only to have Grace call him back while grabbing a piece of stationary from the hotel desk.

Grace had taken an art class as part of some requirement for college and it went horribly. Color theory may as well be rocket science when it came to her. However, her ability to draw recognizable hands was what saved her with a barely passing grade.

"There, if you could deliver that to his majesty with my compliments." Grace handed over the folded piece of paper and ushered the boy out of the room. He'd started to hesitate after seeing the extremely recognizable gesture she'd drawn out, but Grace locked the door behind him. Even without her ear pressed to the door she would have been able to hear Reid's exasperated shout. She nibbled at a piece of bacon while he continued to rant and rave about ungrateful people.

The food was good and by the time she was done, Grace felt semi human again. Even better, she had plans far far from the hotel and Reid. Avoiding him was going to be easier than she'd thought and it put a skip in her step. By the end of the day it would all be a bad dream,

Reid caught up to her in the elevator. He was onto his third pair of shoes now and Grace wondered if there was an ulterior motive for why he was so concerned about the appearance of his feet. Besides that he was just as handsome as she remembered, in the most infuriating way,

"If you keep popping up everywhere I am, I might just have to get a restraining order," Grace warned. She shoved her sunglasses onto her face just in time for the elevator doors to open up onto the lobby. The morning sun blasted her full in the face. Her sandals slapped against the tiled floor the entire way up to the desk. Reid's followed right behind.

"Good morning, ma'am. What can I do for you today?" the attendant looked between the two of them as he spoke. There really was no getting around the tabloids' circulation. Maybe he'd snap his own photo after they turned their backs. Working in a hotel lobby couldn't be the most lucrative no matter how nice of a place it was.

"I put in a request to rent a car yesterday and was wondering if I could get the keys," Grace told him. She slid her ID forward. There was a growing pain in her neck from forcing her head to stay facing forward. She could smell him behind her as if he'd never grown out of the convenience store cologne he was always so fond of. There was always a bottle in his car and another smaller one in his gym bag. It was some vanilla thing that she couldn't stand.

The attendant coughed and shuffled through a stack of papers on his desk. He didn't pick up a single one. "I didn't realize you hadn't been informed. There was a delay in your rental, it won't be ready until tomorrow."

Grace's jaw would have broken the edge of the desk at the speed and force it dropped. "But I needed that today," she insisted. Behind her, Reid laughed and she spun to grab his shirt collar. "I don't know how, but this is your fault."

"It's possible," he admitted. "Let me make it up to you."

"Absolutely not," Grace snapped. It wasn't that bad of a walk. If she started now she could be back by dinner.

"I have a car," he called after her.