My pocket started to play Ryan’s ringtone.

“Hey, what’s up? No, I’m not knocking on the door. Let me check.” I held the phone to my ear and rushed over to my stairwell. I was instantly pissed when I saw two girls at the top of my steps giggling and knocking on my apartment door.

“Whoa! What the hell do you think you’re doing?” I shouted, surprised to see them up there. They both looked at me like I was disturbing them.

“This is Ryan Christensen’s apartment, right?” One of the tramps sneered at me.

“No, that’s my home and private property! Get the hell away from my door!”

“Jeez, what’s your problem?” one of them snipped. I was so tempted to run up the steps and come back down dragging her by the hair. “He’s in there, isn’t he?” she giggled, like she was in on the secret.

“It doesn’t matter who is on the other side of that door! What gives you the right to think you could just barge on up there?” I snapped my phone shut. I just hung up on Ryan, but it didn’t matter; I knew he could hear me screaming at them through the door.

“Relax! We just wanted to meet him; party a little.” The other girl shook her boobs at me.

Marie was standing behind me with my baseball bat in hand. I flipped my phone open again.

“You have two seconds to get down here before I call the police. ONE…” Fortunately I didn’t have to count to two. “Collect your things and leave, now!”

“Bitch!” the one girl mumbled on her way past me. I could not believe she actually had the audacity to call me a name!

“Excuse me?” I snapped. “Step foot in my bar again and I’ll have you arrested for trespassing.” I slammed the door behind them. I turned to walk back to the bar, still fueled by the encounter.

“Who’s next?” I said to Marie, but loud enough for the rest of the lingering women to hear. I was so mad I could have thrown them all out.

“I need to get a lock,” I muttered, standing in front of my stairwell door. But what good would that do? Just one more key and one more speed bump to getting Ryan upstairs unnoticed. I walked into the kitchen and stared at the wall behind the useless counter. I tapped on the drywall, thinking about how I could move the entrance to my apartment. I hoped to one day have a simple home in the woods with my prince; no longer did I think about living above the bar for the rest of my life. If I ever wanted to rent the apartment out, the tenant would be bound to enter and exit during bar business hours.

I flipped open my cell phone and called Pete. Home renovation was what he did for a living and I knew he would have some suggestions. I unlocked my apartment door just as Pete answered. Ryan was relaxing on the couch, blue papers in one hand, television remote in the other, stripped down to comfy sweats and a T-shirt.

I sat down next to him and he put his arm around my shoulders when I finished my phone call. I leaned my head on his chest.

“Taryn, this obviously isn’t a good idea. Maybe I should just stay at the hotel.”

I felt my happiness drain right out of my heart. “NO. Absolutely unacceptable.”

“I knew this was gonna happen but I let it happen anyway. Me being here is causing a lot of trouble for you and your pub.”

He was feeling remorseful. I could hear it.

“Ryan, it doesn’t matter where you are. Like you said, this stuff follows.” I sat up and looked him in the eyes. “I want a life with you, if you truly want a life with me. Your fans caught me off-guard today, but I can tell you it won’t happen again. I’ll be better prepared next time. I want you here with me, where I can protect you from the nonsense.”

“Who’s going to protect you? Isn’t that my job?” He glared at me.

“And what? Your solution is to stay away from me to protect me?” It wasn’t meant to be a question.

“I brought all of this to your fucking doorstep, Taryn! I did this!” Ryan argued, stabbing himself in the chest with his finger.

“So what? You think I didn’t know that stuff like this could happen? I’m not some naïve, little girl who’s star struck and oblivious, Ryan! There is no way I’m going to allow you to feel guilty about shit you have no control over! I have to learn how to deal with your fame too! And I will!”

Ryan slumped back, defeated.

“Do you really love me, or was that something that accidentally slipped out?” I asked.

His eyes narrowed. “I meant every word, every time I’ve said it. I love you.”

“Then it’s you and me against the world, and we don’t deviate from that course. That’s our story, remember?”

He tossed his blue papers onto the coffee table and reached for me, hugging me tightly.

Pete and Tammy arrived fifteen minutes later. Pete had his toolbox in one hand and was wearing his tape measure as an attachment to his belt.

Ryan greeted them when he slipped into the kitchen. We talked about how we could seal off the original door that opened into the pub and relocate the door to open into the kitchen. It was the quickest fix.

“But that means if I ever try to rent the apartment out, the tenant would have to still come through the kitchen to get in. Ahh, I’m not so sure I like this. What would keep them from going right out into the bar?” I said, pushing the kitchen swing door with my fingers.

“That certainly is a problem,” Pete added. “These old buildings were never meant to be businesses; they were all homes. And if we seal off the kitchen then you’ll have safety violations for not having an emergency exit.”

I looked around the kitchen. There was just no good way of relocating the stairwell. Pete and Ryan ran back upstairs to deliberate. I could hear them tapping on the inside of the stairwell wall.

“I spoke to my brother,” Tammy whispered. “Does Ryan know about the restraining order?”

“No.” I shook my head. “I’d like to keep it that way for now.” I didn’t want to add any more stress to Ryan’s life. “What did you find out?”

“He said you could get one if you feel she is stalking you. But you’d have to go to the police and then file papers at the courthouse. You’d also have to appear in court. It didn’t sound simple.”

“Nothing’s ever simple. But I did get her name today though,” I said proudly. “She came into the bar earlier and I carded her.”

“No way!” Tammy said in surprise.