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“Only place I wanna be is with you.”
The elevator arrives at Dale’s floor.
“He’s expecting you,” the bouncing blonde receptionist says when she sees us.
“Thanks,” Derek tells her.
“Great,” I mutter.
He stops and places his hands on my shoulders. “It’s going to be fine. I’ve got you, baby.”
I melt with the look of love on his face—the softness of his smile and way his eyes are shining at me. “Okay,” I manage to say, but it’s lost in the air. He’s tugging me into the office.
Dale wastes no time when he sees us. “Derek, what the fuck, man? Do you have any idea how many phone calls my office is fielding because of this? The PR team is going crazy. How could you cheat on Serena? This wasn’t part of the plan.”
Derek is looking at him and smiling. I’m surprised and Dale is too. He’s standing there staring at him, mouth agape. Apparently this isn’t the kind of reception he thought he would get from Derek.
“Yeah, sorry. I know I kind of screwed things up with her. But in my defense, I never wanted to do that anyway, so…” Derek is so nonchalant that I fear for Dale’s health if he doesn’t start groveling soon.
“But you agreed to date her. You agreed that you would do it. You knew the stakes—for everyone.” He throws his arms in the air, emphasizing his point.
Derek just smirks at him. “It’ll be fine. We’ll get through this like we always do.”
“I’m afraid this is far more serious than this,” Dale retorts.
“There were no contracts,” Derek reminds him. “Serena and I never signed anything. We’re good.”
Dale lets out a sadistic laugh. “Yeah, you and Serena will eventually be good. Or you won’t be—I don’t fucking know. But you put your career in jeopardy.”
“How?” Derek and I say at the same time.
“Well, exercise Barbie,” he says, turning and addressing me for the first time since I entered the room. “He jeopardized his career with the agency. He was supposed to run his decisions—like cheating on Serena—by me.”
“Don’t fucking call her that,” Derek bites out. “And clearly I never planned on falling in love with Audrey, but I did. And I certainly never planned on getting caught. We—”
“What the ever-loving fuck, man?” Aiden screams as he and Brent storm into the room.
“That’s what I’ve been saying,” Dale agrees.
“How could you fucking do this? She’s my sister!” Aiden shouts.
“Everyone just calm down,” Derek says, holding his hands up.
“Fat chance, man,” Aiden replies.
“We just need to do some damage control,” Derek replies, attempting to settle things.
Dale pinches the bridge of his nose and sits behind his desk. “I think the best way we could do some damage control would be for you to release a statement saying this was a mistake.” He gestures between the two of us. “Once we do that, we’ll send you to one of Serena’s concerts so that you guys can sign together. Bing, bang, boom all is well with the world again.”
He says it like it’ll solve everything, but the words crush me.
Brent is just standing there watching me. He has yet to say a word since he entered the office. I would give anything to know what’s going through his head. Or to at least apologize for the way this has blown up in his face.
“Let’s get to drafting that statement.” Aiden sits down in front of Dale. “We’ll deal with the ‘my sister’ of it later.”
“No, that’s not how we’re handling this,” Derek says. He comes over and places an arm around me. “This isn’t just a fling, Dale. Guys, I’m in love with her. I don’t want to explain it away as a mistake. So, you better figure out another way to deal with it.”
“You think you’re in the position to call the shots right now?” Dale asks, standing and approaching Derek. “You have royally screwed up right now. Do you know how many bands darken my door, attempting to get their big break? Do you know how many of them would have killed to be in your position? You barely made it pretending to date her for a month. Yeah, she’s a pain in the ass, but she was helping you. Doors were opening because of her.”
