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I shook my head and brandished a tube of chapstick instead. “I’m good to go, thanks.”
She conceded with a giggle. “I’ll be riveted every moment you’re on the screen!” She twirled a dark brown strand around her finger and winked. Before, that kind of flirty invite would have been answered with some flirting of my own, quickly followed by me gauging just how charming I’d have to be to charm her right out of her clothes. Now, I just gave her a friendly smile, murmured a thanks and turned my ire back on Delia, who was peevishly still streaming a precious few moments before she tapped the screen and went back to business mode. After seeing this other side of her, business mode was definitely no longer my preference...even if she was snapping how the sausage was made.
She fell in step beside me as we made our way out of the trailer, narrowly missing a PA that was hustling like his life depended on it.
“Mrs. Larson and Scott just sent a thumbs up!” Delia shared excitedly.
We were in the center of the hive, people with walkie talkies buzzing beneath the sun, their eyes shielded by shades. Their caffeinated, jerky moves forced me to dodge, narrowly missing collision twice in under two minutes. Somehow, Delia had no problem navigating and giving me an update on her efforts to connect with the very people who’d been calling me a two-timing jerk. Well, that, and promposals.
“You should see these comments! Everyone is rooting for you.”
I knew she was just trying to be helpful, but there was only one person that I wanted to hear from, and we hadn’t spoken since I left her place early this morning. She made it known that she wanted to look into Cassidy’s eyes when I shut her down. Considering Natalee had been wringing a dish towel like she was imagining it was Cassidy’s neck when she said it, I decided a solo approach was wise. This was my mess, my chickens coming home to roost. And on the off chance that Cassidy was crazy and not just an opportunist, I didn’t want to expose Natalee to that. She meant too much to me.
Like the powers that be knew I needed an infusion of ‘You’ve got this’, my phone hummed in my pocket.
Natalee: Good luck! I’ll be watching...and waiting for you.
Smirking to myself, I tapped out a response.
Naked?
I tuned out the rest of the world, distractedly putting my full attention on the screen when I saw the signal that she was typing.
Natalee: Geez, all you think about is sex! :)
My thumbs raced across the screen. No...all I think about is you.
I sent it off and twisted my head in Delia’s direction, gearing up a joke that disappeared when she gave me a sly grin that told me she knew who I was talking to, but then her eyes widened.
“Jason, watch-”
I assumed there was an ‘out!’ that was coming next. A PSA for why we should put our phones down more to avoid running into objects, or in this case, a woman.
Scarves and limbs went flying, but I caught her before she fell to the ground. The swarm around us didn’t even pause, but I started apologizing as the woman collected herself, her back to me.
“I am so sorry-”
“Not yet,” the woman interrupted, her tone giving me frostbite while she dusted herself off like she was covered in imaginary dirt—and it was all my fault. There was something about that voice that was unsettlingly familiar.
It dawned on me that it was a voice that had drawled from the screen when I was a glutton for punishment and watched clips of interviews, proclaiming that they had the scoop. ‘The secret fiancé tells all!’ I never stuck around for much more of the story after seeing Cassidy’s face.
The same face I was confronted with when the agitated woman pivoted on her heels and threw a scowl my way that almost killed me dead.
You couldn’t escape her face these days, considering she was shilling her lies to anyone with a buck or two, but being this close to her again was enough to make me take a moment. The look on her face wasn’t unlike the look she had the last time we were together, but underneath the makeup and the years that had passed was the girl I once knew. It was in her eyes, the fighter who refused to be the perfect, blonde haired, blue eyed socialite that her parents demanded. Her chopped locks should have made her look edgy and sophisticated, but I just saw the girl who made her mother lose her shit when she shaved the side of her head and got a butterfly tattoo on her wrist. That butterfly gleamed as Cassidy snatched her purse to the peak of her shoulder, giving me a smoldering once over that gave me chills.
“I see you’re still slamming into women and leaving them to pick up the pieces.”
That voice, edged with acid, and the eyes that looked right through me? That was new.
It was a splash of water that reminded me that this forced reunion was due to the fact that she’d orchestrated some Romeo and Juliet story. The only thing that didn’t make me march right past her was the fact that once, I’d cared a great deal about her. And for what we’d lost, she deserved a modicum of respect, even if she wasn’t sparing a drop for me.
“Hello, Cassidy,” I said warily. “Didn’t see you there.”
Her eyes turned into deadly slivers. “You never did though, did you?”
She didn’t wait for me to answer, sashaying toward the studio like a woman who would burn any and everything down in her path.
It was crystal clear that she didn’t accept the invite to bury the hatchet.
