“Sorry it’s taken me so long to call you back. This rehearsal schedule is intense. I’m on my ten-minute break so I don’t have long.”
Noah paced the sidewalk, running his fingers through his hair, and blew out a slow breath. “I need to tell you something and I need you to get over it really fast so we can move past the you being mad part and get to the you helping me fix it part.”
“What did you do to Callie?” she asked, her voice steel.
Noah stopped. “I didn’t—How did you—” He took a deep breath, exhaling hard, and started again. “Callie and I were never dating.”
“What are you talking about?”
“We made it up so Mrs. Cole would get off her back about settling down and Wolf would see that I wasn’t a risk to the senator’s campaign.” He closed his eyes and waited for the screaming to start. When it didn’t, he pulled his phone away from his ear to make sure they hadn’t been disconnected. “Livi? You there?”
“Of all thestupid—What were you thinking?” Liv shouted.
He winced. “I know.”
His phone dinged as Liv switched their call over to video chat. He accepted the change and gritted his teeth, waiting for the barrage to continue. Instead, he was met with Liv’s narrowed eyes and furrowed brow, her head cocked to the side.
“You’re not that good of a liar,” she said.
“I’m not,” he agreed.
“And Callie’s even worse than you are. So what the hell is going on, Noah?”
“It was a lie,” he started again, “and then…it wasn’t. We weren’t dating when we got to your wedding.”
“But you are now?”
He shook his head. “I don’t know.
“This is the most frustrating conversation I’ve ever had—and I married a man who counts his macros but refuses to eat lettuce!”
Noah leaned against the brick façade of the hotel. “I fell in love with her.”
Liv rolled her eyes. “Obviously. She’s fabulous.”
“And I want to be with her, but she’s gotten it in her head that if we’re together right now then she’s somehow going to cost me this job and I don’t even give a shit about the job anymore, Livi, I just… I love her.”
“Then quit the job! It’s ludicrous that Wolf wants you to tour the damn country with the campaign anyway. Doesn’t he know you can compose from anywhere?”
Noah smiled. “You’re not mad?”
“Oh, I’msomad, but I only have six more minutes before I have to be back in rehearsal and apparently you need my help to un-fuck this situation, so I’m tabling the mad part until I have more time to yell at you properly.”
He chuckled. “I appreciate that.”
“Are you going to quit?”
“I can’t. I agreed to do this film. And even if I hadn’t, Callie will just think she’d cost me my dream if I quit now.”
“But that wouldn’t be true,” Liv said, a mischievous smile crossing her face, “because she’s your dream now. Right?”
“Something like that. But you know how she gets when she thinks someone is—”
“Making her a priority? Yeah, we’ve had many a conversation about that particular hang up. Shit, I’m probably violating some kind of friendship code by telling you that.”
He grinned. “Look, I have a plan, but I need your help.”
“Name it.”
