I bite the inside of my cheek. “We could have come up with a more sensible plan.”
“We didn’t have time for that,” she counters. “You don’t know him as I do. His moods are…fleeting. If I’d waited until you’d returned, he would have sobered up enough to think twice about meeting me.”
I consider this a moment. “Teo tells me he’s messaged you since.”
She pulls out her phone and slides it over for me to see.
An irrational pang of jealousy overcomes me when I re-read the old message thread:
“I need you. Now.”
Fuck, baby. I’ll try…I’ll be there soon.
Then, the new messages from Lazzaro:
“I’m waiting backstage.”
“Cas, where are you?”
“Are you seriously giving me blue-balls right now?”
“Fuck you. I can’t believe this.”
“Ungrateful slut.”
I try not to crush the phone in my hand.
“I had an opening, and I missed it,” Cas says, seemingly entirely unbothered by the content of the messages.
I give myself a moment to calm down. “Perhaps. But perhaps not.” I gesture to the phone in my hand. “May I?”
She simply shrugs as I begin typing out a reply. I hit send and slide the phone back for her to read for herself.
I’m sorry, baby. He found out and wouldn’t let me leave.
Please, I’ll come tonight. I promise you, I’ll get away this time.
Cas looks at me curiously. “Appealing to his sense of male pride.”
“Works both ways.”
“Does this mean you’ll let me go?”
“It means I see the value in this confrontation and that I trust you will share any relevant information with me afterward.”
Cas’ phone pings with a response. We both look down at the same time.
“Bastard. Come home to me, baby. I’ll be backstage again tonight.”
“Looks like we have some work to do,” I announce, standing up and offering her a hand. “Do you think you’re up for it?”
She swallows tightly as she takes it. “I need to see him again. I need to put an end to it.”
The realization that hits me as she says this threatens to topple me.
Her hunger strike hadn’t been just about the way I had acted. I had also robbed her of a chance to get closure on the bastard, to put that piece of her life behind her.
All I can do is squeeze her hand gently. My own silent apology. “You will.”
