“You didn’t need to do that,” I said awkwardly, even as my stomach let out a low growl. I’d had breakfast at home many hours ago.
“It’s nothing,” he said without meeting my eyes.
He grabbed two folding chairs I hadn’t noticed from a corner of the room and opened them up, offering one to me. I took a seat beside him, unsure of what to make of his behavior. He brought me lunch, yet he wouldn’t look at me. I mean, it was just a sandwich, but still… Was he fine with me, mad at me, or indifferent? It was all very strange.
Kaz leaned his guitar against the desk and unwrapped his sandwich. “So how long have you been at Hyperion? Not long, I’m guessing. Didn’t you just graduate a few months ago?”
“I graduated a year early,” I told him.
He whistled. “You finished in three years?”
“Yeah,” I said between bites. “I took a bigger course load each year.”
“And here you are slumming it up with the dropouts. How the mighty have fallen, right, Mase?” He cocked a brow at the drummer.
“We must be bringing your average down,” Mason said, a hard edge to his voice.
I sucked in a breath. Okay, he was definitelystill mad.
My neck and ears felt hot as I lowered my sandwich down. If I wanted to have any hope of us working well together, I needed to apologize.
“I was an idiot for saying that,” I began.
“I thought I was the idiot,” Mason retorted.
Kaz’s eyes widened.
“I’m sorry, Mason. In retrospect, I wish we’d parted on a better note.”
“Don’t sweat it,” Mason said coldly before taking another bite.
I gnawed on my lip. Why wouldn’t he let go of it? It’s not like he’d behaved perfectly that night either. He’dkissedme. Had he conveniently forgotten that part? I was young, emotional, and really goddamn hurt he was just leaving me with no warning. It had confirmed he’d never really cared about me.
Now, I wondered. Why was he still hung up on that night if he’d felt nothing toward me?
I swallowed. “I’m really sorry.”
“Fine, whatever.”
We finished our food in soul-crushing silence.
Afterwards, I dug inside my bag for the paperwork Trinity had tasked me with giving to the guys to sign. “I have some contracts for you,” I said as I pulled the folders out. “One is to authorize me to post on your social media channels. Another is about your international royalties. Trinity wants to make sure you’re collecting them from all the right channels. I brought copies for you and Kaz to review.”
“Just give it to Kaz,” Mason said, bunching up his sandwich wrapper in his hands before tossing it into the garbage can.
“You should both read them,” I insisted, handing him a folder. “There’s a lot of important stuff in there, especially in the second one.”
Mason refused to take it. “Kaz takes care of the business stuff,” he said stubbornly.
I drew in a frustrated breath. Was he really going to fight over everything I asked him to do? This was ridiculous. “I really think you should read it.”
“I said Kaz can handle it.”
What was going on? Was he doing this to drive me insane, or was he just being lazy? I mean, come on. Mason may not have been the most hardworking guy in college, but this was real life now. This was his career we were talking about.
I pinched my lips together. “Mason, if you want to be a serious musician, you need to take this seriously.”
“Okay, enough,” Kaz interrupted. “Drop it, Molly. Mason and I have complimentary skillsets. I deal with the business bullshit he doesn’t want to think about, and he handles the distasteful act of casual socializing, also known as networking.” He made a face. “I swear, the word makes my gag reflex kick in.”
