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“What? Why?”
“Paige actually did introduce me to the coordinator at her studio who handles the choreographers. They offered me a job this morning.”
My stomach bottomed out, and I leaned forward, resting my forearms on my knees. It was like Roxy all over again. What was it about me that made women only want to date me if it was long-distance? Was I a bad kisser? Bad breath? Too handsy? There had to be a reason why an in-person relationship seemed so freaking unappealing.
“Paul, are you there?”
“Yeah.”
“I told them no.”
I sat up straight. “You what?”
“Paul, of course I didn’t take it. You can’t move to LA, you’re under contract.”
Blinking, I replayed her words over and over in my head. “Wait, you turned down a job to be a choreographer for a television studio because I’m under contract?”
“Yeah,” she said it like it should have been obvious. “Of course I did. I wouldn’t want to go back to a long-distance thing with you anyway, but after what happened with Roxy, ugh. Just thinking about it made me feel sick.”
“Well, uh, I guess I’m glad you considered that, but at the same time, did youwantto take the job?”
She chuckled. “Well, I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t a great opportunity. The pay is insane. I definitely wouldn’t need so many streams of income if I had that job, that’s for sure. And Paige and her assistant—Molly, remember I told you about her?—are both super cool. It would be fun to hang out with them regularly. But none of that really matters in the grand scheme of things.”
My heart beat fast in my chest as I listened to her. I heard what she said about those things not being important, but I also heard the excited tone she’d used when describing them. It actually reminded me of the way Roxy had talked about the opportunity with her friend in Texas. It was like she wanted to take it, but she needed me to give her permission before she would. I didn’t know if it was out of guilt or some kind of obligation, but was that what Shelby was doing now? She had told me she’d talk to me about something before she’d just say yes without running it by me. Maybe that was what this was.
“Shel, listen, if you really want to take it, I think you should.”
She stuttered. “I—what? Why would I do that?”
“Because it’s a great opportunity. You said it yourself. You need to live your life now that you’ve faced death. You’d like hanging out with Paige and Molly, you’d have great pay, you’d get to live out this once-in-a-lifetime thing every day, not only for two weeks. Seems like a no-brainer to me.”
“Uh, hang on, let’s switch to FaceTime.”
“Why?”
“Because I need to look at your face while I yell at you, Paul Bristol.”
I chuckled and switched over to the video mode on my phone, my heart squeezing when I saw her pretty face appear on the screen. “Better?”
“Much. Now listen. I wasted eleven years when I made a decision for you that wasn’t mine to make, even though I thought it was what was best for you. You telling me to take this job seems an awful lot like that, don’t you think?”
Man, she was hot when she was all bossy and direct. I nodded slowly, running a hand over my mouth to keep from smiling at her. “Yeah, maybe.”
“No, not maybe. Definitely. If I wanted to take the job, I would have, okay? But I don’t want the job. I want you. Live and in-person, not long-distance. Got it?”
Again, I nodded. “Got it.”
“Good. I gotta go, I just called to say hi and tell you I love you since I knew it was your lunch break. And since I’m not taking this job, that means I won’t be hanging out with celebrities anymore, so I’m going to go to coffee with Paige and Molly before I head back to my hotel to pack.”
“Okay. Have fun.”
“Don’t overthink this, Paul. I’m serious.”
“I won’t.”
She narrowed her pretty eyes at me and pointed at me through the camera. “You probably will. Even after we started dating, I worried I was doing the wrong thing.”
“Yeah? And how did you get over that?”
