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“Don’t! Don’t even put that out into the cosmos!” I warn. “Fuck, man. All of this is so messed up.”
“I agree. Showing up unannounced and uninvited to a weekend trip is pretty uh, fucked. Especially for you! Super stud Rhys Marshall goes on wild goose chase.”
“What else was I supposed to do, Cameron?” I groan. “You know how she’ll barely talk to me now. She’ll barely even look at me. Me!”
“We can still turn around and go home, Rhys,” Cameron offers in a singsong voice more suited to calming a mental patient. “Van and Alyssa never even have to know that we were here—”
“Not an option.”
“Well, can we at least get better disguises?” Cameron asks. “Because these sunglasses and top hats are making us stick out like sore thumbs in the crowd. I look like a moron and you look like a Slash wannabe.”
“Just commit to the bit,” I reply, before nodding toward a set of elevators a few feet away from us. “And get back a little. Walk ten paces behind me or something.”
“I could’ve been binge-watching something on Netflix this weekend,” Cameron mumbles, his words lined with near-palpable regret. “I could’ve been reading about how to invest in stocks, but no, this is how I’m really spending my life—”
“Commit to the bit!” I hiss, cutting him off as I head toward the elevators, irritation running through my veins. I don’t know how I’m going to get Alyssa back, but I know that it’s going to happen, because the thought of her ending up with Van makes me feel like I’m going to break out in hives.
Soon enough, I’m hastily making my way down one of the hotel’s hallways, searching for my room number at a frantic pace. I’m so focused on finding the room number that I don’t pay much attention to a woman’s figure that passes right by me while I’m trying to get into the room before Alyssa knows that I’m here—
“…Rhys?” Alyssa’s voice is quiet, almost at a whisper, and coming from somewhere right behind my shoulder. “Is that…is that you?”
Shit.
Shit. Shit. Shit.
I freeze in front of the room’s door, debating whether or not I should just disappear inside and pretend like I’d never heard her say my name.
“Rhys, what are you doing here?” Alyssa presses, before she lets out a knowing hmm. “Oh, wait. Are you here for the songwriting symposium, too? Did Gregory turn it into a full-band activity?”
“…You called it.” I nervously chuckle as I turn back around to face her. “It was…all Gregory. He wanted everyone to come up for the weekend. Van must’ve really made it sound like an…amazing opportunity.”
Surprisingly, there’s a look of relief on Alyssa’s expression. “Great! That’s perfect.”
That’s perfect.
I can’t help but smile at her response, taking it as a sign that she hadn’t exactly been looking forward to spending so much time alone with Van this weekend.
“Hey, if you ever want to come over to my room, just to compare notes or whatever, my door’s always open—” I start, feeling a grin already spreading across my features.
And Alyssa backs away from me in return. “Uh… yeah. I’ll see you around, Rhys.”
“Right. I’ll see you around.” I offer her a casual wave as she heads down a different fork of the hallway, and everything in me beginning to fold like a house of cards.
* * *
“Doyou think this whole thing is cheaper than just going to therapy?” Cameron ponders out loud while we’re sitting in on one of the afternoon’s songwriting sessions.
I hear every word he’s saying, but it’s going in one ear and out the other, my attention lingering on Van and Alyssa sitting on the other side of the room, their heads so close together they might as well be making out in front of me. They’ve been laughing and smiling at each other ever since the session started, with Alyssa seeming to playfully doodle something on Van’s lyric sheet whenever he’d looked up at the main speaker.
And I roll my eyes at their very public displays of affection, wondering just how long Alyssa has had a crush on Van, how long she’s been vying for some of his attention. It’s aggravating every part of me, having to pretend like I don’t want to go over to their table and sweep Alyssa right off her feet, get her to take me back right before taking her up to my hotel room.
“…What the hell are you doing here?” Van is now standing right in front of our table, peering down at Cam and me with fire behind his eyes.
Shit.
I must’ve been so taken with daydreaming about what I wanted to do with Alyssa that I hadn’t noticed him walk over to us.
“I’m just here for the songwriting sessions—” I lie.
