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He raised his hands to either side. "I confess I like strawberry flavored milk."
I grimaced. I should have known he wasn't perfect. I'd never been a fan of strawberry flavored anything except strawberries.
"Let me guess, you prefer chocolate or coffee flavored?" he asked.
"And caramel," I agreed. I closed my eyes for a moment. "I didn't bring you here to talk about milk." Maybe it was better if I kept my eyes closed. He was so ridiculously hot it was distracting.
"If you wanted to yell at me again for the guys finding out—"
I opened my eyes and shook my head. "That's not what this is about." What was it about? I wasn't sure if I knew what I wanted to say. Just that I needed to say something.
"I talked to Roman," I started.
Axel looked at me sideways. "About us? After how upset you got about the guys?"
My heart raced a little faster. "I know it might seem a bit hypocritical."
"Just a little bit," he said carefully. "I thought you wanted to be a state secret or something. Then the minute you touched down in Vancouver you went and told our manager. Did you bring me here to confess?"
My mouth was dry. "If you need me to, then yes. But I only told him because he would have found out some other way and I didn't want him taken by surprise."
"Right," Axel said slowly. "We might as well tell everyone then. Then no one will be surprised." He didn't look angry, not exactly. He seemed more like he wanted this sorted out and put to rest.
"That won't help the situation," I said.
He threw up his hands. "Well then, what will? Just tell me and I'll do it. Whatever it is. I want to make things right between us. I can't go back in time and undo what we did, but we can make amends, can't we?"
"That's what I came here to say," I said.
"You came here to say you want me to go back in time and fix things?" He smiled.
I snorted a laugh. "No." If I could, would I want him to do that anyway? That night was amazing. I didn't want to think of it as something bad. Something to be erased from the timeline. I’d seen enough movies to know it was a bad idea anyway. We might end up never existing in the first place.
I thought for a few moments. "This would be easier if we were regular people. I mean, if we were both regular people."
"You can't help being extraordinary," he said. "Are you worried I can't meet your standards?"
I laughed out loud at that. "I meant I'm the regular one, and you know it."
"Would it help if I quit the band and became a janitor?" He leaned against the wall and crossed his arms over his muscular chest.
"I mean, it might," I said jokingly. Of course, there was nothing wrong with being a janitor but if he quit the band he wouldn't need to get another job. Unless he wanted to clean just for fulfillment. I wouldn't judge him if he did. People did worse things to make themselves feel good.
He laughed. "I meant it when I said you weren't a regular girl, and maybe I'm not a regular guy in your sense of the word. But mostly I'm just ordinary, old Axel Gregory. Just a guy who joined a band in high school and got a bit lucky and a bit successful."
"A lot successful and it was hard work," I said firmly. I didn't think he could ever be ordinary, but I wasn't going to argue with him. I knew what he was trying to say. He wasn't an arrogant, big headed jerk like a lot of other people became when they got famous. He was pretty normal, for a guy who drank strawberry milk.
"That describes you too," he said. "I bet you worked on the flight over, didn't you?"
I opened my mouth to deny it, but since I couldn't, I nodded instead. "What else am I going to do while sitting in a seat for hours?"
"Read a book? Watch a movie? Contemplate the meaning of life?" He shrugged. "Think up new and creative ways to insult Strike and annoy Cord?"
"If I wanted to lose my job, that would be one way to do it," I said. "But if I did, I'd be very creative." I could think of a few appropriate words for Strike right now, even though it wasn't his fault he was astute.
He laughed. "Of course you would. But we don't want you to get fired. Although, I think both of them have thicker skin than that." He frowned briefly. "Maybe."
I smiled. "Yeah." I supposed I should get to the point. "I don't regret the other night. I'm sorry I got angry with you and didn't listen when you tried to talk to me in the airport.” I should have, but I wasn’t thinking straight at the time.
