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Her head falls to the side an inch. “My situation?”
I sigh. “Yes. I didn’t know about your husband. I’m…sorry.”
“So if you’d known my husband was dead, you wouldn’t have acted like a prick?” She says it quietly to ensure the kids around us don’t hear.
This is not at all how I envisioned this going, and now I wish I’d just kept my distance.
“No. I mean, yes.” I’m stumbling all over myself.What is it about this woman?“I just mean, I think I gave you the wrong impression.” I glance around again, relieved to see everyone is still going about their business. “Your husband was right. You’re clearly very talented. You should definitely do something with it.”
She glares.Why is she glaring at me?
“Becauseclearly,I can’t possibly already be doing anything of value?”
I set my hands on my hips while my eyes find the floor, trying to understand why this is so difficult and why everything thatseems to come out of my mouth isn’t even remotely close to the apology I was hoping for. Something about this woman jumbles my thoughts and twists my tongue. Everything I want to say remains unsaid, while everything I do say gets misinterpreted.
She leans in a little closer, and that same calming, distinctive scent that filled the elevator wafts to my nostrils. It’s contradictory. I’ve never smelled anything like it, and although this is not the time to notice, I like it. It’s unique and completely…her.
It’s her turn to survey our surroundings before her eyes return to me.
“It might come as a surprise to you, but not everyone needs a spotlight or have their face on the front of a cereal box to feel like they’ve made it in life. Some people are very happy living a mundane, ordinary, everyday life. People who work hard and try to do good with what they have.” She takes a breath, her bright green eyes boring into mine. “Maybe if you climb off your high horse for just a second, you’d see that your whole world is just shallow enough for your presumptuous pompous ass.”
I’m left speechless as I feel an arm snake around my waist.
“Hey, babe.” Morgan snuggles in next to me.
I try to make sense of how all of this went so wrong while figuring out why in the hell Morgan is here. We broke up. Weeks ago.
“Wasn’t she amazing earlier?” Morgan beams up at me. “I was telling her that she should be headlining a tour.”
My eyes turn back to the green ones across from me, and the fire in them still burns. “Yes. She was, but I don’t think headlining a tour is her calling.”
I search her eyes to see if I can find what I’m missing. I know I wasn’t the most courteous or charming version of myself during our time together. I have a feeling there’s more to this than mylack of being personable, and for some reason, I want to know what it is.
“Excuse me.” A tiny voice comes from down low.
We all turn to see a little girl standing, shyly peering up at Andie.
Andie immediately crouches down next to the girl. “Hi.”
The little girl looks around at all the people before leaning closer to Andie. “Don’t tell all these big guys, but I want to be just like you when I grow up.”
Andie smiles, and it’s genuine and striking. “Well, you are way too cute to want to be like these tough guys, but you know what I think?” She grabs the little girl's hand and places it between hers. “I think you shouldn’t want to be anyone other than yourself. God made you very special and needs you to be exactly who you are. Nobody else. Ok?”
The little girl smiles and nods. “I like your shoes.”
Andie looks down at her feet. “Thank you. They’re kind of my favorite. Someone I love very much gave them to me. Do you want to help me play a song?”
“Yeah!” she says with a toothless grin.
“Ok. Let’s go show them what we’ve got.” Andie stands, still holding the girl's hand, and turns back to Morgan and me. “If you’ll excuse us. It was nice meeting you.” Her eyes meet mine. “Good luck with things.”
We watch as she sits at the piano, and the little girl scoots beside her.
“What was that all about?” Morgan asks.
“Nothing. What are you doing here?” I don’t even try to hide my irritation.
Morgan pulls away from me. She’s wearing my oversized jersey that barely covers her. It’s falling off one shoulder and has nothing else on except thigh-high black boots. There was a timewhen this wouldn’t have bothered me, but in a room full of kids, I can’t help but feel it’s entirely inappropriate.
