“No? So what did it make you think?”
“That I’d pulled an alpha wolf’s tail and I was about to get killed. Shay, I don’t know where you’ve been your whole life—actually, I do, but that’s not the point.”
“Then what is the point?”
Jumbo fixed Shay with a level stare. “Basically, mate, there’s no way Ollie wanted to punch my lights out for his benefit. He wanted to hurt me because I hurt you, and if that doesn’t mean something, I’ll eat my fucking shoe.”
* * *
Newcastle wasshit. The venue was shit, the food was shit, and to top it off, Corina had ripped them all a new one so deep Shay didn’t know how they’d made it out of the dressing room alive.
He retreated to a quiet corner with the worst chicken salad in the world and his phone. The temptation to stew long and hard over whether to call Ollie or not was strong, so he bit the bullet and called before it took hold.
Ollie didn’t answer.
Depressed, Shay ate as much of the bad salad as he could stomach and then drifted off to find an instrument to pour his extra feelings into. It was a thing. It had always beenhisthing. He found a mandolin and an empty room and locked himself away, but the melancholy tunes he was searching for wouldn’t come.
Bright chords filled the room, attacking Shay from every corner. Every stroke of his fingers across the strings made him cringe, but he couldn’t seem to stop. He stomped his foot on a wooden desk, and played and played and played, and just when he feared his brain would explode, his phone rang.
Startled, Shay whirled around, searching for where he’d discarded it in favour of the mandolin. It was on the windowsill. He made a grab for it just as it rang out.
Ollie.
Fuck.
Shay called him right back, praying he’d answer.
He did. “Yeah?”
Thank God. Relief swept over Shay, and he swayed on his feet. “You answered.”
“Um… why wouldn’t I?”
“Because I’m a drama queen?”
“Are you?”
“Yes. No. Fuck off.”
“You called me.”
“You called me first.”
“Nope. You rang me while I was losing my mind in a taxi. I reckoned I’d wait until I’d had a few smokes before I called back. Sorry I kept you hanging.”
Shay sat down abruptly on a hard plastic chair. “Shit, I’m sorry. Was the journey really bad?”
“Yeah. Cars are the worst for me. Believe it or not, I actually do okay on the bus compared to this.”
“I wish you’d tell me why.”
“So do I, mate.”
“Really?”
Ollie sighed. “Of course I do. I’m not hiding my whole self from you on purpose. It’s just when I try and bring stuff together to talk about it, nothing comes out.”
It was coming out now, whether Ollie realised it or not. Perhaps he was too rattled to filter himself. Or maybe he’d simply given up trying. Whatever. Shay sucked up every stray revelation and stashed it away. “I’m so sorry you had to do this. Jumbo apologised to me on the way here. He’s a twat, but he doesn’t mean to be. I think he’s been partying too hard.”
