I snatch the belt, drag it across my chest, and snap it in place. “I can hear my dad now. ‘Who can I get to wheel a liquor cart into the lobby for me and my D-bag friends?’”I bark out an ugly chuckle. “‘What do you say, son?I’ll slip you a twenty.’”
As Janis backs out of the stall, I recall something. “Why’d you call me captain?”
She fiddles with the rearview mirror. “Cheer captain.”
“Huh. Yeah, what a piece of work Mr. Kyler Ray is. What kind of smug-faced lunatic—”
“Brinley,” Janie interrupts. “You don’t care about your dumb distant family, okay? So stop talking about them and tell me why you left Dawson out there on that stage.”
“Ah,” I squeak. “That situation is justrich!”
“Is it?”
“Oh, it is, little Missy. You just wait. As soon as I stepped out of the dressing room, Dawson met me in the walkway. Then his PR rep joins us and apologizes to me for giving Dawson a heads up and says he hopes I’m not mad.”
“A heads up about tonight’s ceremony?”
“Yep.”
“What does that have to do withDawson?”Janis blurts. “So his PR told him. Big deal. What was he supposed to do? Speak up and tell you the surprise has been ruined?”
“Well, yeah,” I say. “Obviously. The whole point of this thing was to see if he was willing to live up to his word and miss the stupid ceremony like he said he would.”
“No,” Janis corrects me as she rolls down her window at the ticket booth. She waves her card, and the striped bar moves up. “That wasn’t the whole point, Brinley. The point of the show was to give your relationship a second chance. Why are you complicating it?”
“I’m not. And did you know that Dawson never even told me that freaking Buffy was in the docuseries with him?”
“Whywouldhe?” Janis is changing lanes and weaving through LA traffic like a stuntwoman on steroids. “Because it’s some deep, dark secret that could ruin your future with him?”
My mouth is open and ready for combat but I’m suddenly out of ammo. I grasp onto a possible comeback, but even as I form the phrase in my mind, I know it’s more like a Nerf dart than a real bullet. Still, it’s all I have.
“Well did you miss the way Buffy went on and on about kissing him?NowI’m stuck wondering if they hooked up during the filming of the series.”
Janis tosses a hand in the air before regripping the wheel. “Who cares if theywerehooking up during that time? He’s making it pretty clear who he wants right now, and that’syou.Unless you’ve scared him away with all your paranoia.”
I glare at her. “You’re supposed to have my back, here.”
“I do have your back.”
I shake my head. “Friends are supposed to…”
“To what? Tell you you’re right even if you’re wrong? Friends don’t let friends act like fools. Trust me, I’m being your friend.”
I clench my teeth and pull an infuriated breath through my nose. I’m too ticked off to say one more word. Not even when she takes an unexpected exit off the freeway and veers into an unknown neighborhood. It’s dark out, so it’s a while before I realize she’s taking me back to the house.
It’s not what I wanted or hoped for since I can’t imagine looking Dawson in the face anytime soon, but I want my cats, so I stay quiet. Once she pulls into the driveway, I pry open the door and climb out.
“Can I get my cats and—”
“No,” Janis says, cutting me off. “You can’t just back out of the contract, Brinley, you have a business to protect.”
What I really hear iswehave a business to protect since it’s half hers.
“But what matters more than that, is that you have a pretty incredible man who wants to be part of your life. You wanted him to cut open his own hand and show you he bleeds red? What do you think going on this show was? If you can’t see that for yourself, he’s better off without you.”
She reaches across the car and pulls the door closed herself. With that, Janis backs out of the driveway. “And hey,” she shouts out her window. “I suggest you take a minute to watch the docuseries. It’s like you don’t even know who he is.”
“Don’t even know who he is,” I grumble. “I’mthe one who spent the last five days with him, don’t tellmeI don’t know who he is.”
