I looked at him, waiting forwhatever it was he was about to say.
“You won’t lose everything,”he promised. “Worst case scenario, I’d love to show you Sacramento, and there’splenty of room in my apartment. Well. Plenty of room for you, anyway. I could…you could… if you needed somewhere to go…”
My eyes stung, tearsthreatening to spill over again.
I nodded, not sure what elseto say. Fox was offering me what felt like the world.Hisworld.
But it wasn’tmyworld, and Iwasn’tsure I’d ever be happy in it. Not after everything I’d been through to gethere.
I slipped around the corner,not giving him a definitive answer one way or another and hating myself for it.When I’dasked Fox to come away withme, he’d agreed without a second thought.
Now that he was offering totake me away with him, I’d frozen up.
Maybe it wouldn’t matter. MaybeUncle Vincent would help me talk my way out of this, rescue my career, and Iwouldn’t have to worry about what came next, or disappointing my parents, orlosing everything I’d turned myself inside-out working for.
There was only one way to findout.
***
John Collins’ office was onthe fifth floor of the Harmony Records building. Since there were ten floors, Ifigured he was about halfway up the career ladder within the company.
Which, aside from everythingelse going on today, was a little insulting.
I wasn’t importantenough to send someone important to deal with me. I was replaceable.
That was the thought Icouldn’tget out of my head as I walked through the lobby, sticking as close to Fox as Icould without holding his hand. There were a whole crowd of young hopefulsbeing fussed over by their parents-slash-managers, having their hair tuckedbehind their ears and being coached on what to say once they got to their ownmeetings.
I’d been one of them once.
And any one of them would behappy to take my place. Plenty of them deserved it, and so did hundreds ofother people who weren’t in the lobby right this minute.
It was a miracle I’d been allowedas many screw-ups as I had.
“I’ll do all the talking, ifyou like,” Fox offered as the elevator doors closed behind us—by some miracle,we’d managed to get an elevator to ourselves.
The miracle, I suspected,was Fox glaring at anyone else who approached.
“I… I don’t… I feel like Ineed to handle this myself,” I said.
And Ididfeel thatway, but I would have loved to hand it over to someone else. I would have givenmore or less anything not to have to do this.
Fox’s fingers brushed againstmine, curling around my hand and giving it a quick squeeze before the elevatordoors opened again and I pulled my hand away, afraid of anyone seeing.
Doing it made my stomachdrop to somewhere around my knees, but I knew I had to. The last thing I neededwas to get myself in anymoretrouble today.
We walked in silence to John’s office, theecho of our footsteps pounding on the inside of my skull as I looked at eachone of a dozen identical brass nameplates before finding one that readJohn Collins.
“Quinn,” Fox said as Ireached out for the door handle, making me pause. “I…” he continued. “Quinn, I…I think you should know… umm. I’m not very good at this. But. Whatever happens,you should know that I—”
The door opening in front ofus cut whatever Fox had been about to say off, my uncle staring me down with ascowl so deep parts of his face would have been harder to see than the bottomof the Mariana Trench.
“You’re late,” he said,holding the door open and ushering me through.
John, Dwayne, and UncleVincent all had their eyes on me.
If a hole to anotherdimension had opened up in the floor, I would’ve jumped through itwithout a second thought. I wanted to beanywherebut here rightnow.
Even the warmth of Fox’s body at my backwasn’t enough to make me feel anything short of terrified. My stomach was inknots, and it was taking all my willpower not to rub it anxiously.
