“Really? You’re telling me you’re not the one who got away.”
Jean made it sound like he’d tried to sell her an acre of swamp. “Listen.” He stepped closer and was immediately distracted. “Is that a new perfume?”
“More of an essential oil. Keep talking.”
“Okay.” Charlie sighed, wishing he could say something that would paint him in a better light. “We barely dated. A couple of dinners, a baseball game, and then that one beach where everyone lifts weights and rollerblades. I got a sunburn.” It felt like his skin had shrunk a size, even before it started peeling. His most vivid memory of that time was an itchy discomfort verging on physical pain.
“There are like a million pictures of the two of you together. And she’s wearing different outfits.”
“She changes clothes a lot. If they spot her in a dress, she can put on jeans to sneak out the back.”
“Sounds exhausting.”
That was an understatement. “We never even slept together. In case you were wondering.”
“Do I strike you as a prude?”
He shook his head. “Because we didn’t know each other that well. That’s what I’m trying to tell you. Plus I panicked.”
“About having sex with a pop star?”
“All of it. Camera flashes and people yelling, like they’re mad at you. It was a nightmare, only you were never going to wake up.” Maybe that made him weak, but he didn’t want to lie to Jean about who he was. “That’s what she was apologizing for. She was sorry about how it changed my life. The attention that came with being in her orbit.”
“So you told her you couldn’t take it and that was the end?”
“Not in so many words.”
Jean looked horrified. “You ghosted her too?”
“No! I did run away. Not my finest hour. But not quite so suddenly.”
“Lucky her.”
Charlie winced. “I deserved that.”
“Maybe, maybe not. Jury’s still out. Tell me the rest.”
“There’s nothing more to tell.”
She rubbed her forehead. “I don’t get it. If you weren’t in love and you didn’t have epic sex, why did she write that song?”
“Must have been about someone else. Or she made it up. The songs can’t all be about real people.” It didn’t matter to Charlie, apart from wishing whoever it was would come forward and take the spotlight off him. “I like Adriana. She’s a nice person. And very talented.”
“Yeah, okay. Don’t get carried away.”
“I think she might be lonely. That’s what made me feel like there was a connection, at first. Even though she’s a star and I’m just me.”
Jean frowned at him. “So she didn’t come here to win you back?”
“She never won me in the first place, Jean. Not like you.”
Her huff was skeptical. “You prefermeto Adriana Asebedo?”
“Yes! I’m not pining forher.”
“A dozen tabloids beg to differ.”
“Well, they don’t know me. I’m tellingyouthat it was never that big of a deal—for either of us. She probably thought I was a nice, boring person who didn’t have an embarrassing past, so why not? But we both figured out pretty quickly I wasn’t qualified for the job of being Adriana Asebedo’s boyfriend.”
