But they hadn’t been…them, before. She hadn’t even liked seeing Robbie and Juliet together at her album release, and that had been months ago.
Juliet’s eyebrows were furrowed, as she reached up and pressed her fingertips against her temples. Obviously not having anticipated this strong of a reaction from her. Her voice was quiet but steady – probing – as she asked, “What does it matter what it looks like to anyone else, when we both know who I’m going home to at the end of the night?”
Darcy swallowed back the bitter, burning sensation those words evoked in her. It mattered because… itmattered.
Two knocks quickly sounded on the door. “Back from lunch! Decent?” Presumably one of Juliet’s stylist team called out.
Darcy could see thenoforming on Juliet’s lips even before she shouted it, and she quickly cut her off. “Don’t. They can come in. Like you said, I’m running late for hair and makeup.”
Juliet frowned, sharply. “Darcy…”
She shook her head, forcing in a deep breath as she stopped Juliet from continuing. “We aren’t going to get to a happy medium right now.” That was the simple truth. Because Darcy knew herself, and she wasn’t going to behappyabout Robbie, no matter what. “I know that you and Robbie had your own thing going long before I came around.” Her throat felt sotight. “I’m just going to go and get ready.”
And if what she was feeling on the inside was in any way reflected on the outside, they would, indeed, have a decent amount of work to do.
Chapter Thirty-Six
Juliet and Robbiehad perfected events together. It was easy, once they’d worked out logistics. Once they’d gotten comfortable together, it was natural.
Even at their first couple of events together, though, she hadn’t felt the way she did tonight. The way she’d felt all night long.
Nearly everyone she’d spoken to had asked her how she’d liked the film, given that they’d finished the screening an hour ago.
Juliet wouldn’t know; she’d barely watched the damn movie.
How could she watch the movie when Darcy was sitting next to Kerrington Kosta?
Fine, she was also sitting next to Juliet. But Kerrington was on her other side, and Kerrington had leaned in and made comments – comments Juliet hadn’t been able to hear – several times during the movie. Darcy had laughed or nodded or leaned in and whispered something back that Juliet, again, hadn’t been able to hear.
Robbie ducked down, doing his trademark leaning-in whisper against her ear. “You’re so tense, I think you might crack in half any second now. And people can tell.”
There was a gentle warning in his tone, as if he had to warn Juliet about the tension flowing through her. As if she didn’t feel it coursing through her veins, making her feel as though she were mere seconds from turning to stone.
But how could she not be tense when she heard Darcylaughing?
Darcy’s laughter was a sound that Juliet’s impeccable hearing could pick up on from a mile away, at this point. She’d been able to pick out her laughter from a crowd even before they’d truly met. Bawdy andreal.
Darcy was standing twenty feet away,laughingat something Kerrington had said to her.
And Robbie thought Juliet didn’t know she was tense?!
“Thanks,” she muttered back, folding her arms over her chest, flicking him a glare. “I didn’t realize.”
He leaned back, holding up his hands. Quiet amusement was etched into his features. “Hey, I figured I’d tell you. Fake-boyfriend and real-friend, to fake-girlfriend.”
She tried her best, she did, to take in a deep breath, as she reached up and pinched the bridge of her nose. “Yeah. I know.”
“Incoming,” he whispered, with just the right amount of urgency that she snapped to attention and managed to swallow down the ranging, boiling emotions ready to burst out of her.
She turned, leaning slightly into him, just in time to face Nik.
“That song!” His exuberance was clear in his face, in his voice. He kissed his fingertips, throwing them into the air. “There wasn’t a dry eye in the theater. As soon as you two sent it to me, though, I knew.”
His compliment landed inside of her in a place that usually released the most serotonin through her body. Her music, her work, resonating the way Nik was saying – and it was true; she’d heard the sniffling in the audience – it had always been the thing that drove Juliet.
But this wasn’t justhermusic, it wastheirmusic.
Hers and Darcy’s, and Darcy –
