“Hey,” he said, his voice low.
“What are you doing here?” she asked, skipping the pleasantries. Because she felt anything but pleasant right now.
“Came to check on you.”
“Really? Why?”
He frowned. “Why wouldn’t I?”
Is he really going to act like he didn’t basically ignore me the entire day? Counting to ten, Paige said, “I’m busy.”
“Vonda told me about the interview,” he said. “What happened?”
“What happened?” she asked incredulously. “Where the hell have you been, Andrew?”
He blinked. “What do you mean? Did you talk to Skye?”
“What does Skye have to do with this?” she yelled. “You know what? Just go. You obviously have better things to do than be here with me.”
“Paige, what—?”
She held up a hand. “Stop.” Snickering, she rushed on, “That interview was terrible. But what was worse? You weren’t there. I don’t know why I’m so upset. It’s not like you haven’t done this before.”
Paige had stupidly let her guard down.Again. She’d trusted a man, she’d trusted Andrew, to do right by her.Again. And now she was forced to pick up the pieces of her broken heart.Again.
“I don’t know why I thought things would be different. My fault for trusting you. I won’t make the same mistake anymore. I’m not going to letanyman hurt me like this again. And I’m never going to give another person the chance to break a promise to me.”
“Oh, okay.” Andrew sighed. “So you’re just not going to let me talk to you, to explain what happened?”
“The only thing I need to know is that you weren’t there, after you promised me you would be there.”
“What if I had an emergency?” he asked. “You’re not the only one that’s going through shit, Paige.”
Paige wavered a bit, because she did know that he’d been dealing with his mother.Is Connie okay?“Did you have an emergency? Is it your mother?” she asked, trying not to pay attention to the hope that fluttered in her chest at the thought that hedidhave a good reason to be absent.
“She’s okay.”
“Good. I’m so happy to hear that.” She let out a sigh of relief. “Were you still in Detroit? Is that why you weren’t here?”
He dropped his head. “No, but—”
That slight hope faded away with his admission, and anger took over again. “Okay, then. It doesn’t matter anymore, anyway.”
“Paige, can I come in so we can talk about this? Obviously, there’s been a misunderstanding.”
“No, I understand completely.” She took a deep breath. “Wecould’vetalked about it had you called me back, texted me . . . anything. But you didn’t. And I’m done.”
“Is this where we’re at now?” He met her gaze again. “Me begging you to let me in—literally and figuratively—and you slamming the door in my face again.”
“Oh, I haven’t slammed the door in your face yet,” she said. “I have one more thing to say to you. You’re fired.”
Thenshe slammed the door—in his face.
* * *
“Thanks for answering the door,” Skye said, grinning at Paige. “I thought you were going to just let me stand out here looking stupid.”
Paige stared at her publicist. “Honestly, I wasn’t going to answer it.” She held the door open and let Skye in.
