“I had to set the record straight. I promised Andrew I would tell you why he didn’t show up. I feel bad that I didn’t tell you before . . .” Skye shook her head. “It’s okay because you’re going to handle this. Right?”
“Right,” Paige said, her own voice sounding foreign to her ears.
“Talk to you later. I’ll be in touch.”
Paige watched Skye leave. She’d made a lot of mistakes in her life, most she recovered from. But this . . . Skye had said it was never too late, but this might be another thing her publicist was wrong about. Because Paige wondered if she could really fix it.
Chapter Nineteen
“Tequila, huh?”
Andrew glared at X, who’d seemingly appeared out of nowhere. Or maybe that fifth shot had made him appear? Either way, he didn’t want to talk to anyone—real or imagined. He turned back to the line of shots he’d ordered at his favorite sports bar.
When he’d arrived a little over an hour ago, he’d ordered six shots of Patrón. One for every hour since he’d seen Paige. And he planned to make the most out of this last one. Picking it up, he tossed it back enjoying the burn as the liquor worked its way down his throat and settled in his gut.
Maybe he’d be numb after this one, maybe he’d be able to forget about the way Paige had slammed the door in his face again.
“Drew?” Real—or faux—X called. “Bruh?”
Andrew glanced at his friend. He decided he wasn’t so drunk that he’d conjured up X. Because if he could materialize anyone, it wouldn’t be Xavier Starks. It would Paige. “What are doing here?”
“Skye sent me.”
Grumbling a curse, he waved the bartender over. “I don’t even want to think about how Skye knows where I am right now.” The publicist to the stars always seemed to know where everyone was.
“Well, she didn’t. She just told me you might need company. And since I know you, and I know this is your favorite spot, I came here.” X slid onto the barstool across from Andrew and ordered a drink.
“No tequila?” Andrew asked.
X shook his head. “Nah, man. If I come home with that Patrón in me, Zara will kick my ass out—aftershe kicks my ass.”
“Knowing Zara, she would beat you down,” Andrew said with a chuckle.
“It’s all love, though. Even before we got together, she would always tell me like it is.”
Andrew sighed. Although his relationship with Paige was technically new, he thought they’d passed the point of no return, the point where he’d started to think about forever.
The fact that Paige had fired him—as her agentandher boyfriend—still stung. She’d just let him go, without letting him explain, without even asking him why he didn’t come. Paige had come up with reasons in her head that seemed legitimate enough to cut him out of her life completely.
Tread lightly. Connor’s words were stuck on repeat in his head. His brother had warned him about rushing this, about moving too fast. And her reaction had proven him right.
“What happened, bruh?” Xavier said, pulling him from his thoughts.
Shaking his head, Andrew thought about how to answer that question. Because he didn’t know what happened. He suspected, but all he really knew was she was done with him. Even still, he told X the facts, starting from his mother reinjuring herself and ending with the slammed door in his face.
“Damn,” X said, taking a sip of his drink. “This probably won’t make you feel better, but Skye was right. You shouldn’t have been there.”
Andrew snorted. “Yeah, well . . . there’s that.”
Skyewasright. She did what any publicist would have done in the same situation—protect her client from negative press. Ultimately, that’s why Andrew didn’t go to the studio. And after Vonda told him what had happened on set, he knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that he would be in jail if he’d been there, charged with assault on Wendell Wilson.
Yet, even though Skye had been right about that, she was wrong about her assertion that he shouldn’t contact Paige until after the taping. Andrew shouldn’t have listened to her. Heshouldhave called Paige, despite what Skye had said.
Andrew imagined Paige looking for him, he imagined her mind running wild with theories about where he was, trying to figure out why he wasn’t there. He hated that he’d gone against his instinct to call her, to at least tell her why he couldn’t be with her at the studio.
“If I had just called her, this might not have happened,” Andrew said. “Because all she knew was that I wasn’t returning her calls or her texts. All she knew was that I broke a promise to her. She didn’t even know about Mom.”
“Paige has been in the business for a long time, Drew.” X finished his drink. “She knows how it works.”
