Page 55 of Ravaged By Lust

That really is it, then.

Meeting over.

* * *

I can’t recall leaving the office. I can’t recall rushing down the hallway nearly in tears. Everything is just a blur of emotions. My heart is beating super fast.

There are no two ways about it. I am a failure.

Everything hinged on that meeting, and it totally, royally screwed up.

I don’t even bother waiting for the elevator to take me downstairs; I just burst down the stairwell. Step by step by step. I need to keep moving before I collapse in on myself.

I need to get out of this building.

In the lobby, I head straight to the revolving doors that lead outside.

I need to go home. I need to get the hell out of Los Angeles.

It was a total mistake coming here. Delusions of grandeur. I should’ve listened to what my mind told me. Now it’s back to Crystal River. Back to my old job and Karen and her cigarette breaks.

As I pass through the revolving doors, I’m so emotional and trying to clench back my tears that I accidentally run straight into someone.

“Sorry…”

I mutter my apologies as they grab me by the shoulder.

I look up.

“Bishop?”

He stands above me.

“How did your meeting go?” he asks.

What’s he doing? Why is he in this building? I don’t want him to see me like this.

“Did you follow me here?”

“You look upset, Chloe.”

“That’s because that meeting went utter shit,” I reply.

And I storm right past him before he can see me cry.

19

SEVEN YEARS AGO

CHLOE

I’m queuing by the side of the makeshift stage in Crystal River High’s gymnasium, and I think I’m dangerously close to having a full-on panic attack.

Just breathe in and out, Chloe. It’s just performing. You’ve done this so many times.

Yeah. In front of my TV. Not in front of a crowd.

The gymnasium is packed full of fellow high school students. Drake is a popular guy. When people heard about him holding auditions for his new band, the entire place got filled up with eager people ready to watch their classmates fail.