“Woo!” I screamed. “Oh my god. That was amazing! I danced onstage with Monica freaking Moore. That was everything!”
“And you did such an awesome job, she wants you to go on tour with her!”
I waved a hand. “Well, no job offers were made. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.”
“What’s to get ahead of? Her tour manager wants you to call him. What do you think that means?”
“That I’m going to call him tomorrow. Seriously, Ben, you gotta slow your roll. Unless I have a signed contract in hand, I’m not going to count on anything.”
“He’ll offer you the job. Trust me.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “Why? Because you have contacts you haven’t really told me about?”
“I…”
“You’re on a first name basis with Monica freaking Moore? What is even going on?” I paused for a second then sucked in a breath. “Did you set this up? Are you the reason she pulled me onstage?”
“What? No. I don’t know Monica that well. I might’ve sorta kinda dated one of her friends a few years back. But I hardly know Monica.”
I took in his baffled expression and the possible twinge of hurt in his eyes, and I winced. “Sorry. I just, I didn’t know what to think. You got us spots centerstage at a gen admin concert, and then she acted like she knew you…” I trailed off and shrugged helplessly. “Nothing this amazing ever happens to me.Ever. And I guess I assumed it wouldn’t have happened because of anything I did.”
“Of course it happened because of you. You were amazing up there. You were all I could look at.” The expression in Ben’s eyes had me catching my breath.
I wrapped my arms around him and kissed him again. I tried to put all the emotions vibrating through me into the kiss. I was on such a high I didn’t know when or if I’d ever come back down.
But then Ben’s stomach rumbled, breaking the moment and making us both crack up.
“Come on.” I grabbed his hand and pulled him away. “Let’s get some fuel in you.”
Chapter 9
This time, we hit up the gourmet grilled cheese truck and gorged ourselves on yummy Oregon cheese. But we were responsible adults and got salads for the side instead of the mouthwatering loaded tots I saw most people leaving the truck with.
Since almost everyone was super excited about Shawn Reyes performing on the floating stage, there were more than enough available tables in the dining area. Ben and I sat near Roscoe’s watchful eye in the beer line while a few guys who’d been standing next to us at Monica’s show took the other end of the table.
Kinda weird they followed us over, but whatever.
“Do you know, I just realized I don’t even know your last name?” I asked just before I took a big bite of my sandwich.
A guy at the end of the table choked and coughed loudly. I sent him a concerned look, but he waved a hand, indicating he was fine. I looked back at Ben and raised my eyebrows.
But he was still staring at the coughing guy…and it was starting to feel awkward. Why was he glaring at the guy?
“Ben?” I asked. “Everything okay?”
“Yeah.” He turned back to me and cleared his throat. “It’s Bellomo. My family’s Italian.”
“Your parents named you Ben Bellomo? That’s…a choice.” I couldn’t resist the urge to tease him. He was cute enough to pull it off. And he probably used a stage name.
Ben rolled his eyes. “Not officially. Ben is technically a nickname. It’s short for—”
“Benjamin,” I cut in. Everyone knew that. “I can see that. Benjamin Bellomo. Huh. And I can totally see the Italian in you. I should’ve guessed.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” He grinned back at me like he knew what I was going to say but wanted the praise.
So I zagged in a different direction. “You’re just so expressive and talkative.”
I was kidding. Getting the guy to talk about himself was like pulling teeth.
