“Paige is here.”
I jump up out of the chair like it just lit my ass on fire.
“What?”
“Right next door in the other office, talking to our booking agent, actually,” he continues in an even tone as he pretends to look through some papers on his desk. The fucker. “I just thought you might want to know.”
“Nabil!” I grab the papers out of his hand. “What the hell?”
“What?” He tries to feign innocence, but he can’t hide his smirk. “I just thought you two might want another chance to catch up.”
I roll the papers into a tube and hit him in the shoulder. “You get one girl’s phone number and decide it’s time to play matchmaker? I told you she doesn’t want to talk to me! It’s too late. That’s exactly what she said to me. It’s too late.”
I drop back into the chair again and can’t help glancing at the wall beside me.
She’s right behind that wall.
“Yeah, I think you might have mentioned that, I don’t know, seven times in your texts yesterday. It was kind of embarrassing.”
I give him the finger, but all he does is laugh.
“I’m just trying to help you, man. I saw you two the other night, and it isdefinitelynot too late. You guys had, like, sparks shooting out of your eyes whenever you looked at each other. It was intense.”
Intense is exactly how it felt. Even after all this time, I felt more in the first second I saw her behind the DJ booth than I have about any girl in years.
I glance at the wall again.
“You could always tell me what happened back in high school,” Nabil sing-songs. “That might help.”
I glare at him. “I’ve told you. We drifted apart. She stopped wanting me around. It just got...complicated.”
He throws his hands up in the air. “Oh! I see! Itgot complicated. Well thank you for that explanation. It clears everything up.”
“What exactly was your plan here anyway?” I ask, hoping he’ll take the bait of a subject change. “Did you expect me to just bust open the door to her booking meeting and say, ‘Fancy meeting you here?’”
“Not exactly, but now that you mention it, why don’t you go try that?”
“Because it’s stupid, Nabil! And messed up and creepy! What am I supposed to say when she asks me what I’m doing here?”
He stares at me like it should be obvious. “Fixing an electrical issue. Duh. I already gave you the excuse.” He taps the side of his head. “I’ve got some serious matchmaker skills.”
I’m pissed enough to consider asking how that worked out with his ex, but I hold back because the truth is I’m way more terrified than I am angry.
I’m terrified by how much I want to fling that door open and say something crazy. I want to demand answers, to figure out why she said what she said all those years ago.
I want to figure out why it all went wrong.
“Okay, here’s what we do.” Nabil stands up and plants his feet in front of my chair. “You go out on the stage and pretend to be fixing something. She’ll be leaving any minute now, and she’ll walk by on her way out and see you. Then you can pretend you’ve just noticed her, and boom! Conversation started.”
I glare at him. “Are we seriously going to strategize about this like teenage girls?”
“Do you have a better idea?”
I take a long breath and let it out. “No.”
