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Holding up one hand, she says, “Nope. None of that matters and dwelling on it won’t fix anything. It’ll just rob us of time we don’t have.”
“Can I at least ask if your family has been giving you a hard time?”
“They’ve been surprisingly supportive. Except my idiot brother-in-law who thinks the whole thing is hilarious. And my dad, who threw out the pepper mill.”
“Seriously?”
“Yeah, supper was on the bland side last night, but it doesn’t matter. We need to get this done.”
“Allie, I’m really sorry?—”
“Don’t be. It wasn’t your fault that some thimble-headed douche decided to record what should have been a private moment and posted it for the world to see.”
“But it is my fault. I know people are watching me. I just … momentarily forgot.”
“Who would think someone at the opera would do something so low?” she asks, looking completely disgusted. “The opera?”
“There are assholes literally everywhere.”
“Yeah, well they can suck it,” she says. “And so can all those trolls and half your fans who very clearly have an unhealthy obsession with you.”
“Yes, they can. They can all suck it,” I answer, glad to see her looking angry instead of hurt.
“And I take back what I said about Ferris Biltmore being hilarious, because he’s actually really awful. And I feel bad that I ever watched his videos to begin with because I now realize that every time he’s doing that, a real human being is getting hurt.”
“I wish he would stop. Or at least move on to someone else. And I’m sorry that you got caught up in this whole thing because the last thing I intended was for you to get hurt. I wanted to take you out and give you the kind of night you deserve.”
She tilts her head, then says, “It really started out that way. Things just kind of … spun out of control in a very big way.”
“They really did.”
We stare at each other for a second too long, then she clears her throat and looks away. “Okay, good. Now that we got that out of the way, let’s get back to stellar evolution because there’s no way I can let you leave here without knowing that.”
“For what it’s worth, I’m not sorry I kissed you. I’m just sorry that it all blew up.”
Her cheeks turn pink and she looks back down at the book. “So, stars are formed from clouds of dust and gas as they collapse.”
“It’s kind of disappointing, isn’t it?”
“That things blew up?” she asks, scrunching up her nose a little. “Yes, I mean, obviously it’s not how I thought the night would end.”
“I was talking about the stars,” I answer. “But out of curiosity, how did you think the night would end?”
Her entire face turns red and she glances at the ceiling. “I refuse to answer that question on the grounds of trying to salvage a professional relationship.”
Grinning, I say, “Come on, you can’t just leave me hanging like that.”
Clearing her throat, she says, “I most certainly can. Now, what exactly is so disappointing about stars?”
“You’re not going to tell me, are you?” I ask, two parts turned on and one part horribly disappointed that whatever she had in that beautiful mind of hers is never going to happen.
“Definitely not.” She taps her textbook with her index finger. “Back to stellar evolution. You were talking about how disappointing the billions of stars are, which, quite frankly is unimaginable to me.”
“It’s just that all those bright, twinkly stars are just big balls of dust and gas.”
She gives me a hint of a wry smile. “Yeah, kind of like the ones from Hollywood.”
“You are mad.”
