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“But you do now?!”
“I’m just being careful.” We stare at each other. “For you!”
She grabs her head. “Logan, that is crazy!” Running up to me, she demands, “What is wrong with you lately? Why do you hate him so much? Nobody would purposefully hurt someone like that just to forward the career of someone they like! He wouldn’t have done that for me. It’s just not possible. I can’t believe that about anyone!”
“Marion said she might have done it, had she been him.”
Sam blinks, first baffled, now disgusted. “I don’t want to hear this. That’s not a world I want to live in.”
“Me neither, Sam, but it’s the world we’re in.” Grabbing her hands so she’ll stop pacing, I tell her, “If we’re going to survive on Broadway, we have to get thicker skins. You can’t live in a bubble anymore. Some people are going to be vicious. You have to watch your back. A friend might stab you just because you become successful and they want what you have. Jealousy is rampant in the theater. You should have seen the look in Galloway’s eyes when she warned me that the higher you go, the more brutal it gets.”
Samantha yanks her hands away. “I don’t want that!”
“Then look at Asher with your eyes open, for your own safety.”
She slowly shakes her head. “He didn’t drop Marion on purpose. No way. I’ve looked into his soul on that stage, Logan. It’s not evil. I would be able to tell.” She passes me for the door.
I block it. “Sam, I love you.”
My heart stops.
I didn’t mean to say that.
I wish to God I could take it back.
From the look in her eyes…
She loves me, too.
As a friend.
“Logan!” she softens and wilts, touching my chest and retrieving her hand like she doesn’t want to lead me on. “Don’t say that. You don’t mean it.”
I laugh, “I don’t?”
“We’re like brother and sister, Logan. You’re just confused.”
Chewing my lip as anger grows, I sneer, “Go to him, then. Go to the guy who gave you your big break.” I emphasize the double entendre of the final word.
Sam shakes her head, tears gathering. “Don’t be like that. You’re hurting me.”
There’s a fist around my heart, twisting it as I turn my back on her. “Why are you still here?”
She meets my eyes in the reflection, fumbles with the old, silver doorknob and runs out.
I grab the vase of roses that Stuart Rogess sent me as congratulations. They crash against the wall, water and shards spinning through the air.
I grab a lamp from the antique dresser in the corner, and break that, too.
The table gets overturned.
The dresser, as I roar with fury.
A few singers fly into my doorway, “You alright, Logan?”
“Get out of here!”
Nobody hesitates.
Galloway walks in. “Does this mean you’re coming with us?”
I snarl at her, “Didn’t I say I was?”
She smiles, “You just did.”
