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“Paige …”
“It’s true. I should have left well enough alone, but I didn’t. And because I didn’t, I put myself through this … and you and Kim, too,” she added, then glanced around, looking for the young assistant. When she was nowhere to be found, Paige turned back to David with a questioning look.
“I sent Kim home,” he said.
“You did?”
“I thought it was for the best.”
Paige knew he was hiding something from her, mainly because he was holding her gaze toosteadily, his expression trying too hard to beThere’s absolutely nothing wrong here, and you should totally move on as fast as you can. “Why was it for the best? What aren’t you telling me?”
Reluctantly, he filled her in on what had happened, and she sat there, horrified. “Oh, my God. Here I was thinking that during flashbacks, I just zoned out like I was in a creepy trance or something, but apparently I can be violent, too.”
“It’s not like you just attacked us or anything, without, you know, provocation—”
“Provocation?”
“Yeah. If neither one of us had touched you, you would’ve just stayed in your, um, creepy trance until you were done, I guess, and nothing would have happened.”
“So, Idogo into a creepy trance?”
“Sort of. It’s notsupercreepy, though. You just get really still … and stare a little bit.”
Paige closed her eyes for a moment. “I can’t believe I slapped Kim and yelled at her. Are you sure I didn’t hurt her?”
“I’m sure. She was more surprised than anything, and I yell at her all the time, so … you don’t need to worry about that, either.”
“You yell at her to get her fucking hands off you?”
“Well, no. But the other morning I yelled at her for … being late.”
He was obviously making that up, in an attempt to lighten the moment, and she shook her head at him. “Don’t try and make this less than what it was. I could have really hurt her while I was in my creepy flashback trance without being aware of it, and that’s scary as shit to me. Hell, I really hurtyou, and you’re a grown man—”
“I’m not going to lie, because, yes, it did hurt, but you didn’t hurt me that badly. And I brought it on myself. I knew you weren’t … aware … for lack of a better word, and I went in, anyway. It was stupid, because I’d seen you react to Kim, and instead of giving you space, I crowded you, and put my hands on you when I shouldn’t have.”
His words barely made a dent in how bad Paige felt. “First thing tomorrow, I need to explain what happened and apologize to her.”
“Actually, I’m still here,” Kim said from the doorway.
They both turned to look as she approached. As Kim got within a few feet, she said, “I heard everything, so there’s no need to explain. A pervert named Carter took some really fucking shady pictures of you when you were younger—and probably did worse—so you decided to have your fiancé—” she cut a glance over to David, “—who has a killer tattoo of you on his back, by the way, take some boudoir shots, only to have that kind of fall apart. Is that the gist?”
Paige nodded, and David, who was now painfully aware he was shirtless in front of his assistant, knew that short of putting on the one with snot on it, he was going to have to remain that way.
“However, there is a need for an apology,” Kim continued. “Not for slapping at me and yelling because I’m a big girl and I can handle it, especially since I know it wasn’t really directed at me and you didn’t know what you were doing. The apology should be for keeping your back story on the down low, because that was information which needed to be shared.”
“You’re right. It was, but I just wanted to be treated like a normal person during the shoot,” Paige explained softly.
“But you’renotnormal. And I don’t mean that in a bad way,” Kim said. “I just mean there would’ve been certain considerations made for you. I wouldn’t have been so ‘hands-on’, obviously, and I would’ve definitely been checking in with you to make sure you were okay. If those considerations had been made, this photo shoot would’ve gonemuch differently.”
“I know. It wasn’t fair to you—”
“It wasn’t fair toyou, either, because now you have a bad experience to deal with, and you probably didn’t need another one of those.”
“I really am sorry, Kim. For everything.”
“Apology accepted.” Kim said with a sympathetic smile. “Now then, I’m going to go home—for real this time. Paige, please be well, and try and let the worst part of this day go, and focus on the best part of it, which was getting to meet me.”
Paige chuckled softly at that.
