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“What isn’t?” Delphine asked, sounding surprised.
“Cornering my girl in the restroom. How could you stoop so low?”
“I guess, I don’t like how you toy with me,” she snapped.
“Toy with you? What do you mean?”
“All those times you used me to go to events you didn’t want to attend on your own.”
“Delphine, you were the one that offered an ‘anytime’ pass for events when I wanted to distance myself from a date. Right then, I was clear we’d be nothing but friends and what was it you said? Oh yeah, it went something 'like ‘don’t flatter yourself. A free meal and a good night out are all I’m after’. But that changed the night you tried to kiss me, or don’t you remember that part?”
“Stop it,” she snapped.
“Stop it? You started this, girl. I don’t know what wild fantasy is playing out in your mind, but I have never given you reason to think we’d ever be anything more. You were a friend, or so I thought until you tried to come between me and my girl—”
“I might have known she’d go running to you.”
“Yes, she told me, but in all good grace she wanted to let this slide. Which I’d been willing to do until Bernie told Paddy and he told Ticker you weren’t welcome to hang out at our gigs anymore.”
“What?”
“You heard. We’re no longer friends, Delphine, and if I catch you sniffing around us again or spouting shit to the press, it won’t only be harsh words you’ll get from me. Now, excuse me, I’ve wasted enough time on your manipulations tonight, I’m going back to my girl. If you have any sense, you’ll get your shit from the dressing room and beat it out of here before I lose my temper.”
The conversation ended and Belle closed the screen. “How did you get that? Were you spying on them?”
Belle chuckled and stuck her cell back in her pocket. “Not intentionally, I left my bag behind the mixing desk in the pit. I was coming back, scrolling through messages, and saw them both come out. All I missed taping was Delphine telling Jamie how amazingly he performed during the gig. I don’t know what possessed me, but I pulled out my phone and taped their conversation.”
“I want you to wipe it. That was sneaky.”
“It was, I’ll grant you that. But at least you know she’s not a threat to your rock star boyfriend. I was watching her tonight. She has designs on Jamie.”
“And now you know he’s not interested,” I barked. “Don’t do that again, I have to trust Jamie. You don’t know how it feels to have a boyfriend who has the admiration of millions of women. I need to feel confident in our love. I don’t want to live needing constant reassurance that he’s being faithful to me.”
“I’d want to know,” she replied, her eyes blazing.
“Weren’t you the one who told me two days ago to mind my business, Belle? Are you minding yours? Do you know how deep Ryan’s feelings are for you?”
“Yeah,” she said, her anger instantly deflated. “And they aren’t unreciprocated. It isn’t how I wanted it, but he’s hard not to love,” she replied and shrugged.
“There you are, I was wondering where you’d gotten to,” Bernie said, shoving the door open, forcing Belle out of the way. “More drama?” she asked.
“No, we were just catching up, Belle’s going back to London tomorrow night,” I lied.
“The guys are about ready to leave and Jamie was asking after you.”
“Alright, we’re just coming,” Belle told her and made a show of washing her hands in the sink.
“I’ll text you later,” I mouthed as we left the restroom and headed back to the band.
Chapter 17
“I’m starving. What do you want to eat?” Jamie asked as he put his arm around me when he settled into the seat beside me in the luxury minibus on the way back to the hotel. Hogs and Ticker were absent, leaving just Fingers, his wife, Kim, Paddy, Bernie, Jamie and I for the ride home.
“Maybe just some fruit and a pastry?” I suggested craving sugar. It hadn’t been the smoothest of evenings, and I’d wanted nothing more than to sink into a vat of chocolate to reward myself for not decking Delphine or Beverley for trying to undermine me.
“You can’t eat dinner?”
I shrugged. “I just want something sweet.”
