AllFreeNovel
Share Us
It only helped drive the point home that heshouldn’t even be here!
Nothing about this night made sense.
He knew he should have argued harder with Nikki about going in her stead.
“I won’t win. You’ll just have to fill a seat. Maybe shake some hands. It’s no big deal.”
But she should have picked someone else. It wasn’t his place. This wasn’t his world anymore.
But he’d gone because Nikki had asked him to. And he’d do pretty much anything for Nikki. Even when it was obvious she’d only picked him because she thought he needed to dip his toe back into the industry he had basically shunned for almost four years.
Nikki’s nomination for producer of the year had left him feeling prouder than hell for his bestie. She’d worked her ass off making this album and it showed. He wasn’t even a little bit surprised when her name was called and he had to walk up to the podium to accept her award.
Not surprised, no.
But overwhelmed? Yes.
His hands had started tingling the moment he’d hit the NMA red carpet. By the time Nikki’s name had been called, the tingling had spread up his arms to his shoulders and settled somewhere at the base of his skull.
While he’d smiled and joked into the blinding lights and had felt a measure of satisfaction at the ripple of laughs in front of him, his insides had turned into a murder of crows. Black wings and loud caws echoed through his tired, stiff body.
The next bit had been a blur. Going backstage, short interviews, photographs, people he recognized but didn’t actually know. The entire place had been like a hazy, well-dressed hallucination.
He hadn’t planned it. He’d meant to go back to the hotel. He had a book waiting for him and he’d wanted to read before trying to sleep and then getting to the airport early.
But somewhere between him accepting the award and now, he’d been talked into “stopping by the afterparty.”
Talked into it by the very person now hurling in his hotel bathroom.
Zara Lorna had also won big that night—Album of the Year, Artist of the Year, Single of the Year…probably others.
She’d been so hype…he’d got caught up in the energy of it all.
And he knew better. Heknewbetter.
This life, this world, it wasn’t for him. He didn’t belong, he didn’t fit. He never had and he never would.
But fuck him, right?
Because he’d gone to the stupid afterparty.
It was as if he’d forgotten every painful lesson that music had taught him.
If one thing happened—good or bad—that was out of the ordinary, then a whole avalanche of “what the fuck” was sure to follow.
He really couldn’t blame Zara—well, hecould, but he knew, hefreaking knewit was a bad idea. And he wasn’t that guy. He owned his choices. No matter how gorgeous the siren asking him to please play lemon mouth with her at the bar was.
He closed his eyes against the memory of her bright smile and amber eyes that seemed to sparkle with some otherworldly glow as she’d grabbed his hand and begged him to come to the afterparty. To do shots. To celebratetheirwin.
Her energy was contagious. He’d experienced it secondhand in the studio while watching Zara and Nikki work together months and months ago. He’d only been there to flip switches and push buttons under Nikki’s direction. But Zara had been the one who’d commanded the room.
In every room.
He thought she’d had no idea who he even was until he’d nearly tripped over her backstage.
She’d grabbed hold of his lapels to catch her balance and her face had lit with recognition.
He couldn’t remember the exact conversation that followed but it didn’t matter. He’d been a goner the moment she’d aimed thatbrilliant smile at him. He’d have agreed to drive her to Mordor if she’d have asked.
