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She was fine. He was fine. They were all fine.
Minutes passed as they sat there in silence. For as spun-out as his mind had been previously, it was now suspiciously quiet.
Nothing to question, nothing to worry about, nothing to say.
His breaths came easier the longer he sat there until he felt more like himself.
There had been a time when nothing freaked him out. When he was the one people had looked to as the levelheaded one.
He could expose his heart and thoughts to anyone interested in looking, and it didn’t scare him. It had felt natural. Like that’swhat he was meant to do. What he’d been created for. To put into words and music the things others had a hard time expressing.
But that had been before he knew any better.
Zara stirred beside him. “This is going to make me sound like a shitty person,” she said, looking straight ahead. “But I don’t remember your name.”
“Asa,” he said, not offended at all.
Why would she know his name? She’d never used it. Even when she’d been asking him to go to the afterparty. He’d guessed she’d recognized him—he had one of those faces, or so he’d been told.
She nodded once. And then, “I’m Zara.”
He almost smiled. As if he and the rest of the world didn’t know who she was.
He felt rather than saw her look at him.
“You’re Nikki’s bestie, right?”
He let out a long, vocal sigh from bones to breath. “Yeah.”
Speaking of?—
He fished his phone out of his pocket to check for messages. Nothing yet. “I tried to call her, um, when you were in the bathroom. But I think she’s having her baby.”
“Oh, that’s so great,” she whispered softly.
It was great.
It was really great.
Nikki was going to be a fantastic mother. André as a dad would be…fine. Asa was having a hard time staying mad at the guy. He’d showed up a year and half ago and just kept showing up. He still wanted to hate the guy on principal—he’d made his best friend cry. But it was getting more and more difficult to do that.
“And you’re stuck here with me,” Zara said with a sigh that sounded more like an apology.
“I’m just glad the FBI hasn’t shown up yet,” he muttered his honest thoughts.
Zara snorted. But he wasn’t kidding.
He looked at her deciding to ask his most pressing question. “Where are your people?”
Her amber eyes hinted at sadness even though her lips turned up on the ends.
He’d never seen her up close like this.
She was so…human.
No smoke. No sequins. No entourage. No filters. Underneath all those things she was still achingly beautiful.
Black eyelashes descended slowly over eyes that glowed to a point they were almost gold. “We used Logan’s security tonight. He…” She rolled her eyes. “He doesn’t like to feel crowded.”
