Page 9 of Love You Like This

Even when I look at it and then to him, he acts completely blind to it

Shan

I knew he was a loser when he said he’d never seen any movies without Adam Sandler.

Amber

I’m just going to pay it so I can leave

He pursued you, right? The date was his idea?

Amber

Sure was

I’m deleting all dating apps

Totally not worth the hassle

Stephanie

Why date mid men when you can take yourself out?

Exactly

We pull up to the studio, so I slide my phone back into my bag and lean forward. “You can go back to the arena.”

“No ma’am. I just got a text from Mr. Brown informing me I’m to stay to drive you back to the hotel.”

“Okay, thank you.”

He waves me off over his shoulder. “No problem. Have fun, Ms. Maxwell.”

Four

XANDER

Present

Sweat rolls down my temples as my feet pound the treadmill. Hans, my behemoth of a bodyguard, runs beside me, barely breathing hard. He’s been with me for five years, and the only sport I’ve bested him at is surfing. A fact that doesn’t make me feel any better about myself as I turn the treadmill on to a cool down cycle.

“Already?” he asks with accented English. “Surely you can do another mile or two.”

“Fuck off,” I wheeze. Even with my stamina back up from the first half of the tour, I’ll never run more than five miles at a time.

He laughs in Scandinavian superiority and increases his incline.

I move over to the free weights, which thankfully this hotel has a good selection of. Keeping an eye on the mirror to make sure my movements are precise gives me the added advantage of seeing who walks past in the hall. I know I’ll never run into Jade inside a hotel gym when her preference is to do group pole dancing classes, but damn if I wouldn’t love to catch a glimpse of her in a workout set.

Tobias and Darren greet us as they walk into the gym. Tobias has dark rings around his eyes, and his skin has a yellow tint to it. I don’t know what’s going on with him, but I’m starting to get worried. I’ve brought it up to Stone, but he’s always hesitant to say anything, thinking it could be perceived as projection on his part.

My opinion, though, is that we need to push Toby toward sobriety. I see so many of the same things happening to him that we both witnessed Stone struggle with up close and personal. Darren spends almost all his time keeping him from self-imploding.

“Does the sun ever shine here?” Darren grumbles as he looks out the wall of windows to the gray, drizzly sky. He’s rarely out of a suit, so even after years of working together, it still catches me off guard to see his tattoos. Both arms are covered in sleeves of stark black ink, a serpent coiled around his left and multiple designs on his right.

“Apparently not.” I set my weights back on the rack. “But at least we’ll be in California this time tomorrow. I can’t wait to get on my board again.”

“Hell yeah, brother.”