26. Chapter 26
Laia sitting in the hire car beside Dídac showed him the pulsing phone, which was on silent.
“You going to take it? Are you ready for this?”
Dídac sighed heavily. Ready? Hardly, but he had to try and explain… But not like this, not over the phone.
“No, I’ll… Leave it for now.”
Laia muted the call and put the phone back in her pocket.
“OK, so where to now?”
Dídac sat sunk with his head in his hands.
The decision to come to Kim’s hotel had been impulsive, and he’d made a fool of himself.
Kim had rebuffed him, and clearly had no interest in hearing his excuses.
The call to Laia was probably to make her tell him to back off.
Thanks to a stupid, weak moment one night, he had become a sleazy, unsavory character, with whom no one in their right mind would want to associate, much less love.
Kim was right to seek distance. It had been stupid to hope he could overcome this.
In Kim’s position, Dídac knew that he would act no differently.
For both of them, protecting their career and good name must come first. And Dídac had just destroyed his.
Seeking to have anything further to do with him would only jeopardize Kim’s reputation, and his—no longer their—production, The Swan.
Dídac needed to get as far away from it all as he could.
Tomorrow he would draft a resignation letter to the theater, and get out of Barcelona.
“Just home, take me home. I need to sleep.”
“Dídac, are you OK? I don’t think you should be alone at a time like this.”
“I’ll be fine, Laia, honestly. I just need to sleep, really. I… think it’s best for everyone if I… quit the production. But I’ll do that tomorrow. All I want to do now is sleep. Can you just give me some space?”
And that last line, delivered with a twinge of resentment, had the desired effect.
He saw the flash of anger as she spat out a “Fine!”, before turning to face the other window.
She hadn’t deserved that, but like Kim, he needed to cut her off from him, cauterize their friendship if he wanted to protect her job and that of all the other members of the theater.
It had to be a clean break. They were still relatively early in the rehearsal process.
They could get someone else in—the image of Isard Muntaner came briefly to mind, and he seriously hoped it wouldn’t be him—work doubly hard, and still be up to speed in time to open in three and a half weeks time.
Dídac had their driver cruise past his apartment block. As he expected, a small gaggle of photographers was gathered outside, across the street. Like most Barcelona apartment blocks, there was only one street entrance.
“Why not stay at mine, tonight?” Laia asked.
“I need to feed Dragon. Plus, she’s been alone all day. I should spend some time with her.”
“Then at least let me help you distract these assholes.”
He nodded. “How are we going to do that?”