Chapter 23
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
“Shit.” I catch the familiar silhouette of my fake ex-girlfriend turned stalker laughing with her friends on the other side of the restaurant.
“Oh, man. Sorry, Case. You want to leave?” Luke says, following my gaze.
Yes.
But we’ve been promising Callie a visit to our favorite hangout in this city for a while, and I’m not letting Jana ruin yet another experience for her.
“Nah, it’s fine. Maybe she won’t see us.”
Luke’s snort echoes the doubt in my head. “Jana Furmali? That woman has a freaking radar for you.”
I shoot him a hard look. “Yeah. And thanks for inviting her to your little get-together, by the way. She practically tackled me. ”
His eyes narrow on me in irritation. “Of course I didn’t invite her. She must have come with Davis and Kane.”
Davis and Kane… Those social leeches aren’t exactly besties of ours either, but there’s no point having this argument now.
I pick at the stitching in the cloth napkin, forcing away thoughts of our last few volatile encounters. Things are only going to get worse once Orin goes public with the truth about our highly publicized “romance.”
A soft hand plucks mine from the napkin, and some of the tension falls away. I can’t guess how Callie is going to take the news about my fake romance, but the longer I go without saying something, the harder it will be. Maybe tonight. Or…
She tugs gently to draw my attention. I twist a quick smile. I can’t come clean to Callie here. Not in front of the guys with the object of my torment within visual range.
“Sorry,” I mumble. “She’s just…”
Bitter. Vindictive.
“Persistent,” Eli interjects.
It’s the perfect out.
“Yeah, persistent,” I confirm. “We went out a couple times a few months ago and she will not let go. I told her it wasn’t going to happen.”
It’s not really a lie. Neither is anything I’ve said about the woman. What it became is exactly what it looks like. It’s just how it started that hasn’t been entirely transparent.
“I picked up on that at the party,” Callie says, and a cold feeling washes through me. When my gaze jumps to her, her expression softens with understanding. “I’m not worried,” she says, squeezing my hand.
I don’t know what to do with her understanding response. In our scheming world of jealousy and exploitation, we’re not used to being given the benefit of the doubt. I can’t help but brush my lips on hers.
“Dude, she just saw you,” Sweeny hisses .
I breathe a curse when Jana’s gaze locks on me. To my horror, she pushes up from her chair and starts in our direction.
Callie must read my panic, because when I ask her to let me kiss her again, she seems more than happy to play along. And based on her vigorous acting, I’m guessing she’s enjoying staking her claim as well. Maybe if Jana sees I’m serious about someone else, she’ll finally move on.
“Hey, guys! So good to see you!” Jana says, forcing Callie and me apart.
I can tell by the bite in her tone this is not going to go well for me.
“Jana, how’s it going?” Sweeny says blandly.
“Great! Good.” Her sharp stare cuts into me. “Casey, how have you been?”
Somehow I manage a twist of the lips. “Fine.”
Callie grips my fingers, and I hold up our joined hands for Jana to see. “Hey, did you get a chance to meet my girlfriend Callie at Luke’s place last week?”
Her eyes go dark with warning. She knows what I’m doing and I don’t think it’s having the effect I was going for. Shit, maybe the opposite.
“Um… no, I don’t think so. Hi,” she tosses dismissively in Callie’s direction.
“Hi,” Callie returns in an overly bright tone. “I love your dress.”
The guys suppress a laugh as I swallow a wave of dread. Yeah, this is not going to end well.
“Thanks. It’s a Bella Amberosi,” Jana replies in a smug tone.
Callie doesn’t look impressed. Or remotely interested.
Jana scans her with a derogatory look. “I like your…”
“Boyfriend?” Callie finishes, lifting a brow. Oh boy. Here we go. “Yeah, I know. He’s amazing. I don’t blame you.”
Jana looks ready to combust, and I hold my breath. Part of me is high-fiving my girlfriend so hard right now. The other part knows this night will be ending in blood. Whose? We’ll probably find out soon.
My fake ex’s gaze sears into me with warning, but to my surprise, rather than snap back, she pivots and stalks back to her table.
Whoa. Once again, Callie accomplishes the impossible.
While the guys celebrate the win, she gives me another dose of encouragement.
“Thanks, Callie,” I say softly. That simple word can’t begin to capture the complex mass of gratitude moving through my chest.
As usual, she seems to understand anyway. After a quick nod, she tilts her head with a pensive expression. I brace myself for whatever she’s got loaded up to fire.
“What exactly is a Bella Amberosi?” she asks with a severe expression.
The guys burst into laughter as I draw her in with a smirk.
Despite the rough start to the evening, the rest goes well. Luke and I order everything we think Callie would like so she has a chance to try it. They’ve even added some items to the menu since the last time we were here that we want to try.
Through it all, I can’t stop smiling and studying my girl with relaxed fascination.
A rush moves through me every time I take in her infectious excitement.
Watching her experience new things has reinvigorated my own appreciation for life.
We’ve become so jaded, our journey so punctuated with pain, that I’d forgotten about all the moments of joy in our story as well.
Callie brings it all back, and not just for me. Life is blooming in Luke’s demeanor for the first time since Elena’s death as well. And if I’m honest, the decay goes back long before that. What happened that night wasn’t a fluke, but the result of a long, ugly slide into the darkness.
Even Eli and Sweeny are quickly under Callie’s spell.
They’ve always embraced “the rockstar life” more than I have, especially after our fall from the top.
Everything is a party, everyone a guest in their narrative, but not with Callie.
They treat her with a gentleness and respect I didn’t even know they had in them.
Within hours, she’s one of us. It’s like she’s been here since the beginning.
I’m so caught up in the wonder of it all, I nearly forget about Jana.
That is, until I hit the restroom late into the night.
After washing my hands, I push through the door into the hall, only to be ambushed by a livid movie star.
Jana’s hostile glare erases every ounce of peace I had in me.
“What the fuck is wrong with you?!” she hisses, backing me toward an alcove.
“Not now,” I return with a cold look.
“No? Then when? You won’t take my calls. Every time I approach, you treat me like I’m some jealous ex and not?—”
“Because you’re acting like a jealous ex,” I fire back. “This! What’s happening right now is exactly why I called it off! You never played by the rules.”
“We had an agreement!”
“Exactly! To pretend, Jana. It was fake, and you kept trying to make it real!”
“What?! No, I?—”
“The Oscars after party?” I charge with a glare. “Where was that in the agreement ?”
She tenses, squirming beneath my accusatory stare. I still feel her hands on me, the dread in my stomach the entire night as she used every opportunity she could to take advantage of our situation and shred every clause of our verbal contract.
After that, I was done. No publicity was worth that kind of humiliation, so I “broke up” with her the next day as dramatically and publicly as possible. I needed it to stick that time.
“Oh please,” she scoffs, resecuring her anger. “What did you think was going to happen that night? How exactly were you planning to show the world we were together without actually being together.”
I shoot daggers back, but I’m done with this. I’m so tired of having this conversation.
“Whatever. Just leave me alone, okay? It’s over. Done. Go find someone else to boost your numbers.”
I push past her, stunned when she grabs my arm and shoves me back into the wall.
“No. What it is is breach of contract, sweetheart,” she sneers. “We agreed to six months and an engagement. You barely made it three.”
“No, you broke our contract. We said limited physical contact for appearances only .”
“Ha! You’re such a hypocrite, you know that?”
I shake my head at the irony. The fact that I’m not a hypocrite is the very reason I couldn’t make this work, and I’m more angry with myself than anyone for the misjudgment.
This mess is my fault as much as hers. I was vulnerable and weak from my world breaking apart when PR came at me with a “brilliant” plan.
I knew these fake relationships were a thing, but I’d never done it before.
I had no clue what I was getting into, and it only took a few public appearances to make it clear I’m not built for these games.
I couldn’t do it, and the after party from hell was the final straw.
“I just don’t understand! What did I do wrong?” she asks, changing tactics. Her tone is less angry and more desperate now.
“You didn’t do anything wrong!” I did by agreeing to the asinine plan in the first place .
“But we had such a good time,” she argues, and I almost bark a laugh.
She clearly has a very different narrative in her head than I do. But I knew that from our first “date.” What I didn’t know was how things would escalate. Or that my life would collide with a ray of sunshine like Callie.
Yes, Callie, the woman who makes me feel the opposite of how I’m feeling right now.
“Yeah, and that’s all it was,” I say flippantly. “Look, I don’t want to be a dick, but I have to get back. To my friends. To my girlfriend. ”
I try to move again, and she blocks my path.
“Just give me one more chance! I’ll get you that meeting with Reese Aster!”
This time I can’t stop the harsh laugh. Six months ago, I would have done anything for a sit-down with the editor in chief of The Daily Star. I begged her to set up an interview with her contact so I could tell my story and set the record straight after everything went to shit.
She refused. Wasn’t part of the contract.
Of course she makes the offer hours after I sold my soul to Orin Cantea.
Now I can’t wait until she sees those headlines.
“Are you actually bribing me to go out with you?” I taunt. “Come on, Jana. Don’t. You don’t need that. For the hundredth time, I’m seeing someone. You need to let go.”
Even if our arrangement hadn’t been a total disaster from the beginning, the fact that I’m in a real relationship now changes everything.
“No, I don’t believe that!” she hisses. “There’s no way you’re seriously dating that little country slut.”
Blood drains through me, cold, then hot. I’m so livid I have to clench my fist to keep from breaking something. “Don’t ever talk about her like that!” I seethe. “You don’t know anything about her.”
This is bullshit. I’m done.
“Get out of my way,” I snap, moving past her again.
“Casey!”
Her fingers cut into my arm, and I wrench it away. “Let go of me! It’s not happening, Jana. Ever!”
I storm back toward the restaurant and stop cold.
Callie.
Oh god.
Shock turns to panic at the look on my girlfriend’s face. How much of that did she hear? All I want is peace to be with her and start over, and now…
“Callie…” Her name is all I can get out. I don’t even know what else to say.
Her gaze scans me briefly before settling on something to my right.
“I think he’s made himself pretty clear,” she says to Jana. “Even a ‘country slut’ like me can understand his message.”
My tension eases. The fear melts away. She’s coming to my defense! She should be pissed, and instead?—
I don’t even see the hand before it’s colliding with my face. Pain spreads over my cheek as I stare after Jana in disbelief. She’s already several yards away by the time I process what just happened.
Fire rips through me, every muscle rigid as I watch her go.
Callie is immediately in front of me, but I barely notice until her soft touch fans over the sharp sting.
“Hey, are you okay?” Her voice is gentle, even though she must be furious. Probably because she knows I need compassion more than rage right now.
And god, I want so much to be the person she believes I am.
My eyes slip closed as I try to control my labored breaths. “Fine. ”
But I don’t sound fine.
I sound like the broken teenager who wrote “Argyle.” The bloody and shattered kid who hid in Luke’s room for a week after the beating of a lifetime. The boy who had no idea what to do with the pain so he started turning it into music with the help of a best friend who was desperate to do the same.
“Casey…”
She drags my conflicted gaze to hers.
I swallow the memories. My cheek burns, but not as much as the seared edges of my soul.
My head, my heart… I don’t even know. All I know is things feel manageable with Callie’s hand in mine.
“It’s definitely not you… it’s her,” she says with a straight face.
A smile breaks through the pain. The air lifts. “Yeah, I know. I saw that coming after our third date. That’s why there were only three.”
Her laugh soothes the burn in my soul as much as her touch soothes my skin.
“Well, I’m sorry if part of that was my fault. Ironically, I came to find you to give you this.”
Confused, I search her gaze until she leans in to wrap her arms around me. She holds on for several long seconds, and I feel my blood pressure easing.
“Thanks, Callie. I needed that,” I breathe out.
“Me, too,” she says softly.
My heart is still pounding but at least I can breathe again.