Chapter 16 #2
Niko bear-hugs him and they clap each other in the back. Chico Sparx follows with a tight hug. Then Adina and Carrie step forward.
Adina throws her arms around him, but it’s the smug look she turns my way that sets me off.
The anger rises from my chest, over my neck, to my head.
I flush like a geyser, almost violently.
I picture myself snatching her by the hair off him and slapping her right across the face.
I take a step forward but a hand wraps around my wrist, pulling me back.
“I have someone I want you to meet.” Maeven pulls me away from the crowd, and I let her because if not, I’m going to disgrace myself in front of them.
She waves to a couple of people and pulls me into Rio’s dressing room. People are waiting inside. The minute they see Maeven, they scram and close the door.
“I want you to breathe, Luna.”
I stare at her but don’t say anything. I don’t trust myself to open my mouth.
“If you go after her, she wins. We have to keep hitting her where it hurts.”
“And where is that?” I yell. “Because she’s still winning. In minutes, that image of her hugging Rio will be everywhere, and people will still find shit to say about me.”
She holds her hand up. “The tide is turning, and it will all the way. You’re winning. You don’t see that, but you are. He’s putting your name out there as his girl. And you have some deals and offers. She hasn’t killed your career.”
“But she’s got her hands all over him, and he’s letting her.
” I want to stop talking but can’t. “After what she tried to pull this morning, trying to have people believe she spent the night with him and now this? I’m so fucking pissed I don’t know what to do with myself.
We can’t even celebrate his triumph without her and her lambona ass friend.
I know I need to calm down because this is his night.
” I try to breathe, but it’s as if gasoline is being poured up my nose to keep fanning the anger.
“How can he be so clueless? Or does he know exactly what he’s doing? ”
She grins.
And that makes me even angrier. “What the fuck are you smiling at?”
“Babe, you got it bad.”
I blink a few times, stunned. “What are you talking about?”
“Let’s recap quickly before he gets here.” She turns and locks the door. “One, you’re mad she’s touching him. Because he’s yours, that’s how you’re thinking, even if you don’t admit it to yourself. Then, you’re trying to fake the funk not to ruin his big night.”
“Well, this is not about me.”
She rocks her head side to side. “It kind of is. But I need you to calm down because you’re bound to say or do something that may give us a lot to clean up.”
“I’m not stupid, Maeven.”
“You were about to snatch Adina by the hair.”
My hand goes straight to my forehead. I was. “I never fought anyone in my life, and I was about to. God, over a man.”
“In your defense, she has it coming, and it’s not only about him. This woman has been manipulating and fucking shit up for you for a while. I would want to snatch her by her lace front, too.”
“I’m so embarrassed I could die. I bet you someone caught that shit on video.”
She chuckles. “Stop worrying about dumb things. You got me. If someone saw that, I can make people forget they did. Now, go to the bathroom and freshen up before he comes in. He probably noticed you left.”
“He’s too busy with—”
The banging on the door makes us both jump. Maeven points to the bathroom. “I’ll stall for you. Press a cold towel on your neck. Remember, he ran to you. You were the first person he wanted to hug after his concert. You.”
I run to the bathroom and lock myself inside.
“Where’s Luna?” Rio’s voice thunders through the door.
“Retouching her makeup,” Maeven replies.
My heart triples, like it’s trying to carve a hole through my throat. I sit on the bench to try to calm down, setting my timer for two minutes, closing my eyes, and breathing slowly.
I’m safe.
He’s safe.
Adina is not a threat.
Maeven is right.
I’m at peace. I’m at peace. I’m at peace.
By the time my watch beeps, my heart rate evens out. I stand and look in the mirror. Reapply my lip gloss and reapply it. After one more deep breath, I open the door to find Rio standing right on the other side.
My heart flops, but I push a smile on my lips. “Bathroom’s all yours.”
I try to move past him, but he blocks my way, forcing me to retreat a step. And another until I’m back in the bathroom.
“I don’t think it looks right that we’re in here.”
He waves a hand. “I don’t care. Why are you upset?”
“I’m not.”
“Don’t lie to me. You walked away from me, and now you’re trying to act like you’re not hiding—”
“I’m not hiding. I needed a minute, so I took it.”
Fire roars in his eyes. “So you took your minute. Now tell me so we can talk about it.”
“What is there to talk about, Rio?”
I move toward the door. He leans against it and crosses his arms. “You tell me.”
I sigh. “Can we not do this now? Today?”
“If we kill it now, it won’t fester.”
“It’s your day. I want it to be perfect.”
He moves from the wall, and now we are close again. “How can my day be perfect when you’re not happy?”
His soft tone makes me feel so dumb for thinking about all this shit with Adina, but my feelings are my feelings. “I hate that she walks into our spaces so easily. No one questions that she’s here after what she pulled this morning. Not even you.”
He opens his mouth, but I stop him with my hand in the air.
“And I’m fully aware that you’re in an impossible situation. They came like every single one of your fans, to support and show you love. And that’s good for me. I’m just annoyed that I’m annoyed.”
“Luna, I don’t want her or her people here.
This is the fucked-up thing about the business.
We have to play politics and sometimes pretend, but I don’t forget.
The fans mean the world to me. They really showed me love.
” He rests his hands on my shoulders and pulls me closer.
“But you…you’ve been my support, my anchor, everything. ”
The air escapes me. Words won’t form, so I just shake my head to try to break myself from the spell of his eyes on mine.
He leans and brushes my mouth. My breath becomes one with his.
“Before I took the stage, all I could think about was you. Your confession last night. I was so caught up in my feelings that I didn’t tell you my truth.
I didn’t say that I’m already in love with you.
I’ve been fighting these feelings for a long time.
The night we met, I instantly felt that connection, but then you turned on me.
I forced myself to hate you because you’ve mess with my head and my heart after you blocked me. ”
“Rio—”
He shakes his head. “No. Let me finish.” He pushes me against the wall and trails kisses from my ear to my chin.
“Every song tonight, I kept looking into the audience, around where you were sitting, trying to make you out in the crowd. I didn’t see you, but I felt you.
It made me so happy when they put you on the Jumbotron.
You looked happy and so fucking hot dancing. Tell me you believe me.”
He says all this between kisses, with his hand on my waist. His words are making me drunk. His heated touch gets me high.
“I believe you.”
I crush my mouth to his, and he presses himself against me. My nails dig into his skin, and I buck against him.
He groans, pulling back.
“I need a shower.”
“Okay,” I say but kiss him again and don’t move.
“You’re going to join me?” He tilts his head to the shower.
“Not here.”
“Come home with me tonight when we are done with the after-party.”
There’s enough space for me to breathe, and I’m clear-minded when I say, “Okay.” Because I’m sure this is what I want. No, not sure. This is what I want.
He leans into my ear. “It’s going to be messy and sexy. You know I’m going fuck you until you’re limp.”
“Promise?”
He licks my bottom lip, and I open my mouth and catch his tongue, swiping it with mine.
“Go o te cojo right here.”
I walk out in a haze, the smile so wide it hurts my cheeks.
Maeven and Sel exchange a look, but they smile right back.
“What happened to your lipstick?” my cousin asks.
Rio must have kissed it right off.
I shrug. “I think I forgot to apply it.”
Maeven chuckles. “First-world problems.”
“Raquel’s little saint fucking men in a public bathroom,” the familiar voice singsongs from behind me.
We turn to face Bethany and Adina. Huh? What the fuck is her mom doing here?
“Fuck off, lady,” Sel tells her.
“Watch how you talk to my mom, ghetto bitch,” Adina spits at my cousin.
“I’ll show you ghetto if you really want to see it,” Sel says, moving toward Adina.
I place myself in front of her. “You are all swearing like sailors and lying on my name, but Sel is the one who’s ghetto?” I take a step forward, and Adina takes one back. “All of you need to leave me the hell alone.”
“Leave. Don’t make me have you escorted out.” Maeven signals for Tito.
“We’ll leave. We came to support Rio. I hope you enjoyed that.” She tilts her head to the bathroom. “Because that’s all you’re going to get.” She points at Maeven. “That one’s the master of making shit that isn’t real look so much like it that it confuses the eye.”
“Which is why you and your daughter want my services.”
Bethany goes beet red. “You don’t want to fuck with me, Maeven. I’ll destroy you and this little ungrateful bitch that I helped build.”
“You helped build me?” my voice rises.
Adina smiles. “If it weren’t for us, you would be nothing.”
“If you built her, how come you couldn’t do the same for your daughter?
Luna got straight As and graduated at the top of her class.
” Sel throws a finger toward Adina. “That dummy can’t even follow simple instructions on a hair color box.
You’re all just mad because she’s doing well, and now she’s got Rio while your daughter is still sniffing around trying to get a smile out of him. ”
“Sel—”
“Luna, hold back your pitbull before we put it down,” Adina screeches.
Anger flames over me, and I take a step toward her. “If you touch my cousin, I’m going to forget we were once friends and give you that real Bronx experience you always wanted.”
Her eyes go wide.
“What the hell is going on?” Rio asks from behind.
I can feel the weight of his gaze on me, but I keep looking at Adina, daring her to step up.
“Well, the Belmonts want to convince the world that you and Luna were getting down in the bathroom.”
He scoffs. “We were there for, like, five minutes. I need more than that.”
My gaze snaps to his, and the crooked smile on his face stuns me. The way he’s looking at me leaves no room for doubt.
“Good for you,” Maeven adds. “I’m waiting for the greatest hits, like how you snuck into Adina’s DMs before you hit on Luna.”
“That again?” He looks at Adina. “Can you all stop it with that shit? It didn’t happen.” He turns to me. “Luna knows it, too. She saw the text thread.”
I’m confused, but the way he’s staring…it’s obvious he’s trying to communicate something to me. I nod.
“You know those are private conversations,” Mrs. Belmont tells him.
“Go ahead and sue me. We’ll release everything and see who’s got more to lose.”
“Go. I got it from here.” Maeven waves a hand in the direction of the bathroom.
I take his hand as we walk away, and the minute he closes the door behind us, I square up on him.
“Show me the thread.”
“Luna, I shouldn’t have said—”
“Show me, Riomar.”
My use of his full name makes his jaw go slack, but he grabs his phone from his pants pocket, and hands it to me. “I’ll go finish my shower.”
With his Instagram DMs on the screen, I scroll all the way back.
The conversation is full of Adina fangirling over him.
Rio’s responses are cordial. I stop at one message where he asks if she’s bringing me to Niko’s private concert.
He continues, mentioning there was a misunderstanding, and he wants to clear the air with me.
Adina tells him that I have a boyfriend who's jealous and felt guilty about the flirtation.
I pull out my phone and match the dates.
This was the same night I told her about him hitting on me and her freaking out.
It was the first time she had ever turned on me like that.
She knew it too, because the next morning, she showed up at my house apologizing and admitting that I would never stab her in the back.
The conversations go back and forth. Adina openly declared her interest, but Rio never did or led her on. For months, he asked why I’m so cold to him.
This bitch played me the whole time.