Chapter 10 #2
Poppy twirled around. “You gave me and Lily a tour of the bus and let us have a fizzy drink from the fridge and chocolate bars from that basket. Mum was so mad.”
I hugged Poppy and rubbed her back. “I’m so sorry about your mum.”
Poppy dropped her gaze, and her lip quivered. “Charlie showed us the flowers you sent.”
Another blonde jogged down the stairs, and I did a double-take. This wasn’t Poppy’s twin, Lily though.
Devon pointed at the young woman. “This is my sister, Chelsea. She and Poppy have a...thing.”
I snapped my fingers. “Of course. You’re the Bizzy Blondes. Even I’ve heard about your fashion critiques. Just don’t turn your gaze...or your wit on me.”
Tilting her head, Poppy put her finger on her chin. “Dark jeans, white blouse, French tucked, black flats, stacked gold bangles and a sleek do with just a little messiness.”
Poppy glanced at Chelsea and both girls made zigzags in the air with perfectly manicured fingernails and said, “Bi-zzy.”
Devon rolled her eyes. “That’s a good thing in case you were wondering.”
I laughed. No wonder the Bizzy Blondes went viral almost daily. “Does this go on all day?”
“Pretty much. Fuck my life.” Charlie gulped back some beer from a bottle. “But none of that shit tonight. These are my guests, and I’m not subjecting them to a couple of snarky TikTok birds.”
Poppy and Chelsea flounced away, their heads together, cooking up a plan, I was sure.
Devon tugged on my hand. “Help me stack these cupcakes while you and Charlie reminisce.”
As Devon put me to work placing perfect confections on a tiered silver server, Charlie nudged me. “Talking about reminiscing, you and Con fall back into your old...habits.”
“Old habits?” I wiped some pink frosting from my fingers on a paper towel. “I mean, no. We were in a sort of young love relationship back then. It didn’t last.”
“Now you can be in an old love relationship.”
Devon kicked Charlie’s foot.
I shrugged. “Haven’t you heard? Conor and Ashley Bennett are a thing now.”
“Yeah, right.” Charlie tapped a tin of nicotine strips. “That’s as fake as that bulge in Sam’s sparkly jumpsuit he used to wear.”
This time, Devon smacked Charlie on the back of the head. “I’m telling Sam you said that.”
“Go ahead. I said it to his face.”
I placed the last cupcake on the top tier, and this time I licked my fingers.
“Well, for our purposes, that relationship is the real deal—my job depends on it.”
“Then you’d better kiss your job goodbye.”
I jerked my head around as Poppy reached over my shoulder and snatched a cupcake, ruining our aesthetic. She handed one to her sidekick before grabbing another and running her tongue through the frosting.
“Poppy, what are you talking about?” Devon tossed a towel over her shoulder and crossed her arms.
“This.” Chelsea tapped her phone screen, her sparkly case catching the pendulum lights over the kitchen island. She turned her screen to face me, a dab of frosting on the corner.
“What is that.” I took the phone from her, and my eyes bugged out when I saw the picture. “No way. That’s not what it looks like. That’s one moment.”
“What? What?” Devon bumped my hip to peer over my arm. She covered her mouth, her blue eyes sparkling with excitement. “Ooh, that looks pretty clear to me.”
Charlie wedged a shoulder against the wall. “What are you girls cackling about?”
Poppy straddled a stool at the island. “Just that if Conor is supposed to be hooking up with Ashley Bennett, why is he on stage simping Noelle?”
“Simping?”
Charlie lifted his shoulders to his ears, and his sister punched him in the arm. I’d feel sorry about all the abuse Charlie was getting if I didn’t have my own problems right now.
Poppy set him straight. “Heart eyes. He’s totally crushing on Noelle while he’s singing. There are loads of pictures of him staring off stage.”
“Loads?” I gave a fake, hearty laugh that hurt my chest. “Nonsense.”
“It’s not nonsense, Noelle.” Chelsea snatched her phone out of my hand and started scrolling through post after post of Conor looking at me offstage—just the way I remembered him looking at me...with longing and regret, making me uncomfortable and nervous.
“It’s not just the pics. People are commenting about it. Some have put two and two together that you’re the girl at In-N-Out.”
I smacked my forehead with the heel of my hand. “Conor and I are friends. That’s it.”
Charlie and Devon exchanged looks and little smiles.
I opened my mouth to point out that everyone always knew those two were destined for each other, but a commotion at the door cut me off.
Chelsea and Poppy nearly took each other out trying to get to the door first. Once they opened it, any chance I had for explanations or excuses vanished with the stream of guests stampeding into the house.
A few well-placed serving staff kept the food and drink flowing, but in typical Charlie fashion, you really couldn’t tell the guests from the servers as he invited the servers to eat, drink, and mingle with the guests as long as everyone got what they needed.
Most of the party spilled onto the patio and collected around the shimmering pool as the waves crashed onto the beach in the background.
I spotted Ashley, flirting with most of the guys and a few of the girls. Either she’d seen the pictures circulating on social media and was trying to give the appearance that she didn’t care, or she knew she didn’t have to keep up the pretense at this party.
Either way, my carefully constructed narrative for this tour was crumbling faster than a scone from Sweet Devon. I’d been trying to avoid Conor most of the night and as he and Charlie seemed joined at the hip reminiscing, it wasn’t difficult.
The crowd thinned out, and I wandered into the kitchen to stuff another cupcake in my mouth. I almost ran into Devon, bent over, separating recyclables from the trash.
“Don’t you have a catering company to take care of all that?”
Straightening to her full height, she blew a lock of hair from her eyes. “You’d think, except most of them are on the beach smoking weed. Charlie has no concept of the separation between guest and worker. He’ll probably allow all of them to crash here tonight, so they don’t drive home impaired.”
“That’s Charlie.”
“Tell me about it.” She handed me one of the last cupcakes and shooed me out to the back patio. “I, on the other hand, do not blur lines. You are a guest, so go outside and enjoy the view and relax. You have loads of work ahead of you.”
I followed her orders and strolled to the pool, cupcake in hand. I sank to the deck, rolled up my jeans, and dabbled my feet in the pool, the voices and odors of the catering crew floating up from the beach.
Closing my eyes, I bit into the cupcake, and the sweet-tart lemon flavor exploded in my mouth.
“You’ve got the moon shimmering on the water and white caps zipping along the tops of the waves, and you’re eating with your eyes closed.”
I opened one of those eyes to glare at Conor. Why did he have to ruin a perfectly good concert? Everything was on track until the fans picked up on those photos. I didn’t even know if Ashley had seen them...and those comments. I didn’t want to know.
“My eyes get tired when I wear my contacts all day.”
He lowered himself beside me, crossing his legs at the ankles. “I like you in glasses. I like you any way.”
My head snapped around. “What is this, Conor?”
He blinked, but he wasn’t fooling me. “I can’t say I like you?”
“Yeah, whatever, but...” I picked up my phone from the pool deck and brought up TikTok. I searched for the concert and when I landed on the pictures and comments, I thrust the phone in his face.
His gaze flickered as he read the comments, and then he reached out with one finger to scroll through the pictures. His eyes widened for a second but instead of denial or explanation, his mouth softened into a smile.
“What are you smiling about? Why were you looking at me that way?” I smacked my phone onto the patio.
He dipped his hand in the pool and cupped some water in his palm. “I didn’t realize I was, but it makes sense.”
“Nothing makes sense to me.”
“I wrote that song for you, Noelle.” His blue eyes matched the water in the pool, lit from beneath.
“I...I” My gaze dropped to his mouth, which suddenly seemed a lot closer to mine.
“When I started singing it...there you were. It’s the first time I ever got to sing it to you. It was just natural to look at the inspiration for the song.”
“But everyone noticed.”
“I’m not sorry.”
I felt his warm breath on my mouth. My lashes fluttered, and I parted my lips. His presence acted like a magnet, drawing me ever closer.
When my phone rang, trilling Dina’s ringtone, a sob caught in my throat. I jerked back. “I...it’s Dina.”
Had she already seen the social media blast? Was she ready to rip into me? Fire me?
To protect myself, I put the phone on Speaker and answered, “Hi, Dina. I’m here with Conor, and I have you on Speaker in case you want to congratulate him on the great show.”
When I recoiled from Conor, it seemed to bring him out of his dream state, and he called out to Dina, “Hiya, Dina.”
“Oh, hi, Conor. I suppose you should hear this too.”
Every muscle in my body coiled. Would she fire me in front of Conor?
“Look, babe. Nolan is out of commission. He won’t be able to document the tour.”
I shook my head. “Nolan?”
“Nolan Zeman. Your co-worker. He tore his ACL playing basketball, and he can’t join the tour.”
“Oh, good.” This wasn’t my notice to pack up and leave 92 West. I almost melted into the pool with relief at my reprieve.
“Good?”
“No. I mean yeah, he needs to take it easy. Doesn’t need to be running around on tour with a bad knee.”
“You may not think it’s so good when I tell you the alternative.”
Anything was better than being fired.
“What’s the alternative, Dina.”
“You have to take his place. I’m afraid you’ll have to be on that tour bus 24/7.”
My gaze flew to Conor’s face, his lips twitching into a smile. I had to be on that tour bus 24/7 with Conor Flynn? I was wrong.
There were things much, much worse than getting fired.