“No thanks,” he says simply.
Kandy pouts. “But you’re on tour again. It’s time to celebrate!”
His look turns to steel and I’m actually impressed that Kandy doesn’t reel away from it. “That kind of ‘celebrating’ normally leads me down the road that nearly killed my best friend. So you’ll have to forgive me, but no, thank you.” He injects the last three words with enough venom to drop a rhino, but Kandy’s fake smile hardly falters at all. She just giggles and waves her hand dismissively.
“Oh my gosh, how could I have forgotten? I’m such a dingbat! Well, more for me,” she says, gulping down the whole flute before she turns away from us. I didn’t like her before, but now I really don’t like her. That is not how you interact with someone who’s trying to stay sober.
Ian must notice me grinding my teeth because he slides across the couch to lean in once she’s back in her seat.
“Hey, it’s fine. I said no if you didn’t notice,” he says under his breath.
I let out a heavy sigh and nod. “I know… It’s just inconsiderate.”
He shrugs and flashes me that smile that always makes me melt inside. “I can’t expect other people to fight my battles for me.”
“I guess,” I grumble, but it still doesn’t sit well with me.
Rosa heads into the cockpit with her drink and soon the jet’s engines purr to life, the floor under my feet vibrating slightly. The nervous knot in my stomach is still there, but it’s slowly loosening the longer I’m around Ian and he’s not sending me hate-filled looks.
“Gotta play nice with the press,” he adds, leaning in even closer. The scent of his aftershave slams me back into memories of the two of us together and I’m filled with warm feelings that are not helpful.
“Did you even read the last article she wrote about you?”
He shrugs. “I skimmed it. Seemed pretty flattering. Merrill thought so too. That’s why he invited her along.”
My teeth grind together again, but I don’t say anything argumentative. I read that article. It was not as flattering as they might think. Sure, on the surface it was heaps of praise and gushing about his return, but I didn’t miss the passive-aggressive barbs thrown in throughout. I know I have no right, but I feel protective of Ian. If his manager doesn’t see what a snake that woman is, someone needs to look out for him.
But Ian seems to be a fan of the woman, so arguing about it now is just going to make me look petty and jealous.
We don’t say anything until the plane’s taken off. Now Rosa and Merrill are consumed with talks of appearances and publicity stunts, and Kandy’s in her corner, earbuds in, typing away on her laptop. There’s no telling if she’s actually listening to music or if she’s listening to us, but she looks over to us and gives us a big grin and a thumbs up.
“This album is amazing,” she gushes, her voice too loud.
Okay, maybe she is listening to music and I’m just being paranoid because I am being petty and jealous.
Ian’s the one to finally break the tense silence between us. “You look good,” he says, his voice soft and warm.
“It’s only been a week,” I tease. “I’d have to be dying to look much worse in that amount of time.”
He shrugs. “Just stating facts.”
I feel a little guilty and nod. “You look good too.”
“Liar,” he chuckles. “I’ve hardly slept in a week… I was hoping I’d hear from you.”
My jaw drops, eyes going wide and I lean in, narrowing my gaze at him. “You acted like you hated me when we left the studio.”
“You acted like I was a stranger,” he counters.
“For the managers,” I hiss under my breath.
He leans back on the couch and blows out a heavy breath.
“So you were waiting for me to call you?” he asks.
It sounds dumb now, that we were playing this weird middle-school game where we both thought the other one was mad and no one had the nerve to reach out. But it made so much sense at the time. Now I feel like an idiot.
I bury my face in my hands, laughing, because if I don’t laugh at it, I’m liable to cry. I’ve been tearing myself apart over this all this time and he was doing the same. What a pair we are.