“You gave me excuses.”
“What!”
“Bunk has no idea what he did wrong and neither does Bodge, Tef or Liz and they all know that part of the show inside out.”
“Ah—”
Jake cut her off. “The resin you used tonight is the same resin we’ve used every night, so that’s not an issue.”
“But—”
He cut her off again. “There’s nothing wrong with your earpiece. We’ll replace it, but so you know, it’s not faulty.”
He imagined he could see a heat haze rising from the tension in her body. He didn’t know whether she needed a lover or a Godzilla tour manager when she shouted, “What are you saying?”
He’d let her choose. “I’m asking, what’s wrong?”
For a moment she stood there, taking deep breaths, nostrils flaring, sides heaving like she’d this second come off stage instead of a good hour ago. Then as though doused in a sudden downpour, her fire was out.
“Can you find Bunk so I can apologise?”
She’d chosen—tour manager.
“Sure.” He stepped towards the door to leave her. This new relationship between them was making him awkward and uncertain about how to be with her, especially when she was like this: aggressive, lashing out.
He was half out the door when she put her hand on his waist. “Will you come back?”
With a sense of relief, he shifted his weight infinitesimally back into her palm. “What do you want me to come back as?”
She stepped in behind him, rested her forehead on his back. “Can you come as the man who knows how to love me?”
He sighed and turned to her, gathered her into his arms, lifting her off the ground for a long close hug. “I can do that, dead easy.” Too easy. For all her twisted, angry ways, it was too easy to love her, and he couldn’t hide it and she knew it. “When I come back will you talk to me about what’s wrong?”
She didn’t answer, just tucked her head into his neck.
“Rie, you need to talk about this.”
She pushed away and he lowered her feet to the ground, but kept his arms around her. “No Jake, I don’t need to talk about it. Talk is cheap. No amount of talk can fix this. I don’t want to be here and I can’t wait to leave.”
A stalled breath punched out of his chest. There it was—the reminder that there was no time to uncover more of Arielle Mainline. That what he’d jumped into was just the moment—a moment beyond anything he’d ever experienced, one wild time with an incredible woman—but that was it. He was back to Zen, to all or nothing and facing nothing.
She would’ve have felt him stiffen, heard his sigh. She’d tutored him in lying, but he couldn’t guard his feelings as expertly as she could. “You want out now, before the tour ends, Jake? I can understand if you do.” She looked him straight in the eyes, but she gripped his arms as though without them she might crumple to the floor. She was confusion in its purest, most persuasive form.
“Nope, I’m not finished with you yet, wolf woman.” He put as much bravado in his voice as he could manage. Bad enough she could read him inside out; he wasn’t giving her up until he had to.
“I always figured you for a sucker, Jake.”
“Is that an invitation?”
She laughed and slapped his rear end. “A sucker and a surprisingly naughty boy.”
They went looking for Bunk together, found him in the crew break room with Bodge, Lizard, Teflon, a deck of cards and three near-empty six packs
of VB.
Rielle said, “So Bunk, how’d you get that name anyway?”
“Ah Rie, I don’t think you wanna know about that.” Bunk slapped five dollars in the clump of money in the centre of the table saying, “I’ll see you, Liz.”