Jimmy moves toward the center where Liam and his musical conquest are and he nods in my general direction. Liam scans the crowd, and it’s evident when he finds me. I wiggle my fingers and flip him off.
They say before you die your life flashes before your eyes. I don’t know if that’s true or not, and it’s not my intention to find out anytime soon. What I do, however, know is true is that your life does flash before your eyes when you make eye contact with your very angry wife who is flipping you the bird. For my wife, that means business. It’s a rare occasion that she’ll say or do something mean spirited, but after tonight I fear that: One, I’ll be dead. Two, I’ll be packing my bags, which means I’ll want to be dead. Or three, she’ll cut off my dick. Of those options, I’ll gladly take three.
I know I wasn’t doing anything wrong, but I’m sure that’s not how it looked to her. She’s seeing another woman on stage, touching me and singing some explicit lyrics – lyrics that I’ve returned in kind - and her mind has started swimming. Right now, I’m the guy who can’t catch a fucking break and am about to give it all up and live a quiet life in Beaumont. Hopefully, I’ll still have a wife, but in the event I don’t, I’ll have my boys.
I’m trying to figure out in my head why Josie’s here. It’s not that I don’t want her here, but the last I knew Noah had a game and she needed to be there for the both of us. I signal to the stagehand to come out. When he does I point at Josie and tell him to take her to the green room. As far as I’m concerned, our set is over. The remaining songs are duets with Layla and right now those can’t happen. It’s going to piss Trixie off, but I’m doing this for free. When I say I’m done, I’m done.
“I’m cutting it short,” I say to Harrison and Jimmy as we walk off the stage. When Harrison looks at me questioningly, Jimmy tells him Josie is here. Harrison gets it. If Katelyn suddenly showed up, or even Jenna, we’d stop. As soon as the crowd realizes we’re done, the boos start, followed by chants of ‘Encore!’ Normally, we’d come back out, but tonight will be different. I have a fuck load of damage control to do and I’m not exactly sober enough to do it.
I’m such a coward that I let Harrison and Jimmy walk in first. They greet Josie excitedly and she tells them the show was good, from what she saw. Why couldn’t she have been here an hour ago before we went on stage?
As soon as they move out of the way, I pull her into my arms and get lost in her perfume. I’m holding her tight and have my nose buried in her hair, but it doesn’t escape my notice that her arms are slack at her side. This isn’t good.
“I’m happy you’re here.”
“Are you?” she asks in a harsh tone.
I pull back and cup her cheeks, rubbing the pad of my thumbs along her cheekbones. “Yes, I am. You have no idea.” I lean down to kiss her, but I’m interrupted by the door slamming against the wall.
“What the fuck, Page? We have four more songs.”
I close my eyes and take a deep, calming breath. Without breaking eye contact with Josie, I say, “Not tonight, Layla, my wife is here.” I realize my mistake when Josie turns rigid in my hands and tries to step back. I shouldn’t have said Layla’s name. She’s seen the pictures of us together and has already questioned if I’m in love with her.
I don’t know what she’s put together in her mind, but I have a feeling I’ll be paying for it later.
“Well, are you going to introduce me?” Layla demands. Without even looking at her I know her hands are on her hips and her foot is tapping.
Reluctantly, I drop my hands from Josie’s face and set one on her hip. “Layla, this is my wife, Josie.”
“It’s nice to finally meet you,” Layla says, stepping forward and shaking Josie’s hand. “I’ve heard so much about you.”
“Funny, Liam hasn’t told me a single thing about you.” Layla’s face drops. She doesn’t deserve to be treated harshly by Josie, but I know better than to correct her right now.
“Ah, shit,” JD mutters in the background as he watches the scene unfold in front of him.
“Josie, did Katelyn happen to come with you?” Harrison asks, trying to diffuse the ticking time bomb that’s about to explode.
“Sorry, Harrison. This was a spur of the moment trip, but I saw her and the kids today. Everyone is good.” He nods, and pulls out his cell phone to call home, I assume. He’s good like that, so is JD. Me, I sulk and take care of business before I call home because I don’t want to interrupt Josie at work even though I know she’d stop what she’s doing to talk to me.
I turn back to Josie, ignoring Layla. “Wanna get out of here?”
“I don’t know, are you allowed to leave?”
I fight every urge I have to roll my eyes. “I’m allowed to do whatever I want.”
Josie seems to be in agreement that it’s time to leave. “We’ll take a cab, right, since you’ve been drinking?”
I purse my lips and nod. I take her hand in my mine and grab her suitcase with my other one as we head toward the door.
“Liam, what about our set? They’re waiting for us!” Layla hollers after me.
“Not tonight,” I say again as I push the backdoor open and step out into the night air.
This was a mistake. I’m not prepared for the onslaught of people lined up to get into the club. It only takes one person to recognize me and scream out my name. Luckily, I’m able to grab the door before it closes and I push Josie back in, pulling the door shut behind us.
“Sorry.”
“For what? It’s your life, right? Isn’t this what you want?”