“Is this seat taken?” I hear a smooth female voice beside me and look up to see it’s one of the backup dancers. I shake my head, and she places her plate on the table and then sits down. “I don’t think we’ve formally met.” She starts talking, pushing her blond hair behind her shoulder. Her brown eyes shine as she smiles at me. “I’m Stacey.” She holds out her hand, and I lean forward, grabbing it.
“I’m Brian,” I tell her, and she finally lets go of my hand.
“I know.” She grabs her fork and then starts eating. “I’ve asked around.” She looks at me from the side.
“Have you?” I finally start eating, looking at her.
“I have. It’s not everyday a smoking hot guy starts hanging around,” she says, laughing. “I mean—”
I laugh at her. “I get it.”
“So, Brian,” she starts, “besides being Kellie’s shadow, what else do you do?”
“I’m not her shadow,” I tell her. “It’s my job to make sure she is safe.” Stacey reaches out and puts her hand on mine.
“I wouldn’t mind you being my shadow,” she says to me, and I look at her hand and see her fingers are rubbing a circle on my arm.
“Oh.” I hear Kellie from beside me. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to interrupt.”
“You aren’t interrupting anything.” I look at her and see her looking from me to Stacey to her fingers on my arm. “Stacey was just introducing herself to me.”
“I was,” Stacey says. Taking her hands off me, she grabs her plate. “It was nice chatting, Brian. Hopefully, we can catch up again soon.” She smiles at Kellie, who smiles back at her, but I see it’s a forced smile.
“I’m sorry,” Kellie says, sitting down in the other empty seat at the table. “I didn’t mean to interrupt your—”
“You didn’t interrupt anything,” I cut her off before she says something else. “She came and introduced herself, and that is the end of it.”
I watch her, and her eyes never look up at me. She just stares at her plate as she eats her food or better yet scoots it around on her plate. “I’m not hungry anymore.” She gets up, and I watch her walk to the garbage and throw her plate out.
Cori sits next to me, and I look over at her. “What in the hell just happened?”
“It’s called jealousy.” She smirks. “By the way, it’s only the two of you on the bus tonight. The rest of the crew is leaving tomorrow evening.”
“Jealous?” It’s the only thing I took from her side of the conversation. “Jealousy?” I push my chair back and pick up my plate. “What the hell is she jealous of?”
“Oh, you silly, silly man.” Cori just laughs at me. “It’s no fun if I give you all the answers.” I turn and walk away, racking my brain for what the hell she is jealous of now.
“Brian.” I hear my name being called right before I am about to head into Kellie’s dressing room. Turning, I see Stacey running toward me. “I just wanted you to have my number,” she says, holding out a white card. My hand automatically takes it, seeing her name and number on it. “I hope that you use it,” she says and then turns and walks away. I look down at the card and then turn to my right to look into the room. Kellie is sitting there in her chair, watching the whole exchange.
Chapter Fifteen
Kellie
I can’t say I’m surprised that Stacey is the first one to hit on him in front of me. I just didn’t think I would get a front row seat to it. Walking back into the dining hall, I grabbed a plate and looked around for him. Walking closer to them, I saw her finger twirling on his arm. Well, I wanted to walk over to her and break each and every single one of her fingers. I tried to ignore him and the whole situation, but then I was sitting in my chair, and she actually came bouncing over like a rabbit in heat to hand him her number. Please. I rolled my eyes and then looked straight from him to the makeup girl who was doing my eyes.
I block it all out when I step on stage because these people didn’t pay money for a mediocre performance. No, they came here, and I’m getting on that stage ready to slay. I am so in the zone that I don’t see the commotion to the side of me, and the next thing I know, a man is running on stage with flowers in his hand calling my name. I watch him coming at me, but just like that, Brian is in front of me, issuing commands to the security guys beside him.
“Are you okay?” he asks me, and I nod, looking to see we are backstage. My name is being chanted over and over. “Do you want to continue?” he asks me, and I just watch him when Cori comes over with a bottle of water.