There are at least a dozen sets of eyes on me—all narrowed and pissed off—but I ignore them all for the purpose of checking on the one person I actually care about.
I turn to Rocky purposefully and squeeze her hand to get her to look at me. She does, a tiny curve in her mouth making me smile.
“Are you okay?”
She nods reassuringly. “I am. I’m really sorry I didn’t get to talk to you last night. I didn’t want you to think I was mad at you.”
I wave her off.
“It’s just been a little crazy.”
I nod. “Have you slept at all?”
“Me?” she asks with a snort. “Oh yeah. I barely got my shoes off before I passed out.”
Her response makes me smile. “I guess that makes sense why even a promise of a taco delivery didn’t spur a message from you.”
Her eyes light up at my words. “You were going to bring me chicken soft tacos last night?”
“Well, I was going to bring them for the baby. I mean, he was the one who was actually craving them, right?” I tease, and she snorts.
“Pretty sure you mean she.”
I relax into the enjoyable banter I’m coming to know as ours, all the tension that was buried deep in my neck and shoulders releasing with surprising ease. “So…tacos aside, everything going okay?”
“As good as can be expected, I guess.” She shrugs. “Heidi and the minions have been hard at work all night, though.”
I chuckle. “The minions.”
“Yep. I haven’t really been able to understand a word they’ve said, their voices are so high, and they’re scurrying around wildly. It seemed fitting.”
“What’s the plan?”
She shrugs. “I’m not sure. They haven’t actually spoken directly to me about it yet.”
My eyebrows draw together. “Shouldn’t you be a part of the discussion?”
“You’d think. But that’s not usually how these things work.”
That’s fucking ridiculous. This is her life. Her job. Her decision.
I grab her hand as I stand from the couch and pull her up carefully. She looks at me questioningly, but I just can’t hold my tongue on this. Maybe I should, I don’t know, but I’m tired of watching her sit here like a passenger when she should be flying the damn ship.
“Excuse me,” I say, calling the attention of everyone in the room as I walk us up to the circle. They all just stare at me, and the nature of their gazes is not all friendly. But I don’t let that make me falter.
“As you’re discussing Raquel’s life—and at least, in part, mine—I think we should be a part of the conversation. Don’t you?”
Heidi snorts with derision. “I think you’ve done just about enough.”
“Funny thing, that,” I say. “I’m a part of this, whether you like it or not. I’m in it.”
Heidi stands to full height and cocks a hip to the side as her minions look on in wonder. I ready myself to go to battle, but she’s way below her pay grade when it comes to this performance. She just sings the same old song, over and over.
“You have no idea of the ramifications you’ve created,” she spits. “You can’t just step in as the white knight now while everyone looks the other way about the relationship with Ben we created—”
“You created,” I emphasize. “This isn’t a real relationship I’ve ruined. It was a farce from the beginning, and the hero you picked for your story was doing a shitty fucking job.”
Her eyebrows shoot up her forehead. “Excuse me?”
“Did you even pay attention to the way he treated her out there? He could have been standing next to a wax figure for all he cared about Rocky. She was his accessory, like a goddamn purse or a watch or a fucking umbrella, and that’s it.”
“And now you want her to be yours,” Heidi says with derision.
“No,” I correct swiftly. “I’ll be hers.” Rocky’s head jerks to mine as Heidi’s eyebrows pull together. “She doesn’t need some shitstain man-child pretending to be better than her. She’s a star all on her own. You saw her onstage. She’s fucking brilliant, and the whole world would eat right out of her hand if she offered it. That’s why she won. That’s why she’ll keep winning. All this personal shit is just the baggage.”
“She won that award for her talent, yes, but you have no idea how much all of this other stuff, as you’d describe it, goes into it. There’s no way in hell the Academy would have given her that award if this nightmare had happened two weeks ago. It would have ruined it for her. Just like that. One fell swoop in by her knight in shining armor.”
I roll my eyes and turn to Rocky. “You’re not believing this shit, are you, Rock? You deserved that award, and no actions by me or anybody else would have changed that.”