“Fucking great. Now who’s my driver and where’s my car?” I ask.
He knows I’m serious. I’m not a diva, I never pull the rock star card, but he’s fucked me off big time today. First by bringing Amanda along, now by being off his chops, but mostly what’s really fucking got to me is the fact that he’s touched her. He had his hands on her. The girl I’ve dreamt about touching for so fucking long, he’s touched her and I want to snap each and every one of his fingers and ram them down his throat or up his arse. I don’t care where, as long as it causes him pain.
He sends a text and looks at me, nerves making his eye twitch. Good, I’m glad I make him nervous. He’s my mate as well as my manager, but he does not… touch… her… ever.
“Chill Reed. Your driver’s Matty. He’ll be at the doors that you came in. Down the back stairs and out the emergency exit. Have a beer and he should be here.”
“I don’t want a fucking beer, thank you very much.”
Tyler is watching me as he throws pistachios into his mouth. My eyes meet his.
“You good bro?” he asks.
“I’m good.”
Sophie and Jenna are both staring at me, not sure what’s going on. I haven’t looked at Meebs, I can’t. I know it’ll hurt.
“Matt’s outside,” Lawson announces.
Without giving myself chance to over think it, I grab Nina’s hand. I force my eyes to meet hers, they’re wide with shock. Good, I’m fucking glad I’ve shocked her.
“We need to talk. Say goodbye to everyone, Meebs, you’re coming with me,” I tell her.
“What? I...” she stutters.
I expect Sophie to start shouting and screaming. Instead, she fist pumps the air and shouts, “Fuck yeah.”
I don’t say another word to anyone. I keep a tight grip on Nina’s hand and pull her through the crowd and along the corridor toward the emergency exit doors. We head down the stairs in silence and out through another emergency exit. There’s security at all of them.
Matt, my usual driver when I’m in England, is waiting outside leaning against a Land Cruiser. He nods his head and without a word, opens the back door of the car. I stand aside to let Nina in, but she stops dead in her tracks and folds her arms across her chest.
“Get in the car, Meebs. I’ll take you home, but we need to talk first.”
Her eyes meet mine, her chin tilts in defiance but her eyes are shining like they’re filled with tears. “I’m not going anywhere with you.”
“Meebs, get in the fucking car. The very least you can do is give me an explanation.”
A tear rolls down her cheek and she swipes it away angrily.
“The very least I can do? The very fucking least I can do. You’ve got some nerve, Conner Reed. After everything you put me through, the very least I can do is give you an explanation? Get fucked.”
I pick her up by her waist and lift her into the car, evoking a scream. Climbing in after her, Matty shuts the door behind us.
Matty has been my driver and close protection since the band first made it big. Over the years, he’s become a mate and he knows me well enough now to wait outside the car and give me a minute to talk to Nina.
Nina. I don’t know why I’m now calling her Nina in my head. She’s Meebs, always will be, whether she fucking likes it or not.
I tilt my head back and stare up at the roof interior of the car.
What the fuck am I thinking?
There’s probably a hundred paps surrounding the venue and if any of them have one of those big fuck off zoom lenses they like to use, they’ve probably just gotten a dozen shots of what looks like me kidnapping a tiny blonde.
Fuck! I’ve kidnapped a tiny blonde.
I turn to look at her. She’s pushed as far into the opposite corner of the car as she can get, as far away from me as she can possibly be.
Her bottom lip is quivering and she wipes away a tear with the back of her hand.
“I’m sorry, Meebs. I’m so sorry. Please don’t cry.”
She wraps both her arms around herself and I feel like a complete cunt for making her cry.
“I just wanna talk. I just wanna know what happened.”
She turns to look at me. “Now you wanna talk, Con? Now, after all these years?”
I nod my head.
She’s beautiful.
So fucking beautiful.
I’m fucked.
Totally fucked.
“Well, I’ll talk. I’ll tell you what happened. You broke my fucking heart that’s what happened,” she shouts.
I rake my hand through my hair. I don’t know how I broke her heart when she’s the one that didn’t show.
The driver’s door opens and Matt sticks his head in. “I’ve gotta move the car, boss. We’re causing chaos.”
I nod my head at him, then turn to Meebs. “Will you come back to my place with me? Just so we can talk?”
She glares at me for a few seconds, then nods her head and says very quietly, “Just to talk.”
Good, because I have no intention of letting her go anyway, not until we have talked.