Page 67 of Take What You Want

“Fine?”

“Yes. What, did you want a full critique from start to finish?” The attitude she throws the question at me with sets my teeth on edge and turns me on at the same time.

Raymond takes a small step back and slips his hands in his pockets, clearly uncomfortable by the turn this is taking.

“Is there something you’d like to say?” I step closer, closer than two people should be for a causal interaction with all these eyes to witness.

“Not particularly,” she snips, “and I think you should take a step back. Wouldn’t want yourgirlfriendto get the wrong idea.”

Alright then.

“Can I have some space?” I call out, voice rising above the various conversations. Quickly, everyone grabs their drinks and purses as they clear out. Jane tries to melt into the pack, and I grab her arm, stopping her in her tracks. “Not you,” I rumble.

She stiffens in my grip, but remains put.

Arun is the last to leave, shooting me a reprimanding look that I don’t want to deal with right now. The door clicks shut, engulfing the room in silence.

Tension radiates off Jane and it makes the air stifling until my lungs ache.

“What’s wrong?”

She immediately shakes her head and it dislodges a curl which blocks part of her face.

I try to tuck it behind her ear, but she slaps my hand away. “You don’t get to do that with me after you just pulled it with her onstage.” The venom in her voice masks the hurt I know all too well.

She retreats a step, and I step forward. We do this dance until her back is pressed against one of the walls and she has nowhere left to go. Her chest heaves, but she tries to keep her face blank.

It fails.

I know her too well. Placing my hands flat against the wall, I cage her in.

“Talk to me,” I say, trying to rein in my emotions as the high from performing crashes.

She refuses to shrink even as I lean over her. “I just did.”

“You know it’s a performance,” I remind her. “You know I have to sell it with her. I have everything riding on this, Jane.”

A muscle in her jaw clicks. “I’m not an idiot. Don’t tell me what I already know.”

“An idiot is the last thing I’d ever call you.”

“I’m fully aware that you have to sell your relationship with her. But that doesn't mean I have to like it. Or that I’ll allow you to pull the same moves on her that you do on me.” Her voice shakes at the end of her sentence.

“Don’t cheapen moments we share by comparing them to what I have to do for work now.”

She rolls her eyes. “I’m not the one cheapening them. Tonight put things into perspective for me,” she says. “I needed a wake-up call and tonight was it.”

“A wake-up call about what?”

“About us.”

“Us?”

Jane nods, and I scoff, anger rising at the walls she’s putting back up again before I even have the chance to jump over them. “And what exactly was this new revelation you had? Because since it has to do with me, I’d like to be informed.”

“You’re being an asshole,” she fires back.

“And you’re being confusing as fuck! You told me to go for it. To do the fake relationship to help my career. And when I foundyou in the crowd tonight, you seemed to be having a good time. So what the actual fuck happened between then and now?”

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