Page 155 of Hayden's Stalker

“You need to have more faith in yourself. I bet it’ll be a box office smash, and in a year’s time, you’ll be wondering what you were so worried about.”

“I’m glad you think that. So anyway, let’s talk about you. How’s the tour been going?”

“Great.” The one downside from the tour comes to my mind, and I amend, “Aside from the emails and gifts from my stalker.”

I wish they’d fuck off or be found. I just want them to be out of my life. I want to be free to be happy and not have this constant dark cloud hanging over my head all the time. The one bright spark in all of this is Tati.

“But you’ve got Tatiana, at least,” April points out.

I blink at her, surprised by her comment because I’d just been thinking that Tati was the one good thing in my life, and I have no idea how April realized that. “What do you mean?”

“To keep you safe—wait, what else would I mean?”

April looks confused, and I curse myself internally because this makes complete sense. Far more sense than her somehow reading my mind and knowing that Tati’s the best thing in my life.

I ignore her question and try to cover my mistake as I say quickly, “Yeah, she’s great. And Jesse, of course. They’re making sure the stalker can’t get to me.”

“I don’t envy you. I had a guy break into my house once, and they found him watching movies in my theater room.”

I shudder. “That sounds awful. Did you see him?”

“Luckily, no. I was in London recording a duet, thank fuck. My maid found him and called the police, who arrested him.”

“Oh, shit. I remember that. I think we were on tour at the time.”

She nods. “Yeah, it was right before I came back for your final night ofHeart Wide Open.”

The topic of conversation turns to the tour and April’s duet with Gabriel. We talk until the waiter has brought us our desserts, and I finish my crème brûlée before I smile at my friend.

“If you’ll excuse me, please, April. I’ll be back in a bit.”

“Sure,” she says with a smile.

I move over to Tati’s table and smile down at her beautiful face. “Hey, Tati. I need to go to the bathroom, but I can wait until you’ve finished eating.”

She wipes her mouth with a napkin and drops it on her plate before she takes a big sip of her glass of water. “No, it’s fine. I was finished, anyway.”

She stands and leads the way toward the bathrooms at the back of the restaurant. Other patrons turn to stare at me as we pass them, and a few whisper my name as well, a couple of them even saying April’s name.

As soon as we’re out of earshot of April, I tell Tati under my breath, “I’m ready to go back upstairs. I like April, but this is super awkward.”

She turns right into the corridor that leads to the bathrooms and says, “I know. Not long, and we can go back to the suite.”

We pass the ladies’ room, and Tati walks into the men’s room with me. There’s no door to the bathroom, and we only have to walk around a corner to go inside.

A man is taking a piss at the urinal, and he glares at Tati when he sees her. “Hey! This is the men’s room.”

“I know,” she says in a voice that clearly says she doesn’t give a fuck about his opinion. “Can you make it quick, Hayden?”

I nod and walk into the stall as the guy gawks at me. I’m grateful for being able to close the stall door behind me to shut out his prying eyes.

“Is that Hayden Vega?” the guy asks as I’m doing my business.

I finish up but wait a few more seconds as I listen to see if the guy is still in the room, but it doesn’t seem so.

As I exit the stall, I look around the bathroom to confirm we’re definitely alone before I continue our conversation from earlier as I wash my hands. “I don’t ever want to go on a date with anyone else, Tati.”

I wipe my hands dry with a paper towel, and Tati walks over to me. “I know, Hayden. I love you, and I just want you to be safe.”

---