Page 23 of Final Serenade

“It’s been a busy couple of weeks,” I said over the music.

“What exactly kept you busy?” The question itself was blunt, but the way Jax asked it made it sound…polite. He was a genuine guy whom I was using tonight. Which only reinforced my belief that I was a shitty person.

“Weren’t you on some TV show?” I changed the subject.

“Yes.Mad Ink.”

I’d never heard of the show before. I made a mental note to check it out. “Did you like it?”

“I did, but the network decided not to renew. The show just ran one season.”

“That’s a bummer.”

“It was a great experience, though.”

“That’s good.”

We chatted about Jax’s work on TV for the remainder of the drive. He was easy and his simplicity made me like him even more, but it wasn’t a lustful pull and that baffled me. By the time the convertible rolled up to my apartment complex, I was fairly sober.

A flash of guilt ran through me. “I really appreciate it,” I said, checking my pockets to confirm that my ID and the credit card hadn’t fallen out.

“Of course.” Jax turned to face me, his eyes locking on mine. “Do you maybe want to get a cup of coffee sometime?”

I needed a second to process his question. Now that I was halfway back to my senses, the events of the entire evening felt different. There had been too many conversations with too many men today and they all started to crash inside my head.

“Sure. I’d love to,” I whispered, unfastening the seatbelt. My gut told me to leave. Fast.Now you’re just leading him on, girlfriend.“I’ll text you tomorrow?”

“Sounds good.”

“Thanks again for the ride.” I stepped out of the car and hurried inside.

Chapter Four

My brain was a war zone. I sat at my desk and stared at the empty page of my Word document. Nothing was coming to me.

“Could you upload it by five?” Levi’s voice thundered against my left eardrum as I took a sip of my lukewarm coffee, and I had to draw the phone away from my ear and switch to speaker mode. My mind was a million miles away, flipping through the haze of last night’s events. I still couldn’t believe I’d embarrassed the crap out of myself by telling Frankie Blade about my father.

What were you thinking, Cassy?

Oh, that’s right. You weren’t. That’s what happens when you drink.

“Yes. I’ll have it ready by five,” I droned.

You’ll be lucky if you get the headline ready by five,my scattered brain countered.

“When are you going to pick up your stuff?”

“A little later.” My laptop was still at Levi’s, but the thought of getting in a car made me sick to my stomach. Besides, I had my desktop and I didn’t plan on leaving my apartment until Wednesday. That was when I had my next event to cover on my calendar. Carlos and Steph were going to take care of tonight’s show at Staples, and Levi had found someone to review the shebang at WeHo.

Besides, my knee needed time to heal.

“Any juicy stories?” he probed.

“Not really.” My gaze crept back to TMZ’s home page. I carefully looked through the recent posts. Nothing about the party at Dante’s last night. Good.

There were, however, a lot of videos of Frankie’s performance. People loved him. He was the hottest trend of the day. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Yahoo. The planet was celebrating his return.

Even the shitty cell phone videos couldn’t dull the power of his magnificent voice.

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