Page 27 of Drum Me Away
“I had no clue. Although I guess now I finally have an explanation behind him breaking up with me instead of proposing after your reception.” I took another drink of coffee and managed to get it down my throat this time. I rubbed at my forehead. “Oh my God, did that seriously happen?”
When we left the reception, he’d taken me back to our hotel room, told me he no longer loved me, and packed his shit and left. I had to call a cab to get me to the airport the next morning. His seat on the plane had been vacant; I assumed he’d booked himself onto a different flight.
And I’d been utterly devastated. I’d never understood why he’d changed gears so abruptly. It never occurred to me that he’d cheated on me.
Maria nodded, her frown sympathetic. “In the sitting room adjacent to the restroom stalls. Her name is Melissa. When she realized I was standing there, she shoved him away and begged me not to tell anyone.”
“And you didn’t. At least, you didn’t tell me.”
“To be fair, you and I weren’t close. You hardly spoke to anyone at the wedding. And I had no idea how serious you were with that guy.” She touched my arm. “I’m really sorry, anyway, that I didn’t tell you.”
I shook my head. “It’s okay. It was a long time ago.”
“To be honest, I got a little thrill out of watching Vic at their wedding, fawning all over them, knowing that he’d shit a brick if he knew what happened at our reception.”
“They got married?” I may have shouted that. But seriously!
Maria winced. “Oops, sorry, probably shouldn’t have mentioned that bit.”
I let go a long, deep breath. “Holy shit.”
"Sorry, I shouldn’t have brought it up.”
I shook my head. “I guess it’s better that I know. Now that you and I are friends I assume I’ll actually come home a little more frequently. I don’t need to be blindsided if I run into them at some point.”
“You’ll be able to handle it?”
I shrugged. “Sure. Hank’s in my past. I’m over him.”
She arched one brow. “Are you?”
“Am I what?”
“Over him?”
“Of course I am.”
“Because if I’m understanding correctly, at some point you must have had an opportunity to hook up with that hot as hell and incredibly considerate rock star I met yesterday, and I’m guessing the fact that you weren’t over cheater boy is the reason you did not pursue that option.”
I sighed. “Yeah, that’s exactly right. I met Lucas in college. We were at a party and ended up covering for the band that didn’t show. From there, we started jamming together, adding members until we had an actual band of our own. Once we graduated, we decided instead of joining the workforce, we’d see if we could make it in the world of rock ‘n roll.”
“You had already graduated by the time I got married, so how does this all tie together?”
“Lucas and I were friends in the beginning. Really good friends. We actually had a talk about it, early on. ‘If we’re going to make this work, we need to make sure we don’t let emotions get in the way.’ We both wanted the band to be successful, so we didn’t even consider dating each other. Or, at least, I didn’t.
“We both dated around, nothing serious, until our senior year, when I met Hank. He wanted exclusivity right from the get-go, and obviously, I didn’t mind. Everything was hunky dory until your wedding. I never saw it coming. Never in a million years thought he’d break up with me.”
By the time I was able to move on, the band had fans, people buying our records and begging for more. I was adored by thousands; the last thing I wanted to think about was being rejected by the man I thought I loved.
“Okay, enough dwelling on that,” Maria said. “So how does a potential relationship with Lucas come into play here?”
“I told you, this picture of Lucas and me that looked like we were all googly-eyed over each other went viral, and Dahlia suggested we pretend to be a couple and—”
“I get all that,” Maria interrupted. “I want to know why you never made it the real deal.”
I sighed. “A few months after we started pretending to be together, Lucas asked me out. He wanted to go on an actual date. I balked. Completely froze. All those memories of what happened with Hank surfaced. I hadn’t even realized I’d been suppressing them until that moment.
“I panicked and shut him down so fast I think both our heads were spinning. He backed off immediately and never broached the subject again. The really shitty part is we also stopped being friends at that point.”
