Page 7 of Love Unexpected
I stood there, unsure if I was more offended by her lack of awareness or that Isaac would give something so valuable to someone who would cinch it up and tie it in knots to the point of obscuring the image on the t-shirt in the first place. “You know it’s Isaac’s favorite band, right?”
Her eyes had dropped back to her phone, and she responded without looking up. “I tried to listen, but...” She shrugged. “I don’t know. It just sounded like noise to me.”
Noise?
I had absolutelynotgiven the woman too much credit.
“Right,” I mumbled under my breath as I moved past her in the hallway. “Well, the bathroom is all yours.”
I settled into the overstuffed chair in the corner of Jade and Diedre’s living room. Everyone outside had already started to eat, but I needed a minute. My close encounter with Isaac had left me reeling in a good way, but then my run-in with Bridget had done the opposite.
She was so obviously wrong for him. How could he not see it? True, couples could get along with different tastes in music. But it was more than that. I’d seen enough of her in his live streams and other videos to at least have a basic opinion. It was possible she was totally different on camera than she was in person, but she just didn’t seem like she got him. Like she understood him. Not like I did.
Although, fans did seem to love her.
Maybe I was the one who was out of touch. Or it was all just wishful thinking—some misplaced hope thatIwould be better for Isaac than she was.
I pulled up Isaac’s Instagram account and scrolled through his last few posts. He’d already posted a selfie of himself and Bridget by the pool. They looked perfect together. All attractive and sun-kissed. But her words about Red Renegade kept pulsing through my mind. How could Isaac let something like that go? If he just knew what it was like to be with someone who understood, who felt the significance of the band like he did...
The way he’d looked at me when he’d caught me in the pool flitted through my mind. Therehadbeen something there. I didn’t want to steal Isaac away from his girlfriend. I would never be that girl. Even if I was, I wasn’t deluded enough to think, with my retro fashion vibe and my love for colorful sneakers, that I could ever compete head-to-head with a woman as gorgeous as Bridget. But if I could just suggest the possibility that there might be somethingmoreout there, someonemore...
But how?
I could just go outside and start reciting song lyrics. Red Renegade had a deep backlist. It wasn’t hard to find lyrics that applied to most situations in life. But that felt a little desperate. Plus, I was nothing if not an introvert. I hung out with Max whenever I was hanging out with my friends because Max was easy. He had very low expectations, and I didn’t have to spend near as much time worrying about what I said or what other people thought of me. I knew my friends liked me. But I was still the new girl. My confidence had not grown quite enough for me to put myself out there in that way. Especially not in front of Isaac.
But maybe I didn’t have to put myself out there in person.
Isaac got way too many direct messages and emails to read them all. But I had an in.
Jade was the one who led the social media team that read everything that came in and decided what was interesting enough for Isaac to see. If I told her I’d sent something I wanted in front of Isaac’s eyes? She could make it happen.
Of course, I’d have to admit to her how I felt about Isaac. And so far, Greta and Vinnie were the only two people who knew that particular secret. Well, the only two people inCharleston.My parents knew, of course, and my cousin, Marley. I was an only child, but Marley and I were as close as sisters.
Was I willing to let Jade know, too? She’d tell Diedre, of course. But if I asked her not to tell anyone else, she wouldn’t. Jade was intense, but she was a true and loyal friend. She’d respect whatever I wanted.
Still. It was a risk.
My hands trembled as I pulled up my old Instagram account, the thrill of possibility humming beneath my skin. I’d loved Isaac from afar for a very long time. But now I wasdoingsomething about it. Sort of. And that felt amazing.
The account was one I’d used as a teenager and was all art, cartoons, and graphics I’d designed. The username associated with the account, @briarsandthorns, was both part of a line from a Red Renegadesong and a subtle nod to my middle name, Rose. Because roses had thorns. But the official name on the account was my first name, Ana, even though I’d always gone by Rosie. I’d tried to switch over to Ana as a teenager, believing Rosie was too cutesy, but the only place it had ever stuck was on Instagram. At least that worked to my advantage now. Ana C. was vague enough that Isaac wouldn’t have any reason to suspect it was me.
I scrolled through all the old posts. There was a touch too much existential angst woven through for my current tastes, but I’d done some good work. It at least wasn’t anything to be ashamed of.
I pulled up a sketch I’d done of one of Red Renegade’s album covers, the same one Bridget had been wearing when I’d run into her outside the bathroom. I’d washed out the colors, deepening the grays and blacks behind each of the band members so they stood more starkly against the skyline behind them. It wasn’t half bad. Especially since I’d only been seventeen when I’d done it.
On impulse, I called Marley. I glanced outside while the phone rang, noting that everyone but me was outside now—even Bridget, who must have passed back through the living room without me noticing.
Marley answered on the first ring, just like I knew she would. “Talk to me, but talk fast,” she said. “I’ve got a meeting in minutes.”
In many ways, Marley was my polar opposite. She was vibrant and boisterous and loud and wasn’t afraid of anything, and she was my very best friend. She worked from her home in Nashville, running a business that recruited and trained virtual executive assistants, a career born out of necessity since she was raising her kid—my eleven-year-old nephew, Shiloh—alone and needed both a steady incomeanda healthy measure of flexibility.
“Seriously? It’s Friday night. Why are you working?”
“A lot of my trainees are currently working full-time jobs. Sometimes I have to train on the weekends. We’re wasting minutes, Rosie. What’s up?”
“I need you to tell me to do something brave,” I said.
“You’re doing it? You’re finally talking to him? Do it, Rosie. Be brave!” Funny. She had known immediately that my something brave had to do with Isaac.
