Ignoring the fact that I just sounded like an owl, Katie screeched in my ear. "Nordstrom!"
"Nordstrom?" I repeated.
"Nordstrom! And theywant to talk. They're asking for your line sheet and samples by tomorrow. They said the show 'felt like a moment.' Their words, not mine!"
I sat back, stunned, the air catching in my throat.
A moment.
Holy shit. I had dreamed of having a moment. I could hardly believe it.
"I know I'll see you in a little bit at the party, but I couldn't wait to tell you," she said in the stunned silence that followed.
"Oh, my God, Katie, we did it. Thank you so much."
"No, my friend.Youdid it. I was just along for the ride."
"Well, as I've said a million times, I couldn't have done it without you."
"Ahh, stop. I'll see you soon, and we'll toast each other."
We said our goodbyes, the giddiness in my heart fighting with the anger of before, the emotions churning and twirling like oil and water in the same bottle, unable to mix.
Glancing back at Tristan, returning to my new reality, the silence hung between us, loud, deafening, the air weighted with heaviness, despite the leaping my heart was currently doing from the big news.
He hadn't moved an inch. Still sitting in the chair, on edge, watching me like he was trying to read every emotion in my body.
"That sounded like big news," he said quietly.
"It was." I couldn't stop my smile. We were talking about Nordstrom! "That was the sound of my career hopefully doing a one-eighty."
He nodded, a soft smile lighting up his face. "I'm so happy for you."
"Thank you." Why did he have to be so handsome? And be such a good actor that I almost believed him?
My phone buzzed again, and I glanced down to see an excited text from Annalise, followed by one from Aria, both of them full of exclamation points and links to social media. They also told me to get to the party already.
This thing between Tristan and me could wait. He'd already wasted so much time in my life with his crap, and I was sick of it, sick of thinking about him and what he'd done.
I needed to move on to bigger and better things, and now that he knew my identity, the entire revenge thing had fallen apart, which meant I never had to see Tristan D. Hawthorne ever again.
Which should have made me ecstatic. But I wasn't.
Oh, God, why wasn't I?
"Look," I said, standing up, surprised to find my limbs a little shaky, "I need to get going. It's a big night for me, you know."
Rising to his feet, towering over me, he nodded. "I get that. I'm sorry. It was a mistake to show up here like this. I should have waited."
Ugh, stop being so nice.
"What was it you wanted to tell me?" I asked, blurting it out with zero thought.
While he hesitated, his eyes never left mine. "Do you really want to know? It's kind of a lot, and I want you to just go and enjoy your night."
Oh, great. Now my curiosity was piqued, and Ihadto know. "Yes. Yes, I do want to know."
He ran an agitated hand through his hair, sighing deeply. "Man, I fucked this up," he muttered.
