Page 13 of Love Rescheduled

“Don’t let him see you,” I implored.

“He knows Jolene is here.”

My heart pounded harder. “Does he know I’m here?”

“Not yet.”

That didn’t make me feel better. I had to escape.

“What’s up, Nashville?” Josh said in his I’m-so-cool voice. “It’s good to be back home. Where are my Nashville homies?”

Several people in the audience cheered. One woman shouted over the crowd, “I love you, Josh!”

“Hey, hey, girl, slow down. There’s plenty of time for that tonight.”

The crowd laughed.

“But honestly, it’s great to be back in Nashville. Everything is better here than in LA. The food, the music, the women,” he said sexily.

I could hear all the women swooning. I rolled my eyes and shimmied down farther in my seat until my head was practically level with the table. The only thing I cared about was hiding from Josh, even though I looked like an idiot.

“Speaking of women, I used to date a girl who had to schedule everything …”

Oh. My. Gosh. Surely he wasn’t talking about me. He’d promised me he would never, ever use me in any of his jokes. We are talking about a fairy tale promise with dire consequences. Just the thought of him possibly using me as material had me dropping the menu.

“And I mean everything …”

Tara whipped her head toward me, knowing there was no doubt who Josh was talking about. I did schedule everything. It took away all the anxiety of it. That wasn’t to say I didn’t welcome spontaneous affection. I did—it’s just … well … it didn’t matter.

In a gut reaction, I sat up, so much blood rushing to my head. I could hardly make out what he was saying, but it was definitely about intimate things. Things he had no business talking about.

The crowd was going nuts over it.

His casualness about it and the audience’s laughter incensed me to the point that all I cared about was leaving, not paying heed to the consequences of getting out of my seat. So, I popped up like a jack-in-the-box even as Tara was reaching for me.

Almost as if Josh had a radar detection system that was homed in on me, he looked my way at exactly the wrong moment. Our eyes locked. He stopped mid-sentence and dropped the mic, sending an earsplitting noise throughout the club. “Nat?” he said like he was out of breath.

I didn’t have to look around to know every head in the club was ping-ponging between us. Every introvert cell in my body was crying, begging for us to get out of there. So that’s what I did. I turned and fled like my life depended on it, weaving in and out of tables, trying not to trip on anyone’s bag or chair.

“Stop that woman!” Josh called out. “Her. The gorgeous redhead.” I imagined him pointing at me, but I didn’t dare turn around.

What the what? Was he freaking insane? The crowd looked as bewildered as I felt. Maybe they thought this was part of his act. I wasn’t sure, but no one made a move to stop me, so I kept on going. I almost made it to the bar when Josh yelled out, “Stop her! She’s a thief.”

My head about exploded when I spun in my high-heeled booties and glared at the stupid, stupid man. Why would he say something so grossly untrue? I felt like I was back in the junior high talent show, wishing to be saved, knowing no Hugh Grant was on the horizon. Every insecurity I ever felt began swimming through my head.

The crowd remained stunned and in their seats. But Josh’s lie ignited a fire with the security team. Two big bouncer-like creatures came at me like they were relatives of Tweedledee and Tweedledum.

Josh flashed me his signature I’m so charming, you know you love me grin.

But I definitely did not love him at the moment. In fact, I loathed him.

When the Tweedle brothers approached me, I spluttered, “I didn’t steal anything.”

They looked at the stage and Josh for direction. Tweedledum said, “She says she didn’t steal anything.”

Mortified didn’t even begin to cover it. I was going to have to have a session with Alec every day for a month to work through this. The bill was going to Josh.

I glared harder at Josh, daring him to contradict me.

---