Page 6 of Touch in the Dark

“What?”

“I know what you’re going to say, and I am not letting you come up with some excuse because he is going to be there.”

“I wasn’t,” I pout. I totally am.

“You can’t get out of going to the party anyway,” she points out.

Again, totally correct. I’m not attending this party as a guest of Jenna, or BreakNeck. I am at this party because I am friends with the guy throwing it. I am here in New York because of the job I am currently working. Remi Molyneaux, my current number one client, will kill me dead if I don’t show up tonight. And I’ve already had the pep talk like thirty-seven times, that I can attend this party with him there too. Remi knows all about Nick Chambers and our brief but painful past.

I’ve seen Nick a grand total of two times since he pulled my heart out of my chest, tossed it on the floor, stomped on it, then set fire to it. Okay, so maybe that is a slight exaggeration, but it is for sure what it felt like at the time. I’d put a brave face on it the first time I saw him, acted all nonchalant, like I was over it. Over him. He’d been awkward in our first encounter too. We hadn’t spoken since the night it happened.

Once he realised, I knew what he did, he called once, but I wasn’t interested in speaking to him. It had been right there, on TV for the entire world to see. There was no way he could say it was anything other than what it was. He took another girl home when he was supposed to be with me.

You can’t get a much clearer slap in the face than that.

There were enough people at that first meeting that it didn’t get too weird. We could be in the same room and have a good time, away from each other, without too much chat, or even looking one another in the eye. The other guys had clearly been watching us to see how we would act, but both of us rose above it and behaved like adults. I hadn’t gone home and cried like a loser. Not at all.

The second time we’d talked, we’d shared a laugh, then I spent the rest of the night counting down until I could leave, without it being obvious.

Jenna has become one of my best friends, even though we’ve only known each other such a brief time. She had already hooked up with Adam, or Aidan as he is known professionally, the lead singer of BreakNeck, when we first met. So being her friend makes me a part of their circle. And Nick is also a part of that circle. A huge one. So, I must get over it if I want to remain her friend. I have to be the bigger person. Show that dick it doesn’t matter what he did. He doesn’t matter to me.

Fake it till you break, er, make it… That is how the saying goes. I’m not broken. At least, not anymore. I was back then. Really, stupidly broken. It is a lesson learnt, one I am not going to repeat. How could I when I’m not around him?

“Remi would totally understand if I blew it off,” I say, leading her to the huge semi-circular sofa in Remi’s living room.

“Yeah, for sure, he said that.”

Of course, she sees right through me. We sit down and I offer her some chocolates from the tray on the coffee table. She takes two of the square pieces of chocolate. I love she isn’t afraid to eat. I have worked around so many models and actresses lately it’s rare anyone takes me up on my offers of treats. Jenna looks after herself, working out all the time at the boxing gym, but she isn’t afraid of calories the way most of the people I spend my time with are.

“This place is amazing,” she sighs, looking around. “You’re actually staying here with him?” she arches a brow.

“Don’t get excited,” I laugh. “It’s a secret, so you have to swear never to repeat it, but Remi likes his conquests with three legs, not two.”

For a moment, she looks perplexed, then my meaning dawns on her. “Really?” she asks like I’ve told her the juiciest gossip ever. “But he’s so…”

“Alpha male?” I suggest.

She taps her chin with her forefinger, that rock dazzling my eyeballs again. “You don’t have to be straight to be an alpha male,” she says sagely. “Have you ever read any MM romance.”

“M and M’s? They write romance about candy?” I grin.

She laughs loudly. “No, MM, male, male.”

“Gay romance?” I arch a brow. The guys have been giving Jenna shit about her love of romance novels for as long as they’ve known her. She always manages to have some kind of reference to the literary world she works in. “I’ve heard of it, I’ve never read any.”

“So hot,” she takes another chocolate and pops it into her mouth. “I can give you some recommendations if you like.”

“I missed you,” I grab her in another hug, and she laughs in surprise. “And it’s actually common knowledge Remi is into guys. I see you still haven’t taken the time to learn about anything other than books and eighties cock rock.”

She laughs unapologetically. “Cock rock.”

“Ha, you said cock,” I grin.

“What about cock?”

Jenna almost chokes on her chocolate. I look over the back of the couch as Remi comes into the room. He is shirtless, wearing white linen pants and his feet bare, there is a towel around his neck and his hair is damp. Last time I saw him he was in the gym, he’s obviously finished up and taken a shower.

Remi is a heartthrob the world over. He looks like an edgier, darker Hayden Christensen with pouty lips and piercing eyes. He catapulted into stardom on a reality TV show about three years ago, but the difference between Remi and a lot of the ‘celebrities’ to come from such shows is, he actually has talent. He is an amazing actor, and he’s worked hard to get where he is. Finally landing the leading male role in a romantic comedy that just wrapped. Tonight, he is throwing a party to celebrate the end of the shoot.

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