“Well, he has a long history of manipulating women. And if you could ignore your schoolgirl crush on him for one minute, you might see that he's pulling the wool over your eyes, too. I've got better things to do than to hear another story about Billionaire James the saint. I'll chat you up later.”
I couldn't believe what I was hearing. “Okay. Bye.” The line was already dead.
I looked down at my phone, not sure I could understand or believe what just happened. Had my best friend just hung up on me over this? I thought about my pregnancy test, how I hadn't had a chance to tell her about it. I hadn't had a chance to tell her anything, really. It was unsettling to say the least. I wondered what happened to her.
I didn't have a lot of time to think about that. I was already almost back to James' apartment.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
The doorman let me in with no problems. I was worried that that might be an issue, but apparently I wasn't barred from the premises. I walked in and went to the elevator, trying to think of what I would say when I saw him. Would I say that I was sorry? Would I tell him right away that I was pregnant, and that was why I was emotional? I wouldn't know until I saw him.
He had left the door to his apartment unlocked. I heard music faintly, but as soon as the door opened I heard the sound of him wailing on the guitar. It was chaotic, with no rhyme or reason to it. Every few seconds I recognized a chord or something that sounded like it was from a song I knew, but just as soon as I did, it would be gone.
I kicked off my shoes by the door and walked toward the sound, my fingers on my ears for the last few feet before I appeared in the doorway. James had put nothing on but pajama pants since I last saw him. As soon as he saw me, he stopped playing. The electric guitar twanged silent but the reverb on the amp lasted just a few seconds longer.
I stood there for a moment, still unsure of what to say. I didn't know if he read something in my face or what, but suddenly he broke out into that cocky grin of his. “I forgive you.”
I couldn't help but break into a smile but I looked away as I did so. “I can't stay mad at you, either.”
He released his grip on his guitar. “I haven't done it yet, because I wanted you to think about how it would look, but I'll tell Nicole that I have no interest in her if it makes you happy.”
I thought about it. It would definitely be one less source of stress in my life. I hated the thought of going back to my dorm and looking over at her, knowing that she was trying to chat up James and seduce him. Still, he was right that it would look weird for him to break it off with her.
“Let's not talk about that right now. What did you have planned for today?” I asked.
He shrugged. “Nothing. I took the entire day off to be with you.”
I laughed. “I'm impressed. Your time must be worth a lot.”
“'A lot' doesn't even begin to cover it,” he said. “But, I guess I can give you the 'friends and family' rate. A mere ten thousand dollars an hour.”
I laughed at that, but considering that he made something like a billion dollars in the last three years, that might be close to the truth. A hundred hours a week, a hundred fifty weeks... I wasn't very good at math but even I could see that his time was a lot more valuable than my temper tantrum.
“I didn't bring much cash, can we come to some kind of an arrangement?” I asked, batting my eyelashes in an over-the-top fashion.
I watched his eyes do a once-over on my body. He started walking toward me, then stopped himself when he realized his guitar was still attached to his body and he was still hooked up to the amp. He stopped, then beckoned to me. “Come here,” he said. I walked up as he pulled the guitar strap from over his neck. “Have you ever played the guitar before?”
I shook my head. He smiled and help up the guitar strap, gesturing for me to stand where he had been. As I stood there, he slipped the strap over my head, adjusting it to fit me better.
“There's been a few things bothering me recently. Did you know that I had to throw the lead singer of my band out of my home yesterday?”
How could I forget? I thought.
“Then, on top of that, a girl that I'm falling hard for thinks I'm cheating on her.”
My heart skipped a beat. He's falling hard for me, I thought with a little big of an inner squeeeee.
“Do you know how that makes me feel, Allie?” he asked, looking into my eyes.
I shook my head. “No.”
He grabbed my hand and moved it to the neck of the guitar. I watched as he put my fingers on two of the strings, and with his other hand, he violently strummed the guitar for a few notes. The sound was discordant and harsh. “It makes me feel like that.” Then, he turned and grabbed the microphone from its stand and sang, “It sucks.”
I laughed. He turned to me with a smile. “How about you? Is anything bothering you?”
I thought about Nicole. I thought about Tessa. I thought about what our parents would think if they found out we slept together. I thought about my grades at school in New York. I thought about how I could keep James. But most of all, I thought about the baby that was, as we stood here messing around in his studio, growing inside of me.
Yeah, a whole hell of a lot was bothering me.