“Hey, girlfriend. How was the concert?”
“Oh.” It wasn't the question that I had expected her to ask first. “It was okay.”
“Did Lover Boy sing to you?” Yeah, ha ha, this was more like it. Her mocking tone showed me that the first question had just been a setup for the second one.
“Har har. Actually, he didn't sing at all.”
“So. Tell me!” I was about to spill it all out. I still hesitated, but I knew I had to tell her. She was my best friend, and she deserved to know. I opened my mouth but before I could get any words out, she jumped in again. “He knocked Audrey up, didn't he?”
What? That's all she cared about? I thought.
“No,” I said softly. “No, that's not what happened.” I kind of didn't know where to start.
“So he straight up told you he didn't sleep with her,” she stated.
“Tessa, I- Let me start from the beginning.” I wasn't sure whether to start with Ryan getting handsy with me last night or the concert that Audrey got pregnant at.
Unfortunately, I must have hesitated too long. “So now you're going to defend him too?”
“Tessa!” I yelled into the phone, annoyed.
She must have known that I meant business at this point. “I'm listening.”
I inhaled sharply. “James admitted to me last night that he did sleep with Audrey while she was still with her boyfriend, but it was over a year ago. His band mate Ryan-”
“Oh, so he's just going to throw his buddy under the bus, and you're going to believe him immediately.”
I paused, unsure of what to say. “Tessa, you seem to be taking this awfully personally.”
“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 38
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.”