Page 49 of Not Another Love Song

He shrugged. “As long as you like.”

“What if I don’t ‘lure the younger demographic back to the Pops’? What if in two years I’m no longer the youngest first chair in U.S. history?”

“I’m confident that you will be a huge success, Gwen.” He smiled and reached across the table to place a comforting hand on hers.

But he hadn’t answered her question.

“I wanted to call you in today,” Nathan continued, “not only to tell you about Xander, but to discuss how to handle him in rehearsal.”

Gwen rubbed her right brow, a headache starting to pound behind her eye. “All right.”

“Since you two are friendly, it might be a bit easier—”

Her head snapped up. “What did he tell you?”

Nathan blinked at her, caught off guard. “Apologies, I assumed you were. You played his arrangement of the Vitali Chaconne at the Anniversary Concert.”

Her throat went dry. “His arrangement? As in he wrote it?” Now she knew why Ava had seemed shocked to hear it on that stage. “No, I found it online.”

Where you had posted it.

Her head throbbed.

“Ah. Well, let’s discuss how the three of us can come together as a team to lift this orchestra up to its highest level.”

He flashed her a dashing grin that worked on the subscribers, and launched into a discussion that made Gwen more nauseated by the minute. With the new knowledge of Nathan and Xander’s past in her head, she had to bite her words back as Nathan talked about his stepson, the teenager he’d been so incredibly hard on.

By the time she left Nathan’s office, she was still no clearer on why Xander had accepted his position back. She remembered him at the Plaza hotel, running after her into the women’s bathroom—The Pops doesn’t matter to me.

So what did?

She stepped out onto Seventh Avenue and turned north toward Central Park, thinking about maybe walking through the summer air for a bit to clear her head.

“Gwen.”

Spinning at the familiar voice, she found Xander Thorne stepping away from the building, coming toward her. He’d waited for her.

Her pulse raced as he ran a hand through his hair and stopped in front of her. She didn’t trust her voice, so she waited for him to speak.

“Do you—” He cleared his throat. “Can I buy you a cup of coffee?”

His face was strained, like he’d never asked that question in his life. Like he just needed to look at a girl to get her underwear off, no Starbucks baristas involved.

Girls like Chelsea. His maybe-girlfriend. Someone Gwen hadn’t given a thought to until this exact moment.

“No. Thank you.” She took a step back from him, considering taking two more into traffic. “Welcome back.”

Gwen all but sprinted down to the subway.

CHAPTER TWELVE

Wednesday was the hottest day of the year on record. One hundred percent humidity.

Gwen stood in the moist air next to sweating strangers on the subway, riding in between her interview and her first rehearsal.

The interview had been fun. They had a stylist there to dress her and do her hair and makeup for the cover shoot. It was the first time someone spent time on her appearance like that. The problem was, she now looked like she had dressed up for this rehearsal, taking care with her makeup and hair. Which, she had not, and absolutely had not for someone in particular.

She arrived at the rehearsal space off Eighth, and after a quick glance confirming that Xander Thorne had not yet arrived, she began saying her hellos and tuning her violin. Gwen welcomed the two new violinists, one of them taking her old spot.

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