Page 14 of My Rockstar Ex's Broken Vows

FIVE

Sienna

I see you there, you’re miles away

PS 124 Yung Wing School

40 Division Street, Chinatown

3:37 PM

I burstthrough the door of Emma's classroom, my hands still shaking. Paint-splattered tables and bright student artwork blur past as I pace between the desks.

"Please tell me you don't have a parent meeting."

Emma looks up from her laptop, glasses sliding down her nose. "Canceled. The kid has strep." She takes one look at my face and closes her computer. "What are you doing here? Are you okay?"

"Callum."

The name hangs in the air between us. Emma's eyes go wide behind her frames.

"What do you mean, 'Callum?'"

"I just saw him. At some coffee shop in the Village." My voice sounds strange and distant, even to myself. "He's... here. In New York. Emma, I just fucking saw Callum Reid for the first time in six years and my world is spinning."

"What?" Emma stands, knocking over a jar of paintbrushes. "Obviously I saw thatTikTokabout his record deal. The one I sent you. But he's actually here, in New York?"

I grip the edge of a small desk painted with rainbow handprints. "Worse. Remember the guy who kissed me at the masquerade?"

"No." Emma freezes halfway through picking up the brushes. "The mystery man in the mask was Callum? Our Callum?"

"Not ours any more." My laugh comes out hollow. "Callum with his new tattoos and his fancy record deal and his..." I can't finish.

Emma straightens slowly, processing. A half-finished mural of a dragon curves around her classroom walls, watching us with knowing eyes.

"Sit." She pulls up two tiny chairs meant for first graders. "Start from the beginning."

"I can't sit." My heels click against the linoleum as I pace. "I can't... I decided to grab a coffee since Marcus was picking Ollie up today and I just ran into him. Just like that. After six years of nothing. And there he was. Oh, my God, Emma. What the fuck?!"

"What were you even doing in the Village?"

"Helping Brooke pack up her ex's vinyl collection." My throat tightens at the irony. "She finally decided to mail it back to him. I had just left her place and decided to grab a coffee before getting on the subway. The universe has a sick sense of humor."

Emma watches me wear a path on her classroom floor. "Tell me exactly what happened."

"I was just standing there, reading, and suddenly I felt someone staring." I close my eyes, remembering. "When I looked up, there he was. Different. His hair's darker now, shorter. And the tattoos. God, the tattoos."

"How did you even recognize him?" Emma's voice is gentle.

"His voice, first. I would know that deep baritone anywhere." I wrap my arms around myself. "Everything else about him is different, but those eyes... How I didn't fully recognize them Friday night, I don't know. I think his whole package looks different: the clothes, the hair, the tattoos. I never expected it would be Callum, he wasn’t even on my radar."

"Sienna, I'm dying. I don't even know how to respond. What did he say?"

"He tried to talk to me like we were old friends just running into each other."

"And you poked his eyes out?"

I laugh, but it isn't a joyful laugh. "I wanted to. I've never felt so much rage as I did when I realized it was him. It was like I was getting punked and everyone was in on the joke but me."

---