Page 106 of Tangled Up In You

Standing, he said, “You’re a cool one, aren’t you?”

“What? Are you in love with me or something, Connie?” she asked.

Conor met her eyes and said flatly, “No.” He paused. “And don’t call me ‘Connie.’ I fucking hate it.”

“Okay, fine. Look, we have fun together. Just now, that was fun, right?” she asked, but didn’t wait for him to respond. “But that’s all it was. So, I have to go now because I have a date.”

“Oh, it’s a date, is it?”

“So what if it is?”

He was being sucked into her games. Pursuing a woman was fun, a challenge. But this was something different, this was pure game playing for its own sake. She had slept with him knowing full well she was shortly to meet with another man, and that didn’t sit well with him.

“Never mind,” he said with a sigh. “You’re right. It was a good time. I’ll be going.”

She met his eyes for a moment before dropping her gaze to the magazine he still held in one hand. She took it from him and looked at the cover of Sophie.

“Who is the unavailable woman you’re in love with?” she asked.

“What? What has that to do with anything?”

“I … I don’t know at this point.”

“Right. Because we’re just friends, yeah? What does anyone else matter, anyway?”

She tossed the magazine face down on the coffee table and put on a determined smile. Placing her arms around his neck, she kissed him long and sweetly on the mouth.

“Call me tomorrow,” she said softly.

Leftto his own devices for the rest of the day, Conor realized he really should get in touch with Shay since they were in the same city. His friend sounded stressed and hurriedly gave Conor directions to the recording studio where he was working.

It was something of a surprise for Conor to walk into the studio and see Shay in such a position of authority as he gave orders to the sound engineers at the mixing board.

“Aye, Shay,” Conor said. “Aren’t you the man?”

Shay was startled by the intrusion but quickly smiled. “Good to see a friendly face, mate,” he said.

“I thought you were almost done with this project.” Conor put down his bag and took the chair beside Shay, leaning back and stretching.

“There are a few things I’m still working on. There’s a bit where I’d love to have some acoustic guitar but I can’t seem to communicate to the session musicians exactly what it is I want.”

“You want me to play with it?”

“You’re a lifesaver!” Shay said.

Conor watched as Shay got up and retrieved a guitar. Though he was energized by the work he was doing, Conor could tell that Shay was exhausted underneath it all. His perfectionist tendencies had clearly left him with little sleep.

“Jesus, man, you need to get laid,” Conor told him.

“Don’t I know it,” he replied with a laugh.

Working together,Conor and Shay composed a delicate, Spanish-infused acoustic guitar melody that was perfect for the love scene in the movie. It was after nine that evening when they stepped out of the studio and thought about food and relaxation.

And it wasn’t until they were seated in a nearby sushi restaurant that Shay thought to ask what Conor was doing in New York.

“Thought you’d get curious at some point,” Conor said with a laugh.

“You can see how wrapped up in this project I’ve been.”

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