Page 64 of Too Little Too Soon
“It wasn’t pretend.”
“It absolutely—”
“Can we please have this conversation upstairs in your apartment? I’ll tell you everything, but I really would prefer to do it without witnesses. You finding out in front of your sisters and Oz and Sam was bad enough.”
“You wouldn’t have ever told me if they hadn’t helped me put two and two together,” she snapped, crossing her arms.
He sighed. “Fine. So we’re doing this here.”
A young couple, probably in their midtwenties, walked by, arm in arm. They stared a little too hard at Ava, who looked exactly the same as she had in every picture splashed across the internet in the last few weeks. Travis’s vague disguise was probably throwing them off a little, but if they worked it out, his preppy disguise would no longer be a disguise—and Ava shouldn’t even care.
Except if they had a conversation about their fake relationship right here on the street, it would somehow, some way end up online and potentially affect the band adversely, and while Ava could tell herself she didn’t care about Travis specifically, she did care about the other members of his band.
“Damn it,” she muttered, stalking past him and wrenching open the outer door. Travis caught it before it slammed in his face, and followed her up the steps to her apartment.
She shoved her key into the lock, wiggling it like she always did, but the stupid thing wouldn’t open. She actually let out a little growl before Travis plucked the key ring from her grip and unlocked the door likehe’dbeen the one doing it for more than a decade.
She refused to thank him. If he hadn’t shown up on her doorstep, she wouldn’t be so tense right now, and no doubt, the lock would have yielded to her touch.
Once they were both inside, she snatched back her luggage and strode into her bedroom, slamming the door for emphasis before quickly shedding the shirt she knew to be one of his favorites and replacing it with the Panic Station pullover she’d been wearing the day they met.
When she returned to the living room, he was waiting with a glass of wine in each hand, which irritated her because it was exactly what she wanted right now.
Accepting the glass he offered, she went into the kitchen and leaned against the counter instead of lounging on the couch in the living room. She didn’t want either of them to get too comfortable. She wanted him to say his piece and get the hell out of her life. For good this time.
“Before the concert in Pittsburgh,” he started, “Mitch warned me to avoid bad publicity for the band at all costs. We’re so close to making it, to being on top of the damn world. And the more money we make, the more the label makes.”
“So you lied to me for money?” Ava asked coolly.
“Clearly, yes, but not the way you are assuming.”
“Pray tell, what am I assuming?”
He ignored that snide question. “Mitch also told me he’d been keeping an eye on my stalker’s social media, even after she finally went away last summer. She’d kept insisting she’d been my biggest fan back when I was in Dog Daze. Except she didn’t stalk me back then. I didn’t know she existed. She didn’t start stalking me until after I joined Demigoddess Revival.”
“Dog Daze wasn’t as popular.”
“They actually were, so that wasn’t it.”
She knew the answer. Oz had said as much when they were all sitting around in that treehouse. When her world had quite suddenly and succinctly imploded.
Had it really been only three days ago?
“Mitch theorized that my stalker saw me as unobtainable when I was in Dog Daze,” Travis said. “He suggested that if I had a girlfriend, the same thing might happen now.”
Ava’s hand shook as she took a sip from her glass. “Okay, fine. It wasn’t a terrible plan. But why lie to me, Travis? Why didn’t you just come to me and ask me to be in on the ploy?”
He stared down at the floor for long seconds before finally lifting his gaze to her face. “Because I was afraid.”
She stared back, unblinking. “Afraid of what?”
“I convinced myself that you didn’t feel for me what I felt for you. I thought you’d say no. And I couldn’t imagine pulling this off with any other woman. It had to be you. And I believed the only way you’d go along with it was if I didn’t tell you what was going on. If I just pretended that it was nothing but me wanting to be with you.”
He dropped his hand, and it slapped against his thigh. “It was stupid. Not telling you. I’m sorry. I wish I could go back and handle it differently. But I want you to know, that part is the only part I would have handled differently.”
“What do you mean?”
“All the rest of it was real, Ava. I know it’s hard for you to believe that right now, but I swear, it’s the truth. Every time I kissed you. Every time I hugged you. Every time we made love. Every time we sat around doing nothing but teasing each other or talking about the future. Every single moment we’ve spent together was real. In here.” He patted his left pec.
