Page 134 of Come to Me
She holds my gaze for a moment but breaks to shake her head. "It didn't mean what you think it means."
I'm a reasonable man. I know she wasn't calling him to have hot phone sex. Or to profess her undying love.
But they were friends for a long time. There might be something there.
It's possible this has been going on for a long time.
"What are you thinking?" she asks.
"I'm thinking you should put me out of my misery and tell me why you were talking to Ryan."
She nods, turning her gaze to the sky again. Squinting to block out the sun. "I should put my sunglasses back on."
"Alyssa."
"I can't explain it exactly," she hedges.
"Did you call him?"
"What's the difference?" She crosses her legs. She's still looking at the sky.
"You did, didn't you?"
She shakes her head, but she still won't look at me.
"Why?"
"Well." She takes a long breath. "Nicholas visited me in New York. After a show."
I have a flashback to them walking into the bar at the same time.
"When was this?"
"On the last night."
"So, while I was listening to your friends get drunk, you were having a private chat with another guy in your dressing room? After you told me not to come?"
There's no way to keep the anger out of my tone at this point.
"I knew you'd take it the wrong way." She shrinks back, just a little bit, still looking anywhere but my eyes.
"Okay. Explain to me how I should fucking take it. And what the hell does this have to do with Ryan?"
"Nicholas said something... he said that we'd spent a lot of time together, but he still didn't really know me. That he felt like he'd barely scratched the surface. Nothing happened in the dressing room, but what he said... it got to me." Her expression, her voice, all of it is so earnest.
I'm pretty fucking sure if that Nicholas asshole showed up at her dressing room and started having a conversation like this, it wasn't because he wanted to touch base with a platonic friend.
But if Alyssa says nothing happened, I believe her.
I take a deep breath, trying my best not to get angry.
But, fuck. She's giving me a lot to be angry about.
"And so you decided to round things out by calling Ryan?"
She folds her arms in irritation. "Do you want to hear this?"
No.
