Page 90 of Composed
“Yeah.” She chuckles and my muscles loosen. “Sorry didn’t mean to worry you. I didn't really think before I called. Probably should have texted beforehand.”
“Honestly, you’re good.” I hop up onto the small table, punch the speaker, and balance my phone on my thigh. “What’s up?”
“Cole said you were sticking around here a bit to work, so I just wondered if you’d maybe want to catch up. Go get dinner or drinks or something?”
I roll my thumb ring as guilt gnaws my stomach.
I hadn’t even thought to reach out to Theo while I was in London—not because I don’t want to, but because I can’t imagine she has all that nice of things to say about me after the way I treated Cole and Saint when I left. She was there, with them, while I ran away.
“If you’re not interested,” she starts.
“No, no. It’s not that.” I rub aching temples. “It’s just…”
“You’re worried I’m gonna call you a raging bitch and throw a martini in your face?”
“Honestly?” My face scrunches and I choke out a laugh. “Pretty much, yeah.”
She grunts. “Not gonna lie, I’ve thought about it a few times over the years.”
“I don’t blame you.”
I hear her exhale. “Look, the truth is Hendrix, while I don’t agree with everything you did. I could really use a friend these days.”
I frown at the tone of her voice.
It’s not exactly sad but there’s something I can’t quite read lingering in her soft lilt.
“And if I’m not mistaken,” she says, her voice soft, “I think you could use one too. Someone who understands a little of what you’re putting yourself through by working with Cole again.”
I swing my legs through the air, drumming my fingers absentmindedly on the table edge. “Yeah. Maybe.”
“I get that you’ve got your friends there. And I’m not dismissing their roles in your life. But you and Cole working together? I don’t think anyone can really get it unless they were there to witness it the first time.”
“Probably not.”
While Talia and Riley have been my rocks the past few weeks, neither of them truly understand what Cole was to me or what I’m dredging up—personallyandmusically. I love them but they’re a part of my post Reckless Abandon life. Theo was there during.
“So, what do you say?” She asks. “Drinks? Thursday night?”
Fuck it. Why not?
“You’re on. I’ll call you when I reach my hotel and we can arrange something.”
“Hotel?” I can hear her frown in her voice.
“Yeah, I’m staying at the Premier in Camden.”
“No, you’re not.” She scoffs. “Cancel your reservation. We’ve got so many spare flats in this place. You’re staying here.”
I shake my head, my stomach knotting. “Theo I don’t think that’s a good—”
“I won’t hear an argument. There is no way I’m letting another woman stay in a hotel alone in London when there is a perfectly comfortable andsafeplace for her to stay. With security, might I add. Rock star perks and all that.”
“You guys have security?” My eyebrows dip and my lips twist. “I didn’t see anyone when I was there.”
A tinkling laugh spills through my phone speaker. “They’re very discreet.”
“Huh.”
