The thing about me was when someone gifted me with one of their secrets, I took it to my grave. I’d never told a soul about Maeve being a drummer, not even Diego.
This time, the sound Diego made was more of a choke, less of a laugh. “What the hell? She is?”
“Yep.”
“Are you telling me she’s drumming in Unrequited?”
“That’s what I’m telling you. I don’t know if you have internet access, but the first gig we played in Amsterdam is on YouTube. You can check her out.”
I’d been stupid enough to read the comments. They ranged from rage-inducing to...rage-inducing, for very different reasons. A lot of people had a hell of a lot of comments about Maeve’s body and looks, but they weren’t all negative. Far from it. Seeing all the dudes who’d probably never left their mom’s basement comment on her tits made me want to go to their houses and burn them to the fucking ground. The negative ones...well, I’d burn the world to the fucking ground if it meant Maeve never had to see or hear shit like that ever again.
“Whoa. I just...well, I gotta say, you telling me Maeve O’Day is drumming for Unrequited is definitely the very last thing I ever thought I’d hear you say.” Diego sounded like the wind had been knocked out of him.
“I feel like I screwed up telling you.” Frustrated with not knowing the right thing to say or do, I shoved my fingers through my hair and groaned. I was pissed at him, pissed and scared, but I stuffed it down. This wasn’t the time. I couldn’t chance screwing up even more—screwinghimup even more.
“No, no. I’m confused, but I’m not going to, like, run away from the sober house and steal Oxy from an old lady.”
How he could fucking joke defied my comprehension. I pulled my phone away from my ear, staring at it like it was a foreign object.
“Hey…Santi?”
Phone back to my ear, I sighed. “I’m here.”
“I know you have to have a lot of questions, and you gotta be feeling some kind of way about all this. You don’t have to act like everything’s cool.”
“Guess I’m not at the point where I’m ready to act like this is all fun and games. This is yourlife, Diego. You threw everything away without a fucking conversation.”
My chest constricted so tight I thought I was going to have to lie down on the filthy backstage floor. I’d been going along, getting on with the show, and not dealing. I wasn’t sure I was ready to deal yet.
Diego said my name again, but Maeve walked by at the same time, doing a double take when she saw me sitting on the ground with my phone at my ear. She tapped her wrist, indicating my time was running out.
“It’s Diego,” I mouthed.
Her mouth formed an O, and she dropped down beside me. “Hi, Diego,” she said next to the phone.
I braced, readying myself for anger, resentment, sadness—all the things I was feeling.
“Is that Maeve fucking O’Day?”
I hadn’t braced for the excitement ringing in Diego’s voice.
I put him on speaker so she could talk to him. “It is. You sound really good.”
“You sound like a breath of fresh air. So, you’re a drummer girl, huh?”
“I’m a drummer.” She tossed her fierce as hell ponytail over her shoulder. “Is this awkward? Me takin’ your position?”
She leaned into me, and I inhaled her vaguely sweet, fresh scent.
“Not awkward. Confusing? Yes. But you didn’t take it. I left of my own free will. I’m thinking you had to earn it.”
She scrunched her nose. “I had to meet Clark.”
He laughed. “Yeah, you earned it. Listen, I gotta hit it. I’ve been told I need to be watching some videos of you on YouTube.”
“You might learn something if you do.” She winked at me, and I had a feeling Diego heard her wink all the way across the Atlantic.
“Trash talking Maeve O’Day? I love it.” He sounded far happier talking to her than he had when it was just us. A spike of jealousy lodged in my chest. Whether I was jealous of her or him, I wasn’t sure. Maybe both.