Moses
Ididn’t know how to win with Michaela. I kept on trying to take care of her, protect her, and she rejected me at every turn. I left my band, flew to Nashville to see her, and then fucked up without meaning to.
All I saw was her carrying that table and remembered Dr. Gupta’s talk of being careful about heavy lifting and mentioning placental abruption. I’d panicked. I’d embarrassed her, undermined her. I got that. But I wasn’t sure her reaction was warranted. She left me standing there, feeling like a useless piece of flesh.
I called Yael from an empty dressing room while the concert went on. “Hey. Think you could book me a flight for tonight?”
“No. Why would I do that?” she asked.
“I’m not wanted here.”
She sighed. “You sound like a pouty baby. Tell me what happened so I can analyze the big picture.”
“It doesn’t make me look great.”
“Just tell me, Moses.”
“Michaela seemed happy to see me. I talked to her belly, and the baby moved.”
“Oh my god, that’s so cool. Did you feel it?”
“No, I think it’s too small to feel from the outside. But she felt it, said the baby was happy to have me here. Anyway, she had to work, so I kind of—”
“Lurked?” she supplied.
“Yeah, my ass lurked around backstage. Side note, you ever met Devon Chambers? I walked up to him on the ground and Michaela standing over him with her boot on his ass.”
“Uh…what?”
I chuckled. “Never mind. I should have snapped a picture.”
“I’m checking out his Wiki page. He’s thirty-four, from New York, previously married—um...wait…huh.”
I rubbed the pulsing spot between my eyebrows. “What, Yael?”
“Okay, Wikipedia can be wrong, but this says he was married to Michaela Ashwood, daughter of music producer Lars Ashwood. Did she tell you that?”
Stunned, I took a step or two back until I hit a wall. “No. Fuck. No, she didn’t tell me that.”
“It’s probably no big deal. This says they were married in the early two-thousands. That’s ancient history. Maybe she forgot.”
I huffed a dry laugh. “You think she forgot she was married to Devon fucking Chambers?”
“I think you probably just need to ask her about it. I’m not booking you an early flight.”
“Thanks. I should fire you.”
“You won’t because one day soon you’re going to thank me for doing you this favor. Your little feelers are hurt because Michaela didn’t fall at your feet when you arrived, but give her a break. She has a hard job. She’s probably tired and may be processing how she feels about you.”
“Yeah.” I shoved my fingers through my hair. “She’s pissed because I interfered with her work and told her assistant not to listen to her.”
Yael hissed. “Oh shit. Seriously, Moses?”
“Yep. I definitely said that.”
“You better buy her all the gingersnaps. I have no idea how you’re going to come back from that. Lucky she didn’t punch your pretty face.”
“See why I wanted you to book me a flight?”