The stage manager follows us, trotting to catch up. “Where are you guys going? Don’t you hear them? Your set list has three options for encores. Which one do you want me to have the sound engineer get ready?”
“No encore tonight,” Alexis says definitively as she shoves me into a dressing room and shuts the door firmly then flips the lock on the handle.
She turns to face me and slips her guitar over her head, setting it in the case open on the coffee table. That’s when I realize that this is her dressing room.
There’s a guitar stand in the corner as well, so I set mine there, since my case is down the hall somewhere.
I keep my face averted, because looking at her is painful. Being in a tiny room with her and not being able to touch her is killing me. And … I just … I don’t know what the fuck is going on anymore.
“Alexis.” Her name comes out gruff and choked.
“Colt. Look at me.” She makes her request quietly. Pleading.
And I can’t say no to her, so I turn and meet her eyes.
She has papers in her hand, and she holds them up so I can see them. “These are the divorce papers that you signed.”
Is that why she wanted me here? So I can watch her sign them? Or so she can give me a countersigned copy? That’s what all this was about? That’s why she ambushed me on stage? To give me the fucking divorce papers?
My jaw works and my fists clench as I try not to explode from rage.
Then she grasps the papers between the fingers of both hands and rips them in half. And tosses the torn papers in the air like confetti.
I blink, my mouth hanging open. All I can get out is a strangled croak.
“I don’t want a divorce,” she says, tears filming her eyes. “I never wanted a divorce. Bad Wolf stipulated that as part of their contract and Delores had the papers drafted without even consulting me. She gave them to me in a closed envelope so that I couldn’t refuse them. I was trying to decide whether to even bother countering their offer, since Spellbound was offering a better contract in terms of number of albums, increased creative control, and most importantly they don’t have any desire to control my personal life. I’m so used to working through things on my own that it didn’t even occur to me to talk to you about it.”
She pauses and swallows. “Delores was pressuring me to take the deal offering the most money. But I’m not willing to lose you. And I’m not willing to work with someone who thinks that they get to decide who I love.”
“I … what?” I feel like I’m supposed to say something, but I’m still playing catch up.
She steps closer, her hands lifting like she wants to reach for me, but she drops them before touching me. “I miss you, Colt,” she says, blinking hard as two tears track down her cheeks. “You wouldn’t return my calls, and then you turned off your phone, and I even went to your parents’ house to try to find you since that’s where you were staying before you moved in with me. And your mom said you were better off without me and Mia said I just use people to get ahead, and I …” She trails off, taking a deep breath. “I’m sorry I didn’t answer when you eventually tried calling me back. I was deep into writing that song for tonight, and I wasn’t taking anyone’s calls. I put my phone in a drawer and didn’t look at it for days. I only pulled it out to call Tom about the show when my mom mentioned I’d been taken off the billing, and I didn’t check any messages. When I got it out this morning and saw all your missed calls, well …” She shrugs and gives me a pleading look. “I thought about calling you back. I really did. But I decided surprising you would make a stronger statement. Because … well, I didn’t think you’d believe me if I tried to convince you I didn’t want a divorce. That you’d argue you were trying to help me by signing the papers and leaving, that I’d be better off without you.”
This time she does reach for me, taking my limp hands in hers. “But it’s not true,