once. Grab this opportunity I’m giving you. Get up there and knock me out. This is the chance of a lifetime. Grab it.”
She looks down at her hands and shakes her head.
“If you’re too nervous to play solo, then pull Fish onstage with you. He plays acoustic guitar and sings. You two could sing anything together. ‘Hey, Jude’ or ‘Stand by Me,’ for all I care. All that matters to me is you have the balls to get up there and grab this shot I’m giving you. Show me you’ve got what it takes, Alessandra. Prove me wrong.”
I get up from the bench, praying she’ll follow suit—hoping she’ll rise, literally and figuratively, and square her slender shoulders and march her shy little ass straight inside and onto that stage and knock it out of the park with a performance she didn’t even know she had inside her.
But, no.
She’s crumbling before my eyes.
Her chin trembling and her eyes pricking with tears, she stammers, “Thank you for taking the time to explain all this to me.” Before lurching off the bench and sprinting away into the night.
“Alessandra,” I call out after her. But only half-heartedly. Shouting at her isn’t going to make her stop running away. And I’m certainly not going to physically chase her. If she’s intimidated by me, then hunting her down is the last thing I should do. Plus, fuck it. I’m not here to hand out participation trophies. I tried to help her, but some people can’t be helped. Yes, I was honest with her. But if she can’t handle honesty, then she can’t handle the music industry. And that’s a fucking fact. My heart pounding, I sit back down on the bench, grab my empty glass, and take an ice cube into my mouth. Fuck.
“Where’s Alessandra?” Fish says, appearing before me with two water bottles. He looks around. “Did she go inside?”
“Yeah, I think so,” I reply. “I’m not sure.”
“She didn’t say where she was going?”
“No. But I can tell you where she hopes I’m going. To hell.”
Fish’s face falls. “What happened? What does that mean?”
“It means I said something that upset her, apparently. She ran off, on the verge of tears.”
Anger flashes across Fish’s usually congenial face. “What’d you say to her?”
“I told her the truth, without sugarcoating it. I told her I listened to her demo and, basically, that she’s got to get past the bullshit if she wants any shot—”
“Goddammit, Reed!” Fish booms, shocking the hell out of me. “Why are you always such a prick, man? Before you came out here, Alessandra and I were having the most amazing conversation! She was telling me how she got into music after her dad died when she was a kid. She was telling me about her stage fright. Asking me for tricks to overcome it. And then you had to come out here and tell her she sucks and her music is bullshit? Goddammit, Reed! Fuck you, you fucking prick.”
With an angry wave of his hand, he turns on his heel and sprints away, presumably to find Alessandra, his lanky body moving faster than I’ve ever seen it move it before.
“Well, that was unexpected,” I mutter to myself.
Shaking my head, I gaze at the sparkling view for a long moment. Fuck. That sucked. I must say, though, I’m thoroughly impressed with the way Fish just told me off. Not because he’s right, of course. I wasn’t a prick to Alessandra. I was actually being kind to her. Cruel to be kind, as they say. But kind, nonetheless. I’d swear to that under oath.
But, still, it was cool to see Fish climb aboard his white horse. That dude hasn’t raised his voice to me once in the entire time I’ve known him, let alone called me a prick. Well, not to my face, anyway. I think it’s now obvious he’s called me that, and worse, plenty of times behind my back. But that’s fine. He’s not the first person to think I’m a prick. He won’t be the last. If, somehow, me being the bad guy lets him be the good guy with this girl, then I’m happy to oblige.
Although... Shit. I suddenly realize... Georgina.
When she hears Alessandra’s version of this story, will she assume I treated Alessandra the way I treated that blonde at the bar? Because I didn’t. Yes, I was honest with Alessandra, but I took special care to be gentle with her. I flashed her several reassuring smiles, which is something I