cocky if he knew who I was. And I itched to prove it.
“Explain.”
He looked around and lowered his voice. “I just wanted to give that irritating beast a taste of her own medicine.”
I let him feel his oats for a minute before I dropped the punch line. “Yeah, well that irritating beast didn’t really give two shits about your payback.”
He snorted. “How would you know how she feels?”
“Because she’s sitting right here.”
His eyelids went into defib. “What are you saying? You—”
“Yes, me.”
“You’re responsible for that attack?”
“Hardly an attack, Gabe. Those people had valid opinions.”
“Did you read what they wrote? It was vicious.”
“No.” I’d glanced at them once, but it had never occurred to me to follow up on their comments. Who cared what they said?
“Well, you really should. It was pretty hurtful.”
I couldn’t feel sorry for him. “Gabe, you write caustic words about musicians, but you can’t take it when people respond in kind? I honestly expected you’d have thicker skin.”
“At least now I know why you keep shooting me down.”
“What?”
“I get it. I mean you run a fucking fan site.” He grimaced. “That guy’s a musician, and I’m not. It’s exciting, and he gets you even closer to the band you worship. But you have to know, that’s not a realistic basis for dating a guy.”
“You’re not even close to the truth.”
He ran his tongue over his teeth and lodged it in his cheek, not impressed by my answer. “You’re blinded by proximity to fame. Is that why you got a job here?”
I closed my eyes. He wasn’t worth it.
“Or maybe I have it backwards. Maybe you have your sights set on a more ambitious prize. Did you think you could impress Lars with your inside connection?”
My head jerked up at that. “You think I’m using Shane to impress Lars?”
“Honestly, I might respect you more if you were. It would be less clichéd than sleeping your way through the band.”
I winced. “You’re way off base, Gabe.”
“Why? Are you going to pretend you really like the guy? That’s almost more pathetic. Do you even know how many short-lived relationships that drummer goes through? Have you done any homework? You really don’t have a clue.”
He was shooting with blanks if he thought he could convince me Shane was a womanizer.
“I need you to leave my cube right now, Gabe.”
“History has a way of repeating. Does he have any idea what you do in your spare time?”
I spun my chair back around, pretending to shut him out.
“He doesn’t, does he? I know that guy, Layla. He’s not going to take it well. It would be a pity if he found out.”
“Shut up, Gabe.” It was killing me that he might be right. I’d have to tell Shane about it, and he wouldn’t take it well. Handing the reins to Ash was becoming an inevitability.
“Come on, Layla.” His tone turned gentle, like we hadn’t just sprayed each other in verbal venom. “It’s almost lunchtime. Why don’t we forget about all this and go get a bite to eat?”
My fists clenched together, and I spun around so fast, my hair whipped across my face. “I’m about two seconds away from punching you in the nut sack.”
He flinched. “Jesus. Ask a girl out and get threatened with physical abuse. Nice, Layla.”
I shot him one more death ray glare, and he held out his hands in a whatcha-gonna-do-about-it gesture, like he really didn’t care either way. Yeah. Sure.
At least he avoided me for the next couple of days. I put my head down and worked on proposals, spoke up in meetings, and made an effort to stay away from lurking on the forums at work at least. At night, alone in Shane’s bed, I might have started following the tour on the TotA forum. But anything I read came from people seeing the band in a way that had grown foreign to me. They were reading into their every behavior for signs and meaning that didn’t exist.
Noah was still the primary source of gossip. Ever since his breakup, speculation was that his more than usual grumpiness was due to his heartache over this loss. Plenty of posters saw this as their big opportunity to land in his bed. If they could only get close enough to him to offer.
I wanted to post: Don’t bother, ladies. He truly is an ass.
On Thursday, I got the news I’d been crossing my fingers to hear. Lars called me in to tell me they’d set up the rehearsal hall with