Authors: Alexis Summers
“May I sit down?” he asks, his voice hoarse and raspy.
I nod, slowly, and say nothing at all. He takes a few more steps inside and takes a seat on the bed I’m not occupying, sitting down heavily on the edge of it so that he can face me. I pull my legs up to my chest, hugging my knees.
“I was barely eighteen when I met that woman,” he says, keeping his voice quiet and low.
I shiver, feeling nausea start to brew in my stomach. God, they were
high school lovers
? How could I ever compete with that?
“We married in secret, everyone telling me I had to keep up the act of being single for the sake of my fans,” he continues, bridging his hands in front of himself. “For a while, it was—thrilling, I can’t deny that. But it’s been over for an even longer while. Yes, we’re still married by law, but we’ve been
separated
—.”
“Yes,” I say, biting the word out coldly as I hug my knees tighter. “So I heard. What I want to know is why I had to hear from some article on the Internet—from some
rumor
—instead of from
you
.”
He exhales sharply, clearly frustrated with himself. “Damn it, Erin, I—don’t fucking know, alright? I don’t know why I didn’t tell you. We just had such a great thing, and I didn’t want to ruin it—.”
“Ruin it with a bit of honesty?” I ask sarcastically.
He stands, suddenly, his eyes narrowing for a split second before he sighs, rubbing at his temples with one hand. “With
history
—and that’s exactly what she is, Erin. She’s history.”
I frown. “Does
she
know that?”
“Yes,” he says, quickly. “We’ve been separated ever since she started fucking every one of her co-stars on set. She knows that.”
“It sounds like you haven’t exactly been
chase
, either,” I say, almost regretting it as soon as I spit the words out—that was probably going too far.
Romeo looks hurt for a split second before he frowns. “You really think she’s telling the truth? You really think I just hook up with groupies whenever I feel like it?”
I cringe. Even though he kept Louise a secret, I still believed deep in my heart that he wouldn’t have lied to me about this—about my being special to him, my being the
exception
. He truly didn’t seem like the type of man who would sleep around, even if his—I shudder at the thought—
wife
was being unfaithful first.
“I don’t know what to think, Romeo,” I say after a moment. “You’re
married
.”
“
It’s a technicality,” he says sharply. “I was in the wrong placeof mind when I did it. I was low, I had a problem with alcohol and I blamed myself for my mother’s death. Louise was the only one who would listen at the time and then it took off from there. But it never was passionate. At the time it seemed like the right thing to do, but it turned out so wrong in hindsight.. Of course, we didn’t think about pre-nups and shit like that, so we never filed for divorce because of the legal mess it would make.”
Which makes—a lot of sense, actually. I shake that thought out of my mind, though, and frown at him again. “So, what, I’m just supposed to be your
mistress
while you stay married for convenience?”
“No!” he shouts, flinching as though he were about to slam his fist into the wall, but just barely managed to contain himself. “Erin, it was never like that.”
“Then what
was
it like, Romeo?”
He breathes out sharply again before sitting himself down, more slowly this time. “When I pulled you on stage that first time,” he begins, choosing his words carefully, “you were just a fan in the crowd—but then you sang with me and you danced with me and I knew I had to see you again, had to know more about you. You were so beautiful, captivating—so
natural
in my arms. I got so caught up in
you
that I couldn’t even think about anything else—I couldn’t think about
her
, about the past. You make me live in the moment.”
I laugh, a bit bitterly—and if I felt my heart melting for him, I didn’t admit it. “Is that what you said to
her
when you proposed?”
“No,” he says, more evenly this time. “I would never say anything like that to her. She’s plastic—I knew it back then, but I thought that was what I wanted back then
and she seemed to listen to me. But she’s nothing like you. You’re nothing like her. You’re so much more, you’re
everything
I want.”
I shiver a bit at the words. He sounds so sincere that I almost believe him—but even if I did believe him, what would it change?
“It doesn’t change
anything
,” I say out loud. “You’re still married, I’m still—.”
“You’re still the woman I want to spend the rest of my life with,” he interrupts, standing again and stepping towards me to hold a hand out to me. “Erin, I swear to you—there is nothing between Louise and me that didn’t die long ago. After the tour, I’ll make the separation official and—and we’ll go from there.”
I stare at his hand. He maintains his distance, respectfully not touching me. It’s a simple offer—nothing more, nothing less. I believe every word that comes out of his mouth—or, at least, I believe that
he
believes it—and I want so badly to take his hand, but my heart is still aching from our confrontation earlier that day.
I want to ask him how I’m supposed to trust him. I want to ask him if he thinks I even
should
trust him, if he
deserves
my trust. I want to ask him to never see Louise again, even if I don’t forgive him—but in the end, none of these questions are important enough.
“
Remember how I told you that if you betray my trust, I will never forgive you?”
He nods.
“You want to spend the rest of your life with me?” I ask, my voice so soft that it comes out sounding almost timid.
He smiles, small and hesitant. “I truly do.”
I take a deep breath. Then, I take his hand.
Chapter
Twenty Nine
I allow Romeo to take me back to his hotel room because it’s not fair of me to make the girls stand out in the hall while we take up space inside of their room. April glares at Romeo as we exit, but I reassure her that I’m not being made to do anything against my will. She lets us go, finally, but only after making sure I have my phone and know to call if I need anything—anything at all.
“Your friends love you,” Romeo says, almost awkwardly, as we walk in silence towards his hotel.
I nod absently, stepping away from him when he tries to wrap an arm around my shoulder. “No, just—please don’t touch me. Not yet. I’m—still thinking.”
“What about?” he asks. I can tell by the tension in his shoulder that he’s frustrated—with himself more than anything—but he doesn’t let that frustration show in his tone.
“You,” I say, simply. “Me. Us, I guess, and—trust.”
He watches me intently, but doesn’t pry. He lets me find words at my own pace, something I’m very grateful for.
“I don’t know that I trust you, Romeo,” I say, honestly. I close my eyes for a second, trying to ignore how hurt he suddenly looks. “I—want to try, though. It might take time, but I still want to try.”
He nods, instantly. “I know. I know, and I—understand.”
We walk along for another few blocks, our hands bumping against one another every once in a while until I finally work up the nerve to take his hand. He smiles at me and, even though I can’t find it in me to smile back just yet, I feel it warm my heart.
Romeo explains everything in greater detail back at his hotel suite. Louise was his childhood sweetheart, yes, and they married young. His band manager, Louise’s father, kept everything a secret for them.
Then, she began to accuse him of sleeping around not long after they were married and, although Romeo denied all those accusations, she began to spend more and more time away from home. It wasn’t until he caught her having sex with the co-star of her last movie in their own bed that he realized she had been defending herself all this time. She started accusing
him
when
she
began to have extramarital affairs—what better way to deflect suspicion, right?
Their marriage fell apart quickly after that. There was no media scandal covering it since their relationship had been a secret in the first place, but because they never signed a pre-nup, there was no divorce, either. Even though Romeo moved out and stopped seeing her entirely, Louise threatened to take him for everything he was worth if he dared to file for divorce. Since Romeo had no other romantic interests, he simply decided to go with it. Everything seemed to be less of a hassle that way.
He never knew he would meet someone like me, he went on to say, who would sweep him away in a whirlwind of passion. He didn’t know how to tell me after those first nights we spent together—he didn’t even think about it, about her. By the time he knew he wanted to be in this, with me, for the long run, he didn’t know how to bring it up.
“I never meant for it to come out this way,” he says, “but it
would
have come up. After all, I couldn’t very well marry again while I was still married, hm?”
I blink, my heart fluttering at the thought—he wanted to
marry
me? I bite down on the urge to ask, to make him say it again, and simply smile instead. “I think now would be a good time for you to kiss me.”
Now, of course, was
exactly
when the door to his suite slammed open once more.
“
Romeo
!”
To my surprise, and relief, the person to storm into the hotel suite this time was not Louise Valdez. Instead, it was a stocky man who spoke with a light Spanish accent as he launched into a rant that I couldn’t make heads or tails of. Romeo stands to greet him, trying to calm him down as much as he can. Their brewing argument turns into full Spanish, and I’m only able to catch a few words that I understand with what little understanding of Spanish I retained from high school.
I do manage to catch the words
girl
and
manager
, though, and I have to strain for another minute before I can put everything together. They were talking about me, I could tell, but who—.
“Santiago,” Romeo says with a note of finality to his tone. “Stop.”
I blink.
Santiago.
Santiago
Valdez
?
That
would
explain who the man was—manager of the Rocks,
father
of Louise Valdez. I feel horror settle in deep in my stomach and the urge to hide rises until Romeo turns back to me, smiling reassuringly.
“Oh, that is her, is it?” Santiago says, frowning my way.
I blink, standing awkwardly. “Sir, I—.”
“You
dare
take her to your room?” Santiago continues as though I hadn’t even spoken. “What do I pay security for if you take girls to your room? Random girls you do not even know.”
I cringe, taking a step back even as Romeo holds a hand out to me.
“She’s not—.”
“
Dios
, the things I put up with. I told you,
explicitly
, no girls are allowed on this tour!” Santiago sighs, shaking his head. “I tell you boys again and again—they are a
distraction
.”
I blink, thoroughly shocked. It was obvious enough that Santiago didn’t care for my presence, but I would have thought it had more to do with my being the woman in his daughter’s husband’s life than…a no girls on tour dates rule?
“She’s not just some
girl
, Santiago,” Romeo says, dropping his hand again and turning to me. “She’s—special.”
“They are
all
special to you boys—.”
“
No
,” Romeo insists. “It isn’t like that with her—with Erin.”
Santiago stops, abruptly, and turns to look me over. I straighten my back, determined now to show weakness in this moment. If he was going to judge me, he would have already made his decision—I can at least keep my dignity about me while he berates me for being a distraction, a
girl
.
“I see,” Santiago says, rendering me speechless once more. “You are not like Dante.”
Romeo scoffs. “Of fucking course I’m not like Dante.”
As though he didn’t even hear him, Santiago continues, “Erin?”
I nod, hesitantly. “Yes, sir. I—I’m sorry.”
The apology comes naturally. Even though I knew I wasn’t to blame for Romeo and Louise’s failed marriage, it still felt strangely sacrilegious to stand in front of her father as the other woman—the
new
woman. This man hadn’t done anything wrong, after all, and I don’t mean to cause
him
pain.