“Ah!” A silly grin passed his lips. He raised his hand to demonstrate his find. “This has your name written all over it, little lady.” A smirk.
I smiled at his goofy remark. Apparently, this was just a pretend pub. Dante continued to work on the drink. Bottles clanked. Ice rattled.
The silence that stretched between us was awkward. I felt like I was behind enemy lines. Witnessing said enemy cooking up the cocktail of death. For me.
My phone buzzed. Levi wanted to know where I was. I sent him a text explaining we were in one of the private rooms upstairs.
Once satisfied with the results, Dante grabbed both glasses and walked over. “It’ll make you feel better.” He handed me the one with the dangerous-looking blue liquid.
I took the drink and stared at the umbrella. “It seems like it’ll make me feel the opposite of better.”
“Anyone ever told you that you have a great sense of humor?” He circled the room and deposited his hat on the pool table, then tossed his lollipop into the nearest trash can.
“Yes. Frank did.”
We locked eyes. His were dark and impenetrable, and I wondered how much he’d had to drink.
“Look… I’m sorry things got out of control during the party.” There was a real apology in his tone.
“I can’t even go to the store now. I have to get my groceries delivered to me.”
“It’s that bad, huh?” Dante stared at the bottom of his drink, confusion evident in his features. “Why do you need to go to the store anyway? Have Hannah do it.”
“Frank and I aren’t together…” My voice shook. I didn’t know why I was telling any of this to Dante. He was partially responsible for the clusterfuck my life had become, but he was the sweet monster. The charming kind you wanted to keep talking to.
His gaze drifted back to me and his eyes wandered across my face. “How come?”
A sarcastic laugh escaped my throat. “Do you really have to ask me that after everything that happened?”
“I don’t know what’s going on between you two.” He shrugged and took a swallow of his drink. “He’s not fucking answering my calls.”
“Of course he’s not. You didn’t stand by him when the label decided to fire him. You didn’t even have the decency to put up the original promotional poster at your party. Instead, you slapped Marshall’s face next to Frank’s artwork.”
“That doesn’t explain why you two aren’t together anymore.”
My frustration began to choke me. “Because I don’t want him to make any more promises he doesn’t plan on keeping. I’m okay with him breaking those promises when they’re made to me. I can take the heat. I grew up with a man like that. But I’m not okay with him breaking promises he made to a nineteen-year-old girl. Publicly. You just can’t do that. You can’t give hope to a person and then take it away. It’s not right.”
I paused. My heart thundered inside my battered chest. I brought the glass to my lips and took a sip of my drink. It wasn’t half bad. Sweet and bubbly. Like the old version of me. Pre-Frank. Right now, I was a ball of hurt and bitterness, and I didn’t like who I’d become a single bit.
“You can’t protect everyone, Cassy. People flake and cheat. It is what it is. A cutthroat business. Not a charity. You don’t get a label to invest money in you unless you have what they’re looking for and it’s not always the talent.”
“Exactly. And people like you and Frank who actually pull some weight in this business and have a chance to change things around for younger musicians resort to hiding in the shadows, letting the labels rape the artists emotionally and financially.”
Seconds passed as Dante stared at me intensely. His palm that was wrapped around his glass remained still, as if one wrong move was going to interrupt his thinking process.
Then there was a knock.
“Hold that thought, short stuff.” He threw his hand in the air and cracked the door open. A wall of noise reigning the lanes drifted into the room. Levi marched in with my bag in hand. He was accompanied by a police officer and one of the guards who’d worked the red carpet. Dante stood back as I answered questions. It was over so soon, it felt like I’d dreamed the entire conversation. The only indication of the officer ever speaking to me was the business card he gave me before he left. I slid it into the side pocket of my bag and returned my attention to Levi.
“Are you sure you’re going to be okay?” Levi asked as soon as the three of us were alone. “I can give you a ride home. We’ll pick up your car tomorrow.”
Another knock came. It was the band’s manager, Javier. He gave me an apologetic smile and approached Dante.
“I really am fine,” I reassured Levi. It was a lie. The tremor was everywhere. In my hands, in my knees. In my stomach. I was on edge, needing a moment of calm, needing resolve. Facing the crowd milling around the bowling alley terrified me. “I’m just going to chill for a bit.”
Levi shot Dante a warning glance. “If you get her into trouble, hot shot, I’ll make a blooper reel from all the footage we have of you and send it to TMZ.”
“I’d love to see that,” Dante came back with a droopy grin. “I’m told I’m funnier when I’m high.”
My drink, barely touched, waited for me on the bar. As soon as Levi and Javier exited the room, I rose from the couch and grabbed the glass. My head hurt and an invisible rock sat in my chest.
“Are you sure you don’t want someone to check you out?” Dante probed, pulling another lollipop from his pocket.
I blinked at him.
“Geez, get your mind out of the gutter, woman.” He leaned against the pool table and fought the
