CHAPTER TEN
"Fancy meeting you here," a voice called out from behind her. A voice she'd recognize anywhere.
Mateo.
What was he doing there? He stood with an arm slung around Vivien, a bartender he worked with, not the one she'd caught him cheating on her with. He looked her up and down with a sneer, "Didn't think I'd see you around here," he said as he pulled his date closer, trying to make her jealous. What she'd ever seen in him she didn't know and was glad she was no longer with him. "Been stood up?" he laughed. His date thankfully said nothing.
Just as she was about to reply she felt an arm go across her shoulder and she was pulled into Noah's side, with him slightly in front of her. Protecting her. "She's with me," he smirked as he turned to her, "You know this loser?" She couldn't help the twitch of her mouth at the way he was handling this. This was her worst nightmare come true, and he was her knight in shining leather.
"He's nobody," she said as she slipped her arm around Noah's back. "Let's just go." She tried to pull him away but there was no way she could move him without his full cooperation.
Noah gave him the once over and as he turned them to walk away Mateo let out a low whistle. "I see your stalking tendencies have finally paid off for ya and you've landed your prize catch. Noah Harrington. Didn't think he'd be stupid enough to fall for them though," he chuckled.
She wanted the ground to open and swallow her up. This was not the way she wanted Noah to find out about her past crush. The more she got to know him the more she imagined that once she told him they'd laugh about it. This whole scenario was threatening to rip her heart out through her throat and then stamp on it for good measure.
Noah tightened his grip on her shoulder so it was almost painful and ground out, "Let's go." He ushered her towards the waiting Uber, leaving Mateo and his date standing outside the restaurant. They didn't move, knowing Mateo would want to stay and witness her utter embarrassment. Why she hadn't told him already, she didn't know. When she thought about it, it wasn't really that bad. It wasn't as if she'd really stalked him and since she'd got with Mateo, she'd stopped following the band so obsessively. He tapped on the driver's window and when the driver lowered it he said, "Two minutes."
"Do you want to explain who he is and what he was talking about?" he ground out. His jaw tightened and his eyes narrowed as he stared her down for an explanation.
She lowered her gaze, ashamed of what had just happened. She couldn't look him in the eye but he wasn't about to let her off so lightly. He placed the tip of his index finger under her chin and lifted it up so she had to look him in the eye, "Uh-Uh," he said, "I want to see you when you explain this."
"His name is Mateo," she sighed. "He's my ex. We broke up about five months ago." She searched his face for any sign of emotion but his face was blank apart from the tick above his left eye.
"That I gathered," he said. "What about the rest of it? What did he mean about your stalker tendencies?"
She tried to pull her face away from his hold, but he wouldn't let her. Tears ran down her face. She couldn't speak, which he took as an admission of her guilt. "So, he was telling the truth? You purposely led me on thinking you weren't interested in me as a rock star?"
Her tears fell faster now, and she lowered her eyes, she couldn't look at him. She noticed a cab pulling up to let passengers out and she pulled away from his grip and ran towards the open cab door and threw herself in. "Please, just drive," she begged as she pulled the door shut, leaving Noah standing there staring at her.
The cab driver took one look at her and pulled away, "You okay?" he asked her in concern.
"No," she replied, then gave him her address. She hoped that when she got back to the apartment that everyone would be in bed, so she didn't have the humiliation of having to explain her appearance.
By the time she'd got into her bedroom she'd received five missed calls from Lucy. Lucy. She'd forgotten about her best friend. The last thing she wanted was to put her in the middle of this. There was also a message from her old school friend, along with a link to an application for a job she'd asked about the previous night. They were hiring and her friend had already put a good word in for her so all she needed to do was apply and get through all the background checks and the job was hers.
It was all too much for her. She switched off her cell and got ready for bed. She had hoped that there would be a message from Noah, but what did she expect? It was better she dealt with everything in the morning after she'd dropped the twins off at their kindergarten.
She groaned at the mess she'd made of her life. Well, she'd just need to pull up her big girl panties and deal with it, even if that meant running away to join a cruise ship, which was now the last thing she wanted to do.