Chapter Eight - Sophia

When I finally scraped myself from the bathroom floor, I had depleted my source of tears and went back into my room, shell-shocked and drained. Alissa wasn’t on the computer screen anymore, but had typed out a long message at the bottom of the empty window. I gave a watery smile as I read her diatribe against Roberto and how I was a thousand times better off without him. She promised to call me back as soon as she finished her shoot.

I closed the window and turned off the computer. I didn’t trust myself not to dive into reading everything I could find about Roberto and Jackie’s engagement. Hell, if I tried hard enough, there were probably videos of the whole thing right there on the internet. That I definitely didn’t need—or want—to see.

When the computer shut down, I gave a lingering glance at my bed, wishing I could crawl under the covers and lose myself to sleep for a few more hours. But there was no point. I’d wake up and still have to sort myself out. Instead, I wandered back to the bathroom and took a long, hot-as-I-could-stand shower and scrubbed away every last trace of my tears.

Roberto wasn’t worth my emotions anymore. I’d decided that a long time ago. The reminder helped some, but didn’t fully take away the sting of imagining him slipping a ring onto the finger of another woman. Especially when we hadn’t even been divorced a year. Granted, he’d claimed to have been mentally and emotionally checked out of the marriage for a lot longer.

“Ugh,” I groaned, forcing myself to abandon the arguments and teary confessions from the last days of our marriage. I toweled off, dressed in a soft cashmere sweater and a pair of black jeans, and a pair of ballet flats. I didn’t bother blow drying my hair, I just wound it up into a messy bun on my head to let it dry into my signature waves for the show later that night.

It wasn’t that I’d been holding out hope that Roberto would change his mind and come back to me. No…I’d given up on that as soon as the papers were signed and he immediately went public with his relationship with Jackie, leaving me and the rest of the world to speculate as to when their relationship had actually started. Another topic I’d marked as off limits in the back of my own mind. I didn’t want to reconcile with him. All I wanted was the time and space to heal and reevaluate what I wanted out of my life.

My problem was that I’d stalled out somewhere in the middle. Time had helped to ease the daily pain and reduced the number of memories that haunted me, but I hadn’t gone on any dates or given much thought to starting a new relationship…at least, not until I’d ran into Derrick. He’d been a game changer from that first meeting.

Maybe this was kismet, as my mother always said. Maybe meeting Derrick, before I knew that Roberto was engaged, was the perfect timing to show me that it was all going to be okay, to help brace me for the impact of the news that was lurking just around the corner.

A faint smile crept over my lips and I nodded. “Kismet.”

I sighed and leaned back against the bathroom counter. The bathroom was still steamy from my shower and I waited for it to clear so I could put on a little makeup to hide my puffy eyes. Sound check would start in a few hours and I didn’t need people asking me what was wrong. Especially when they all followed celebrity gossip and probably already knew…

I pushed the thought aside. The people who really mattered, my family, friends, and now, Derrick, would all be in my corner and support me through the PR nightmare that likely awaited me back in New York. I winced, imagining the swarms of paparazzi and gossip columnists that would stalk me all over the city to try and get my comment on the matter.

It was enough to make me want to look into rerouting my return flight to go to my second home in the Virgin Islands.

Derrick would look sexy-hot in a pair of Bermuda’s and shades by the pool…

****

I spent the afternoon curled up in the same alcove I’d found the day before, huddled on the oversize chair with the paperback book I’d carried onto the plane. The fast moving thriller kept my mind occupied and the steady stream of background noise kept me from drifting back to long-lost memories. Since receiving the bombshell news from Alissa, I’d decided one thing—it was time to move on with my life.

In hindsight, hours removed from the initial shock, I felt a little ridiculous for getting so upset about the proposal in the first place. Why should I care where or how Roberto’d proposed? That was my old life. I shouldn’t care anymore. He’d made his choices and it was time for me to make mine.

Starting with cementing my New Year’s Eve plans with Derrick. If he was willing to trade some of his family time with me, then I was willing to travel to his hometown and split the time so we could still see each other without him disappointing his family.

When I went on stage that night, I poured all the overflowing emotions into my performance, and by the time the final curtain call was over, Roberto was the farthest thing from my mind. As I took my last bow, I scanned the room as best as I could, looking for any sign of Derrick, but with the lights and the sheer volume of people in the room, it was impossible to tell for sure.

I rushed off the stage, eager to get changed and done with the meet and greet portion of the evening so I could get back to my room in time for his promised call. All the while, secretly hoping he would surprise me and show up in my line.

A soft knock on my dressing room door brought a smile to my face. I set down the tube of lip gloss I’d applied and hurried to the door, careful not to trip over the train on my dress. I tugged it open, smiling wide, only to feel it slide right off my face when I found Blake, not Derrick, standing on the other side with a bouquet of roses. Where the hell he’d found them in the middle of the desert was a mystery, but I wasn’t all that interested. I folded my arms. “What are you doing here?” I asked with a scowl.

Blake extended the bouquet and dropped an obvious glance to my overflowing cleavage. I snarled and dropped my arms to not amplify the effect of the low neckline. Blake didn’t stop staring, he lingered another moment before dragging his eyes back to mine. “Sexy as always, Sophia.”

“What do you want?” I repeated, my voice tight as I struggled to maintain control.

Blake set the bouquet on a narrow table by the door. “Jenna told me you were looking for me,” Blake drawled, coming into the room one slow step at a time as I backed up to avoid his grasp.

“She did?”

He pocketed his hands and flashed his signature crooked smile. “She said you had a rough rehearsal and thought you might need a little company tonight.”

I scoffed, mentally reminding myself to have a little chat with Jenna. If she didn’t get it together, I was going to go over her head and take my complaints to Dale, which, as she’d already revealed, would probably land her without a job. I didn’t care. I’d made my feelings about Blake well know, so siccing the fleabag rockstar on me was unacceptable and certainly not how you treat a superstar—especially if she was so worried about her job. “Trust me, I’ll have some company, but it’s not you.”

Blake’s smile faltered. “Why do you despise me so much, Sophia? I bring you gifts—shower you with compliments. What else could you want?”

I narrowed my eyes as they fixed on him like he was in the middle of my crosshairs. “Seriously? You really have to ask that?”

Blake didn’t flinch away. Instead, he offered another infuriating grin. “Is this because you’re still hung up on your ex? You should really forget about him. You know he’s engaged now, don’t you?”

I wasn’t a violent sort of person—at least not usually—but couldn’t stop myself when my hands curled into tight balls. Searing rage flooded my veins and launched me from my seat. “You don’t know the first thing about me, Blake. And that’s the problem. You don’t really even care. I’m just another name on your list of conquests and that was so obviously your intent from day one that you never even had a chance! I know exactly what your game is, Bucko, and I’m not playing. Do you really think a few bouquets of flowers and a few compliments are all it takes to get a woman into your bed? Well, that might work on your little groupies, but I’m not that kind of girl. I’m only interested in real men who realize I have more to offer than a good time.”

Blake arched an eyebrow. “Is that what you told your soldier friend?”

My nostrils flared. How dare he bring up Derrick.

“Word is you gave him quite the night and now he’s already moved on…” Blake’s sickening smile deepened as the horror seeped over my face. “Oh, you didn’t know?” he asked, mocking innocence in his tone. “Yeah, seems he took a shining to our friend Jenna.”

I shook my head. “You’re lying.”

Blake shrugged. “If that’s what you have to tell yourself…”

I crossed my arms again. “Get the hell out of my room!”

Blake waited another minute, smiling at me, before making his way back to the door. “I’ll go, but I can damn well guarantee, if I got a chance with you, I’d make it last a hell of a lot longer than a single night.”

He winked and ducked out into the hall before I could chuck the bouquet of flowers at his head.