Chapter 23: Chapter Twenty-Three

Seaside SeriesWords: 1745

Demetri

Blah-blah-blah. Holy crap, slap me in the face. If Angelica didn't stop talking soon, I was seriously going to take a dive off the edge of this building.

My flight left in less than two hours.

And. She. Just. Kept. Talking.

Seriously. The chick made me feel extremely uncomfortable and I'd had some serious run-ins with groupies.

“Look” —I held up my hands in front of me— “I know your manager wanted you to be seen with me for promo but, for real, I have to catch a plane.”

Angelica turned bright red.

Huh, so the devil did get occasionally embarrassed. Well, I'll be damned.

“But—”

“We can figure something out when I get back.” I clutched my carry-on in my hand and ushered her towards the lobby, gritting my teeth the entire way as a few photographers took pictures of us.

I smiled. Because, well—I had to.

And Angelica went into crazy mode.

She launched herself at me, kissed my cheek, wiped off the lipstick and then curved her body against mine. Pretty sure I hated my life at that moment. I smiled so bright my face hurt.

It was totally fake. You'd have to be an idiot to believe that I was anything but pissed in that moment.

When did I start to get sick of the press? I used to eat it up. Freaking loved the attention but now, it felt like every single picture they took was like getting punched in the gut.

“So” —Angelica flipped me towards her— “I'll see you when I get back.”

Yeah, and I was going to freaking go into hiding to make sure that she didn't follow through on that threat—yeah, it was a threat, not a promise.

I still had a few hours to make it to Portland, drive into Seaside and surprise my girl.

Angelica can go to hell for all I cared… I had Nat. What else did I need?