Blame it on the Tequila by Fiona Cole (the reading strategies book txt) 📕

steps. I needed him to see me. To turn around.

Four. Three.

Fuck it. I charged forward, making each step count before we hit one.

Two.

Red hair flew from the other side of the stage and a body leaped into his arms.

One.

And held on tight as she placed her lips on his.

“Happy New Year.”

The crowd erupted and the New Year song played over the speakers, but everything pin-holed into the sight of Sonia’s lips on Parker’s, and for those first few seconds of a brand-new year I couldn’t wait to start, my chest crumbled in on itself.

I was wrong. I thought I knew Parker so well—even after all these years, I never imagined him being an outright liar. But glimpsing the way he caught Sonia, single is the last word I’d use to describe him.

I stood under the bright lights, with thousands of people celebrating around me, oblivious to my complete mistake.

All but one person.

“Supernova!” Oren called. I jerked my head to find him coming out from behind the drum kit, only to jerk back to Parker.

His head whipped around, eyes wide, mouth smeared with red lipstick.

I’d already begun backing away when he pried himself from Sonia’s arms.

“Nova.”

I watched his mouth form my name, but I couldn’t hear anything over the ringing in my ears. Not wasting another second, I turned and ran.

Nine

Parker

She stood there like a vision—like everything I ever dreamed of.

At the completely wrong time.

For a moment, I stood frozen, unsure if she was real or if I’d wanted her there so much that I conjured her in my mind.

“Nova,” I whispered.

I’d seen her over many Facetimes, and not a single one did justice to the woman before me. The screen didn’t capture the sharp points of her full lips or the line dimpling the center of her bottom one. It didn’t capture just how green her eyes were or that perfect shade of deep red in her hair. I never got to see the full length of her long, lean limbs.

It almost stole my breath, taking her all in at once—this stunning woman she’d grown into.

But as quickly as she appeared, she turned and vanished back into the crowd. As soon as she left my sight, the world crashed back in around me.

The blinding amounts of confetti, the loud crowd cheering and dancing to Frank Sinatra’s New York. Sonia’s arms wrapped around me like a spider monkey.

“Fuck.”

Uncaring of anyone watching, I gripped Sonia’s arms and pulled them off, pushing her back as I took off to follow Nova. I needed to get to her—to explain. Hell, I wasn’t even sure what had happened because Sonia appeared just as quick as Nova had. I’d stumbled and had to focus on not falling from the collision; I’d barely had time to register what the hell was going on.

Although, I should have been ready for anything when she appeared right before I went on stage and wished me luck.

Everyone slapped my shoulder as I tried to move past, wishing me a Happy New Year. I think I nodded in return, but I also shoved people out of the way, knowing it was a waste of time but too desperate to care. I’d barely reached the edge of the barricade, and it’d taken almost five minutes. Hands grabbed at me and screaming burst the bubble of my focus. I blinked, taking in the gaggle of women gripping my arm or reaching out to touch any inch they could reach. Some held up phones, and flashes went off in my face making it harder to think. I just needed to think.

It’s over. You ruined it.

She’s gone forever.

She’ll never pick up. She’ll never listen.

I’ll never see Nova again.

That one glimpse would be it.

That one hurt, slamming me back to earth more than anything else. I needed to get out of there before they tore the clothes from my body. I wasn’t solving anything in the middle of Times Square anyway.

Gently prying their hands off me, grateful for when security finally caught up to my mad dash, I smiled and said thank you blindly to anyone and turned back to the stage. Funny how much easier it was to get back on than it’d been to get off. Not that Nova seemed to have an issue.

“Where the hell did you go?” Aspen greeted me first, sounding pissed. “We have photos we have to take.”

Aspen.

Seeing her made it all click in place. “You,” I sneered. “You did this.”

She crossed her arms and lifted her chin. “Why, yes, Parker. I did do all of this. I busted my ass to get you this slot because it’s my job, and we don’t scoff at our jobs when it gets hard or maybe not everything we want to do.”

“Don’t. Don’t pull that shit. I bust my ass for this job—for this label. I said no Sonia.”

“And I said tough shit.”

“You had no right.”

“I had every right. You signed a contract making a deal with her, and this is part of it. I wasn’t going to argue with you anymore. I told you it would happen, whether you liked it or not, because it’s your job.”

Knowing I wasn’t getting anywhere with her, I walked past and rounded the back of the stage, descending the other steps that led to our gear and the guys.

“Dude, that was fucking Nova,” Oren exclaimed, bouncing around like a kid with a sugar high. “I had no idea she was coming.”

“Me neither,” I muttered.

“Nova was here?” Brogan asked. “Where?”

“She totally ran,” Oren answered. “Pew,” he said with a hand demonstration of her taking off.

“Why?” Ash asked, cutting in.

I ran a frustrated hand through my hair, remembering our last conversation and how she playfully asked again that I hadn’t met anyone new.

“Why didn’t you see her?” Ash asked.

“He was playing suck-face with Sonia.”

I ground my jaw at the reminder. “I didn’t fucking know she was coming,” I muttered, like it would have mattered. “And I sure as fuck didn’t know about Sonia.”

A flash of red hair