Page 75 of Broken Romeo
“Sounds like you’re not long for this apartment, anyway.”
I mash my index finger into the elevator button.
“Where are you going?” Holden asks.
“Out.” Why is the fucking elevator taking so long? I push the down button again, crossing my arms and tapping my toe impatiently.
After another long minute, there’s still no elevator in sight. “You know what? I’ll take the fucking stairs.”
Pivoting on my heel, I push past Holden and rush through the door behind us. The sounds of the party fade and the metal handrail is cool against my palm as I run down the first flight of stairs. Seven stories up… that’s a lot of stairs. At least I’m going down.
Holden calls my name from just behind me, his footsteps faster and louder than mine.
“Dammit, Kate! You’re really not going to talk to me?” he calls out.
I freeze on the landing between floors, still clutching the handrail, but refuse to turn and look at him.
A bubble of humorless laughter rises in my throat. “I don’t know what we possibly have to talk about.”
“How about how sorry I am?” His voice throbs, laden with emotion that vibrates across my nerves. “Not just for tonight, but for everything. I’m sorry for how I treated you in college. For how I lied to you. How I ruined our show. For how I pushed you away. I’m sorry that I was too stupid to see how madly in love with you I was…”
His hands fall gently to my shoulders, and he brushes my hair over to one side, revealing the nape of my neck. The molecules between us buzz to life as his warm breath fans across my sensitive skin.
“How madly in love with you I am,” he clarifies.
My heart swells at his words, drilling against my ribs. His hands slip from my rigid shoulders, gliding a gentle caress down my arms until his fingers link with mine.
“How can you claim to love me, while also being so ashamed of me that you ask me to stay silent about our past?” I barely manage to keep the tremble out of my voice.
“You just have to trust me that that’s for your own good… not because I’m ashamed to have been with you.” He leans into my ear, not touching, but his breath stirs the air as he speaks.
“Why? Because of Missy?”
“Missy is the least of it.”
Missy is the least of it? What does that mean?
I don’t get the chance to ask. He interrupts my thoughts with a shake of his head. “You have to know, watching you with Nolan is torture. Directing sex scenes is hard, but what’s worse is the smaller intimacies. Watching how you curl your fingers into his hair, or the way your thumb draws circles on his knuckles when you’re holding hands.”
How do you think I felt every time I had to see you on stage or in interviews with Missy Howl?
I refrain from saying that and instead, I choke, “Acting, Holden. It’s acting. What did you expect to happen when you cast me in this part? When I’m not good enough in a scene, you berate me. And when I am good, you sabotage me by giving Nolan direction that you know is off-limits?”
My words give me courage, and I spin to face him, shoving at his chest. He barely sways against the pressure of my push.
“That’s not directing. That’s abuse, Holden!”
The color recedes from his cheeks and his dark eyes blaze down at me.
“You’re right,” he whispers. “I’ve been a terrible director. It’s not fair to you… or the show. But if you come back, I promise you, it’ll be different. Please, Katherine.”
He takes a deep, steadying breath, waiting for my answer.
Finally, I ask, “How can I trust things will be different?”
A twitch of a smile touches his lips. He knows something I don’t; he’s got a plan. Should I expect anything less from Holden?
“Because I told Maggie about us. Everything about us. She’s your new liaison—like an HR person you can go to if I step out of line again. She, and only she, has the power to fire you… not me. And she also now has the power to fire me, if it comes to that.”