A Reclusive Heart (Hollywood Hearts #2)(63)

When Holly suddenly stopped she nearly did a happy dance only to discover that none of the doors were marked in any way indicating that they were restrooms.

“I thought we should have a talk, woman to woman,” Holly said as she faced her.

“Now?” Jamie asked, not bothering to hide her exasperation at the situation.

“You can’t wait until after I use the bathroom?” she asked, moving to step past the woman, more than willing to hunt down a bathroom on her own at this point.

“It’s about Nick,” Holly said with a worried expression.

Yeah, she just bet it was, Jamie thought, moving once again to step past the infuriating woman when she added, “He’s going to get fired.”

Now that had her attention.

She turned so that she could face the woman. “What are you talking about?”

Holly made a show of worrying her bottom lip as she wrung her hands together. “I really shouldn’t say anything, but if I don’t I know Nick will get in a lot of trouble.”

“What exactly would he get in trouble for?” she asked, already having a pretty good idea where this was going.

“For his relationship with you,” the woman said, confirming her suspicions.

“I see,” Jamie murmured as she looked around the long hallway again for any signs of a bathroom. It was close to becoming an emergency.

“He’s a really nice guy,” Holly said on a broken sob. “I really don’t want to see him get into any trouble, but if he continues to see you then Rick will fire him.”

Jamie kind of doubted that since Nick had hauled her onto his lap in front of Rick and even kissed her a few times. Rick looked more amused than anything, which reminded her that she wanted to ask Nick about that.

“Is that all?” she asked when she moved past the woman to take up her search for a bathroom once again.

“He’ll get fired!” Holly pleaded, cutting her off once again.

Normally Jamie would probably just mumble an apology and hear this woman’s nonsense out but she really didn’t have the patience and according to her bladder she really didn’t have the time. Instead of doing what she’d normally do she faced the woman and decided to end this little game.

“Look, I get it. You’re into Nick. You’ve probably been pinning after him since the moment you met him and I’m guessing he hasn’t exactly been receptive or your attention,” she said, knowing that she’d guessed right when the woman’s sympathetic expression turned angry. “When you found out that you were joining this tour you probably thought that you finally had your chance, but unfortunately your timing was off because Nick and I are dating and now-“

“You’re not dating!” the woman cut her off. “He’s f**king you, that’s it. That’s all that Nick is good for. He f**ks anything and everything with a pair of tits and the only reason he’s with you is so that he can get ahead at work!”

“Um, he doesn’t work for me,” Jamie pointed out.

Holly spat out a cruel laugh. “No, but if you reach Dana Pierce’s sales records he’ll be able to pretty much do whatever he wants. He’s just using you. That’s the only reason why he’s with you,” the woman said, destroying a huge piece of her newfound confidence as old insecurities rushed to the surface.

“Look, I’m trying to give you a head’s up because once this tour is over he’ll be dropping you,” Holly said, storming past her to return to the convention.

“Because you want him for yourself,” Jamie pointed out almost desperately.

Holly simply shrugged. “It will either happen during the tour or later. Nick’s a man who likes to f**k and he’ll eventually come my way.” With that she walked off leaving Jamie feeling like she’d just been kicked in the gut and unfortunately still desperate for a bathroom. Instead of turning around and heading back the way she came she continued forward. She wasn’t ready to face Nick or the Holly’s mocking sympathetic looks just yet.

She knew the woman would do and say anything to get Nick for herself, she wasn’t an idiot after all. Thanks to Caitlyn she knew exactly how vicious some women could be, but that didn’t stop the words from having their desired effect.

This was only temporary. Nick had told her that. In fact he’d been very honest about that little fact. When this tour ended then so did their relationship.

Before this lovely little talk with Holly she assumed it was because the man couldn’t commit, but now she had to wonder if there was possibly a little more to the situation than she’d first realized.

Was it possible that Nick tricked her, okay so he didn’t have to trick her, but could this whole thing just be a way to get her to do what he wanted? As she continued her desperate search for a bathroom she had a hard time coming up with any other reason why a man like Nick would even look twice at a woman like her.

It kind of figured that she was in love with a man who had an agenda.

******

“Here,” Nick said as he went to hand over several bars of Swiss chocolate to Jamie.

“No, thank you,” she murmured politely, not bothering to look up from her computer as she answered him.

He might be new to this whole relationship business, but he knew the signs very well since he used to use them to his own advantage. Since she came back from her long bathroom break she wouldn’t look at him, touch him, or speak to him unless it was absolutely necessary. More importantly she wouldn’t let him touch her. Every time he moved closer to her she found some reason to move away. He knew he hadn’t done anything to screw this up and he also knew the source of the problem.