Page 32 of Silver Sweet

“Jesus Christ.” He groans, and his phone buzzes on the table. He shuts it off without even looking at the screen.

I stare at it. “You have enemies or something?”

“Roommates.” He pauses for a weighted second. “Who are also the members of Nothing Personal.”

Fuck me. “What?” I cringe.

He slides a hand through his hair, then lets his fingers fall to the table. “I live with the band.”

“Myrivalband.”

“No offense, but they don’t think of The Carraways that way.”

My brain almost can’t reason with this. Not when I’ve considered Nothing Personal my adversary for years. “You’re telling me your brother, thedrummerof Nothing Personal, doesn’t hate me? I don’t believe that.”

“Okay, yeah. My brother hates you. But the others don’t. They just think you’re an idiot for not hiring Birdie as your drummer when you had the chance. They’re the ones who benefited from your dumb decision.” He daggers his eyes on me. “And they’re right, it makeszerosense. Why didn’t you hire him?”

Holy shit, I cannot admit that I found his little brother so attractive that I didn’t want him in my band. “The timing was wrong,” I lie.My only lie to Phoenix St. Pierre, I promise myself.

“Is that why you called him years later?”

“You know about that?” I’m dying under his intense brown-blue gaze.

“That he asked you tobeg him? Yeah, I know.”

My voice is caught on a laugh. “And you thinkI’mthe egomaniac. Maybe look at your fucking bloodline, dude. And I didn’t do it. For. The. Record.” I pound my finger on the table for each word. “No begging was had.”

He arches his brows. “You want that in writing for your future progeny? Let them know their dad didn’t drop to his knees.”

“Please and thank you.” I’m out of breath as I fork my waffle.

Phoenix watches me before he says, “Nothing Personal doesn’t view you as competition. That’s a good thing.”

I wince. It still stings to hear. “I don’t see how. And I take great offense to you saying I’m in a one-sided rivalry with your brother’s shitty band.” I want to bring my hands to my face and careen forward, but I force myself to stay somewhat professional and not have a complete meltdown. “How is this even going to work? You’re living with the enemy.”

“We focus on ourselves. Again, we aren’t competing with them.” His phone vibrates again. He flips it over this time to look at the screen. “Shit.”

“What?” I frown.

Phoenix scrolls on his phone for an agonizing five seconds. “I only told my brother I joined The Carraways, but I’m guessing he just spilled the news to the rest of Nothing Personal.”

“You just said I’m not competition to them. So they won’t care, right?”

He seems uncertain about it. “I didn’t think they would…” He stands up from the booth, phone in his grip. “Your schedule. Don’t forget to resend it to me without the black boxes. Or at least, let me know which family functions I can attend with you.”

“Yeah, sure.”

He’s on edge as he starts texting. “And I’m sending you money for breakfast.”

I roll my eyes. “It’s on me.”

“This isn’t a date, Tom.” That’s all he says before grabbing his black jacket and leaving the booth. My muscles have not untwisted atthatexit note.

This isn’t a date, Tom. Did he think that I thought it was one?!

Fuuuck. I lace my hands on my head and try not to sink down. I don’t even know if he’s into guys. No, he’s definitely straight.

I’m clocking it right now.