Page 82 of Kind of Famous
“Have you seen this?”
He laughed. “Yeah, serves her right. Did you see where she told people to troll my review?”
“I did.” I swiveled my chair all the way around to face him, although he was so close, our knees might have brushed. I cleared my throat, and he backed away a few paces. “Did you have something to do with those comments?” I tried to match my tone to his, as if I found the retaliation impressive when, in reality, I thought it was entirely cowardly to hide behind a fake name.
I was ninety-nine percent sure he was Sandman, but I wanted to coax the admission from his own lips.
“Maybe.” He smirked. I had him. He wouldn’t be so cocky if he knew who I was. And I itched to prove it.
“Explain.”
He looked around and lowered his voice. “I just wanted to give that irritating beast a taste of her own medicine.”
I let him feel his oats for a minute before I dropped the punch line. “Yeah, well that irritating beast didn’t really give two shits about your payback.”
He snorted. “How would you know how she feels?”
“Because she’s sitting right here.”
His eyelids went into defib. “What are you saying? You—”
“Yes, me.”
“You’re responsible for that attack?”
“Hardly an attack, Gabe. Those people had valid opinions.”
“Did you read what they wrote? It was vicious.”
“No.” I’d glanced at them once, but it had never occurred to me to follow up on their comments. Who cared what they said?
“Well, you really should. It was pretty hurtful.”
I couldn’t feel sorry for him. “Gabe, you write caustic words about musicians, but you can’t take it when people respond in kind? I honestly expected you’d have thicker skin.”
“At least now I know why you keep shooting me down.”
“What?”
“I get it. I mean you run a fucking fan site.” He grimaced. “That guy’s a musician, and I’m not. It’s exciting, and he gets you even closer to the band you worship. But you have to know, that’s not a realistic basis for dating a guy.”
“You’re not even close to the truth.”
He ran his tongue over his teeth and lodged it in his cheek, not impressed by my answer. “You’re blinded by proximity to fame. Is that why you got a job here?”
I closed my eyes. He wasn’t worth it.
“Or maybe I have it backwards. Maybe you have your sights set on a more ambitious prize. Did you think you could impress Lars with your inside connection?”
My head jerked up at that. “You think I’m using Shane to impress Lars?”
“Honestly, I might respect you more if you were. It would be less clichéd than sleeping your way through the band.”
I winced. “You’re way off base, Gabe.”
“Why? Are you going to pretend you really like the guy? That’s almost more pathetic. Do you even know how many short-lived relationships that drummer goes through? Have you done any homework? You really don’t have a clue.”
He was shooting with blanks if he thought he could convince me Shane was a womanizer.
