Page 83 of Prime Time Romance

I jump to my feet. “Can you hold out a few more minutes? I’m still pretty soaked from the rain. I’m going to go dry off a bit.” I point in the vague direction of the bathroom. “I’ll be right back.”

I don’t wait for him to answer before ducking into the crowd and weaving my way toward the restrooms. I intentionally follow a path that takes me out of the line of sight of the bar, but as I turn the corner toward the bathroom, I’m cut off by a keg being wheeled by on a dolly.

“Whoa, sorry about that.” Josh swerves and then stops, his face registering a look of surprise when he notices that his obstacle is me. “Brynn, hey. I was hoping you’d come tonight.”

His voice is soft and his eyes are so kind. I get the urge to run away again, but this time I want to grab his hand and take him with me.

“I wanted to make sure we were good,” he continues. “I didn’t like the way we left things this morning, and I…”

His gaze flicks to something over my shoulder.

“Did you come here with Spencer?”

I nod, my cheeks heating. “Yes. I need to talk to you about that. Sheldon came by and—”

There’s a loud mic screech.

I turn in the direction of the sound. It’s coming from the stage. The crowd is so dense that I can barely see the bar, let alone our table, which makes me wonder how Josh knew I came here with—

My blood runs cold.

Oh, now I’ve fudged up.

Of all the catastrophes I envisioned tonight, I missed one.

The most obvious one.

I watch with that kind of detached horror you feel when you know something very wrong is about to happen and yet can’t find the will to do anything but watch. The emcee takes center stage as the lights dim.

“Please welcome to the stage our very own Spencer Woods.”

23

Josh

“Oh my god.” Brynn’s hands cover her face. “No, no, no, no, no. Please, no.”

I’m confused, my eyes following Brynn’s to the stage. “What’s happening? What’s wrong?”

Brynn doesn’t answer. She just stares, horrified, as Spencer takes the mic from the emcee, addressing the crowd with a seemingly humble smile.

“There’s someone very special here with me tonight.” Spencer runs his hand through his hair, dropping his eyes to the stage for a moment before acknowledging the crowd again. “And I haven’t quite found the right words to tell her how I feel.”

“No,” Brynn moans into her hands. “Anything but this.”

Spencer smiles. “But I think I’ve found the perfect way to tell her exactly what is going on in my heart…using the immortal words of James Blunt.”

The opening bars of a song tinkle through the speaker system, and Spencer begins to sing. His tone matches the falsetto of James Blunt almost perfectly. His eyes close with emotion as he sings about the beauty of the girl he’ll never have.

“Karaoke serenade, eh?” My jealousy of the situation is squelched only by the fact that Brynn looks like she’s going to vomit. “Why the face? I thought you loved grand gestures.”

Spencer begins to walk forward, and the crowd between him and Brynn parts almost perfectly down the middle. I grab for the keg to move it out of the way, but Brynn reaches for me, stopping just short of grabbing my wrist.

“Don’t leave me,” she says between clenched teeth. “Please.”

Spencer begins to sway in time to the music as the emotion in his voice intensifies.

“Hold on,” I tell her, an idea forming.