Of course, the band’s manager would report back to my boss—they were friends from college or something like that, which is how our firm got the Dirty Bandit business. How would that would go?
And speaking of Bryan, he was sitting directly across the room from me, wearing the oddest smirk.
Was he laughing at me? Or impressed with me?
Did I care?
Where had this confidence of mine been back in the day? Why had I let a little weight problem define me? I’d been so much more than a pair of chubby thighs. Of course, when you’re living your tormented teen years, you have no idea what you have going for you. Not a freaking clue.
That was especially true for me.
It hadn’t helped that my mother was not much better than the creeps at school. She’d sent me to Weight Watchers when I was only in sixth grade—young enough that she’d had to sign a parental consent form, which she happily did.
She’d drop me off at the meetings at a nearby church, and I sat there alone, huddled in my folding chair, the only kid in a sea of adults who eyed me with sympathy as they talked about foods to avoid and healthy ones to cook.
As if I had any control over what I ate. My mother put a plate of food in front of me, and I was required to eat until was clean.
And as if that weren’t bad enough, after the meetings, she’d take her sweet time picking me up. I’d be the last person waiting on the curb in front of the church, alone and in the dark.
At the time, I was neither afraid nor sad. I thought it was perfectly normal, having nothing else to compare it to. Years later, it finally pissed me off.
So yeah, I hadn’t gotten much support from the home front.
In addition to Bryan’s smirk, the guys had gone quiet after I’d given them a piece of my mind. They mostly just shifted in their seats, trying to look cool and tough but squirming under the truth I’d laid out.
Fuck them. If they blew their sweet ride, they deserved what they got.
But now that they were finally quiet, I could appreciate how damn beautiful each of them was.
And they were all three looking at me. Well, mostly my legs. But still.
So I was feeling pretty on top of the world.
That is, until Stone dropped a bomb. Of the nuclear proportion.
“Hey, Cora, where did you—”
“It’s Coral. Her name is Coral,” Bryan interrupted.
Stone side-eyed him and turned back to me. “Coral, where’d you go to high school? I could swear you look familiar.”
Oh god oh god oh god.
No way could they remember me. No freaking way. My hair was now long and de-frizzed, I’d grown another inch or two taller, and I’d shrunk significantly in the waist department.
Oh yeah. I’d ditched the glasses and braces, too.
Had my true identity been discovered? Were they going to ridicule me again? Look down on me?
Make me feel fat, ugly, and not cool enough to hang out with them?
I could lie. Just make something up. They’d never know any better. Say I was from another state, even.
I could say I’d gone to Scottsdale High School in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Was there an actual Scottsdale High? I had no freaking idea. But it sounded good.
Ennis scratched his head. “You know, Stone, I was thinking she looked familiar, too,” he said, squinting his eyes and studying me.
“No kidding, what a coincidence,” Bryan said cheerfully, as if our being acquainted was destiny.
Me, not so much.
I’d just gone from my five seconds of power right back to the chubby nerd I was in high school. How the hell did that happen?
And just before I sank to the bottom of a crater of shame and self-pity, a surge of fuck you erupted in me. Screw those assholes.
“I went to Perry High School. Just like you guys did.”
Chapter 11
CORAL
The guys’ eyes widened, their thoughts running a mile a minute trying to recall exactly how our paths had crossed all those years ago. Clearly, they didn’t remember me that well.
“No shit! Wow,” Stone exclaimed. “Small world,” he said excitedly, looking at Hugh and Ennis.
Still animated, he leaned forward. “Who’d you hang out with? Did you come to my parties?”
“Parties?” I asked. “Like when your band would practice in your parents’ garage?”
Time for me to drop a little bomb of my own.
“Yes, exactly!” He looked over at the other guys. “Can you believe this? We all went to high school together.”
“Who’d you hang out with? I still can’t quite place you. Were you part of Sully’s group? Or Candy’s?”
I wasn’t sure who Sully or Candy were, but I was pretty sure they wouldn’t have hung out with me back then.
Just like these guys wouldn’t have.
I shook my head slowly, uncrossing, then re-crossing my legs. “I didn’t hang out with any of those people. Or you guys, either.”
Stone looked puzzled. “Really? Because we made a point of knowing all the pretty girls—”
“Stone, chill out,” Hugh barked.
Wow. Didn’t know Hugh was the barking type.
Hugh rubbed his hand over his head for about the tenth time. “Wait. I remember you now, Coral. Weren’t you in Mrs. Siebert’s English class?”
Oh my god. He was in Siebert’s class, too? I’d completely forgotten he was one of the smart kids, like me.
I nodded slowly. “Yes, that’s right. We were in English together, Hugh.” If I remembered correctly, he was quiet, usually hanging out in the back of the room where the teacher wouldn’t notice him.
Was this a good thing? Would it be easier to work with the guys now that we’d established some common ground?
Would I still be tormented by memories of my old teenage self?
As I was thinking about the different directions things could go, Stone jumped to his feet. “I know! You were the fat chick who sat with the other nerds in the senior lunchroom.”
The room went silent as heat washed over my face and my stomach churned. Was it too late to just run out the door, head back to the office, and make up some bullshit story for my boss?
“Stone, sit down and shut up,” Hugh said.
Stone looked around the room like a stupid little puppy who had no idea what he’d done wrong.
How was it that all I’d accomplished in the last ten years could be wiped away with one thoughtless remark? It was like he’d pushed me into a time machine and rolled back the clock.
My years of hard-earned confidence were rapidly unraveling. Who knew their hold had been so tenuous? I was no longer the self-assured woman sitting in a beautiful home in the Hollywood Hills, wearing a sexy designer dress and four-inch heels, talking to the leaders of the number one rock band in the world.
Nope. I was the chubby, insecure teenager again, confronted by a bunch of jerks who were shaming me to the depths of my soul.
I wanted to curl up into a little ball and roll away.
“Coral? Coral, are you okay? You look a little pale,” Bryan said, walking toward me. “One of you guys go get more water, will you?”
That snapped me out of it. “I’m fine, thank you. I was just thinking back to those years in high school. So long ago.”