Page 22 of Indescribable Love
“Seriously, Jules, what the hell were you thinking?”
“Um…”
She was unceremoniously yanked into the house, her coffee spilling everywhere, but that was apparently the least of her worries.
Pacing furiously, Nikki glared at her. “I am this close to calling Vanessa and unloading on her about how you are possibly the least professional publicist I’ve ever met! And we’ve had a lot of publicists over the years, but you are the first to crap all over Simon for being a decent human being!”
“Wait…what?” she asked. There was no way Nikki could have heard about the discussion she had with Simon. He didn’t talk to anyone last night. It was after midnight when he finally went to his room—and the only reason she knew that was because she stayed up late listening! And knowing that everyone here was a creature of habit, she knew Nikki never talked to Simon before nine a.m., and it was just nine now.
“Jax called me this morning because he was worried about Simon,” Nikki said heatedly. “Apparently Simon called him last night because he was upset about the way you attacked him. I mean…why? Why would you do that? I’ve never met a human being who was so offended by someone being nice!”
“Okay, okay, okay…in my defense, I was reacting a bit to something you had said to me the other day, and now I can see that I might not have handled it the right way.”
“You think?” Snorting with disgust, Nikki continued to pace. “And what the hell did I say to you that would make you attack Simon?”
Juliette sighed loudly. “First, can you please stop saying that I attacked him? That just seems like a bit of an exaggeration.”
All Nikki did was continue to glare.
“When we were making the ravioli the other day, you said that he wanted to see a more relaxed version of me and how it was nice to see me being funny and casual and okay with talking about things that have nothing to do with PR or business. And you know what? It made me feel like asking me to make pasta and teach you all how to do it was some kind of test!” She paused and let out another huff. “It felt like he wanted to force me out of my comfort zone to see how I’d react. Like I wasn’t being real with any of you. So yeah, that bothered me, and it was exactly how I’d been feeling about him!”
“Because he’s nice?”
Nodding, she said, “Yes! And not just nice, but…super nice! The guy is always happy and smiling and you know what? That’s not normal, and you need to admit that too! Most people have moods—multiple moods—and Simon doesn’t! It’s just one, and it’s weird!”
Groaning, Nikki sat down on the massive chair on the opposite side of the sofa. “Look, this isn’t going to work. I thought it could and I was really excited about the whole thing, but…you broke Simon, and I can’t have that.”
“I don’t think I did,” Juliette countered. “Maybe I challenged him. And maybe I said some things that he didn’t like, but he said stuff to me too!”
“Oh, please,” Nikki said with a frown. “I doubt that.”
And yeah, that wasn’t a surprise. She knew how long Nikki and Simon had been friends, so naturally she’d side with him.
“All I’m saying is that…okay, we had a moment yesterday that wasn’t great. But I also know you’ve been on him to work on music, and that’s all he’s been doing since our talk.”
“Pfft…talk. Good one.”
Juliette fought the urge to roll her eyes because clearly one of them needed to be the adult. “He stayed downstairs playing music and singing until midnight last night and he’s down there already this morning doing it again. If I broke something, it obviously helped.”
Then she held her breath and prayed she wasn’t about to get tossed out on her ass.
Without a word, Nikki stood and stormed out of the house. It was obvious where she was going and instead of sitting there waiting, Juliette stood and cleaned up the spilled coffee.
“She looks out for him like a mama bear,” Celia said quietly as she came over to help her clean up. “And for what it’s worth, I’ve had that same conversation with her before about how Simon needs to sort of…let loose once in a while and just scream or punch something. It’s not natural to just let every single thing slide off of you.” She took the paper towels they’d used and threw them out.
“It still was unprofessional of me to bait him like that. I don’t know the specifics of what happened to him as a kid to make him this adamant that he doesn’t want it discussed not only in the documentary, but apparently anywhere, ever, at all, and it wasn’t my place to force him to talk about it. I really thought the whole nice guy person was an act, that’s all.”
Now she did sit back down and Celia joined her. “I thought the same thing when Nikki first introduced us. Like…I may have rolled my eyes a few too many times when she finally called me out on it.”
“Wow. Was she mad?”
“Not like she just was with you, but…yeah.” She paused and looked toward the front door before saying anything else. “The thing you need to know about Simon is…”
The front door opened and Juliette’s heart kicked hard in her chest as she braced herself.
Nikki came storming back in and stood in front of Juliette and Celia. “Four songs! He’s written and recorded four songs!” Then she laughed, like a maniacal kind of laugh. “I don’t get it! He’s never written like this before and he’s a little obsessed right now. I’ve never seen him like this. Ever!”
It was on the tip of her tongue to point out how this was a good thing, but she didn’t want to get too far ahead of herself. She still couldn’t tell if Nikki was happy or pissed off.