The Bargain with the Billionaire

Chapter 18- Mask

“Behind every mask there is a face, and behind that a story.” ~ Marty Rubin

Dominique’s POV

“Nik-nik, are you okay? You looked like you swallowed a whole hardboiled egg.” That’s Demon by the way trying to calm my nerves but failed miserably. I’m very far from being okay now. I’m everything bad right now, and certainly not okay.

And it’s because of that man, the man who said in front of billions of people that if I didn’t find my way to him soon, he’ll come and get me himself. So what the hell happened? No text. No call.

Okay, maybe I’m exaggerating because it has only been 24 hours after that press con. But don’t get me wrong, I’m just…I’m just…okay fine I miss him terribly…that’s it.

“Is that even a joke? Don’t try again, that’s your last one.” I said to him rather grumpily. I’m not really in the mood today. I feel my nerves are eating me right now. If that’s even possible.

We’re in the backstage at the moment, waiting for our turn. Chev’s cousin produced a show for a cause but one of the band just back out in the last minute and so here we are filling that spot without practice at all. Good thing Carl volunteered to be the vocalist today. I’m loving him at the moment. He’s a really kind fellow. Plus he doesn’t interfere with my business of grumpiness. He just let me be, which is good.

“Leave her alone, something is eating her up because a certain someone never called or even send a single text after that one hell of a show.”

Guess what, that’s Carl. And I’m so officially getting back what I said earlier about the kind thing. He’s far from being kind right now.

I hope Elle is here. They’re obviously ganging up on me again, which is so irritating. For sure, if the crazy Elle is here, Carl will think twice before blurting out his comment like that. Elle seems to know something about Carl that I didn’t know. It is as if he’s afraid of Elle pulling the trigger, so he always is in his best behavior whenever she’s around. Plus that honey thing at the engagement party. It’s really confusing.

We heard the emcee calling us and we enthusiastically showed up on the stage one after the other.

God, I miss this feeling. It’s been a week. It feels so good to be back at my second home – the stage.

My eyes widened at the sight of the crowd. I never expect this enormous audience. I thought this is some kind of gig that we usually do. But the stage extravagant display and the lights all around it tell a different story. Plus the tremendous crowd in sight. It’s really far from the gig I anticipated. It’s more like a concert stage that I feel suddenly nervous.

“Hey Nique its okay. We’re under the same sky, so nothing much is change.” I felt Carl slightly tap my shoulder as he leaned closer to me and whispered. He smiled reassuringly after that.

I take a deep breath to calm my nerves. It’s just addition of lights, a little bigger stage, and some additional audiences, but we’re always under the same sky. This is the same as those gigs we had. No sweats.