Read Moving in Reverse for Free Online Page B

button-down shirt,
unbuttoned effortlessly in a way that looked like he’d come
straight from a photo shoot to the concert. He held my phone with
one hand, and looked at me like he was two seconds from breaking
into laughter.
    “ What do you think you’re
doing?” I tried to make my voice sound authoritative.
    He pressed the touchscreen on my
phone, glancing at the text I’d typed.
    “ Who’s
Madison?”
    I scowled. “My friend. Who I was
texting. On my phone.”
    “ I told you,” he smirked,
still looking down at my cell phone. “They’re not allowed in
here.”
    I rolled my eyes. “That’s absurd. Half
the people in here are on their phones.” I stood up straighter,
trying to stare him down.
    He punched something into the phone,
not meeting my eyes. “Ok,” he said smoothly. “Well, then it’s rude
for you to sit there texting when there’s a guy who’s trying to
talk to you.”
    I stared at him
incredulously. ”Oh, is it?”
    “ It is,” his voice rang
with amusement, and he finally looked up from my phone, shooting me
a half-smile that would have made my stomach flutter if I hadn’t
been so annoyed.
    “ And third,” he said. “I
thought you might want my phone number.”
    “ Tempting,” I said
sarcastically, shaking my head. “But I have a
boyfriend.”
    “ Oh,” he arched an
eyebrow. “I know. Blake Parker, right?”
    He held the phone out to me with one
hand, and I took it tentatively.
    “ So why—”
    “ I’m Tanner,” the guy
clinked his beer against mine and took a long gulp, looking at me
like he knew something I didn’t.
    I was about to open my mouth when Liv
and her band walked onstage.
    “ We’re Pretty Twisted,”
she cooed softly. The crowd around us quieted, and I stood on my
tiptoes to see the stage as well as I could.
    Liv began the first song, singing
softly into the microphone. I’d loaded her CD onto my iPod that
morning, so I was already starting to learn their music. I found
myself getting into it, happy to see that the crowd was cheering as
the song got louder.
    Liv squinted out at the crowd, like
she was trying to see past the stage lights. I waved to her,
jumping up and down to the song, and she seemed to see me. For a
second, her eyes flickered behind me with a confused expression,
and then she shifted her gaze to the rest of the crowd and finished
the song to applause.
    I heard a whistle behind me, and
didn’t turn around. Liv started the second song, a slower melody
that quieted the crowd. I finished the last sip of my beer and
looked out at the room, feeling warm and comfortable. Part of me
almost wished that Blake was still playing shows like these, wished
that I could still watch him from backstage as he played my
favorite songs every night.
    I wondered if he missed it
too.
    Liv’s band played six songs, a quick
set for an opening band, but I knew from last night that she’d come
back on for another song with Fall Guy later in the
show.
    Just as they were finishing the last
song of the set, I felt someone squeeze my arm, and I turned
abruptly, thinking it was the same guy.
    I felt a surprised grin spread across
my face as Madison smothered me with a hug.
    “ I came as quickly as I
could,” she yelled into my ear over the music. “Are you
ok?”
    I blinked, confused.
    “ I’m fine,” I said slowly,
wondering if there was something I was missing. “Why wouldn’t I
be?”
    “ Your text,” she was still
catching her breath, as if she’d run the whole way here. “You and
Blake?”
    I felt my stomach clench. “What do you
mean?”
    She’d pulled out her phone and showed
it to me. Sure, enough, a text from me a half hour before read,
“Fall Guy at Irving Place. Blake & I done. Met someone
new.”
    I’d typed the first sentence, about
the concert. And I had a pretty good guess at who’d typed the
rest.
    I scanned the room angrily, but Tanner
had disappeared.
    “ This guy—” I said,
shaking my head. “Never mind. It’s nothing. I’m