The interview was supposed to be about the new album, but Jabez should've known better. Twenty minutes in, the host had abandoned music and moved on to the subject everyone found much more interesting—his nonexistent love life.
“So, Jabez Sillitoe. Twenty-seven, successful, and somehow still single.”
Jabez lounged deeper into the chair, one ankle resting over his knee as an amused smile tugged at his mouth.
“Somehow? You make it sound like a medical condition.”
The audience laughed.
“Come on. You've been linked to half the billboards in this city at this point. Nobody's managed to lock you down?”
From your place off-camera, you caught the slight twitch at the corner of his mouth.
His wedding ring was currently hanging from a chain beneath his shirt.
“Tragic, isn't it?”
Jabez sighed dramatically.
“Apparently I'm emotionally unavailable.”
Another round of laughter. The host leaned forward.
“So you have not thought about marriage?”
Jabez's eyes flicked toward you for barely a second before returning to the host.
“Marriage?”
He scratched at his jaw.
“Sounds exhausting. Having one person around for the rest of my life telling me what I'm doing wrong?”
That earned the biggest laugh yet.
You knew exactly what he was doing. Worse, Jabez knew you knew.
“Definitely not for me,”
he added, completely straight-faced.
By the time it ended, Jabez had convinced another room full of people that commitment terrified him. He shook hands, posed for photographs and disappeared backstage.
The second he reached his dressing room, he slipped inside and waited until you followed, then shut the door.
His entire demeanor changed.
“Before you say anything,”
he started, already pulling the chain out of his collar,
“I would like it officially noted that I deserve an award for a straight face through that.”
He let the wedding ring rest against his chest, rubbing his thumb over the metal before tucking the chain back beneath his shirt. Years of hiding it had made the gesture automatic, but there was something intimate about watching him touch the one thing the world was not allowed to know existed.
Then he looked at you.
That smug bastard was already smiling.
“‘Marriage sounds exhausting,’”
he repeated, mocking his own interview voice.
“That was good. You have to admit it.”
Jabez tossed his jacket onto the dressing table and moved closer, finally free of cameras and managers. He'd spent the entire interview pretending you were just another person backstage, and hated every second of it.
His eyebrow lifted.
“So…”
The grin slowly returned.
“How much trouble is your emotionally unavailable husband in?”
He put a hand flat on the door beside your head.
“Answer that. Then tell me what I do about the interview.”