How You Remind Me Read Online Free PDF

town.
    He went downstairs long enough to grab a bite to eat, but decided
not to stick around. Instead, he returned to his room, picked up his acoustic
guitar and spent the rest of the afternoon lost in beats, notes and chords.
    By the time dinner rolled around, he’d made a decision. Kate
had good reasons for kicking him out of her room last night. She had
justifiable excuses for not seeking him out today, either in person or by text
or email. But tonight, at the big black tie event, they were going to see each
other whether she liked it or not.
    And he wasn’t going to let an opportunity to win her back go
to waste.
    He put on the closest thing he had to a tuxedo—a vintage Pierre
Cardin jacket and a pair of black jeans and headed downstairs. He was glad to learn
he’d been assigned a seat at Erica’s table, with his old friend on his left and
the husband of the class valedictorian on his right.
    “Your set was good last night,” Erica said after sending her
new squeeze, Rip, to brave the lines at the open bar.
    “We didn’t suck,” Shaw replied.
    “You never do, or I wouldn’t hire you,” she assured him. “Where’s
your band tonight?”
    “Off,” he replied.
    Erica huffed. “I’m trying to make small talk.”
    “Why?”
    “Because if I don’t, I’ll ask you about Kate and since I
know that didn’t go well—”
    “She talked to you?”
“She didn’t have to,” Erica said. “She’s been running around today as if the
fate of the universe relies on whether or not the canapés come out precisely
thirty minutes before the salads.”
    “In other words, she’s acting like you.”
    She smacked him on the shoulder. “I don’t act that way. I love
my job, but the world won’t implode if the ice-sculpture melts before the
dessert course.”
    “I don’t think you knew that before Rip came roaring back
into your life.”
    She thought this over for a minute and then nodded. “You’re
probably right. I thought after you two hooked up last night, she’d throw
tonight’s event at the hotel staff and enjoy herself. Instead, I had fifteen
texts on my phone before nine a.m. What happened?”
    “Nothing,” he said.
    She smirked in disbelief, but once Rip came back with their
drinks, she let the topic drop. His friendship with Erica had been long and
enduring and would no doubt survive, no matter what happened between him and
Kate. But he hadn’t purposefully hurt her assistant—and even if he had, he
intended to make it up to her.
    She just had to take the bait.

Chapter 8
    The dinner had gone off without a hitch, if Kate didn’t
consider the mysteriously vanishing vegan meals, one rude waiter, two drunk
former football players and one minor glitch with the power cords on the
chafing trays as hitches. Which she didn’t. She’d secretly wished for more easily
manageable screw-ups so she wouldn’t have time for her gaze to betray her,
sneaking through the crowds to watch Shaw at his table, chit-chatting with
Erica and Rip as if nothing world-changing had happened to him last night.
    In all honestly, nothing life-altering had happened to him
except that he’d unburdened his soul from a secret. But beyond that, the rocked
foundations were hers and hers alone. She’d not only learned that there was
someone on the planet who could fill in the missing hours of her life, but that
this same someone was kind, sexy, funny, giving, selfless and hot.
    And she’d thrown him out. What the hell had she been
thinking?
    By the time the party broke up, Shaw was nowhere to be
found. On the dance floor, a few die-hard couples swayed to the final song of
the night while the wait staff collected plates and broke down the dessert
buffet. Rip had Erica cradled close to his chest, her head tucked under his
chin, her eyes closed in a cocoon of rapture that made Kate deliriously happy
for her boss and pea green with envy at the same time.
    “Ms. Schaeffer?”
    Kate turned. Carlos, the headwaiter, held an envelope