I stepped into the embrace. I had about six inches on him—what with me being five-nine. He never complained about howshort he was. In fact, he never complained about anything. He was just one of those people who smiled all the time. Truthfully, I wanted to be more like him.
He released me and whistled.
Everyone turned to him.
“You may not have heard that Malik is leaving the orchestra. We all wish him well in his future endeavors, right?”
Another thirty minutes passed before I was able to make my escape—everyone wanted to tell me how much they’d miss me.
I wavered on whether or not doing this was the right thing or not. Giving up stability—and the people who’d cared for me after I lost my parents—felt monumental.
And yet, the time had come.
Charles and I walked out together into the fresh night air. Night had fallen, and Vancouver was illuminated by all the lights.
“Any plans for Canada Day?” He glanced my way.
I shook my head. “I think I’ll still be coming to terms with my decision. But I’m working in the studio starting on July third. That’ll keep me busy.”
“Ah, yes.” He squeezed my shoulder. “Be good. Call and write often. We do drinks once a month.”
Neither of us were big drinkers, but I understood the sentiment.
Something shifted within me.
This was big.
Huge.
Life-changing.
I just didn’t know how things were going to play out. But damn it, I was going to become a rock star.
Chapter One
Spencer
“What do you mean,Malik Forestal chained himself to the Lion’s Gate Bridge?” I pressed a hand to my forehead. “Who the hell isMalik Forestal?”
Bonnie stared at me. “You’ve never heard of Malik Forestal? Razor Made?”
I stared right back. “Nope. But you had better enlighten me. We blocked the bridge for twenty minutes. We inconvenienced commuters.”
“Annoyed the shit out of them.”
“Well, that’s the point. If they want to drive gas-guzzling vehicles, they can be inconvenienced.”
My assistant shook her head. “Right, like them all idling while we held them up didn’t contribute to greenhouse gas emissions.”
I wrinkled my nose. “We got our point across—we don’t need another pipeline.”
“You realized Vancouver has a high percentage of drivers who, you know, drive electric vehicles? And our electricity is clean. We want to encourage this. Not make them sit in traffic as well.”
“We didn’t have a way to separate them.” At this hour of the morning, we had two lanes coming from the North Shore into Vancouver and one lane heading the other way. Heavy traffic that wasn’t moving fast—hence our ability to step before them and block the road.
To say we weren’t popular was an understatement—but we’d effectively made our point. “I know you weren’t in favor—”
She cleared her throat.
