“How many times? Like every show? Multiple times a show? At least every song? I need numbers.”
“Oh my god, you’re impossible. I didn’t call to talk about your dick.”
But she no longer denied she checked me out on stage, and my cheeks ached from smiling so much. “Why did you call? What did you need to talk about?”
She let out a long sigh, and the laughter we shared only a few seconds before was gone.
So, something bad then.
Grant came out of the front door and set an ice-cold waterbottle down for me. I pointed to my phone, and he nodded before heading back inside.
“Spit it out, Cadence. I’m growing old over here.”
“You’re already old.”
“Why does everyone keep saying that? I’m not that old, I’m twenty-eight.”
“Oh. You’re only two years older than I am.”
“See. Not actually old.”
“Fine. Whatever. You’re not old.”
“Thank you.”
She paused again, and I cradled the phone under my ear and opened the bottle to take a drink. The cool water was the perfect remedy for my overheated body, and it instantly soothed me.
“I just don’t know where to start.”
“How about at the beginning?”
“Such an obvious choice.” She took one more deep breath before starting. “One of my childhood friends died last week, and I didn’t go home. All of this I already told you, of course. But because I couldn’t focus on the day of the funeral, I messed up some documents for the compliance inspector and got reprimanded.”
So, she didn’t end up going then. What a damn shame. “I’m sorry, Cadence.”
“That’s not all of it, either.”
“Okay…”
“Last Friday, a tornado went through my hometown, and my best friend ended up in the hospital.”
“Jesus Christ.”
“She’s okay. She has a few stitches and some scrapes, but she is fine. Everyone is fine.”
“Well, that’s good news then, right?”
“Except, I got a call from anotherfriend?—”
I cut her off. “Are you kidding me? What now?”
She laughed and the angelic sound warmed my chest. “No, nothing else bad happened.”
“Thank fuck. Please continue.”
“So, I got a call from my friend Liam, the one who lives in California and, actually, is more famous than you are.”
“Yippie for him. Point?”
