“Even for your parents?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“Even Nate?”
“Especially him,” I said with conviction.
“He is your manager,” she reminded me.
“Former manager,” I corrected. But a dull pain started at the base of my neck when I thought about how Nate still owned my career. I’d fired him as my manager, but I was still signed to his record label.
“If there’s anything he needs to discuss with me, he can tell you, and you can tell me, okay?”
There was a brief pause on the other end of the phone. I sighed, knowing how much of a fan of Nate’s Demetria was. In the last five years that she worked with me, she always rooted for us to be together.
“Do you think that’s most efficient?” She asked. “I mean, there are business dealings that you two need to discuss privately, right?”
I groaned, hating that she might have a point. Demetria had a soft spot for Nate.
When rumors circulated that he was cheating on me, she would tell me to ignore them and that he would never do something like that to me.
I believed her because I wanted to think that I’d chosen the right man. I didn’t want to have the drama in my relationships that I’d seen from my parents growing up. So, I decided to believe in a lie. But with Nate, cheating was just one of the many problems in our relationship.
In the end, I ended up worse than my parents, with my personal business splashed all across the internet with the video to prove it. I was disgusted more with my behavior than with my ex.
“Fine,” I agreed, begrudgingly. “You can give him my new number. But please, make sure to tell him that he’s only to use it in case of an emergency.”
“Emergencies only. Got it,” Demetria verified.
I pushed out a breath. I knew he wouldn’t listen to that part. Nate did what he wanted. But I couldn’t hide from him forever.
After hanging up with Demetria, I rose from the bed and stretched my arms overhead. Spotting my open notebook on the bed, I frowned. In the two weeks I’d been in Texas, not one word or note of a new song had come to me.
Nothing.
That didn't mean my mind wasn’t racing, though. Fifteen days since Jodi’s wedding and the words from her brother-in-law were the first words on my mind each morning I opened my eyes.
Have you ever wondered what it feels like to fly?
He’d asked as if he was offering something. And him calling me his future wife? What the hell was that? Worse still was my body’s response to his declaration. My heart had jumped inside of my chest.
Whatever it was, I needed to squash it. Walking away from Gabriel on that dance floor was the right thing to do. I was done with relationships. I wasn’t any good at them.
“Ready to move out?” Rayven asked as I walked into the main area of the hotel room.
I looked around the small living room space, with suitcases, clothes, and Bessie laying on the furniture and floor.
“Ready as ever.” I slid my hands into the back pockets of my jeans, surveying all that we had.
That day Rayven and I were to move out of the hotel that we’d been in for two weeks and into Jodi’s home. It was her grandfather’s house that’d been passed down to her once he died. Since she moved in with Micah and wasn’t quite ready to sell it, my renting it for the next few months worked out perfectly.
“I bet once I move in and get settled, the music will start flowing,” I said excitedly.
Rayven nodded.
“And Jodi says there are all kinds of trails in this area and stuff,” I continued. “So, when I lack inspiration, I can go for a hike or something to get reinspired.”
Rayven snorted loudly. “You? Out hiking? Yeah, okay.”
