Miles says, “I’m surprised you agreed to try again, honestly.”
“Because Cal asked,” Chase says, shrugging as if it were the most obvious answer. “I’d do anything for that guy—jump off a cliff, bury a body, fight entire wars if he’d asked.”
Miles nods. He gets it. He’d do all that for Calvin, too.
“I didn’t want to leave him with Theo,” Gil says. “Remember when I told you Cal’s the most loyal person ever? He is. And that’s good. But that also means he self-sabotages. We’ve been trying to convince Calvin for years to stop trying to fix things with Theo, but… I guess we’re to blame too, because we’ve never quite convinced him.”
“I think Cal blames himself too for everything that went down,” Chase mumbles. “Which is stupid.”
“Yeah.” Gil fidgets with his coffee cup, his eyes downcast. “I askedhim once why he defends Theo so much, and he said it’s because if he didn’t, it’d be three against one. He said Chase and I have each other’s backs, and if he were on our side all the time, too, Theo would only have himself.”
“He said he’s worried about his career,” Miles points out, because that’s also a strong reason Calvin wanted the band to stay together.
Gil shrugs. “Calvin’s way too talented to not ever have a career.”
“What an odd thing to be worried about,” Chase says, and Miles couldn’t agree more. “But really, it’s over. We all need to move on.”
“I mean,” Gil says, softly. “I get it. It is hard to move on sometimes.” His eyes flicker over to Chase momentarily, and it finallyclicksfor Miles. He recognizes that look. Miles has made that look before too, when he wanted nothing more than to be with Calvin.
Jesus. These two have a lot to figure out, and Miles isn’t sure they even realize that.
“I didn’t actually realizehowbad it was until I saw how Cal was with you,” Chase says, snapping Miles out of his thoughts. “Cal’s so fucking happy. Right, Gil? He seemed more like himself than he’s been in years.”
Gil glares at Miles again. “That’s why I’m really pissed you decided to break his heart like that.”
“…Sorry,” he mumbles.
“Anyway, this has to stop,” Gil says. “It’s incredibly toxic, and I’m not interested in doing this any longer. We’re supposed to meet up in about thirty minutes to talk about it, and this time, I’m going to flat out say I refuse to work together anymore.”
Beaming, Chase says, “Me too. I’m glad you’re here, Miles. Calvinwill need you.”
“I’m not glad.” Gil stirs his coffee, frowning. “Hurt him again and I’ll fight you.”
Wow. Okay. He didn’t know the well-mannered and calm Gil could be this intense. “Noted,” Miles says.
***
Calvin’s running late, so his friends lead Miles to the dressing room where he can wait for the meeting to finish. There’s a door on it with “Cloverlily” posted on it, and inside, Miles marvels at how it looks like a grand hotel suite with a floor-length mirror on one side and couches on the other. toward the back there’s a storage room labeled “merch”, and Miles already knows he’s going to sneak into it the first chance he gets.
After Chase and Gil leave, he opens the door to the storage room. Inside, there are shelves with all kinds of paraphernalia. Shirts, caps, mugs—it’s a haven.
He’s going through some mugs when the main door slams open. He peeks out of the room and an awful sensation settles in his chest when he sees none other than Theo.Fucking perfect.
Miles raises his hand to greet him, but Theo doesn’t even notice him—he’s got a phone pressed to his ear as he walks in, talking loudly. “This is bullshit,” Theo says to whoever’s on the other line. He takes a seat on a couch. “They want to do a meeting.Again.I know Chase is going to start whining again about how he doesn’t want to do this anymore, and of course, Gil will agree with him.”
As much as he dislikes Theo, he shouldn’t be hearing this.
Theo says, “No, listen, you’re right. It’s not the right time to go solo yet—and that I jumped the gun. Need to do maybe a year or so with the band first, build up the momentum again. I’m really, really trying to get on their good side, but it’s frustrating because I guess I’m not that over Cal yet or whatever.”
Miles takes a step outside the merch room, but Theo’s leaning down with his face in his hand and can’t see him.
“Yeah. You’re right. Don’t worry about it. I’m sure this will be another ridiculous meeting and Cal will back me up, and the two will agree to stay in the end. I’ll be nicer, and mean it this time—I’ll even sing Cal’s songs, if that’s what he wants, even if they’re about that guy he’s pining over.”
“Hey, Theo,” Miles says, giving it another attempt to get Theo’s attention. His voice is harder this time, his jaw clenched.
“Yeah, he’s hung up on someone else right now. Some painter he’s been hanging out with,” Theo says, and he sounds aggravated. “Doesn’t matter, though. That won’t last. Calvin and I always get back together. He’ll do anything for me. I say jump, and he’ll ask how high. He knows he needs me. Nobody else will put up with how prickly he can get. The best solution is we worked as a duo, but I need to give him time to see that.”
Okay.Thatpisses Miles off. Never has he wanted to punch someone as much as he does now, and he reigns in his annoyance. Miles pinches the bridge of his nose and groans.
