That gets Braden to raise an eyebrow. “Wait a minute …”
I push past him to turn off the radio but he blocks me, focusing his attention on the song until it finishes.
The rest of it is basically the same.
Then the radio DJ chimes in with, “That’s the latest by Harmony Sonora, brutal as always. The only question is, who’s the lucky guy this time?”
His female co-host replies, “Oh, I think we know. Don’t you remember? It was a big thing last month. Everyone was talking about it. Details are fuzzy but one thing was very clear: Something happened between her and Riff Hurley.”
“Riiiiiight, I do remember something about that! At some celebrity party. ‘Friction’ is abouthim?”
“I think that’s pretty obvious.”
The hosttsks. “Formidable Harmony strikes again. Well, Riff Hurley, you’d better watch out. This is just the beginning!”
I cringe at the thought of a complete stranger giving me advice through a one-way radio conversation he doesn’t know I’m listening to.
Braden finally clicks off the dial, silencing the voices. “You told me those were just rumors. Would you care to explain why Harmony Sonora is writing hate music to you over ‘just rumors’?”
Ignoring the question, I ask, “What did he mean, ‘This is just the beginning’?”
“He means that a Harmony Sonora song isn’t the only bitchslap you’re going to get. If you think Harmony’s pissed, just wait till her fans come after you. I’m going to need you to tell me exactly what happened so we can get with your publicity team and do some damage control.”
“Damage control?” I repeat. “I didn’t do anything wrong. It was a complete misunderstanding.”
How was I supposed to know she didn’t recognize me? Sure, she didn’t seem one hundred percent positive at first, but then she played along like she’d figured it out just fine. Like in high school when the popular girl still vaguely recognizes the nerdy guy who has the same English teacher, even if he’s otherwise escaped her notice. I told her I was with the label; it never occurred to me she’d take that to mean a regular employee.
Braden scoffs. “No one’s going to believe that. And worse, you’re at risk of her ruining your whole public persona.”
“How?”
“She’s saying ‘your face is a facade.’ Fans will go looking for info online to find out what that means. You let your guard down—why?”
“I don’t know. I wasn’t expecting to see her in The Habitat. She just showed up. I was caught off guard, started talking in my normal voice, and … I couldn’t go all honkytonk halfway through introductions. That would have been way worse than simply revealing the fact that I’m not exactly how I seem when I’m ‘Riff.’ Besides, plenty of country singers don’t talk the way they sing. Like Taylor Swift when she first started. Or Shania Twain, who’sfrom Canada. Or better yet, Keith Urban; no one’s mad that he’s Australian.”
“Okay, but Australians are effectively the UK’s ‘southerners.’”
I scrub my hand over my jaw. “I guess. But as far as Harmony is concerned, I don’t think she has enough fuel to cause me any damage.”
I mean, yeah, she criticized my name and my “lack” of accent and my clothes for not lining up with my stage persona. Would she really go so far as to ruin my career, though?
Regardless, the more I think about the song, the faster my blood pulses.
“Nothing but fiction”?
Harmony Sonora doesn’t know me at all. She has no idea how hard I’ve worked to get where I am, how many hours I’ve spent perfecting my stupid country albums just to appease producers and fans. My vinyl collection is the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the kind of music I actually care about—and maybe someday I’ll actually get to make that music, but in the meantime I don’t have a lot of options.
She’s trying to call me out for being a fraud when we spent less than an hour together? Where does she get off?
On my lap, I think sardonically.
“What happened?” Braden presses.
“She thought I was a Glambam employee,” I tell him. “We made out, then things got a little …”
“Tell me you didn’t—”
“Don’t worry, we didn’t get far. Hunter came out to grab me forPopulus, and then Harmony realized who I actually am and got furious. She thought I had let her think I was someone else on purpose—but I hadn’t had a clue what was going on in her head. I tried to explain but she didn’t believe me.”
