“Lovely. So why don’t you still do that?”
Another laugh. “I moved on to other things.”
“I want to move on to other things than my first job, Charlie. Have a think about that, but in the meantime, don’t contact me, I’ll contact you when I’m ready. Have a really good think about what I’ve said – I know you’ve probably recorded it.” I’d caught him once listening to a recorded conversation of him talking to another singer. I didn’t think he’d jeopardise his job by sharing it, that wasn’t Charlie, but I definitely thought he liked to celebrate what he perceived as his successes.
“I haven’t – when will you be ready, Zoey? I need a timeline on this.”
I took a long, deep inhale of fresh air. “Okay, I’m ready now.”
“Great! I’ll get everything signed today - ”
“Stop. My decision is final. I’m not coming back to the label.”
I waited.
“Not right now but you have chance for a break, so we can work out when you want to get in the studio - ”
“I’m not coming back ever. I’m done.” I knew full well that if I changed my mind in a year, they’d have me back in a hot minute. “Please don’t contact me again. I’ll send an email to that effect, so you have it in writing.”
“I understand. I’ll give you a call in a week or so to see - ”
“If you do that, I’ll have my publicist release a statement to say we’ve parted ways. I’ll put that in the email too, so don’t contact me Charlie.” I hung up before his mouth could birth anymore shit.
My door opened ten seconds later and Caleb appeared with a mug of tea and a some big, beautiful looking cinnamon rolls, which were my absolute favourites.
“That didn’t sound like a relaxing start.” He sat down on the bed, put the tea on the bedside table and passed me the pastry. “Was that Charlie the Cockwomble?”
He’d heard me rant about Charlie before. “The one and only.”
“And you’ve just told him you’re not going back to the label ever?” He looked slightly incredulous.
“I have. Carissa will probably phone me in the next fifteen minutes.” I sighed and turned my phone off. I liked Carissa most of the time. Over the years, I’d come to understand that she did act in my best interest and she was frequently one of my biggest champions, but she liked to play it safe and playing safe was staying with the same record label.
“And you’re not going to answer.”
I shook my head. “I’ll call her in an hour. I’m too annoyed to be civil to her right now.”
“I get that.” He put his feet up on the bed and stretched out next to me. “What if you do change your mind?”
“They’ll have me back. There are four or five other major players interested as well so if I want to go back to it, there’ll be an opportunity there.” I took a huge bite from the cinnamon roll, the pastry flaking off in my mouth, sweet, buttery goodness with a hint of spice, the almost perfect way to start the day.
It was like an orgasm for my mouth.
Not a good thought. It’d been too long since I’d had anything other than an orgasm at my own hand, and that wasn’t a thought to explore with Caleb lying next to me in bed, albeit he was on top of the sheets and I was under them.
Caleb, who’d been the most gorgeous boy I’d known and grew into an even more gorgeous man, who was built and muscly from his work on the boats and being outside rather than made in a gym.
Caleb, who even at the age of eighteen, had known exactly what to do with his tongue and his fingers.
“Is this from Amelie’s?” I took another bite of the cinnamon roll, focusing on that as the best thing in the room that I could have.
“She brought them up an hour ago.” He watched me devour the pastry.
“Them?” I said, a piece of pastry flying off my lip. “There’s more?”
“Pain au chocolat and a couple of almond croissants. She does them for Fridays and Saturdays. When’s the last time you had a pastry?” He frowned at me. “Don’t tell me you weren’t allowed them on tour.”
“I could have what I wanted – it wasn’t restrictive, just not always available or nice. And I was stressed because of the stalker situation.” I popped the last piece in my mouth.
