But she also looked like she didn’t want to be there, or was close to changing her mind about everything.
“Roxie.” Riot breathed her word like a prayer. “You came.”
I shared a look with Violet, then Milo. We were all equally surprised to see her.
“Thank God,” Violet said, wrapping an arm around Roxie like they were best friends. “I was sick of being the only girl around here.”
“I’m not agreeing to anything. I have some questions,” Roxie announced. “And one request.”
“Let’s hear the request first,” Riot said.
“I’m a graphics designer,” Roxie explained to all of us. She wasn’t sure who to focus on. “Freelance. I can do my work remotely while on tour—ifI went on tour with you.”
“So there’s no problem,” Riot said. “What’s your request?”
“I want anactualjob while I’m on tour,” she said. “I get that you think I’m an inspirational muse or something, but I need something more solid to tell people who ask.”
“What do you propose?” I asked.
Her gaze locked onto mine, sending a new shiver through my core. She really was stunning. “I want to be the band’s graphics designer. I can make custom tour posters for each city we play in. That will give me something to do while on tour, and it will lookreallygood on my resume.”
“I think we can find the budget for that,” I quickly said.
Violet and Milo frowned at me, but I ignored them.
“Sure,” Riot agreed. “We could use a graphics designer. Right now we’re using some dude we found on Fiverr.”
Roxie seemed to relax after that. “Okay. Great. Now, the questions I have. What’s the sleeping situation like? Are we staying in hotels in each city? I’m going to need some personal room to work. Nothing crazy, just enough space to set up my laptop and a mouse. Then I have a question about the royalties you offered for your next album…”
While she and Riot got into the details, I glanced at Violet and smiled. She smiled back at me.
We both knew that Roxie’s questions didn’t matter. She was in. She wouldn’t have come here otherwise.
And deep down, I was already excited about it.
6
Roxie
“Oh my God, I amso happyyou listened to me for once!” Meghan squealed.
I hugged her, then gestured to the open suitcase on my bed. “I invited you here to help me pack. Not to rub it in.”
“Too late!”
“Besides,” I added, “I didn’t listen to you. You wanted me to be their groupie. What actually happened is that I negotiated my way into becoming their graphics designer.”
“Whatever. You’re going on tour with them, and that’s what I wanted you to do. Where are your fun clothes?”
I frowned as she examined my closet. “Thosearemy fun clothes.”
Meghan sighed. “Oh,honey…”
We spent a few minutes arguing over which clothes I should bring, eventually erring on the side of too much rather than too little.
“I want nightly updates,” Meghan said while we gathered my toiletries.
“It’s not going to be that interesting.”
