Her now clear eyes fixed on mine. “I have no idea, but I have a good guess.”
“James? Really? How would he get his hands on it?”
“God knows, but who else? Fuck, he really isn’t giving up, is he?”
“It might not be him. It could have been one of the band or a sound guy. People will do anything for the right price.”
“No, I’ve got a feeling. This is James. Fuck, at this rate, he’s going to lose me my job.”
“No, he isn’t. Why don’t you go shower and I will make you a large, strong coffee and some breakfast?”
She held up her hand, shaking her head slowly. “No food. My belly is still full of tequila.”
I groaned. “Yeah, last night did get out of hand a bit.”
She leaned in and kissed me softly on my cheek. “I had the best night, though. I like seeing you with your friends.”
“And you know what that means?” I make a circle between us in the air with my index finger. “You’re part of the inner circle now and you can’t ever leave.”
She raked her fingers through my hair, before letting her hand settle on my stubble covered cheek. “Who said I want to go anywhere, Myth Maker?”
Leaning my forehead against hers, the well of emotion I’d been feeling for her since Christmas spilled over, filling my heart and forging words on the tip of my tongue that I had wanted to say for a while now.
“Princess, I think I’m fa—”
She pressed two fingers to my lips. “Charlie, Ireallywant to hear the end of the sentence, but I need to run, and I think it deserves my full attention.” Her smile warmed my heart.
“Go shower. We’ll talk tonight.”
She winked. “Pinky promise.”
Fern
It was 4 pm, and I’d been here since nine. After hours of frantic phone calls, threatening emails, and pulling every favor, the label was owed from across the industry, I was finally getting somewhere.
“Right, I appreciate you all coming and for all your help today. I think we have it all in hand. I’ve managed to arrange for you to have a live listen party onRadio 1tonight, so we’ve passed the leak off as a sneak preview. They’ll put it out across their sister stations around the world at the same time. We’ve pushed forward your album release to tomorrow, so that will help as well.”
“Thanks, Fern. We appreciate this,” the lead singer smiled, the stress she’d been wearing on her face since she arrived melting away.
“Right, well, you better go and get ready. You’re on at eight. Do you need me to come?” I turned my attention to their PR team.
“No, we’re good,” their manager replied. “Any idea where the leak came from because it wasn’t from any of us?”
“I’ll find out. Just focus on tonight and leave the rest with me. Any problems, give me a call.”
Everyone stood, muttering pleasantries as they made their way out while I typed out a thank you message to Ethan for helping me sort everything today. Just as the room emptied, Thomas and Sean entered. I leaned back in my chair, taking my glasses off and placing them on the table before pulling my hair out of the ponytail I’d been wearing all day that was now giving me a headache.
“Now I know we’re not paying you enough for you both to be here at once to escort me home, so something must be wrong.”
Sean placed a brown bag on the table before he sat across from me next to Thomas, both of them looking more stern than usual.
I peeked inside the bag to find a cinnamon roll and what looked like a chicken and bacon wrap, along with a note.
Princess, because I know you won’t have taken a second to take care of yourself.
Love C xx
I couldn’t help the smile that curved my lips.
