There was a long pause before Derek spoke up.
“It’s raining.”
“Oh, a little rain never hurt anyone,” he argued. Derek smirked.
“It never rains in Los Angeles. I’m not prepared for this!”
The room erupted in laughter and then I remembered that we had promised to talk after all of this. Despite wanting to stay close to my husband after what we had just done in the bedroom, I lifted my hand.
“I’ll go. We should probably talk too,” I said. Adrian shrugged and tossed me his keys.
“Don’t take too long. We have to get Rocky by two,” he told me. I looked around for a clock.
“What time is it now?”
“Around midnight,” Chase said. Holy cow. Time flies. I promised him we wouldn’t be long and left to go get her.
The storm was still raging outside. I braced myself and ran towards the car, stumbling slightly with the heels. I was grateful in that moment for the years of training in stage shoes.
I hopped into the car and tried my best to contain the wetness to as small an area as possible. Driving to their house took almost twice as long as usual. It was hard to see more than five feet in front of the car. Derek was right, I wasn’t used to driving in this kind of weather. It had been a while.
I pulled up and before I could even get out Cleo was storming out of her house, slamming the door behind her. I unlocked the door and assisted her in climbing into the passenger seat. She crossed her arms in a pout and then let out what I could only describe as a wail.
I drove off the property and let her cry until they turned into merely sniffles.
“I don’t even know why I’m crying anymore,” she said. I glanced over at her. I had taken to just mindlessly driving. I glanced at the clock. We still had a solid hour before we were due back at Adrian’s.
“Like your hormones or…” I trailed off, not really knowing what she was trying to explain. She shook her head.
“No, I mean, I don’t know. It’s so hard. Ethan. He’s so amazing and he’s constantly telling me I’m good and enough for him and all this other stuff but it’s hard to believe him. Just look at him!” She choked a back a sob.
“He started a fuckin’ charity! He’s helped so many people and touched so many lives with his music. What have I done?”
I found a safe place to park in the weather and stopped the car. I unbuckled my seat and turned my body to look at her.
“Are you serious right now? You literally helped create a baby for someone else. You are doing all the work just to hand her off the day you have her. People are constantly coming up to Mark and the others telling them how much your songs affected them. He gets letters from suicide survivors, talking about how your voice stopped them. Your songs, your words. Cleo, you can’t think like this. I don’t know who is telling you otherwise, but you are an amazing woman. Who is telling you this stuff?”
She shook her head and began wiping the tears from her face.
“It was a part of the email I got this afternoon,” she said. Seeing the confusion on my face she pulled out her cell phone and pulled up the email. Clicking on something she handed me the phone.
It was a video. I watched as someone had scanned around the bar, muffling the sound of the person on stage. They had over-layed their own voice, but had used a voice changer to make them unrecognizable.
“He’s got it all. Gorgeous wife, beautiful children, millions of dollars, successful career. Yet, there’s always something that isn’t just right in that picture-perfect story. Why don’t we see what, or rather who, is the problem?”
Then we see Ethan walk on stage and do his speech. I shook my head, stopping the video. She sniffled as she took her phone back.
“They keep going. It’s horrible.”
“I’m sure it’s going to be leaked to the media soon,” I muttered. I leaned over and hugged her tightly; repeating that she was enough.
I pulled away and started the car back up.
“We’ve got some time, anywhere you want to go before we head to give the car back?”
She thought for a moment and then giggled.
“You know how long it’s been since I’ve been to a bar?” I gave her a side eye and she rolled her eyes, patting her tummy.
