Kamilah shrugged. “I mean…it’s a total nightmare, but at the end of the day, getting your sex pics leaked never killed anyone’s career. Everyone will get bored of their cute littleGrey’s Anatomypuns and move on to the next thing soon enough. FuckGolden City,fuck the tabloids. You have to keep living your life. I’m back, you’re famous, and we’re going to get this shitmade.”
She sounded so convincing that Grey almost believed it.
“I hope so.”
When they reached the venue, they were immediately escorted backstage to the greenroom. A dozen or so painfully cool people were already milling about, eating, drinking, andposturing. A small monitor displayed a view of the stage, where the opening act was making their way through their set.
Grey’s eyes found Andromeda right away: petite, ethereal, exquisite, and surrounded by stylists putting the finishing touches on their outfit. Their body was encircled with white spandex straps crisscrossing their glowing brown skin in a serpentine design. Their hair was half shaved, half hanging down to their waist in bleached-white micro braids. As the stylist at their hip untangled and smoothed the last strap, Andromeda lifted their arms, and another stylist guided a loose, translucent dress over their head. The dress shimmered with a different color of the rainbow every time Andromeda moved.
As the stylists stepped away, Kamilah sauntered over and wrapped her arms around Andromeda from behind, giving them a brief, tender kiss on the expanse between their neck and shoulder. Grey hung back, watching the two of them sway slightly in front of the mirror for a moment, whispering to each other as if they were the only two people in the room.
Her chest ached at the sight of them. She was elated to see Kamilah so smitten. Through the years Grey had known her, she’d watched Kamilah break heart after heart—through no fault of her own. She knew what she wanted in a partner and refused to settle for less, but it didn’t take much for her openhearted charisma to inspire unrequited infatuation in most people she encountered (including Grey’s own brother, in a visit that had quickly become more awkward than any of them had anticipated). But though Grey chastised herself for her self-involvement, seeing Kamilah getting serious with someone who finally seemed worthy of her talent, attention, and love felt bittersweet in the face of her own circumstances. Grey let herself wallow in self-pity for a count of three, before joining them by the mirror.
When Kamilah introduced them, Andromeda clasped Grey’s hand with both of theirs and looked into her eyes warmly.
“Thank you so much for coming tonight. I’m so glad to meet you.” Their voice was light and slightly raspy. Grey instantly felt guilty that she had ever considered staying home.
“Same here. Kamilah has told me so much about you. It’s great seeing her so happy. IguessI can forgive you for stealing her away for so long. She deserves it.”
Andromeda laughed, sweeping their eyes back to Kamilah with a look of adoration.
“She really does.”
Kamilah batted her eyes, basking in the attention. “Don’t stop now.”
A makeup artist buzzed around Andromeda’s shoulders, and they tilted their head up obediently so the artist could fix their lip liner. They gestured to the table in the corner, piled high with refreshments.
“Help yourself to whatever. You’re welcome to watch from backstage, but I think the best view is probably from the audience. Especially if you want to see K’s genius in action.”
Kamilah grinned. “As if anyone even notices my videos when you’re up there.”
“Well, I can’t wait to finally see the show in person after stalking everyone’s shaky Instagram stories of it for months,” Grey said. “That’s the ideal way to watch it, right?”
Andromeda laughed. “Exactly.”
At that, Andromeda was whisked away by another member of their entourage to deal with some other pressing preshow issue.
Kamilah leaned over to Grey and muttered, “I didn’t want to say anything in front of them because I want you to be able to say no, but—wouldn’t Andromeda be amazing as Our Lady ofInfinite Sorrows? And I think they might be interested in scoring the whole thing, too.”
Grey beamed. “That’s fuckingperfect.You’re a genius.”
She and Kamilah made their way out of the greenroom and on to the VIP seating area upstairs. They immediately headed to the bar to kick the evening off with tequila shots, a tradition dating back to their college days. Grey’s tolerance for shots had only declined since then, but she was usually fine with one—as long as she slowed down after that.
“If you’re ready to cleanse your palate, tonight might be a good opportunity,” Kamilah said, dropping her lime in the shot glass and pushing it back across the bar.
Grey mulled it over. She turned her back to the bar and rested her bare shoulder blades against it, taking in the array of young, lithe bodies that were slowly crowding the VIP section. Her gaze settled on a guy chatting up his friends in the corner. He was long and lanky, with tanned skin and an unruly head of curly black hair. As if he felt her eyes on him, he glanced up, his full lips curling into an insouciant smile as he kept talking, before looking away again. Grey blushed and looked down. Kamilah subtly turned her head to see what Grey had been looking at, then grinned and rolled her eyes.
“You always did like the tall ones.”
The stage lights went down and the crowd roared as Andromeda’s band took the stage. Latex-clad dancers undulated under strobe lights as Andromeda descended from the ceiling on wires. They floated around the stage, lifted high on an elegant and ever-changing arrangement of their dancers’ raised arms and bent shoulders, as they cooed their way through their first song. Behind them, Kamilah’s videos were projected on enormous screens: objects, shapes, faces, perfectly timed with the music, starting asabstractions and cutting away moments before becoming identifiable. The overall effect was mesmerizing.
Grey sipped a vodka soda and leaned against the railing. She was vaguely aware that the guy from earlier was now standing only a few feet away. She tilted her head slightly, looking at him without looking at him. He was younger than he’d seemed from a distance; early twenties at most. Well, that wasn’t a dealbreaker, and she had to admit he was even cuter up close—cute, but not seasoned enough to be handsome. She noticed him sneaking glances at her, too.
Did she want to talk to him? She supposed she should enjoy her new freedom, though she wasn’t entirely sure how much she was allowed to. As far as the press knew, she and Ethan were still together, just keeping a low profile. But she had no obligations to him anymore, contractual or otherwise. There was nothing wrong with a little flirting. She only hoped that this guy was sizing her up due to how good her ass looked in her leather leggings, and not because he’d already seen, in detail, what it looked like underneath them.
Her weekend with Ethan had reminded her what it felt like to be desired. It had also reminded her what it felt like to be publicly humiliated. But now she felt something else: powerful. She’d had a debauched lost weekend with an A-lister, had her indiscretions smeared on the front page of every tabloid, and lived to tell the tale. What else did she have to lose? She’d already lost everything that mattered.
She scooted a little closer as Andromeda’s second song came to a close. He looked over at her and smiled.
