“Cory also said that Scott ordered one with extra peppers just for you.”
Naz pauses. “Oh. Tell him I said thank you?” His voice lilts up at the end, making it sound like more of a question than anything else.
Gage smirks like he knows something the rest of us don’t and nods. “Any other requests?”
“I’ll eat anything except onions,” I say.
Will says, “Veggie, please.” Just as Ari asks for, “Something with a lot of meat.”
“You would want that,” Will snaps, and it doesn’t sound like their usual friendly banter.
“Yeah, because it’s good.”
I point at Ari. “100% facts.” Will narrows his eyes at me, and Ari’s eyes swim with amusement. “You were talking about dick, right?”
“Will you shut up,” Will spits. “Let’s talk about how Scott clearly wants Naz’s dick.”
Gage snorts on his way out of the room.
“Wait, he’s the new bodyguard, right?” He confirms with a nod but doesn’t say anything else. In fact, he’s pointedly ignoring me. Which means it’s probably true. “How have I missed this?”
“You’ve been a bit distracted lately,” he says pointedly.
“You would be too.”
He rolls his eyes and is getting ready to say something else when Scott walks back in with a stack of pizzas. Everyone goes quiet, watching Naz act completely out of character. He sits stiffly, refusing to make eye contact with anything except the screensaver for his e-reader.
“Yours is on bottom, boss.”
“Thanks, Scott,” he murmurs. Ari snorts and says, “Yeah, I bet it is.”
Naz peeks up to watch Scott leave the room, raising an eyebrow when he notices me watching.Yeah, I saw that.
He gives me a look.Not now.
I narrow my eyes.Better be soon.
Letting him be–for now–I open the pizza boxes, taking a slice from both Naz and Ari’s requests and wrinkling my nose at Will’s onion-infested veggie pizza.
“Aww, poor thing. Do you need me to pick them off for you?” Will snarks.
“You think you’d be in a better mood now that you don’t have to wear your costume,” I snark back, my tone very clearly suggesting that I know that excuse was bullshit.
We dress up in coordinating costumes every year. Last year we wore variations of black suits and elaborate skeleton makeup on our faces and bodies. The year before, we dressed up as Batman villains. I was Poison Ivy.
This year, I convinced everyone to dress as characters fromThe Rocky Horror Picture Show. Will was supposed to be Riff Raff, but he was being a little bitch about the bald cap. Meanwhile,Ari’s Magenta wig is huge, and he hasn’t complained once. Naz’s costume is nothing but a pair of tiny, shiny gold briefs. I, obviously, was going to be Dr. Frank-N-Furter. It’s a shame, really. I was looking forward to hearing Luc’s reaction to our costumes, since I know he’s a fan of the film, and also recently became a fan of seeing me in lingerie.
Blake comes back in and lets us know we’re on for next weekend. There are still a lot of logistics to work out, so he’s heading back to the hotel where he has an office set up in his suite. “PR wants you to record a video for your socials about the changes. It’ll be a good way to soothe the hurt of the cancellation and get the fans hyped for next weekend. Send it over to Charlene, and we’ll post it as soon as the logistics are worked out. And since we’re going to miss Halloween, we decided to do a subtle resistance theme. Emphasis on subtle.” He gives me a pointed look.
“What?”
The guys snicker.
“Anyway, the label rarely polices what you wear or display on stage. However, with the addition ofWavesto the event programming, and because this will probably reach double the home viewership, we’d like to keep it a little more family friendly than usual. No one expects you to change your lyrics or performance, but let’s keep our protest positive. “Pro-Women,Pro-LGBTQ,Pro-Immigration,Pro-Prison Reform,” he says. “Yes, Naz, you can wear yourRead Books, Punch Nazisshirt. And Will, hard no to the guillotine shirt, but yourNo Kings But Drag Kingsshirt would be a winner.”
“Can I wear guillotine earrings?” Will asks.
Blake sighs. “How big are they? Wait. No. Better safe than sorry.”
