“Aria Wilder’s magic knows no bounds. All the stars.”
“Don’t mind me. I’ll be calling in sick for the next three days so I can listen on repeat.”
“The songs no one asked for but everyone wanted.”
“‘Until You Came Along’ was just the beginning! Worth the wait.”
Bailey walks into the room, begins filling a coffee mug from the pot, and says, “Everyone’s obsessed.”
Aria looks up, her face creasing into a smile. “I am too. It’s my favorite album yet, and I couldn’t be happier that the fans are loving it.”
“And just think—you knew it all along.” Bailey nestles the mug between both hands and sips.
Aria agrees, but Bailey doesn’t address the whole picture. There’s a difference between thinking something might be true and knowing it. Aria isn’t psychic. What she needed in order to truly believe it was someone who helped show her that being vulnerable isn’t giving away your superpower; it can become your superpower.
And for Aria, that was Griffin. He didn’t write the songs, but without him they never would have existed. Aria wouldn’t have found the courage to break out of the Aria Wilder public persona box and try something new.
“I think there’s always a lot more hiding inside us—all of us—than we can see from the surface.”
Aria sits back and allows herself to soak in this moment. Not only did she produce a record at breakneck speed, a task that was only possible because of how honest the music is, but she did it in a way that feels more like her than anything she has produced in the past three years. She’s still proud of that work, and she will never abandon or criticize past versions of herself. But she wouldn’t ever go back. She has evolved and grown, and her music has now caught up.
All without having to suffer a messy split with Worldwide Records, the very folks who took a chance on her back at the beginning.
In some ways it’s like making her debut as a mature woman onto the music scene, leaving the one-size-fits-all love stories behind and embracing all of her. What the doubters—Gerald, specifically—worried would be an end has become a promising beginning. This is Aria’s first album embracing all of her, and she can’t wait to make the next one.
“You’re the best, and I’m so happy for you. Sister walk this morning?”
Aria frowns. “My glutes are still on fire from the gym yesterday. How about we go out for pancakes instead?”
“Sounds just my speed. Carb-o-loading for tonight.” Bailey laughs.
This evening, Worldwide Records is throwing an intimate record launch party—the small guest list was Aria’s request—and Aria is looking forward to having Griffin at her side. The world may have warmly embraced them as a glitzy celebrity couple, but few understand his role in this album coming to fruition.
Aria counts every lucky star that Griffin Hayes walked into her life. Or perhaps it’s more accurate to say he “sang” his way into her life.
She likes that version even more.
Chapter 55
Griffin
Griffin couldn’t miss the kickoff of Aria’s new album tour, so he flew out to Los Angeles for the show. He’s ushered through a backstage entrance—one heavily guarded—and a VIP badge is looped on a lanyard around his neck. Griffin chitchats with the staff he encounters back there, remembering a few faces and names from the Chicago show crews. He’s planning on sticking around—in Aria’s life, that is—so making friends with the crew is only a natural extension of his plan.
The show starts, the crowd abuzz and screaming, and Griffin watches from the wings. At Aria’s request, the special effects are pared down, and there are more moments of only her and a few layers of accompaniment from the band.“It’s about the music,”Aria always says. Griffin has told her countless times that it’s also about her—that if it was anotherperson singing it, the effect wouldn’t be the same—but Aria brushes off the remarks. She’s serious about the music. Her commitment to it comes to life in the songs themselves. But she’s slightly blind to the unique way only she has, the way she can make music that’s close to the heart—all hers—but also speaks to millions of fans.
Griffin dances from side to side when the quicker songs come on. He cheers along with the crowd, even being asked twice by crew members to “keep it down.” Griffin can’t help it; he loves her music. Lest they forget: His fandom was the start of this whole thing between them. If Griffin Hayes had never sung his heart out at Aria’s concert, they’d still be going about their separate lives. Missing out terribly.
He knew “Until You Came Along” would be the last song of the night, but when he hears the accompaniment music quiet and Aria take the mic, with slightly heavy breaths from her intense dance routine in the previous number, his cheeks heat. Even now that Griffin and Aria are in a committed relationship—one that’s far more than friends—and the public is in on it too, she still makes him blush. Maybe it’s simply part of who he is. Or maybe it’s her special effect on him.
Aria takes an acoustic guitar from the band setup and slings it over her front as she returns to the microphone stand at the front of the stage.
The opening chords sound resonantly, and from the crowd come a few cheers of delight. The song has exploded in popularity since Griffin and Aria officially debuted to the public as a couple, even further since they shared the backstory of the song to fans on social media.
Griffin’s chest opens wide as he watches Aria perform, filling him with a lightness that comes only when he focuses on her. She shines not only as a performer, but in a way that awes him. Not everyone sees the work and dedication that happens behind the scenes, the way she wrestles with her songs until they’re just right, the way she holds her fans’ opinions as highly as her own. All of the thought and planning required to make any of this work. Aria is an absolute wonder, and Griffin is lucky to behold her.
Especially here from the wings, out of sight, he can adore her undercover.
She knows the depths of his feelings for her, but gazing at her as if she’s a miracle becomes a little over the top at certain points—well, at least that’s what he’s been told. Even if things between them are so effortless it’s easy to forget they were ever once apart, he doesn’t want to scare her off. But here and now as she sings the lyrics that reeled him back into her life, just as he’d found his footing after his life fell apart, he knows that Aria Wilder might just be the most precious gift he’ll ever receive.
