Then I remembered something. “I went to a twenty-one plus show when I was seventeen.”
Piper nodded knowingly. “Fake ID?”
“No. The band got me in. It was my sister’s first show with Bleeding Moonlight.”
She grinned. “Your sister is my hero. Seriously, here I am with annoying Manny, who’s an eight on a good day, and your sis is hooking up with four solid tens who all worship her.”
“It’s a lot more serious than just hooking up at this point,” I corrected. My sister had been in a polyamorous relationship with her bandmates for over four years, and as far as I could tell, they were all in it for good. It took me a while to wrap my head around it, but by now, the guys had all become my family. They were happy and in love, and my sister had more than earned her happy ending.
Piper sighed. “That woman is living the dream. She needs to teach courses. Like how does that even happen?”
I took a bite out of my sandwich. “It just happened organically. I remember when she first started working with them, before they asked her to officially join the band, she was trying to keep it all professional.”
“Aren’t we all.” Piper sighed. “But it’s damn hard when you’re surrounded by super-hot people all day, every day. Hey, at least I’m not sleeping with the talent. Employee handbook or not, we all know what kind of reputation that gets you.” She shrugged. “In the grand scheme of things, no one cares about Manny and I.”
I held back a laugh. “That’s the spirit. Okay, enough chitchat. You ready to listen to these guys?”
“Let’s do it.”
I connected my phone to the sound system and pulled up the Last Rites playlist. The first song was called “Unwell”, and when I pressed play, a distorted guitar riff burst out of the speakers.
“This is pretty catchy,” Piper commented, her head bopping in tune with the beat. “The singer’s got a nice voice.”
“Does he remind you of someone?” There was something familiar about the singer’s powerful tenor, but I couldn’t quite place it.
“Maybe?” Piper’s eyes widened. “Wait, what if this is someone famous? Someone everyone already knows?”
“I don’t think so. Trinity made it sound like they’re a brand-new act.” My boss could be tight-lipped about things, but I didn’t think she’d omit telling me something that important.
The more we listened, the more I understood why these guys were taking off. Their songs had memorable and energetic choruses that got stuck in your head. I was humming one of them thirty minutes later when Piper and I walked back inside the office.
“Break a leg,” Piper said as we split up at our desks. “You’re going to crush it.”
I headed to the conference room with a few minutes to spare so I could double-check everything was set up right. It was empty when I walked in. A spectacular view of downtown LA unfurled beyond the floor-to-ceiling window. When Trinity got the partner promotion, she’d move into the office on the other side of the wall and have this very same view.
Maybe one day, if I work hard enough, I’ll have it too.
The fact that imagining myself as a partner at Hyperion didn’t spark any excitement made me uncomfortable. I sat down. That was my long-term goal, right? To move up the ranks and join the leadership team one day? It was what every ambitious person working here wanted, so why didn’t it make me feel anything but dread?
I sucked in a deep breath and shook the tension out of my hands beneath the desk.
This is not the time to question your life choices.
The door behind me opened with a soft sound and Trinity’s voice speared through the air. “And this is one of my assistants, Molly.”
I rose from the chair, plastered a polite smile on my face, and turned to greet the newcomers with an outstretched hand.
“Hi—”
A heavy stone dropped in my stomach as my gaze collided with a pair of familiar blue eyes.
4
MOLLY
No,no, no.
What washedoing here?
