Page 20 of Strum Me

Chapter Nine

Emily

Present Day

“We’re here, love. Let me get out and help you with your bags.”

The Uber driver stands by the side of the road waiting for me with my suitcase and I realize I can’t hold it off any longer. I’m going to have to get out of the car. And then into that tour bus over there. Where he is. Where he’ll be for the next six weeks.

“Emily!”

There’s a friendly female voice greeting me as I wave goodbye to the driver.

I turn around and just in time to almost fall over as she knocks me to the side in a big hug.

“Um, hi,” I stutter, a little intimidated. She pulls away, still grinning, her face warm and open. And my nervousness melts away. I love this woman already. I recognize her as Sebastian’s new fiancée and from her picture in the album cover as a guest artist, but she’s so much…more in person.

“I’m Cadence! It’s going to be so good to have another female around. Between Hailey and I we’re just about even in battling the boys, but you should push us over into winning territory!”

I shade my eyes from the sun so I can look at her face, so animated. “Oh…what are we competing for?”

“Everything, babe. Everything. Now come on! Let me introduce you to everyone.”

“Er—”

“Oh, that’s right! You know everyone already. In that case, come on! I can’t wait to hear about what they were like in high school.” She grabs my big suitcase and walks toward the buses, I hurry my pace to a quick trot to keep up with her.

“Well, they were loud, annoying, ridiculously good-looking...and they knew it. They couldn’t hand in homework if their lives depended on it, but they didn’t care because they were going to be music gods.”

“No... I said describe them then...not now.” She throws her head back and laughs and I can’t help but fall a little more in love with her as I join in with her laughter.

“What did we get ourselves into, right?” She winks at me as we come to the door of one of three tour buses parked side by side. “Come on! Let’s get you settled.”

I linger a bit, taking in the size of the bus. The outside of it is completely black, the windows tinted and no words except a small painted logo on the door. “Rock Roadster” it says, in pink and yellow neon paint. But it’s the size of the bus that’s really impressive. It looms over me and seems to go on forever.

“Come on in, babe!” I hear Cadence’s muffled voice and through the dark tint I can just see her face pressed against the glass.

I hop up the stairs and almost fall back down again.

“Holy shit,” I slowly exhale.

“What?” Cadence calls from somewhere down the back of the bus. Her head pokes out from a door about thirty feet away. “Oh, this ol’ thing? Eh, it’ll do.” She laughs and then comes out and walks toward me. “Just kidding, it’s pretty fucking amazing, isn’t it? I’m new to all this too so I know what you’re feeling.”

Amazing is one way to put it.

First off, it’s bigger than my entire apartment.

As soon as you step onto the bus, it opens into a wide entertaining area. Six…no, eight single recliners line the two sides, swiveling so you can look out the window or toward the other chairs. I wander over and sink down into one.

Wow.

Soft, buttery white leather. I love white leather. Always have. Between the chairs are side tables, designed for champagne buckets and glasses. I look up and two flatscreen TVs line up against the windows.

A curtain separates the rest of the bus and I get up to explore a little more. I push aside the curtain and there’s long thin hallway running along the right side of the bus.

“We have four small rooms on this bus. The other bus is the same. We’ve decided to split up boys and girls, is that all right with you? The third bus is just bunks for the crew and assistants. Dennis …well, we don’t know where he stays, he just appears when he’s needed,” Cadence says.

“Yeah, great. But don’t you want to stay with your new fiancé?”