Page 36 of The Comedown

“What? Like on your days off?”

“Days off?” she questions, tilting her head to the side, and I laugh. It’s a strained laugh because I’m confused. Is she being serious right now? She never gets a day off?

Out of the corner of my eye, I see Holter wince and I think I have my answer.

I want to ask more, I want to ask so fucking much, but the sudden color on Collette’s face keeps me from pressing her on it. Why does she tour so much still? It sounds like she’s touring all year long, which is typical for new artists just starting out and trying to get their name out there, not superstars that have been around for over fifteen years.

“We make it work, right?”

Holter, Mary, and Irelynn all respond with, “Right,” except it’s not mechanical this time. They mean it. They really are a family. An unconventional one according to society’s outdated definition, but there’s no denying that together, the three women and Holter, pull it off somehow.

What about Bodee though? What role does he play in all this? It doesn’t sound like he even has one.

“Well, I’m glad you could make it this time,” I tell Holter honestly. I wasn’t really sure what it’d be like having a kid hanging around on tour, but I can tell how happy Collette is having her son here. “Let me know if you need anything and I’ll make sure you get it, okay?”

“Can you get—”

“Holter,” both Collette and Mary scold at the same time.

“You know the rule, anything you need, I get for you,” Collette tells her boy, and he rolls his eyes, looking exactly like his mom when she does the same move.

I have to bite into my sandwich to hide my smile.

Conversation picks up and I try to catch every bit of it while also making sure Collette eats all of her meal. Her knee keeps brushing mine under the table, but neither of us apologizes. I know I’m not sorry. I want to touch more of her. She just won’t let me. Even when I ask, she shuts me down.

I spread my legs wider, making sure my knee’s closer to hers.

This scene isn’t that different from the shit that happens on my bus, yet it is. People are always talking around me, and there’s usually at least one body part or another touching me, but that…is nothing like this.

“Dad?”

Everything in my body locks up except my eyes as they swing to Holter, but he’s looking over my shoulder, and when I follow his gaze, I find Bodee motherfucking Keys standing there.

“Julez,” he greets calmly. “Good to see you again.”

“Can’t say the same, Bodee.” Motherfucker.

“You two know each other already?” Holter asks, but before I can answer, Collette practically forces my ass off the seat, climbing out behind me to stand in front of Bodee.

Bodee shifts his gaze to smile down at her. “Good God, blondie, you just keep getting better with age, don’t you?”

I hate him. I hate him calling Collette blondie. I hate him saying she gets better with age like he knows. He doesn’t know.

Does he know?

On second thought, I hate him saying anything to Collette. If I could throw down with him right now, I would. I fucking hate him.

“You don’t even look sick,” he says, and Collette must be just as confused as I am because she cocks one eyebrow at her ex-husband, waiting until he explains with, “I caught a clip from last night’s performance…you sounded nasally.”

“No, she didn’t,” I say before anyone else even gets the chance. Technically I only heard Collette do one song, but that was enough. She wasn’t fucking nasally.

Collette looks at me, then Bodee, only saying, “I thought you didn’t get in until later.”

He clucks his tongue. “You know I love the element of surprise.”

Holter coughs, drawing everybody’s attention. It’s a fake cough, too, so it really makes us all stop and study him.

For a kid that just got surprised by the dad he hasn’t seen in a month, he don’t look too excited. I’m no genius, but I’m thinking it might have something to do with that same dad not even bothering to greet him. Bodee went out of his way to acknowledge both me and Collette, but not his own son…who I’m guessing is the reason he’s here now.