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Chapter Twenty-Nine
I had a doctor’s appointment the next morning, so I decided to just grab some bagels afterward and pop in to see Leo. He’d texted he was feeling somewhat better, which was good news. I didn’t want him to be sick, but it was a motivator for me to have time to work on my business. Since leaving the meeting, ideas were flying, and Leo and Grace were both right; I wasn’t starting from nothing. I had a vision, I had knowledge, and I had an idea of how to make the coffee shop even better this time around.
The doctor’s appointment went well, and I was set to be back to normal in a few weeks if all kept going as it was. I stood at the counter, waiting for my order, feeling like life was finally back on track. But just as I was silently celebrating the small wins I’d been experiencing, I saw it. By the counter, there was a stack of magazines—and I recognized Leo on the cover.
“Lip-syncing Leo’s Career Over?” the headline read. My heart sank.
“Can you believe it?” the bearded man bagging up my order asked as he saw me taking note. “All that money, all those awards, and the guy’s a total fake? Wherever he’s hiding, he might as well just stay there. His career’s over.”
I stared at the redheaded stranger who smiled as he handed me the paper bag.
“You have no idea,” I barked, feeling defensive. The guy shook his head at me, and I realized how stupid I must look considering he really, truly had no idea. I thanked him for my bagels with a weak smile and left, the tabloid headline whirling through my head.
I debated whether I should tell Leo. Was that why he was hiding out in Ocean City? It seemed stupid, though, because I knew firsthand the man could sing. I knew those papers were nothing but scandal and clickbait. Still, it couldn’t feel good to see that. Maybe his cold was a solid blessing.
I knocked on the front door and let myself in. Leo was in the kitchen in gray sweatpants and a black T-shirt. He looked a million times healthier than the day before, but his face wore a look of disappointment.
“Someone told you,” I said, knowing, not asking.
He sighed, running a hand through his hair. “This is what they were afraid of. It’s why they’ve been desperate for me to get back.”
I plopped the bag on the counter and hobbled over to Leo. He met me halfway, though, and I wrapped my arms around him, leaning on him as the crutches fell to the ground.
“It’s not what it seems like,” he said. I looked up at him.
“I know. But even if it was, it wouldn’t matter, Leo. I know you’re amazing at what you do.”
He slid out a seat at the kitchen island and then pulled the bagels out of the bag.
“You sound like you feel better, at least,” I said, and he nodded. He still was a bit nasally and congested, but he wasn’t coughing as much and his eyes looked so much better. Maybe he just needed a day of rest after all we’d been up to.
“At least that’s going right. Nothing else is.”
“I’m sure no one believes those papers, right?” I asked.
Leo sighed. “Jasper said we’re already getting some calls canceling sponsorships. So, some people believe them. He thinks this could really impact things, which is what he told me when I was taking a break.”
“I don’t understand how you taking a break affects this at all,” I replied, opening the foil packet on my everything bagel but too entranced by Leo to eat.
“It was a concert in London. I was deathly ill. I’d been on the road for two years straight, and my family just wanted me to keep going. I was running on fumes, though. I needed a break. But when things are going well, you don’t quit. At least that’s what Jasper and my family thought. So even though I felt like my whole body was on fire and I couldn’t breathe, they made me get on stage. It’s always been about singing for me, and I didn’t want to get up there if I couldn’t sing right. But they were all about the performance. Mom told me that the crowd just wanted to see a pretty face, that it didn’t matter so much if I was actually singing. So, they set up the track. I just had to fake it through the night.”
“That’s terrible that they made you go on,” I said. Staring at Leo, a grown man, it made me realize what he’d been saying all along: His life wasn’t really his own at all. “Couldn’t you just say no?”
“It’s complicated,” Leo said, grabbing a napkin and blowing his nose, the remnants of his cold still lingering. I let him compose himself. “I feel like I owe them.”
“Your parents?” I asked.
He nodded. “I know that sounds crazy. It isn’t common knowledge, but I was adopted by them. My birth mother abandoned me at a park when I was just four days old. I was put in the foster system, and my parents were looking for a child. They adopted me and gave me the world, truly. When I was old enough to love music, they put me in the best of the best piano lessons. They would take me to meet with people in the industry when I started showing signs of talent. They gave me my dream on a silver platter. How could I not feel like I owed them?”
“But look at all you’ve given them.”
“That’s the thing about success, though, isn’t it? It never seems like enough. I just feel this unending need to keep impressing them, everyone. To keep stacking up achievements.”
I wanted to tell Leo that didn’t mean he owed them his happiness. It didn’t mean he had to go to the ends of the earth or his own well-being to make them proud. But who was I to talk? I was still sneaking around about my coffee shop plan at home like I was a criminal; I was too afraid to burst Dad’s bubble again about law school and success. I was too afraid to be Tillie the letdown once more, the daughter he talked about with his friends but never really had anything to brag about. The daughter who was “surviving” instead of thriving. The daughter living back with her parents at thirty with no promise, no potential, and no real success to her name...yet.
