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“Even if I swear I’ll behave?”
Genna laughed. “We know you won’t. You never do.”
Everyone in the room was silent, even as Tim and Genna exited, the door shutting loudly behind them. I stared at my hands, and then pushed back from the table.
“It’s just a month,” Tyson said softly. “It’ll be fine.”
“No, it won’t,” I snapped. “I already know that it won’t. She’s got classes to teach and she’s going to start school too. So it really just fucks up everything.”
“She’ll be fine,” Nel snorted as I ripped open the door. “She’s getting fuckin’ paid for it.”
I wanted to deck him in the face for saying it—even if it was the truth. But I didn’t need to cause any unnecessary drama with anyone, especially a bandmate. There was just something about Lena that stirred up my emotions, even when it was all indirectly related to her.
Storming out of the label office and across the parking lot, I whipped open the door of my car and slid in. I started the engine and checked the clock. Lena would be at work right now, and there was no sense in bothering her.
But I would have to break the news to her somehow.
I sat in my car, letting it idle while I scrolled through my phone. My dad’s message thread popped up, and I realized it had been a while since we’d talked. Maybe he would have something to say about all of this. I hit the call button and waited for him to answer, backing out and heading home.
“Hey, son,” Dad answered, sounding pretty chipper.
“Hey, what’s up?”
“Uh, just fixing to board a plane to South Carolina.”
That’s interesting…
“If you’re busy, I can let you go.”
“No, no. I got time. What’s going on? You sound a little stressed. Everything good? I saw the tabloids, by the way.”
“Yeah, I figured you had.”
“Fake?”
“You know me way too well,” I muttered, somewhat insulted that he never even batted an eye at the articles.
“Well, I know that if your relationship with that woman was real, you would’ve talked to me about it. I know the pressure you’re under with all the fame that surrounds you. I figured your PR manager concocted it all.”
“You’re not wrong,” I said, leaning back in the seat as I navigated traffic. “It’s complicated though.”
“What’s complicated about it? Don’t they just have her show up at certain times to put on a show? That’s how it was done back in my day. She’s a plant, pretty much.”
“Uh…” My voice trailed off as my mind filled with intimate images of Lena. “I might have let it cross the line a few times.”
Dad sighed. “Playing with fire, son. If you don’t have real feelings for her, don’t do that to her.”
“I think I’ve made my stance clear. We don’t really get along.” But that last part felt like a lie, suddenly. I couldn’t put my finger on when things had changed, but they had. We didn’t really argue at all anymore.
“Well, all I have to say is that men can break hearts just as much as women can—especially men with a deep-seated fear of love and commitment.”
“You get your therapist license recently?” I snorted, brushing off the way his words hit.
“Ha ha,” Dad groaned. “I think I just realized that I spent way too long hung up and hurting—and I projected it all on you boys.”
Oof. Yeah. Not going there right now.
“Eh, we turned out fine,” I said quickly. “Anyway, I found out the label is being put up for sale.”
