“So much,” she whispered.
Claire giggled. “So why not make it happen?”
“We can’t. It would be unprofessional and violate the code of ethics between doctor and patient.”
“Oh. That’s no fun.”
“Yeah.” Celine shook her head. “So for now, I will just look from afar.”
Lonnie stepped up beside them as they went inside the arena. Fans hadn’t begun lining up outside yet, so they easily made it inside without incident. Celine split off from Claire and Lonnie when a crew member asked her to check out his sore throat.
Lonnie walked with Claire down the hallway toward the wardrobe room. Most arenas had a similar setup, which made it easier to find where they were supposed to go. But when an arena had a different layout, they all looked over maps of the arena before they exited the bus. Claire primarily relied on Lonnie to get her where she needed to go, since he would be well versed in the layout in case there were ever any potential threats that needed to be addressed.
Miranda was already inside the room, rolling the large carts around to the proper spots. Lonnie jumped in and helped her get everything where it needed to go before he said he was going to go find bottled water for them.
“Lock the door behind me,” Lonnie said as he stepped out of the room.
Claire walked over to the door and smiled before shutting the door and locking it.
“Don’t open it unless you know the person on the other side,” he said through the door before walking away.
“Put me to work,” Claire said, turning toward Miranda.
Miranda pulled out a shirt from one of the large wardrobes and walked it over to a table where her sewing machine was set up.
“Can you get into each guy’s case and pull out the shirts for the first set? They’ve all been complaining about a spot on them, so I’m going to fix it before the show.”
Claire worked on going through the cases and getting the items to Miranda before going back and prepping the other outfits for the show.
“How are you doing?” Miranda asked.
Claire moved over and sat in a chair next to where Miranda was sewing.
“Tired. My whole body is exhausted all the time.”
“If you want to get some rest, I’ll be fine getting everything together for the show tonight.”
As tempting as it was, Claire didn’t want to be alone. Being alone terrified her. She worried Charles would find her, and the more people she was around, the less likely anything would happen… or at least that’s what made the most sense to her.
“Nah. It’s good for me to keep busy.”
“I can understand that,” Miranda said softly.
Claire tilted her head and watched Miranda for a moment as she continued sewing.
“Areyouokay, Miranda?”
Miranda sighed and leaned back in her seat. “Yes. No. I don’t know.”
“What’s going on?”
“Rick is dumb.”
Claire raised an eyebrow. “Who’s Rick?”
“My boyfriend…” Miranda gave her a look as if Claire should know that.
“This is the first I’m hearing of a boyfriend. Have you been holding out on me?”
