“I’m good,” Eleanor says.
The office is a tight fit—barely enough room for the wide metal desk and the two chairs in front of it. Tyler turns sideways and steps between us to squeeze around the desk. Hetakes off his suit jacket and drapes it over the back of his chair before taking a seat, gesturing for us to do the same.
I watch as he spins around in his chair and reaches for a ceramic mug sitting on top of a bookshelf, right beside a little potted plant that has to be fake, considering there is zero natural light in here. If not for the dampened bass thudding through the walls, you would never guess that we were inside a strip club. The vibe feels more similar to a school counselor’s office—functional, if outdated and slightly depressing. All that’s missing is a Hang in There! cat poster behind Tyler’s desk and some pamphlets about cyberbullying.
“So, you want to tell me the story?” Tyler asks after he pours a cup from the coffeepot behind him and passes it across the desk to me.
Eleanor crosses her legs and huffs a breath out of her nose. “Probably one you’ve heard before. Got abducted-level drunk, stumbled into a chapel, woke up the next morning with more questions than answers.”
Tyler seems surprised to hear this, even though it must be a pretty common scenario, like Eleanor said. “Well… you always were the life of the party.”
That is… not the impression I have of Eleanor. It’s not like I see her as some prudish stick-in-the-mud. We are sitting in the back office of a strip club because of her “connections,” after all. She’s a type, you know. Red lipstick, shoes that have got to be uncomfortable but admittedly make her ass look great. A stare that makes you want to look away first in deference. She is capital-CCool, effortlessly so, and she knows it.
The thing is, being cool is not the same as beingfun, which implies an easygoing nature that Eleanor never seemed to possess.
I hook my thumb in Eleanor’s direction. “Her?”
Not once did she deign to come out to the bar or to a show with the rest of the interns when we worked together. I’ll admit her standoffishness sort of intrigued me at first, made me want to get to know her all the more. But after a while—especially once everyone found out she was seeing Griffin—it felt like she thought she was too good for us lowly peasants. Never mind any embarrassment I may have felt personally for ever entertaining the thought of asking her out, when she clearly had her sights set on something higher.
“Oh yeah,” Tyler says. “My top five nights in college all involved Ellie. God, remember that time we got baked and you decided to build a snowman orgy on the quad?”
I choke on a sip of coffee. Eleanor reaches over and slaps me between the shoulder blades, perhaps a bit harder than necessary, and shoots a warning glare across the desk at Tyler, who leans back again and starts laughing. It’s this utterly delighted, nearly contagious giggle that has Eleanor visibly biting down on the inside of her cheek as she straightens up again.
My eyes are watering by the time I’ve caught my breath from the coughing fit, and I slip a finger under my glasses to wipe at them. “Snowman… orgy?”
Tyler’s eyebrows draw into a little V, even as a playful smile continues to tug at his lips. “How do you guys know each other, again?”
“We used to work together,” she tells him. “And now Adam here likes to pull underhanded shit and come after the artists I’ve scouted, because he has no ear.”
“Oh,what? What was that?” I sputter. “Remind me, how many ofyourartists hit the Billboard Hot 100 list last year?”
Eleanor examines her nails, managing to look bored eventhough she’s the one who started this pissing contest in the first place. Tyler’s gaze flickers between us with interest.
Not for the first time since waking up in Eleanor’s bed, I wish I could go back in time and opt not to come to Vegas. I already have an incredible roster of artists, and at least a dozen more on my radar. But Dempsey is poised for a major breakout album. If I sign them and take them platinum, that’s the kind of thing that will impress the powers that be, that will help me gain more influence at the label. Plus, I can’t deny the draw of beating out a competitor. It’s like a double win. Triple win, if things work out for Billy to become their new manager.
But more and more I’m questioning whether the juice is worth the squeeze. I can admit it wasn’t the best etiquette, coming to Vegas and crashing Eleanor’s meeting. It might even qualify as quote-unquoteunderhanded shit, just like she said. So maybe this is exactly what I deserve, for listening to Billy when he insisted I should fly here to speak with Dempsey in person, for chasing a band instead of playing it cool and making them chase me.
“Maybe we should get down to business,” Tyler cuts in. I glare at Eleanor a beat longer, then turn back to Tyler when he continues: “In Nevada, the process for an uncontested annulment is pretty straightforward. I’ll need to get some information from you guys, and then I can file the paperwork on your behalf.”
“Great,” I say, relieved that this is a relatively easy fix. Maybe my mom will never have to find out about this. “And we can get it submitted today, right?”
Tyler checks his watch and makes an agreeable face. “Don’t see why not. You have your marriage license?”
Eleanor sighs and reaches into her bag. “Yeah.”
She pulls out the crinkled piece of paper and passes it across the desk. As Tyler reads it over, Eleanor bends forward to put her head in her hands and starts breathing through her mouth in a very deliberate way. As someone who gets very carsick and has zero tolerance for carnival rides or airplane turbulence, I recognize the signs.
“Are you feeling okay?”
She grunts. “I haven’t been this hungover in years.”
Fair. I don’t think I’veeverbeen this hungover. The nausea is a constant hum through my body.
Tyler leans forward and rests both forearms on his desk. “Really? You drankthatmuch?”
Again, there’s this bewilderment in his expression that makes no sense to me, given his characterization of college Eleanor.
“I got cross-faded,” she tells him. “Accidentally. We were hanging out with this band and they ordered pizza, and I didn’t realize it had THC in it.”
