Page 16 of Strum Me

“Your new mail-order bride from Sweden is coming!” I can’t help but add my guess.

“And she’s bringing her twin sister for Marius!” Sebastian adds to the mayhem.

An empty water bottle sails through the air and lands on the side of Seb’s face. “Shut up, wank-breath! I can get my own Swedish mail-order bride.”

“Are you done?” our unusually patient manager asks calmly.

“Depends, did any of us guess right, or should we just keep going?” I ask him.

“I’m glad to see you’re in such a good mood, Brad. Because you’re especially going to love my news.”

“Oooh, it’s a Swedish mail-order bride for Brad?” Our viola player pokes his tongue out at me, unable to resist taking another dig.

“No.” He pauses. And there’s something in the look of his eyes that makes me feel a little uneasy. “It’s his friend, Emily.”

And all I can see is white.

What?

“What?” My mouth slowly catches up with my brain.

“She’s coming with us. On tour. For six weeks. For an editorial write-up on you guys. She’ll have full access to you. All of you. You’re welcome.”

With that, he gets up and practically runs out of the room, the door slamming behind him.

“What. The. Fuck?” Jez articulates what’s written all over my face. “If that’s the good news...what the hell was the bad?”

***

“Dennis! Wait up! Jeez you run fast for an old man!” I yell, stopping only to grab my splitting side.

He stops but doesn’t turn around, waiting for me to catch up to him.

“What the hell? Emily is coming on tour with us? You know that can’t happen!”

“I don’t know anything of the sort.”

“You saw what happened at the press conference. She’ll eviscerate us.” Not to mention the evisceration that happened after the press conference.

“I saw her stir up interest in you guys if that’s what you mean. Do you want me to remind you how much coverage we’ve gotten over this?” He stares me down, and I can’t help feeling like a diva throwing a tantrum. The truth is, he knows, he knows why. He knows why this is bad for me. Me. But as always, the band comes first. We’ve always wanted him to be that way, begged him in fact. We had one another to worry about each other. His job was the band.

But the news is shocking on two fronts.

“Dennis. I tried to talk to her afterward. She wouldn’t even give me the time of day, and now she’s coming with us on tour for six weeks? What happened?”

“Her editor made her an offer she couldn’t refuse?” He shrugs, his face giving away no more information than that.

“Doesn’t sound like her editor was the one making the offer.”

“Look, do you trust me or not?”

“You know I do, we all do.”

“Then trust me on this. This is going to be a good thing. I wouldn’t put the band in jeopardy.”

“And me?”

“I’m not your babysitter, Brad. Anyway, isn’t it time you sorted this mess out for good?”

He gives me a look that tells me that he thinks I should, whether I’ve realized it or not.

Six weeks. On tour with the girl who broke my fucking heart. Just when I was getting used to not having her in my life.