Page 12 of Ravaged By Lust

Maddie pours me a glass and gets Axel a cold beer. She pours herself a glass of sparkling water.

“I guess the worst thing about pregnancy is the fact you can’t even have a drink to help you through it,” I remark.

Maddie nods. “At least I can still make choc chip cookies. I love to do that when stressed.”

“Oh God, I love those damn cookies,” Axel says. “They’re better than sex, trust me.”

Maddie gives him a playful slap on the shoulder and turns back to me. “Here, have one.”

Maddie passes me a freshly baked cookie. I bite into it and… oh my God, the flavor is amazing.

“This is amazing,” I comment. “Orgasmic.”

“Ah, so I see you have an equally foul mouth as your brother then,” Maddie comments. “It’s not just the green eyes you two share.”

I take a seat on one of the bar stools in their large kitchen. Maddie’s looking at Axel. He walks over to her and tucks away a strand of her hair behind her ear. They look so sweet together.

“It’s good to see my brother in love,” I say.

Maddie puts down her glass on the counter. “Have you got someone?” she asks. “A boy back in Crystal River?”

“Don’t ask her that, Maddie,” Axel interrupts.

“Oh, you don’t have to answer, Chloe,” Maddie quickly adds apologetically in her shy way. “I don’t mean to pry.”

“It’s fine,” I reply. “I haven’t had anyone for quite some time. I’m too busy working.”

“I can pay for your flight over here,” Axel says. “Seeing as I invited you to come see us.”

“No, it’s okay.”

“I know you don’t have much, Chloe. I’m a freaking rockstar, I have spare change everywhere.”

I purse my lips. I hate talking about the subject of money. Despite our shared green eyes and dirty mouths, Axel and I have very differing views on wealth. “I can pay for myself, thanks.”

He’s tried to offer me money before. Kickbacks from his music career. I’ve refused every time. I don’t want to accept charity from my own brother, however stubborn that may seem.

Maddie senses the awkwardness and immediately buts in. “I saw that you’ve gone viral, Chloe. Astrid showed me.”

“I didn’t know that,” Axel says. “Viral for what?”

“Just me singing one of my songs back home,” I reply. “It’s completely unexpected.”

“She’s being humble,” Maddie says to her boyfriend. “She’s got millions of views on it. You can’t escape her face and her voice on social media right now. It’s going stratospheric.”

“I’m trying to avoid looking at the comments underneath the video,” I say.

“Oh, there’s bound to be some shitty ones,” Maddie says. “But you really just got millions of views in a freaking day. You should be proud of yourself and your work. You’re an overnight success, Chloe. You’ve got to be feeling over the moon about that.”

“An overnight success of ten years pumping out music,” I reply with a slight smile. It really has been years of work to even get a video to go viral. Years of me playing to practically no one in my bedroom. “But, yeah, it’s pretty damn cool.”

I haven’t told either of them my other reason for coming to LA. The meeting with Mickey Miller. I just want to keep that quiet. Maybe it’s because I’m freaking the hell out over it. My God, the nerves I have. My hands were practically shaking on the plane. The person in the seat next to me must’ve thought I have a phobia of flying.

“Working hard for years with no immediate reward is how things are done,” Axel says.

I scoff. “It was easy for you. You boys jumped out of the gate into stardom. Girls usually have to work a lot harder.”

“Look, if I can give you some unsolicited advice, Chloe,” Maddie says. “As a publicist, please don’t check the numbers and comments on the video. The internet can really be a cruel place.”