Page 18 of The Comedown

I try not to laugh, telling him, “It’s part of a word. It’s pronounced slippery, with an r in there.”

He points at me using his torta. “Have your jokes carry your ass back to the car ’cause I ain’t doing it.” Pausing for a second, he adds, “But be careful. Shit’s slippy,” and I lose the battle, cracking up.

“We were just starting to bond, too.”

“And my back’s paying the fucking price for it.”

“Consider us even for making me carry that last interview we did.”

His eyes roll, but the side of his lips pull into a smirk.

“What about you? You’re a Cali girl?”

“Not originally, no. I’m from Oregon.”

“I thought I read you were from California?”

Julian reading? A book gripped in those tattooed hands of his as he slowly turns the pages? That’s something I’d like to see.

I take a tiny sip from my pineapple-flavored Jarritos. “We moved to California when I was fifteen.”

“Wasn’t that right before you were discovered?”

“Discovered…” I trail off. “Yeah.” That’s how it seemed at the time, but now that I’m older, I use another term to describe how my ex-husband, Bodee Keys, swept me up into his extravagant lifestyle…just not out loud.

“By Bodee.”

It’s not a question but I answer with, “Mmhmm,” anyway.

“You started touring with him…the next year?”

I nod. “When I was sixteen.” I was way too young to make a decision like that. I was way too young to even be in that position at all.

“And he was…”

I know he knows, so all I say is, “He was Bodee Keys.” All I need to say is his name. Bodee Keys gets anything he wants. Anything. He’s the biggest music star this world has ever seen.

“Your parents were okay with it?”

“My parents were okay with the money I was suddenly bringing in.”

“But you two didn’t start dating until you were eighteen?”

The fact that I was underage and Bodee was ten years older than me didn’t matter to my parents, only to the general public, which is why we kept our romantic relationship under wraps until I was legal.

“That’s what was reported.”

“Reporters get it wrong all the time.”

I shrug noncommittally. Julian seems smart enough to read between the lines. Of course Bodee and I were together during those first few years I opened for him. That’s the main reason I was “discovered.”

“Did you even graduate high school?”

I smile, happy to be talking about something I’m actually proud of. “Yes. And college.”

“How’d you swing that? I can barely get dressed on the road.”

Julian being shirtless for our first encounter springs to mind. Something tells me his lack of clothing has more to do with choice than time though.