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‘Her teeth looked normal,’ Ashley shrugged.

‘Then I guess she was snorting it,’ Simon explained.

Ashley gave Simon a look. ‘How do you know so much about it?’

‘My uncle Jimmy loves that shit. Well, loved it.’

‘Oh, sorry.’

‘He’s not dead. He just quit. Got addicted to Nordic walking instead.’ He looked into the distance. ‘I guess it’s better.’

‘Good for him. But all my relatives are bog-standard alcoholics,’ Ashley explained lightly. ‘So, Reva’s meth use went over my head.’

‘You didn’t pick up on anything at all? Fidgetiness? Overactivity?’

‘She was very productive. She’d call me at 3 a.m., insisting we rework a mix until it sounded perfect. I thought she was just a massive control freak. I was glad of it. I thought it would pay off.’

Simon shook his head. ‘Yeah, well, sorry to have to tell you but your innocence of class A’s—which, by the way, is weird for a pop star—has cost you.’

Ashley groaned. ‘I’ve heard they can interact badly with SSRIs. And I don’t want to know.’

‘Okay. I won’t tell you that Grown-up Shoes is down nearly twenty percent on streaming compared to the last one in its first two weeks.’

Ashley covered her face.

‘I definitely won’t tell you that the merchandising numbers are soft.’

‘Please stop talking.’

‘And I certainly won’t tell you that your label had a meeting about whether your next album should get the same marketing budget.’

Ashley slowly lowered her hands. ‘They did what?’

Simon shrugged. ‘Look, it’s not a total disaster.’

‘That’s not reassuring.’

‘No, come on. The album is making money.’

‘A lot less money.’

‘A lot less money,’ he agreed.

Ashley sank deeper into her chair.

Simon softened slightly. ‘It’s not a flop, Ash. Flops lose money. Your album still turned a decent profit. The tour is selling reasonably well. The label made its investment back and then some.’

‘But?’

‘But your first album was a monster. That’s the problem.’

Ashley looked away. ‘That doesn’t sound like a problem.’

‘It is when every executive starts expecting those numbers forever.’ He leaned back. ‘You went platinum in under a year. You had three massive singles. Every playlist on Earth shoved your songs in people’s faces twenty-four hours a day.’

Ashley grimaced.

‘Compared to that, this album looks weak.’