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Chapter 9
Trenton
“Pourmeanotherone.”Evan shoved his empty shot glass across the counter toward me. He’d shown up at my front door shortly after Ali had left.
All things considered, our first rehearsal had gone well. I’d managed to keep my hands to myself, so that was something. Oh, and we had sounded damn good together.
I eyed the shot glass. “Are you sure? Don’t you have an early call time tomorrow?”
“At this point, I don’t give a shit. The execs can go screw themselves.” He slammed back the bourbon I’d put in front of him. If I’d known he had wanted to do shots instead of enjoy the drink, I would have given him the cheap stuff. Bourbon was meant to be savored. But I didn’t comment. My friend obviously needed to vent, and his lamentations would be safe with me.
“Good thing we didn’t have this conversation before you asked me to be on the show,” I said. Knowing him, he still would have talked me into it. I might have come across as a tough guy, but I was beginning to suspect that I was a major softie.
“Christ,” Evan muttered. Poor guy.He really looked miserable. “Is everything going okay on your end?”
I hesitated. He didn’t know that I’d used the key card he’d given me to spend the night with Ali, and I wasn’t sure he should. I hadn’t known she would be my partner or even on the show at the time, but I worried it might look shady. Probably not to Evan, but still. It wasn’t only my secret, so I kept it to myself.
Evan noticed my hesitation and groaned. “What is it? I’m not supposed to play favorites, but since you came on the show as a last-minute favor to me, I pulled strings to make sure you got a great partner. Are you not getting along?”
I frowned. “Who was Ali going to be paired with?” The thought of her working with someone else didn’t sit well with me. She deserved a partner as dedicated as she was, and I suspected some celebrities would only rehearse for the minimum time written into the contracts. Evan was right—the studio might have bitten off more than it could chew with managing all the various celebrities.
“Nothing had been finalized, so I honestly couldn’t say. We’ve been working to the eleventh hour with everything. Hell, the twelfth and thirteenth hour. I’m seriously regretting throwing out the idea for duets.”
I should have known it was Evan’s brainchild. “It has a lot of potential,” I said diplomatically. Ali would do well with me because I was as committed as she was. I couldn’t say the same for the other contestants. I wondered if they were as disgruntled as she was about the duet spin for this season.
He pointed at me. “There. See? You know how to play the game. You say you’re not good with interviews, but that was a perfect positive, vague statement.”
I thought about my cousins, the football players, and the few times they’d been interviewed.“We need to move the ball forward, play solid defense, just keep doing what we do best.”They all used the same interchangeable answers. Perhaps I needed to adopt the same strategy. Nah.My strategy of avoiding interviews worked fine.
“Which reminds me…” Evan said in the tone that meant he wanted something.
I groaned. “Why am I pouring you drinks if you’re the one asking for another favor?” I’d known something was up for him to show up unannounced.
“Do you want me to pour the next round?” he offered.
“Did you bring your own bottle?” I countered.
He ducked his head. “In retrospect, I should have. I’ve had a lot on my plate.”
I wanted to ask him whose fault that was but instead leveled my gaze at him. “What do you want?” Because damn, wasn’t it enough that I’d given him several months of my life to do his show?
“Can you go onThe Nightly Showto promoteSing Battle?”
I didn’t know what I’d expected, but it wasn’t that. “You’re the face of the show. Shouldn’t you do it?”
“I’ve been talking aboutSing Battlefor five years now. No one wants to hear me drone on about it for the umpteenth time.”
Damn it, if it had been anyone else asking, it would have been an immediate hard no. “I hate doing interviews. I’m not good at them. You know that. Why me? There are twenty-three other celebrity partners. One of them would probably love to do it.”
“You have the broadest appeal of the male partners forThe Nightly Show’s demographic. We’ve done the market research.”
I raised my eyebrows. It seemed unlikely that the studio had done market research on me in particular.“What about the women?”
“Carlita Perez has already agreed to go on with you.”
Carlita’s career had started in Latin music, and she’d recently made a successful switch to mainstream English-language pop. I didn’t know who the other partners were, but she was a good choice for bothSing BattleandThe Nightly Show.
Though the contestants were supposed to be judged on their talent alone, I would have been a fool to think that would actually happen. Some contestants would get votes solely based on who their partners were. It wasn’t fair, but few things in this business were. My going onThe Nightly Showcould give Ali a leg up, assuming I didn’t make an ass of myself. I’d also rack up another favor from Evan, not that I ever actually cashed them in.
