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Ana:I need a second job to make ends meet. No MLMs. Any ideas?
Julie:I have a few sites I can send you.
Cora:Right there with you. Hoping to find something virtual.
Cailin:I JUST got a new job. Beyond my wildest dreams. Maybe consider changing industries?
13
JAX SLATER CAUGHT BETWEEN HIS HEAD AND HIS HEART
JAX
I haveCailin’s number now. This is dangerous. I should edit her name in my phone and change it from Cailin McCall Publicist to Cailin Text Only For Work Matters. Although our conversation was more like an interview for Cailin to get information to write my press materials, I feel like she cracked me open. She’s so easy to talk to and I felt that our conversation just flowed.
With all the women I’ve dated, I’ve always kept them at arm’s length. I knew each of them was temporarily in my life for a night, or a week if they were lucky. There was no point in sharing feelings or getting to know them, because I knew I wasn’t going to keep them around. They were fun ways to pass the time and live it up at the height of my fame.
Sometimes I felt guilty, but they were also fully aware of my reputation and what they were getting into. They wanted their fifteen minutes and a photo in a tabloid with my arms wrapped around them. There were mutual benefits. Why mess with something if it’s working?
Now though, I want more than quick satisfaction and surface-level relationships. I want something with substance. Someone I can have real conversations with and take out on a date. I’d even go out in public with Cailin. Somehow, I feel that she puts me at ease. I want to experience things with her. Is that crazy? I’ve never even met her in person. Maybe I’ve been secluded in my mansion for so long that I’m losing my mind.
I’m eager to see the press release from Cailin. I feel like she really understands me and knows the direction I want to go with this tour. It might take her a while to draft something, so I should be productive too and write a song.
I grab a bottle of water and head into my songwriting room. I sink into the red velvet couch and pick up my notebook and pen. I could try strumming the guitar and coming up with a melody first, but I want to write lyrics.
For a moment, I pause and reflect back on how far I’ve actually come. When the band first formed, we paid our dues by touring on a bus and playing high schools. We didn’t know if anyone would take us seriously, because we were just a bunch of kids ourselves. Slowly we started to play clubs, opening for more popular acts. Eventually, we released our first single and it placed at number three on the charts before claiming the number one spot a week later. We got our big break when a radio station asked us to perform at their holiday concert. After that, things took off.
We recorded our first album and released it in America. This is when the real work began. Our days were jam-packed from morning to night with radio station interviews, photo shoots, and appearances at teen magazine offices. I counted the number of times in one week that a reporter asked my favorite color or favorite food. It happened just about every interview. When we weren’t promoting the group, the guys and I were holed up in a hotel room seeking connection with friends and family back home. Although we had each other, we got lonely and began to miss our old lives.
We had to adjust even more during our first European tour. When we arrived at the airport, we were greeted by a swarm of fans holding posters with our names.
“Jax! Over here!”
“I love you, Mario!”
“I baked your favorite cookies, Oliver!”
“Ridge, can we take a picture?”
“Jack! Jack! Jack!”
A team of security had to hold them back. Because this was our first time there, the fans had been long-awaiting our arrival. That moment is one of my favorite memories.
“We made it,” Ridge said as we stepped into the crowd to pose for photos. “This is it.”
“This is insane,” Jack said. “Someone just threw a teddy bear at me.”
“I wish someone threw a teddy bear at me,” Mario said as he adjusted his shirt after a fan grabbed it and tried to pull it off his body.
Little did we know there was much more to come. Fans camped outside our hotel overnight and even booked rooms on the floor we were staying, just to be close. We were basically hostages in our hotel rooms because we couldn’t go anywhere without a fan nearby.
Once, someone even tried to sneak into our suite dressed as a hotel maid. Luckily, our security caught her before she had a chance to enter. “I swear, I’m with housekeeping,” she said to our security guard. “I’ll clean their room. Let me prove it to you.”
We knew that we were nothing without our fans, so we embraced them as much as possible while also trying to maintain our personal space. As I got older, so did the girls who approached me. By the time I was twenty-one, they were offering me shots and sexual innuendos.
“You should see what else I can do with my mouth,” one fan told me. It worked.
How could I pass up beautiful women flirting with me? There was nothing else to do on tour, so I figured I might as well enjoy myself. “How about we go somewhere more private and you can show me?” I said.
