AllFreeNovel
Share Us
In his room, he clicked on the TV, in search of something mindless to watch. A late night chat show was on. The host happily babbling away to the studio audience. Jordan turned the volume up.
“And now the special guest we’ve all been waiting for, the world’s biggest pop star, Chloe!”
Jordan threw the TV remote on the bed in resigned disgust. The universe had won. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t avoid her. “Just bring it on. I’m fucking done.”
The woman he had loved, still loved, bounded onto the studio set in a lime green and black jumpsuit. On anyone else it would probably look like trash, but on Chloe it was fabulous. He watched in muted pain as she kissed the show’s host then after taking a seat on the guest couch turned to happily wave at the audience. And then for those watching at home.
He couldn’t tear his gaze away. That smile. Those compelling brown eyes.
“So, Chloe, what a massive hit ‘Bitter Babe’ has become. I hear it everywhere. Even with your stellar career, you must be surprised by how much that song has resonated with the public. Tell me, where did this song come from? I know people are talking about you and Zapp, but is he really ‘Bitter Babe’?”
She gave the host a shy smile. “'Bitter Babe’ isn’t about a person. It’s more a feeling. It’s a song from the heart. It’s for all those people who thought they had found the one. That the person they were with believed in them. Had their back. But sadly, when things got tough, they walked away.”
“Or as you say in the song, they go running back to their daddy like a little boy.”
“Exactly.”
The audience gave a collective ‘Boo’.
Jordan picked up the Chloe tour T-shirt and hugged it to his face. He’d kept it, refusing to wash it in case the last of her scent disappeared.
“And I hear your fans are taking selfies outside of a famous nightclub in Berlin. They’re not even bothering to try and get in.”
Chloe gently laughed. “Yes, hashtag Berlin Bitter Babe.”
“We’d love for you to sing the song for us tonight. What do we think folks?”
The primed Chloe’s Garden loaded audience screamed and applauded. A chant of “Chloe, Chloe,” started up. Jordan felt sick in the pit of his stomach. It was bad enough having to hear the song about their failed romance on the radio, but having to watch Chloe sing it was the worst.
But he was nothing if not a glutton for punishment. Dropping onto the bed, Jordan sat cradling the T-shirt while the woman he loved sang her song.
All that’s left are memories of what we had.
Regrets of what could have been.
Only little boys go running back to daddy.
Are you bitter babe?
She’d dumped him for a three week fling with some hack singer of a band that in time no one would remember. Her people had wanted him gone, and she’d listened to them. Chosen her gilded cage over being free. Over him.
Bitter, Babe? You bet the fuck I am. Bitter and burned.
He tossed the shirt onto the floor. At some point he’d pick it up and hold it to himself once more. Chloe was a habit he couldn’t shake. And for this, there was no rehab.
She’d just finished the song when Jordan’s phone rang. He glanced over at it and caught the nameAustin Brownon the screen. His assistant manager wasn’t the sort of guy to call him late at night unless it was urgent. Jordan picked up the phone.
“Hi, Austin. What’s happening?”
“Claude just quit.”
Shit.
“He was pretty angry when you said that trying to book Chloe for the opening was ridiculous. But that’s not the end of our problems. We have a bigger one—the head of catering followed Claude out the door.”
They could muddle through for a time without a head of special events, but without a head of catering, they were dead in the water. “What? Why did he quit?”
Jordan couldn’t recall having offended the guy but pissing people off seemed to be his current specialty.
