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Nicole’s expression reveals how badly she wants to snap back at the fire-breathing dragon, but she keeps her cool, for the most part. Instead of crumbling under the strain of the woman’s bossy demeanor, she tosses out a handful of her own demands. “Then you better point me in the direction of the producer’s office because I have a handful of changes I want to make before we record today’s segment.”
Her determination makes me hard. She didn’t pussyfoot around her demands. She straight up announced she’s making changes with no room for negotiations.
The production assistant acts blasé, though. “Changes?” When Nicole nods, her self-confidence building the more her importance is challenged, the lady sighs heavily before gesturing for Nicole and Knox to follow her. “You’ll need to be quick. We don’t prerecord our shows.”
After squeezing my hand in silent assurance of where her focus remains even with her about to wow the world with her voice, Nicole jogs to keep up with the lady.
Knox hangs back like nothing happening is of his choice.
His response is understandable. Until the crew's day off, he had everyone jumping on demand—myself included.
A power shift is long overdue.
I love my brother and will forever protect him, but I can’t continue being guilt-tripped and bribed to keep the promise I made to him when our mother left, or I’ll never be the man Nicole deserves. I’ll only ever be a puppet.
When the tension reaches a point that can’t be ignored, I ask, “You good?”
I hate what this is doing to our friendship, but I’ve already given him so much, so I can’t give him Nicole as well.
At least not without a fight.
Knox shoots me a snarled glare like he’s aware he is no longer privy to my deepest, darkest secret, before disappearing down a dark corridor like I never spoke.
It takes me a beat to shadow his stalk. I don’t fear him. I’m simply aware of how short his temper is when he doesn’t get his way. He’s a spoiled brat, and he wouldn’t care less if his actions put a dampener on the success Nicole is on the cusp of achieving.
He’s yet to learn that it’s okay to come second by putting someone else first.
* * *
“And this is your chair.” The executive assistant for 92.1 LA Daily gestures her hand to a director’s chair in the wings of a television-style set.
“Are these radio segments recorded?”
Smiling, she nods. “Every interview is live streamed on our social media sites and recorded in front of an audience who won tickets to be here.” Some of the nerves I’m confident Nicole is facing hit me when the assistant nudges her head to the bleacher-like pews behind plain sheets of windowpane. “It looks like a fishbowl, but the glass helps keep any sounds the producer doesn’t want included in the segment out and the singer’s voice in.” She hands me a set of headphones. “You’ll see.”
As the noises of a busy set trickle out of the headphones I placed on my head, the executive assistant attempts to go through the same steps with Knox, who is seated a couple of spots closer to the “fishbowl” than I am.
I say “attempt” because Knox snatches the headphones out of her hand a second after aggressively plopping into his seat.
When the unnamed woman peers at me, seeking support, I smile at her to assure her that nothing she said pissed him off.
I’m reasonably sure all his anger stems from me.
After wiring Knox’s headset into the same system as mine, the assistant returns my smile before giving the crew the all-clear to move forward with their plans.
Nicole enters the studio only seconds later from a thick curtain on its right.
The boisterous cheer of the crowd when they spot her tugs my lips high at one side. They cheer, clap, and stomp down their feet, their vocal welcome strongly reducing the rose coloring of Nicole’s cheeks.
She was anticipating a far worse greeting.
“Wow,” the host murmurs down my headphones when the crowd's applause reaches an ear-piercing level. “That’s quite the ovation. I’ve never seen them so eager.” My back molars smash together when he leans into Nicole’s side and whispers, “Imagine if Rise Up were to ever accept my offer of a sit-down interview. They’d take the fucking roof off.”
His intro implies how their chat will go, but I’m still taken aback by the first question fired off his tongue once a fluorescent sign behind him announces they’re on the air.
“So… Nicole… is Noah as hung as reports claim?”
Nicole’s answer is the blanket response every PR firm would recommend she use. “Only his wife can answer that question.”
