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We smiled at each other.
We spent the rest of the time talking and laughing—and enjoying Andrew’s favorite activity, eating—to the point where I almost forgot my earlier panic. By the time my “time to go” alarm went off, I knew the tension had melted from my shoulders.
I sighed, standing up and stretching my hands toward the sky. “As much fun as this is,” I said, “reality awaits.”
Andrew started packing the remnants of our breakfast into his bag. “It’s a good thing that reality is just as sweet,” he said.
Despite believing that as we left our forest oasis, when we got back to the bus, we found ourselves in the midst of chaos. I heard several different raised voices floating from inside. Andrew looked at me and frowned as he knocked twice on the door. It swung open to reveal Danny’s stormy face.
“Get in quick,” he grumbled. “Someone’s bound to start throwing shit off the bus if I leave this door open too long.”
My eyes widened, and I quickly followed after Andrew. We walked in just as Yasmine put her fingers to her lips and whistled.
“Hey, team, calm yourselves!” She shouted over the din. “One at a time, please! Phil, you first.” I couldn’t help but notice Jean Lee roll her eyes before Philip started speaking.
“This arrangement of ‘Come for Me’ doesn’t work,” he said in his characteristically flat voice. “The minor 3rd gives it a weird feel. And we never agreed to that for this song.”
“But it gives it life,” Jean Lee retorted. “We can’t be bee-boppy every fuckin’ song, bro. We’re a rock band that’s starting to sound more pop than anything. We have to stay true to our sound.”
“Well, if we’re staying true to our sound, and we usually sound ‘bee-boppy,’ whatever-the-fuck that means, then we should take out the minor 3rd.” Philip smirked.
“Don’t be a pretentious asshole, you mother—”
“Hey, hey, hey,” Kevin said, holding up his hands. “Don’t talk about Philip’s mom like that.”
“I would be talking about Philip that way, you idiot.” Jean Lee rolled her eyes.
“No name-calling,” Danny put in, tuning his bass.
“Look, you both make good points,” Yasmine cut in, frowning at everyone in turn. “Jean Lee is right—we want to have variety in our sound, si? Keep the people entertained and all that. However, for this song—and for all our older stuff—we need to give the people what they want: consistency. So we’re going with the major chord for ‘Come for Me,’ and we can take a look at the newer stuff for variation. Estamos de acuerdo? Agreed?”
“Yes,” everyone intoned. Yasmine sighed.
“Good. We have”—she checked her watch—“one more hour before lift-off. Shower, eat, whatever you have to do—do it now. We can’t be late to our first gig of the tour.”
As the band got up and went their separate ways, my phone rang. I looked down at the caller ID and sighed. Immediately snapping into fiancée mode, I pasted a smile on my face. “Hey.”
“Babe, why haven’t you called?” I could almost see Michael pulling at his silky, blond strands, the way he always did when he was pissed. “It’s been several days. I don’t even know where you are right now—you disappeared off Google Maps.”
I sighed again, barely containing my exasperation. “My location sensor has been acting funny. It’s no big deal. And it’s only been three days, Michael.”
“That counts as several.”
“Is there an emergency? What’s going on?”
“No, there’s no emergency. But I’ve been waiting for you to call all week. I want to know where my wife is, that’s all.”
“Future wife.” I frowned, my perfect fiancée mask slipping a little. Andrew looked up curiously, and I turned my back to him. “Are you sure nothing’s going on? You sound really stressed out. Did my mom call you?”
“No, everything’s fine here,” he insisted. “Just…this thing has already changed you. Don’t let it change you more, babe.”
“Nothing has changed.” I felt a little tug of guilt as I recalled my workouts with Yasmine. “I’ll be home before you know it.”
“Sure,” he said, already distracted by something else on the other line. “And then, we can get married.”
“Right.” Something cold slipped into my body at the thought. “Exactly.”
