Paul doesn’t join in. “Wecouldbe.” He wheels his chair closer. “I think we could be something real, Molly. The whole office already thinks we are.”
I stare down at my hands in my lap. “We said we’d take it slow. We agreed it wasn’t serious...”
“Come to my place tonight.” He covers my knee with his hand. “I’ll show you how serious this can be.”
It’s a really bad line. I have to keep myself from snorting.
“I don’t know. I have a lot of school stuff going on tomorrow.”
He sighs. “You haven’t even seen my apartment, Molly. I just want to show you what things could be like, if we tried this.”
I bite my lip and hesitate before shaking my head. “Not tonight.”
He sighs and gives my knee a squeeze. “Okay. Not tonight.”
* * *
Halloween ison a Friday this year, which means the entire city of Montreal is practically vibrating with a throw-your-head-back-and-howl-at-the-moon excitement long before the sun sets. My afternoon lectures at McGill were almost empty; half the student body probably started drinking before noon today. I wasn’t on the schedule at Metro Records, but I’m pretty sure next to no work got done there either.
When Montreal parties, Montreal parties hard.
Not that I’d know. I’ve spent all my Halloweens here so far texting Justine while she went to a house party in Kingston. Listening to my ‘Get This Party Started’ playlist with Stéphanie while we do our makeup in the bathroom is a big step up.
“This is fun!” she exclaims, tilting her head to check her eyeliner. “I wish we had more roomie bonding time.”
I pop the top off the only lipstick I own. “Thisisfun. Sorry I’ve been, you know, really awkward for the past...year.”
Stéphanie gives me a sympathetic look, and I blush. I’m still pretty awkward now.
“I didn’t mean it like that, Molly,” she assures me. “I’ve always wished we were closer. It’s just hard, with me working in the evenings and you out at school during the days.”
I nod. “Is the studio closed tonight, or did you book it off for the party?”
All the bands on the label have been invited. At the moment there are only four of them, and Sherbrooke Station is by far the most famous. Still, we’re getting busier every day.
“It’s closed. Most of the kids are busy trick-or-treating. You should haveseenmy beginner ballet class yesterday, though. They’re only seven, and a bunch of them wore their costumes. It was adorable.”
I pause my lipstick application to smile. “That does sound cute.”
“Speaking of cute”—Stéphanie hip bumps me—“that costume looks amazing on you.”
I’m wearing a pair of purple-striped tube socks over shimmery black leggings and some old, beaten-up Keds. I’ve got a distressed Iron Maiden t-shirt on, and a nametag that says ‘Noelle.’ If anyone is going to get the reference to ‘Teenage Dirtbag,’ it’s a room full of musicians and record company employees.
Most of Stéphanie’s costume is sitting in the living room right now, but it’s going to be hilarious once she puts the whole thing together. She’s wearing the same flowy, grey tank-dress she did for her role as a dancer in Sherbrooke Station’s ‘Nevermore’ music video. I helped her make a big frame out of a piece of cardboard and painted it to look like the video’s YouTube page. When she walks around holding it up in that dress, she’ll look like sheisthe music video.
Stéphanie puts a final coat of mascara on and then glances at her phone on the bathroom counter. “Zute. We should hurry. Ace will be here in about ten minutes.”
Yes, that’s right. I’m being escorted to a Halloween party by Ace Turner.
“He goes as Slasheveryyear,” Stéphanie tells me. “We’ve only had one Halloween together, but Matt told me he’s been wearing the same costume since they were freshmen at McGill. He just wears his normal jeans and leather jacket, then does the whole top hat and curly wig thing.”
I know in that moment the Sherbrooke Station fangirl in me will never truly die, because the thought of Ace Turner in a top hat does things to my ovaries.
We find Ace waiting outside our building, after a long and awkward effort to get Stéphanie’s costume down the ridiculously narrow stairs, and sure enough, he’s standing there dressed in dark skinny jeans and a leather jacket. He’s paired his velvet top hat with reflective aviators that bring out the strong lines of his jaw. He even makes the long, curly wig look sexy, for god’s sake. He tips his sunglasses down to eye us over their rim, and I don’t know how the government hasn’t abducted him already to put him to use as a weapon of mass sexual destruction.
“Looking good, ladies. Let me see what that says, Stéphanie.”
She holds her YouTube frame in front of her and does a dance pose behind it. Ace throws his head back in laughter as soon as he gets the joke.
