“They must have had it queued up and ready to go.” She shakes her head.
“Must’ve hit send before I even walked out of the door,” I say blandly.
“You are their prized pig.” She gives me a little smile. “They can’t ever seem to let you have any downtime.”
“Cal said it’s because they have to continue toride the coattailsof my tour’s success before people’s interest in me fizzles out.” The sentiment still leaves a bitter taste in my mouth.
“We can ask him to change it,” Bethany suggests, but I shake my head.
“You know as well as I do that the only reason he’ll change the schedule is if I’m dying or dead. And even then, I bet he’d expect me to finish recording the lead single.”
Bethany laughs ruefully. “You’re probably right on that one, but you never know.”
I shrug, still feeling a little down. “He’d only remind me that fame is fickle and the only way to combat that is to continue to work. All it would take would be one person to turn on me and everyone else follows like a herd of sheep.”
“I do know. The thousands of fans at every sold-out show and platinum albums tell me that. You have nothing to worry about.” I appreciate Bethany’s confidence. I wish I could have even a little bit of that when it comes to relations and communications with my label.
“Not according to Cal. He has no problem telling me that the only reason I’m successful is because of the label’s backing.”
“You know that’s not true.”
“Sometimes I wonder if he’s right, though.”Before Bethany can do her best to convince me otherwise, I shrug. “You ready to head to my place?”
She gathers up her stuff and pops up from her seat. “Yeah, let’s go.”
On our way out of the lobby, I wave at Louisa, who sits at the main desk on the weekdays. “Bye, Lou!”
With a bright expression, she wiggles her fingers back at me before pushing her glasses up her nose. “Have a good day, Jersey!”
When we walk inside my condo, Roman pops his head up over the back of the couch and gives me a wide, infectious smile before he gets up and walks toward me, arms stretched out wide. The corners of my lips tip up against my will at the sight of my brother.He doesn’t usually come over, even though he has his own code and key to get in, so it’s always a nice surprise to see him.
“There’s my favorite little sister. And my favorite sister’s friend!” Roman wraps his arms around me in a big hug.
“Fancy meeting you here,” I tease him, patting his back.
“I definitely had no idea you’d be returning to your home at the end of the day. No idea.” He plays along. As soon as he lets me go from the hug, he gives my friend a little finger wave. “Hey, Beth.”
“Hi there, Roman. You staying out of trouble?” Bethany asks.
“Not at all.” He shoots her a wink and then turns back to me. “What have you two been up to?”
“The usual,” I say, right as Bethany rats me out at the same time. “I was trying to convince Jersey that she’s worth much more than what Callum leads her to believe.” Bethany directs her attention at Roman and tilts her head toward me.
“Oh, we need to convince her of that? I thought she already knew.” Roman nudges me with his shoulder, looking down at me fondly. I appreciate his faith in me, but even my brother isn’t totally privy to my struggles with the label.
“In theory. But it’s hard to believe it when all Cal does is remind me that everything comes back to him and the label. He was particularly adamant that I do not have any distractions,” I explain, heading over to the couch and collapsing into the cushions, dropping my bag on the table next to me.
“Please, when are you ever distracted?” Bethany asks, as though the idea is absurd.
I let out a long sigh and grab a pillow to hold on my lap. “Apparently at the VMAs, when I ignored Kelsey to ask Hayes for his autograph. Oh, which reminds me. Here you go.” Reaching into my bag, I pull out my wallet and find the Post-it note with Hayes Vogt’s autograph on it.I’ve been keeping it safe right next to my Post-it with his number on it.
Roman reaches for the sticky note and stares down at it, mouth agape. He falls onto the couch as if he’s in shock. “You actually got it? Sick. I’m gonna have this framed.”
“Not only that, but she got hisnumber,too,” Bethany says, giving me a secret smile. My cheeks heat at her sharing this knowledge with mybrother,of all people.
“Traitor,” I mouth.
“You’re kidding, really? Have you texted him yet?” Roman turns his wide brown eyes to me.
