Chapter 3
3
“ G ood fucking Lord, I missed that,” Willow said. “I missed me. I missed us .”
Eden snuggled deeper into the crook of her husband’s arm and nipped at the freckly inside of his shoulder. “But we did it.”
“We sure did.” Willow held up his hand, and she high-fived it, grinning. They were lying in the hotel bed, surrounded by as much room service and minibar bottles as they felt safe charging to Sony. Eden couldn’t remember feeling more relaxed. Considering she hadn’t told Willow about getting the contract, it was a miracle.
“So,” he said, picking up a slab of brie and shoving it whole into his mouth. “ Gen oog ooving to algornia? ”
Eden laughed. “I’m sorry, what?”
He swallowed. “When are you moving to California?”
She suspected he’d figured it out—he was just like that—but it was always a shock when he got her that way. “You don’t know I’m gonna sign with Quinley.”
“Don’t I?”
“I did get the contract.”
Willow’s eyes crinkled the way she loved. “Of course, you fucking did. Nothing has ever surprised me less.”
“Nothing…?”
“Nah, nothing gets past me. Walking in on your coming on that robot dildo was also pretty standard stuff.”
They laughed and looked across the room at the machine. It was sitting innocuously on the carpet, Eden having removed the toy part and washed it in the bathroom sink. “Do you think there’s any chance we can convince the cleaning crew it’s a massage thing?”
“No.”
“Fair. Well, I have to return it by Sunday.”
“ What!?” Willow sat bolt upright. “You can’t do that!”
“Okay, how is this the thing you’re shocked and horrified about?” Eden laughed, moving carbonara and garlic bread out of his way. “Are you sure you took in the part where I have a crazy new job?”
“Yeah, but I want to keep the fucking machine,” he said, earnest as a kid swearing he’d feed and walk the puppy. “We can mail it back home, right?”
“No. You have to take the dildo, because who wants a return on that? But you rent the main bit. It costs a shitload outright.”
“How much?”
“Like, five grand. USD.”
Willow slammed a fist into his palm. “Dammit!”
“Maybe it can be a joint anniversary present?”
“I guess,” he grumbled. “Anyway, you’re right. I got sidetracked. When are you officially signing?”
Eden’s chest convulsed. She’d actually been enjoying the sex machine digression, but she couldn’t avoid the reality of their situation forever. “I’m due in the Sony offices in a couple of days.”
Willow whistled. “How are you feeling about it?”
“Weird. Quinley and I hit it off. I like her. And I think we have the same ideas for the album. It’s kinda exciting.”
Willow kissed her forehead. “I’m so happy for you, baby.”
“… But I don’t want to live here by myself,” she said, looking him right in the eyes. “She has the creepiest fucking entourage. Quinley, I mean. All these mute, dead-eyed suits, and I know they don’t respect me. They’ll try to stick their dicks into the music and the schedule, and I’ll spend the whole time fighting them over every little detail instead of focusing on the project…”
Willow linked his fingers and pushed his arms forward. “Sounds like a job for The Ginger Enforcer.”
Love like Eden had never felt before rushed through her. She adored the way he was always on her side. Always at her back. Tears prickled her eyes, and she blinked them away, not wanting her feelings to cloud the practicality of what he was saying. “You know I love having you in the studio, and I know that you’d be so good at bullying all the Sony douchebags, but they’re on a whole other level.”
Willow frowned. “Bunch of twig-neck industry fuckwits?”
“Exactly. You could still eat them all for a post-workout snack, but the job will probably be closer to four months than three…”
“So, we all come to Cali,” he said, as though it was that easy. “Rent a house. Something with a pool, so we get the full LA experience.”
Eden chewed the insides of her cheeks. “The girls…?”
“Are gonna be out-of-their-minds excited. We can take them to Disneyland.”
“That’s true. But it’ll be long days and probably nights. And if I’m working and you’re helping me work…?”
Willow looked at her. “Baby, you know what I’m about to say.”
“No,” she wailed.
“ Eden Jade.”
“No! Not nannies!”
“It’s what people do,” he said. “When they have to work, they have someone else help out with the kids. It’s not our fault that my family are either in a wheelchair or Scotland and yours are all dogs.”
“True,” Eden sighed. “I just hate the idea of it.”
“Because people are cunts to mums. That’s not your fault.”
“And it’s so expensive!”
“I’m sorry, I didn’t know Sony was gonna pay you in exposure .”
“Stop it!” she wailed. “I just don’t want Jup and Merc to forget what I look like.”
“How could they when they’re dead ringers for their beautiful mother?” Willow crossed himself. “Thank fuck.”
“Don’t,” she said, but she was smiling. “You’re a Scottish prince.”
“I am. But I also know the girls are gonna be in school soon. They’ll be gone all day; then they’ll want to hang out with their mates. They won’t want a bar of us.”
“Isn’t that more of a reason to put off jobs like this until they’re older?”
“No. It’s showing them they can take up space in a healthy relationship and be a priority to their male partners.”
“ If they have male partners.”
She and Willow had both noticed Jupiter’s open-mouthed obsession with Jenna Ortega and her months-long insistence she would marry her when she grew up. It was too soon to draw conclusions, but they had already put rainbow stickers on their cars and started talking openly about how great it was that Andy and his longtime partner, Chase, were engaged in front of the girls.
“Ah, my sweet little potentially lesbian daughter,” Willow said comfortably. “Well, whoever the kids end up with, it’s good for them to see their mum getting support for being amazing. Even if Jenna Ortega’s too old for Jup.”
Eden laughed; that hot, ultra-warm love feeling washed over her again, and she squeezed her eyes shut to keep the tears from coming out. “How are you so perfect?”
“Oh, I don’t know,” Willow’s face grew serious. “I think I’ve been a bit of a twat lately.”
“Will…”
“Let me say it,” he said, taking her hand. “What happened with the tour bus was fucking terrifying, and it knocked me off my game. I should have gone to see someone about how much it fucked me up, but I didn’t. And I’m sorry I made you and the girls put up with me being all paranoid and uptight about everything.”
Eden wanted to say, ‘It wasn’t that bad!’ but she remembered a reel she’d seen once that said deflecting apologies could be painful for the person brave enough to offer them.
“Thank you,” she told him. “I’m sorry I didn’t talk to you about how I felt. Especially about the sex stuff.”
“Yeah, but we might have that problem sorted.” Willow squeezed her hand. “That was a hell of a time, baby.”
“One of the greatest,” Eden agreed. “So, we both know I went to a sex shop. How did you get on my level at a hotel pool?”
Willow tapped his temple. “Found a mental loophole.”
“Getting wasted?”
“Acting. The world’s greatest profession.”
Eden snorted. “What are you? Jupiter talking about Jenna Ortega?”
“Too old for her.”
They both laughed.
“I mean it,” he said. “I just pretended to be someone else, and it fucking worked. Then we got started, and I didn’t even really need to do it anymore.”
“It’s so simple,” Eden marvelled.
“Ah, well, I did take a lot of head knocks playing footy. That might have helped. So, we’ll do it? Sign the Sony thing? Hire a nanny who isn’t a nutcase and move to California?”
Eden hesitated. This was it. The moment when the decision made would be more concrete than the contract she’d be signing her name on in forty-eight hours. She decided to voice her last, greatest fear. “Won’t doing this with Quinley mean more offers? Other people who want to work with me?”
To her surprise, Willow laughed. Threw his head back and belly laughed.
“What the fuck, bro?”
“Sorry.” Willow wiped his eyes. “I just can’t believe I’m talking to the girl who wouldn’t date me because nothing was going to stop her from becoming the biggest DJ in the world.”
“That’s exactly my point! You married her and knocked her up twice! She… changed .”
His face was infinitely soft. “Not that much. I know you, baby. You’ve got talent to burn, and you’re incredible at what you do; you’re just scared of success.”
“Am not!”
“I know you,” Willow repeated. “And I know people who get that way. Guys come in number one drafts and leave the league twelve months later to work at their dad’s car dealership.”
“That’s football players!”
“Then what about old mate? Francis Fuckhead?”
Eden winced. She’d lost touch with Francis after she supported him on his first European music tour. It had been at the start of her and Willow’s relationship, when she’d been just an underground DJ, and Francis’s reputation was entering the stratosphere. He’d had huge singles, viral hits and the potential to go full Marshmello. Then he’d disappeared. Cancelled his events, sacked his management, deleted his Spotify, and dropped off the map. Last she’d heard, he was in Guatemala, doing John McAfee shit in the jungle.
“Francis is one guy,” she said, unsure if she even believed herself.
“He couldn’t handle the heat,” Willow corrected. “Burnt the fuck out. But you’re not him. You make this thing with Quinley a smash, knock it out of the park, and when the suits want more, you’ll be in the best place to negotiate.”
“Negotiate what?”
“You’re an indie producer from Australia. That’s part of the appeal. Once Quinley’s got her grammy, Andy and I’ll tell anyone who wants more Eden Jade magic that they can book studio time in fucking Melbourne.”
“You make it sound so easy.”
“It will be easy. As if musicians and their hanger-oners don’t wanna piss time away in some sexy, sunny place. They’ll be begging to come down to Aus and work with you. You wait.”
Eden flopped back on the bed. “So… I guess I’m making an album with Quinley Wu…”
“One hundred percent,” Willow said, lying down beside her. “Congrats, my sexy, talented little minx.”
That was why she loved him—the way he made everything so simple and practical. He was canny and switched on, with a business brain that locked into her frazzled artist half.
“I can’t tell you how much I need you,” she said. “More now than ever. And when I met you, I needed you more than I thought I possibly could.”
“I love you, pretty baby,” he said, kissing her lips. “You’re the one for me.”
“Cool.”
They made out for a moment before Eden had an intrusive thought. “God, how are we going to stop the girls from watching Quinley’s dogshit TV show after they find out I’m working with her?”
“Ahh, we’ll just lie and say Disney broke.”
“All of Disney?”
“Yup.”
“Great. I’m sure they’ll buy that.”
“Leave it to me,” Willow promised. “I’ll work it out.”
“You always do.” She straddled his waist, grinding herself against his abdominal muscles. “Anything else you feel like working out?”
He groaned, cupping her tits. “Baby, I would, but I’m not as young as I used to be. You’ve gotta give me a couple more hours. Or some of those gas station dick pills I hear they sell around here…”
Eden rolled her eyes. “Okay, Mr Williams, what do you want to do instead?”
“I’m thinking… what if you get back on the fuck-bot, and I drink the rest of the minibar dry, watching you?”
Her pussy contracted at the thought of him staring at her, swigging liquor and perving like she was his own private sex show. “I’m thinking… you’d have a deal.”
“Fuck yes!”
Eden foresaw a real possibility and was determined to knock it on the head. “You’re not stealing the sex machine.”
Willow yowled in outrage.
“I mean it, Sloan Williams. Do not. Secretly mail. That sex machine,” she pointed at it. “To Australia.”
“Whatever,” Willow sulked, then instantly brightened. “Still, we’ve got this thing ‘till Tuesday. All right, missus. Get on it. I’ll tell you when to stop.”
Rolling her eyes, Eden walked to the bathroom to collect the dildo. Their future wasn’t close to being resolved. She would have to sign with Sony. Find a place to live in LA. Willow would probably need to meet with a therapist. She’d have to learn to talk about her feelings. She’d make a record with a former Disney star, move back to Melbourne, enrol the girls in school, grow old, grow up.
Change was coming, whether they wanted it to or not, but hopefully in ways that kept her and Willow kind and flexible instead of freezing them in place. But all that would come in time. Right now was just for them.
The End