Chapter 15
When we arrive at the studio, Ben and Lars fist bump Sully as he walks in. Their smiles grow when they see me behind him.
“You have a hot shadow,” Lars jokes.
Sully drapes his arm around my shoulders. “Don’t I know it?” He nods to the sound booth where Charlotte is singing.
“You wanna hear?” Ben hits a button and Charlotte’s heavenly vocals filter into the room.
Sully pulls out the chair and gestures for me to sit. I’m afraid of touching anything. This board looks like it can launch a NASA rocket. How do producers figure out how all these switches and computers work?
After a couple of minutes, Charlotte stops and pulls the headphones on her ears down around her neck. “How was that?”
Ben hits an intercom button. “It was perfect. Sully’s here so we’ll do his riffs and vocals now.”
“Thank God. I need a break.” Charlotte exits the sound booth and instantly hugs me when she sees me. “I didn’t know we had a guest.”
Sully grabs his bass guitar from its case and steps into the sound booth. He strums a few warm-up chords before Lars taps a few buttons, starting the recording.
His fingers dance over the strings, and something deep inside me aches, wishing those fingers were strumming something else.
Charlotte chuckles and leans her arms across the back of the chair I’m sitting in. “He’s exceptional, isn’t he?”
“Yes.” I can’t take my eyes off of him. He shreds and it’s hauntingly dark. Some chords make me want to weep. Then when he sings the first verse, my heart skids to a stop and melts away.
“Don’t tell him I said that. It’ll go straight to his head.”
A smile curls my lips. “Your secret’s safe with me.”
Sully plays the guitar too aggressively and a string snaps. “Shit,” he says.
Ben face palms and hits the intercom button. “Dude, I told you that pick wasn’t going to work.”
Lars shakes his head as he grabs a box of strings and walks into the sound booth.
Charlotte snags my wrist and pulls me outside. “I need fresh air. Being in a band with those three can be a lot.”
“But you like being in a band, right? You never thought of going solo?”
She leans against the brick wall and crosses her left ankle over her right.
“When I was younger, I wanted to be solo. But I like being in a band. Not all the focus is on you, even as the singer. I know my boys will back me up, and it’s nice to have others to bounce ideas off of.
And it’s a bonus to travel the world with my husband.
” She spins her wedding ring around her finger.
“Even if he can be annoying now and again.” She smiles.
“What about you? Seeing you with Sully after Vegas must mean something.”
“Oh.” I hug myself. “He found where I worked and asked me to dinner.”
“And then brought you here?” She tsks. “Boys.”
“He came by my apartment because of the Insta post about Gigi.” I stare at the crack in the sidewalk. Not wanting to see her reaction and fear Sully really is playing both sides.
Charlotte touches my shoulder. “Sweetie. He only has eyes for you. Trust me. He never talks to anyone outside of the band, Mark, and Amy.” She makes a face.
“Thankfully, you haven’t met Amy yet. She’s…
good at her job, but she’s a lot. She’s basically the reason we even stayed afloat after the third album.
She knows how to sell a story to the media.
Problem is, now she thinks she owns the band’s image—including Sully’s. ”
I blink at her. “Owns it?”
“She acts like it’s all about protecting us, but it’s really about the money. Sully’s the only single member left. Amy sees dollar signs when she looks at him. She wants a picture-perfect romance to sell tickets, merch, anything she can put a price tag on.”
“That’s what he told me. That it was all a PR stunt he didn’t agree to.”
“Yes. Gigi asked us to record a track for her new album, and Amy thought it’d be great press.
I was against it, but I got outvoted.” Charlotte sighs, rubbing her palms down her jeans.
“And now Amy’s pushing for us to tour with Gigi in Europe.
We’re still ironing out the details, but it’s looking more and more like a done deal. ”
The word Europe lands like a punch to the ribs. I don’t want to imagine Sully leaving—but what right do I have to ask him to stay?
Charlotte watches me, her mouth pulling into a soft frown. “And Gigi…she’s another story. She’s used to getting her way. Always has been. She loves the spotlight, and she’s smart enough to know pairing herself with Sully will give her fresh attention, boost her tour numbers, sell this fantasy.”
“She sounds awful.”
Charlotte nods. “She is. She barked at Sully like he was an intern the first time they met—ordered him to fetch her green tea.” She shakes her head.
“The sad thing is, Sully’s too easygoing.
He hates drama. He thinks if he stays quiet, people will leave him alone.
But it’s the opposite with people like Amy and Gigi.
They see him as this prize they can polish and parade around. ”
I chew the inside of my cheek, the anger and sadness tangling up inside me.
Charlotte smiles, just a little. “But you…you’re the first thing that’s broken through that ice around him in a long time. I’ve known him for years and I’ve never seen him smile so much until you.”
She opens the door, ushering us back into the studio.
Sully’s guitar is fixed, and he’s laying down his part of the track. His eyes are closed, and the melody fills the air. Damn, he’s breathtaking, and all I want is to have those hands all over me and see what kind of music we can make together.
After Sully’s finished with his part, we walk a couple of blocks north to this hole-in-the-wall pizza and ice cream place I never heard of. He holds the door open for me, and a cow moos to welcome us instead of the usual bell ringing.
“How did you find this place?” I ask, looking around. It’s small, maybe two hundred square feet, with only a few tables. In the corner are two pinball machines that use bouncy balls. There’s a TV hanging in the corner of the room playing Friends with the volume low and closed captions on.
“I read reviews and found this hidden gem.” He wraps an arm around my hips, and I have no clue if he’s messing with me or not.
We both order a slice of pepperoni pizza. The slice is huge, needing two plates to support its weight.
We sit at the table with a giant Marilyn Monroe poster hanging on the blood-red wall. For a few moments, we’re quiet while enjoying our dinner.
“Dessert?” Sully licks grease off his fingers.
He read my mind. I’ve been eyeing the ice cream menu since we sat down. They have endless options.
I order a cookie monster munch, which is cookies and cream flavored ice cream with extra Oreos crushed on top. Sully gets dirty love, which is rocky road ice cream with gummy worms.
Sully licks his purple plastic spoon and stabs at a gummy worm, slicing off its head. “Tell me something you’ve never told another soul.”
I wipe my mouth on a napkin. “And why would I do that? Do you want to run for the hills?”
He makes a show of glancing around then leans forward to whisper, “You’re not a serial killer, are you?”
“Ha!” I snort and ice cream burns my nose. “I’d be the worst serial killer. I pulled a muscle putting on my tail last week.”
“Come on. It’s easy to open up to someone who doesn’t know you.”
“You go first then,” I say, taking a bite and chewing thoughtfully. “Need to rate how honest I should be.” He needs to give me some range because there are some scary skeletons locked in my closet.
He leans back and cracks his knuckles, treating this like a contest of sorts. “Right before the tour started, I almost walked away from the band for good.”
A heavy weight crushes my chest. My favorite band almost broke up, and no one knew. No music magazine or social media outlet posted a peep about it.
“Wow…” I clench my jaw to keep from gaping at him like a fish and poke at a cookie piece with my spoon, lost for words. “How…when…”
He sucks a gummy worm into his mouth like it’s pasta. “Now you go.”
“You’re not going to elaborate?” I sit back in the booth, trying to focus on Sully’s face to keep the room from spinning.
“I will after you share your secret.”
“How can I beat that?” I say louder than I mean to.
His blue eyes are soulful as they pierce into me. “Be honest. I want to know the real Veronica.”
The cozy little restaurant melts into an interrogation room with a metal table and I am handcuffed to cold steel as my brain rolls around with something deep to share that I can live with having someone else know.
The scraping of my empty cup is deafening. I take a final lick and chew on the end of my spoon.
He rests his chin in the palm of his hand, not giving up on me spilling my guts to him.
Do I tell him I shoplifted a shirt once in the fifth grade?
Sometimes I wish I could be a real mermaid and be left alone in the quiet ocean where I’d never have to worry about money or my next post on social media.
Reveal how my high school boyfriend dumped me because I wouldn’t sleep with him.
Or should I tell him about “the incident” with my ex?
I can’t sound pathetic. What should I confess? Steal a story from a TV drama or a novel and hope he doesn’t notice.
He crumples a napkin and tosses it into his empty cup. “If you don’t want to share, it’s cool.” He checks his phone and says the words that mean the death of any date. “It’s getting late, maybe—”
I’ll never ask you out again because you’re dull and terrible and I don’t feel connected to you anymore. I guess the rest of his sentence as he shifts his weight to stand up.
“Hold on.” I slide the mermaid-tail ring up and down my finger.
“Two months ago, the guy who I thought would be my future husband publicly humiliated me. He reserved a table at the then brand-new French restaurant in town. He made this show of how fancy it was. How the chef was from Paris and would help prepare our taste buds for France. To me, all the signs of a proposal were there. Romantic atmosphere, check. He hinted around about wanting to know what kind of rings I liked the month before. So, thinking he had a diamond ring, check. He liked putting on a good show and a public proposal was right up his alley, check. But no…” My lungs forget how to function as I choke on my tongue.
All the blood in Sully’s face drains as he sinks into the booth, running a hand over his jaw. “Oh…I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have—”
“It’s okay.” I tap my fingernails on the table.
“I never talk about it. Alice knows the basics, but I never shared the entire story. He set up this entire scene and even got down on one knee and took my left hand. He kissed it and told me he wanted to break up. Then he laughed as I burst into tears. My former college roommate filmed the entire thing across the way. He’d been screwing her for months.
They posted the ruse online to tank my career. ”
Sully frowns. “Holy shit, what an arsehole.”
“Yeah. The real joke was I taught him how to be a social media influencer and connected him to people who could help him. He wanted to do stupid pranks and he got famous fast. He and my college roommate met at my birthday party and hooked up while I danced with my friends.” I toy with my spoon to avoid looking at Sully’s face, not wanting to see the pity in his eyes.
“Then he strung me along because he needed my contacts to help him have a solid fan base. My reward? Him trying to ruin me in every way someone can destroy another human being.” My voice stutters as a sob closes my throat.
Sully offers me a napkin and I dab my eyes with it.
“What happened after?”
“Last I heard, they moved to New York. But he recently texted me, saying he’s in LA and wants to meet. I blocked him. I can’t see his stupid face or even say his name.”
“If he shows, let me know,” Sully growls. His face twists in wolfish rage, and it honestly makes me hot. I like having someone fight for me.
“Thanks.” I sigh, tearing my napkin in half.
“The only bright spot was my lawyer, who helps me with the business side of my mermaiding, has a husband who deals with defamation cases. He threatened to sue them if they didn’t delete the video and issue a public apology.
But it’s still in the dark corners of the internet. ”
“People are terrible. I’m leery of dating too after my ex.
Thought she liked me for me, but it was the band life she wanted.
When she realized we were not super famous around the world or shitting out gold, she dumped me in the middle of our last European tour to shag another bass player who was headlining a show in the same city we were in. She hopped onto his bus and vanished.”
“What a bitch,” I say, sniffling and rubbing my hands together. My skin is itchy when I overshare. “Guess we both have good reasons for being bitter.”
He offers me a hand. “Let’s make a deal to never look back. They’re the past and we will never allow them to ruin our future.”
His ocean-blue eyes sparkle as he leans in. I inhale and take his hand. “Deal.”
We shake on it.
“I’ll be right back,” Sully says and goes to the register. He talks to the cashier and returns only to flash me with a handful of quarters.
“How are you at pinball?” He nods toward the two machines.
We walk over to the spaced-themed pinball machines. “I haven’t played since I was a kid, but I’m game.”
After a few good hits, I lose, but Sully is a secret pinball master. When it spits a second ball out at him, he gets sloppier and finally, a ball loses control and they both fall into the gutter.
I can’t resist grabbing the blue bouncy ball and tossing it against the wall.
It flies above my head, and I catch it before it smacks into the new customer walking in through the door.
I glance at the people working, and they’re watching me like I’m a kid on the loose from their mother, and they want to kick my ass outside.
Sully holds his green ball like it’s a lucky stone, rolling it between his fingers in thought. He nods to the booth we were sitting in before. “I shouldn’t have pushed you. It—”
“Don’t worry about it.” I hand him the ball back before I bounce it off the wall again and get us banished. “I’m glad I finally told someone.”
He pockets the toys and nods toward the door. His shoulder brushes against mine. I run my hand along the wall with a painted mural of Hollywood actors who we lost a long time ago.
“Thank you for sharing that with me.” He turns the corner, walking toward where he parked the SUV. “Do you want to get out of here?”