Chapter 30
Alice
So many people congratulated us as we left the stage. I’d tried to give Noah a hug, but he’d dodged me. Wouldn’t look at me. All but ran to take his stool behind his drum set.
I couldn’t deny that it hurt.
I thought he’d be happy for us. We were out as a couple. Why was he being all weird?
“That was amazing!” Lark crowed. “Such a huge high singing in front of so many people. I can’t wait until we can fill up a stadium like that.”
“It’s only a matter of time.” Tyler stepped up behind her and offered his knuckles to her. “You guys lit that stage up.”
Lark tapped her knuckles against his with a grin.
“Thanks, Tyler.” I smiled at him as I followed with my own knuckles. Why couldn’t my own boyfriend say as much?
“Have you heard back from your lawyer?” Tyler asked with a concerned frown.
“Yeah, that’s what we were doing before the show.” Lark nodded. “Well, me and Alice. Bailey had to work the merch desk. Alice texted our lawyer all the evidence she has—her copyright filing, pictures of the saved file dates showing their age, and the weblink from the Babbler of when Parker got thrown out of our show. It looks like he filed for copyright two weeks ago, so it’ll be a slam dunk. Our lawsuit should be filed in the next day or so.”
“Fantastic.” Tyler grinned. “And what about our contract? I’d love to be able to field calls from media and labels on your behalf ASAP.”
I laughed. “We signed it this afternoon. Our lawyer should’ve sent over your copies earlier today. We are officially Tyler Worthington clients.”
Tyler only nodded stoically as he took in the information. I don’t know why I thought he’d be happier. “Fantastic. I’m glad. I can’t wait to work with you, ladies.”
I exchanged a look with Lark and Bailey.
But Tyler went on, undeterred. “I’ll reach out to your lawyer and work on our press release.”
“We want total approval of any statement issued.” Lark gave him her no bullshit stare. “It doesn’t go out until we say so.”
“Of course,” Tyler answered with a toothy smile. “We’ll talk tomorrow. Enjoy your evening, ladies. We’ll be hitting the ground running in the morning.”
He tapped knuckles with us again and then headed off down the hall.
I turned to Bailey. “Would it be uncool to scream right now?”
“Um, yes.” Lark laughed. “The guys are still playing out there. We don’t need to freak out anyone.”
“Maybe we should just bounce then?” Bailey offered.
I grinned. “Oh hell yeah.”
Then we all held hands and jumped like little kids super excited about what was going to happen next. After a minute, we had to stop since we were blocking the hall.
As we inched our way toward the wall—still holding hands—to get out of the way of a stagehand hauling lighting equipment, Bailey turned to me. “What’s up with you and Noah? I thought he’d be super eager to put a public claim on you. I was waiting for him to lay a big ole kiss on you.”
“I know, right?” I shrugged. “He was super weird out there.”
“Maybe he’s freaking out about that truth bomb Jesse sprang on you,” Lark said.
Bailey turned to her. “What are you talking about?”
I sighed.
Lark raised her eyebrows. “You okay if I fill her in?”
I lifted a shoulder. “It’s kinda already out there information. And it’s Bailey—of course you can tell her.”
“I heard the guys arguing about it backstage before the show. Apparently, Jesse made it a thing about how Noah used to share women with someone else back in the day—like threesomes, guy-girl-guy threesomes.”
Bailey’s eyes widened and I rolled mine.
“Seriously? That’s what he’s wigging out about?” I snorted. “That’s…ridiculous.”
“Ridiculously hot, you mean.” Bailey fanned herself. “Have you guys ever…?”
“No.” I laughed. “Sorry, but I’m a one-man woman. Sounds like way too much work to me. And Noah doesn’t have any problems in the stamina area.”
“Eewww!” Bailey shuddered. “TMI, girl. Tee, em, eye.”
“What? You’re fine hearing stories about threesome glory days but draw the line at hearing about our sex life? Do you know how many times I’ve had to listen to you go on and on about your latest hookup?
“Yeah, but it’s Noah. And you.” Bailey shrugged. “You guys have forever vibes, so it’s not as much fun to think about. I’m not looking to settle down anytime soon, so I don’t get the same vicarious thrill, ya know?”
“Was that a backhanded compliment?” I turned to Lark.
She laughed. “Honestly, I couldn’t tell.”
“Whatever.” It was Bailey’s turn to roll her eyes. “But did it bug you? Thinking about Noah like that with someone else?”
“I mean, who wants to know that, right?”
The girls nodded.
I shrugged. “It wasn’t a revelation that Noah hasn’t always been a Boy Scout.”
“Or ever,” Lark said through a cough.
I laughed. “I always knew he wasn’t celibate his whole life—just this past year.”
“ WHAT?! ” Lark and Bailey yelled in unison.
I winced. “Right. That probably was something I should’ve kept to myself.”
“Whoa.” Bailey shook her head. “You can’t stuff that genie back into the bottle. He’s been celibate for a whole year?”
I groaned and dropped their hands, so I could scrub my eyes with the heel of my hands. “Can you all just forget I said that?”
“Oh hell no.” Lark laughed. “That’s like some epic gossip.”
“And totally negates the whole threesome thing,” Bailey said.
“Right? This is amazing compared to the revelation that a rock star had a threesome. That’s practically a cliché. But a celibate rock star? That’s…that’s practically unicorn status.”
I groaned and leaned back against the wall. “You guys are ridiculous.”
“Good on you for breaking his dry streak.” Bailey grinned. “Does that make you the unicorn?”
I rolled my eyes. In the distance, the guys built toward the end of the show. The crowd roared as they ended their second-to-last song before the encore. “I’m just a regular girl.”
“A girl who ended a mythical dry spell. They’ll build statues in your honor. Groupies will worship at your feet.” Bailey mimed prostrating before me.
“But seriously, is the whole threesome thing really bothering you?” Lark asked with a frown.
“What? No. I mean no one wants to hear the gritty details of their boyfriend’s past, but it doesn’t make me love him any less. If anything—”
I had to break off as Lark and Bailey started screaming.
“You love him!”
“Oh my god!”
“Really?” I laughed incredulously. “I didn’t think this would be such a revelation, given how badly we’d been hiding our relationship.”
“I just thought you guys were fucking. I had no idea you were serious!” Lark squealed.
Bailey grinned. “I could tell. But have you told him yet?”
“I mean, no…not exactly.”
Bailey turned to Lark. “Which means not at all.”
Lark shook her head and faced me. “You’ve got to tell him. He is freaking the fuck out about the threesome thing. He thinks you’re going to break up with him over it.”
“What?” I reared back. “That’s ridiculous. I just needed a minute to process it. It was weird to be in the middle of them when they were bantering about sexual conquests like that. But I haven’t really thought about it since. I was busy with the lawsuit stuff and setting up for the concert. I’ve hardly had a second to breathe.”
The crowd was singing along with ‘ Nowhere to Hide .’ In less than a minute, the guys would run by for a quick rehydrate before they went back out for their encore. I should really be standing over near the stage with the other techs, but I couldn’t run away from this conversation. It was too important.
“You need to talk to him,” Bailey implored. “You gotta break this habit you have of not asking for help. We get that you’re a strong ass woman—and no doubt Noah does too—but you have to lean on people when you need to. You can’t do it all alone.”
“And you won’t have a successful relationship if you’re not leaning on each other.” Lark raised her eyebrows. “Trust me, I know from experience.”
“It’s just so hard,” I mumbled. “After Parker…he kinda broke me, you know? He and the guys were my family and then they were gone. Not only that, they stole from me. And I get that Noah isn’t Parker, but he’s so much bigger. He’s this huge star. How’s it ever going to work? Especially if our band signs with a label. He’ll be here doing his shows in Vegas, and we’ll be…who knows where. It’ll be a shitshow.”
“That’s not really something we can answer for you, sweetheart.” Bailey gave me a sympathetic look.
“It’ll work if you guys do the work,” Lark answered. “If you make your relationship a priority and show up for each other—which will probably mean sacrifices on both ends—then it’ll work. But you two have to decide if being together is worth it. Like Bailey said, that’s not something we can answer for you.”
“Right.”
The guys all ran by, out of breath and panting. Chase and Xander smiled and gave us a little wave as they jogged by before ducking into their private greenroom.
But Noah avoided even looking in our direction.
Almost like he knew exactly where not to look.
It felt like someone had stabbed me in the heart with an icepick. Pain and confusion made my eyes fill with tears for a second.
But then I watched him walk away, much slower than the other guys jogging into the greenroom. Saw the tension in his shoulders. And the way he had his hands shoved into his pockets. Almost like he had to keep himself from reaching out for me.
Or so I chose to believe.
Because like Lark had said, it was time to put up or shut up.
And I was going to fight for our relationship.
I could only hope Noah wanted to do the same.