Chapter 31 #2
Darcy bit her lip, before she released it in a smile that slowly transformed into mega-wattage. “It feels… surreal. One down, thirty-five to go.”
A quick knock on the door sounded, and Juliet cut the door a glare, as if it could answer for the crime of interrupting them. “Occupied,” she called out, curtly.
Then she leaned toward the door, straining to hear outside. It was definitely muffled, and there was music playing from down the hall at the main event, but she was pretty sure she heard the sound of heels tapping away toward the other bathrooms.
Still, she held her finger up indicating Darcy not to say anything for another few seconds. Just to ensure privacy.
When she was positive whomever it was had walked away, she turned back to face Darcy.
Rather than that bright, beaming smile, she was met with a very thoughtful expression, Darcy’s eyebrows slightly furrowed. “So… this event you’re at with Robbie…”
Juliet waited for a few seconds on the end of that sentence, before shaking her head. “Is that the extent of the comment?”
“No.” Darcy scoffed. “I guess it’s not just this event, but all of it. Like. How did you two start? Was it ever real?”
Juliet laughed so loudly, it caused an echo through the small bathroom, before she quickly smothered it. “Sorry, that caught me completely off-guard. Real? Come on.”
Darcy tossed the hand not holding her phone in the air. “How am I supposed to know? It started when you were, what, eighteen?”
Juliet hummed softly in confirmation. “Mhmm. I was touring for Passing Notes, and Robbie was headlining his second tour. Copper Canyon arranged it so that the second halves of both of our tours overlapped, and we co-headlined to book in bigger theaters, and a couple of arenas.”
She narrowed her eyes slightly as she thought back; it had been a long time since she’d actually walked down this memory lane. The real memory lane, not the version she gave to the public.
“Robbie was very flirty from the get-go,” she commented, wryly.
“I can see that about him.”
“And I brushed him off, for obvious reasons.”
“Obvious reasons being that you’re…” Darcy hesitated, before simply mouthing a lesbian instead of saying it aloud.
She chuckled, far too smitten by it. “Yes, that. And, by that point, my album had been out for almost a year. I’d gotten enough male attention – both from interested men, and women asking me about men – that it was driving me up the wall.
I’d hooked up with a few and very much knew it wasn’t for me.
Made my internal peace with that. But I also knew, even before reviewing any contractual obligations, that I couldn’t just come out. ”
Darcy was focused, completely dialed in on her. The expression on her face was similar to the one she wore when she was writing or composing, and it surged through Juliet like a stimulant. Being on the receiving end of Darcy’s hyper-fixation was… heady.
“I started to pay a little bit closer attention to Robbie. With all of his flirting, he was never creepy. Never pushed boundaries, not the way any of the men I’d encountered who were as interested as he seemed to be.”
And sure, Juliet knew not every man would be pushy and entitled when he wanted her. But… a lot of them were.
She shrugged. “I didn’t suspect he was gay.
” She kept her voice down to barely above a whisper, just to be sure.
“But I thought something was different about him. So we started hanging out more, I’d go to some of the parties he was always inviting me to.
And at one of them, I saw him with–” Juliet rolled her lips before she let the actors name slip.
“– a man. It wasn’t anything truly salacious, but it was the look, you know? ”
Darcy had to know. Because it was the way they looked at one another. Like they wanted – needed – to get out of the public eye, together.
To her credit, exactly as Juliet knew she would, Darcy let out a wry laugh. “Yeah, I know.”
“Now, in the version that the world knows, we’d been touring together for a while. Robbie hit on me, immediately smitten. And I took some time to get to know him, slowly falling back.”
It was what their families believed, their management teams, the label. The story had been spun so perfectly.
“Yeah, I’ve heard that around.”
“But the truth is that I went to Robbie’s dressing room before the next show after that party. He opened the door, surprised to see me. Was all flirty.”
She could see it so clearly, the way he’d turned it on, leaning against the doorframe.
“What did you do?” Darcy prompted, obviously interested, leaning in.
“I pushed him back into the room and shut the door. Told him that he was right; we should be together. That I was falling in love with him.”
The laugh that escaped from Darcy’s mouth pinged pleasantly through Juliet’s mind, making her grin, proud at having caused it.
“You’re such a shit starter.”
Unrepentant, she shrugged.
“What did Robbie do?” Darcy asked. “Did he take the bait?”
“At first, he panicked. Just for a couple of seconds, I could see it in his eyes. Like he hadn’t possibly predicted this miscalculation, where I would be super into it.
Into him.” Juliet could remember what it felt like.
Like she’d stumbled onto something huge.
And she had. “He tried to backpedal after, tried to lean into hitting on me, but it was too late.”
She’d known. She’d had her suspicions confirmed.
“Later that night, after we’d performed, I went to him and told him I knew.” He’d panicked and tried to deny it, but she’d cut him off and told him about her. “He was the first person I ever told, about being a lesbian,” she admitted quietly. “And then I proposed the plan.”
It had turned out to be one of the best protections either of them could have imagined.
Juliet had stopped receiving most of the skeevy, ardent come-ons from men, Robbie had an image as not only a physical heartthrob, but a devoted boyfriend.
Nothing had ever worked better in Robbie’s favor for his female fans than having him be in a committed relationship.
“And… no one’s ever questioned it,” Darcy mused. She didn’t ask, so much as thought out loud.
“Why would they?” She posed back. “We show up to most, if not all, big events together. Promote one another’s music. And, frankly, beyond that, no one really cares. It’s all about the perception.”
She swore she could feel Darcy’s intense stare through the phone. “It never bothers you, either? That everyone believes you two are…” Darcy trailed off.
Juliet frowned, deeply. “No. Why would it?”
In fact, she’d always liked it. She’d come to rely on it. It truly was a security blanket, the most deeply comforting kind.
Darcy squirmed slightly in her chair, a classic-Darcy telltale that she was uncomfortable on the inside, manifesting outward.
Juliet knew she was a goner, because something like that used to drive her crazy about Darcy. Now, she liked it. She liked being able to have these visual clues into Darcy’s mind, and she loved knowing what they meant.
“I guess it makes sense,” Darcy acquiesced after a few seconds of silence.
“It would kill you,” Juliet deadpanned, knowingly. “To not only see everyone saying things that aren’t true, but to be a part of perpetuating it.”
“Yep,” Darcy immediately agreed. “But…” She drew in a long, tight breath. “It seems to work for you.”
Before she could respond, someone tapped a musical pattern out on Darcy’s dressing room door, before Blythe’s voice rang out, “Darce? Em and I are heading out to the tour bus, if you want to walk out with us.”
Juliet didn’t want her to go.
What she wanted, what she really wanted, was to stay in this fucking bathroom and keep talking. They could talk Darcy’s upcoming shows, they could talk about Robbie, they could talk about Juliet’s past tours, they could talk about the song for the soundtrack, anything.
She simply craved Darcy’s very presence.
Her phone vibrated, the text message appearing at the top of her screen –
Robbie-O – 10:59P.M.
People are starting to head out. You ready? Are you feeling okay? Been in the bathroom for a while…
She swiped the message away with her thumb, turning her attention back to Darcy, who wore a knowing smile, one that wasn’t quite happy or unhappy. “You have to go, too.”
Juliet reluctantly nodded. “Yes. Or people are going to think I’ve been doing something very scandalous in this bathroom. If they don’t already.”
There. Darcy’s grin brightened. Goal achieved.
Darcy cleared her throat, angling toward the door as she shouted to her sister, “Hold on, I’m coming with you!”
Juliet still didn’t end the call, wanting to linger. Wanting more. “Wait, before you go,” she started as her mind latched onto something she’d meant to bring up earlier but hadn’t wanted to interrupt Darcy’s focus before her show.
Darcy’s attention immediately, unquestioningly returned to her. “Yeah?”
“I want you to send me a list of your favorite books. Darcy Kincaid’s top recommendations.”
The surprise and joy that bloomed over Darcy’s face was something that should be bottled. “Really?”
“Really.” She bit at her cheek for a moment, before honestly telling her, “I meant it. I think you’re an incredible writer, and I want to see if it helps spark something for me, too.”
“Because you want to start your next album, now,” Darcy concluded, the excitement in her tone unmistakable.
She wasn’t shocked at all how Darcy quickly pieced that together.
“At the very least, if it doesn’t work for me as a songwriter, we can discuss literature,” she joked.
Kind of.
She wouldn’t hate that. Because yes, she’d like to dive deeper into her craft, dive into Darcy’s approach and integrate that with hers if she could. But she also wanted to read Darcy’s favorite books and have more of an insight to her. To hear her thoughts on them.
Juliet wondered if Darcy was kicking her feet, because that was what it looked like she was doing, making a warmth spread through her.
“I’ll send you a list tonight. As soon as we’re on the road,” Darcy promised.
“I’m looking forward to it.”
For another moment, they simply stayed on their call.
Blythe knocked again. “All right, you hang up first, no you hang up first – we’re going!”
Juliet and Darcy rolled their eyes in unison, before locking their gazes again, chuckling.
“Okay. I’m coming!” Darcy shouted, shaking her head as she slid off her chair. “I’ll text you. Soon.”
“Good.”
Darcy shot the door in her room a glare. “Also, Blythe, that’s really rich coming from y–”
The call officially ended.
With a long sigh, Juliet tucked her phone away, then moved to the sink and washed her hands, before doing a quick mirror-check.
When she opened the door, she nearly had a heart attack, as Robbie was leaning against the frame.
She slapped one of her hands over her chest, before pushing at him with the other. “What are you doing?!”
He laughed, stepping back away from her. “Me? What are you doing? You’ve been in here forever. The party is ending. I have your jacket.”
Robbie held his arm up, displaying her Valentino jacket draped over it.
“Thanks for grabbing that,” she acknowledged, reaching to take it from him as they started toward the exit.
Robbie glanced around them, cluing Juliet into the fact that he was going to say something he possibly shouldn’t as he leaned in to speak in her ear, “I was half-convinced you were in here with Sienna Marlowe,” he whispered, before pulling back and wiggling his eyebrows suggestively.
“I could have sworn she was giving you the eye.”
Juliet didn’t disagree with his assessment from when they’d run into the model earlier in the evening.
Either way, she tugged her hair out of her collar as she slipped her jacket on, before she shot him a look. “You know I wasn’t doing that.”
As if she would ever fuck someone at a public event; Robbie played a little faster and looser with that than she did.
The closest she’d ever come to that was… well, hitting on Darcy in the bathroom at the studio. But that had been a real carpe diem moment.
He shrugged. “I mean, okay, I didn’t really think so. But you’ve never disappeared like that at an event before.”
Juliet darted her eyes around, unable to stop herself from correcting him, “Not even just about the location.” She lowered her voice despite them being seemingly alone, “You know about Darcy.”
She hadn’t gushed to Robbie like a teenager or anything, but she had told him all about them – in his words – shacking up last week. How it had gone by far too fast, how well they’d worked together, how they’d been so… compatible. In everything.
Robbie frowned at her, reeling back. “Yeah, and? She’s on tour, now.”
“So?”
He continued to look at her as if she was the crazy one. “So… I mean, this is her first tour.”
“And?” She pushed, deeply disliking the dark feeling that slid through her stomach at whatever he was insinuating.
She’d scoured over all of the details well before last week. We, The Romantics would be touring throughout February and March, ending in April. Nine weeks, which was nothing to sniff at, especially for a first tour.
They’d be performing nearly every Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday, traveling in their off-days, hitting most major cities in the South and Midwest. They had a couple of bigger shows in Manhattan and Chicago, as well. It would be grueling, but she truly believed Darcy was going to thrive.
“And…” Robbie echoed, before he offered her a shrug. “Look, you remember what it was like. Your first tour. It’s freaking crazy. Nothing can really prepare you for it; you know that.”
Yes, she did know it. And?
Robbie clearly saw the look on her face and continued, “Then, there are all of the people throwing themselves at you. Sneaking into your hotel room. That’s happened to both of us! People are there, trying to get a piece, now that they’ve seen you live. That adrenaline is at an all-time high.”
He chuckled, the tone sounding wildly nostalgic and so very at-odds with the feeling coursing through Juliet’s veins at his words.
She glared at him. “What, exactly, is your point?”
He held his hands up, his smile fading away. “I’m not making a point, okay? I’m just… saying. You know. That’s life on tour. It’s crazy. And waaay crazier when it’s the first time you’re getting a taste of it.”
Juliet was aware of everything Robbie was saying, aware it was absolutely the truth. But all of it left her with a very sour taste in her mouth, as though she’d swallowed a mouth full of ashes. “Well, I won’t be in the bathroom with anyone else.”
How could she even entertain the thought, when her mind was so occupied with Darcy?
Robbie’s eyebrows lifted high on his forehead. “Wow. That’s something, huh?”
Juliet supposed it was. She’d never expressed anything like that to Robbie, before. She’d never felt so strongly about someone, before.
So strongly, that for the first time she did dislike having to be at Robbie’s event.