22. Hayden
HAYDEN
My press release went out a couple of hours ago—several hours too late to combat all the videos on social media. Although they portrayed Río as a happy drunk, they still portrayed him as a drunk.
Luke’s words ring true. “You were in charge of him. What happened?”
If only I knew. One minute we were in bed together, having what I thought was a fantastic time. He couldn’t have faked it. Can men even do that?
I shake my head. Whatever. Something changed between our cozy hotel room and the boat, but I can’t figure out what it was. He arrived primed to drink every single person under the table. Rather, under the boat. We didn’t get into a fight. I simply don’t know what drove him to pound the alcohol.
As for taking the plunge? The boat struck some waves, which knocked Río off-balance. If he were sober, there wouldn’t have been an issue. In his inebriated state, well, into the river he went.
He acted like a jerk the whole time, though. Why did he hit on that woman? He never even said thank you to me for saving his sorry butt.
Get this through your thick skull, Hayden: he’s never going to change.
All this is water under the bridge—literally. My focus has to be on making money, especially since Bennett has to know I lost the bet. I need to pray my press release appeases the label, assuming they even saw any of the videos. Who am I kidding? Of course they saw them.
Ignoring all the panicked voices in my mind, I open my camera roll and curate a photo dump for social media. UC’s profiles have lots of pictures, but a few more will definitely help to deflect the poor coverage from this afternoon.
Nese stops by. “Hey! Saw your guy went for a swim.”
“You could say that.” I take some clothes from her and hang them on the racks in The Closet.
“Why are you so upset? It looked like harmless fun to me.” She moves the hangars around, putting pieces of paper with the guys’ names on them.
“He was drunk.”
She shrugs. “Yeah. So? I’m sure he’s sobered up by now.”
“I was assigned the task of keeping him sober. Luke chewed me out for my failure.” Not going to mention anything about the twitchy label.
One pierced eyebrow raises.
“Keeping UC in line is a hard job.”
She puts her hands on her hips and laughs. “This is probably the understatement of the year.” Her pixie cut swishes. “Still, Luke—and Coop for that matter—could take a page out of Río’s book and go wild sometimes.”
I can’t picture either of them as freewheeling as Río. Needing to change the subject, I show her some of my candids. “Think these would be good additions to their socials?”
She scrolls through my camera roll. “Damn, girl. Your talents are wasted on PR. These are great.”
“Thanks.” Small consolation considering what happened today, but it’s still nice to hear. “I’ll post these now, before the concert. Hype up the fans.”
“Especially that one of Tris. He looks adorable dancing. Is that from Madrid?”
I smile. “Sure is.” I point to the women in the background. “Don’t you recognize them?”
Nese squints. “I think this one hooked up with 007.” She points to another. “She bagged Tris.”
“Yup.” I pause. “Who got Coop?”
Her face scrunches up. “He has his choice of women and I’ve seen ladies throw themselves at him. He’s nice to them, but ends up going back to his room alone.”
“Maybe Río should take some lessons from his best friend.”
Her laugh reappears. “Sorry to say, before you arrived on the scene, Río was heralded as nearly as big of a manwhore as Bennett. Although, no one can take that title away from the lead singer. And I mean, no one.”
“Does Jenna know?”
“Sure does. Because of her, he changed his ways. I didn’t know him before this tour, obviously, but let’s say he was to women what Río is to drinking. The man doesn’t even look at another woman now.”
“Good,” I reply. At least one band member is capable of having a real relationship.
“True. I find it difficult to imagine any others settling down. Although, I think you have a shot with Río. He seems pretty smitten to me.”
I close my eyes. She’s been my confidant on tour—and I feel a little guilty about not sharing this with her before—so I admit, “We were making a go of it before today. Something changed… and I’m still trying to figure out what.”
She turns to face me. “What an asshole! Here I was, liking you two together. What happened?”
Hell if I know. I shrug. “I have no idea. One minute he was, uhm, super sexy and the next, he was colder than Antarctica.”
“Oh honey, I’m so sorry.” She moves to the rack marked “Río.” “I’m tempted to put a hole in his pants.”
I smile. Followed by a little giggle. She joins me, and soon we’re both laughing hard. Coop, 007, and Tris enter The Closet.
The bassist speaks loudly. “Care to share with the rest of the class?”
Nese and I look at each other and laugh harder. “Nope. Girls’ secret.” I extend my pointer finger toward the stylist, who touches mine and we both make popping noises.
“Not fair,” Tris grumbles.
Coop interjects, “C’mon guys. Let’s get dressed while we have The Closet basically to ourselves. Doesn’t happen very often.”
We give the three band members space—Nese to finish up with the band’s outfits and I return to the other room to work on updating their socials. All the while trying to puzzle another way to earn more money. For Mila.
I’m pressing send when Río enters The Closet. He and Bennett laugh about something. Must be nice not to have a care in the world and be on stage with your best friends nightly.
When I’m finished, I stand and enter the backstage area which is filled with the opening band’s tunes. I stake out a nondescript corner so as not to be front and center when UC comes in. Which is about five minutes later.
Río starts to walk to me and my back arches like a cat ready to enter into battle. He must see something in my eyes, because he veers toward Coop. Guess he’s smarter than I gave him credit for.
From my corner, I stifle my impulse to stick my tongue out at the shirtless drummer. The one who ruined everything in my life. I turn my head away.
Luke approaches. “Hey. Still no word from the label, so I think we dodged that bullet.”
“I’m glad. Hopefully my press release did the trick.”
“Plus the donation to the boat, courtesy of Río.”
My body freezes. “I didn’t tell him to do that, although I had mentioned something like it to the captain.”
“Whatever. Our boy made a hefty donation, which should keep things more on the down low. We’re not out of the woods yet, though. The videos the passengers took are pretty damning.”
I crumple inward. “He was drunk. I don’t know what happened, but he drank at least a six-pack by himself.”
The manager puts his hands on my shoulders and looks me directly in the eyes. “I know I asked you to babysit him, but he’s wild. I honestly believe you did your best to keep him away from alcohol. We have to wait.”
“Thanks. I did what I could.”
“Including getting him back on the boat.” He smiles, the corners of his eyes crinkling.
“Seemed like the right thing to do at the time.”
“Wishing you hadn’t now?” Luke steps backward.
“Maybe.” I’m done wallowing. “But he’s here in one piece—and sober—so I’m counting that as a win.”
“Good call. I’m going to round up the troops. You coming?”
“Nah. I’ll watch from here.” I push my fist forward. “Go get ‘em!”
His shoulder-length brown hair swings as he turns. Río’s isn’t too much shorter than his now.
Change the subject!
I take a deep breath. I’ll fly commercial with the others to Ireland tonight and meet up with UC like I used to do. My days babysitting Río—and flying private—are long gone.
The band forms a circle and does their pre-gig ritual. I’ve seen this so many times, but it still gets my blood pumping. Involuntarily, I respond with my own whoop following Bennett’s yelling his infamous line.
After they rush onto the stage, Nese puts her arm through mine and escorts us to the backstage area, where we can watch the band perform unobtrusively. Jenna joins us. Their first song is greeted by loud applause.
“I’ll never tire of seeing my man in those pants, Nese.”
The stylist blows on her fingers. “It’s a tough job.” She punctuates her sentence with a hearty laugh.
“Coop’s sunglasses look cool on the stage,” Jenna adds.
“I’d really like for him to take them off when he’s offstage.” Nese rolls her eyes. “Anyway, at least Tris and 007 are rocking what I gave them.”
I follow their statements and my gaze bounces from the guitarist to the bassist to the keyboardist. Anything to keep myself from watching the drummer. I join their conversation, “Tris is such a nice guy.”
“I don’t think the others have had time to corrupt him yet,” Nese replies.
“He’s the real deal,” Jenna adds. “Polite to a fault. He’s someone special.”
We all stare at Tris, who appears to be lost in the music.
It’s as if he can’t help himself, but sways at the keys in a super-sexy way.
Not to be outdone, 007 walks over to the keyboard and strums his bass—of course, the instrument is right over his crotch.
As is Coop’s. All of them exude sex appeal, which the women in the audience eat up. Some of the men, too.
“Make Me Feel It,” their second number one, comes to an end. The cymbals are hit from all directions by the shirtless drummer, to whom I refuse to give any more time. At least none of my companions mention his antics.
Bennett takes the mic. “How are you doing, Lisbon?” He puts his hand to his ear. Shouts from the crowd reverberate throughout the stadium.
The lead singer laughs and looks over his shoulder. Next to me, Jenna waves and he blows her a kiss.
If only … stop, Hayden. Río showed his true colors today. He won’t change.
The band jumps into another one of their hits, spurred on by the audience. This group of talented men gather energy from them and reflect it back. Every single night has a different vibe, but the concert always starts at a level ten out of ten, and ends somewhere near a fifty.