Chapter 34
Two months later.
The last song ends and the crowd roars as Mia and the musicians take their bows at the edge of the stage.
Erin rubs her arms as another wave of emotion moves through her—one of many she's felt throughout the show.
The tour ends here for everyone, and for her it marks the close of the four most intense months of her life.
Her eyes well up and she tries to breathe steadily.
She hadn't imagined feeling this way when the moment finally came, but it's here, and she realizes how much she loves this.
She loves traveling with the tour, even though she's lost track of time more than once and had to think a few extra seconds to remember what city they're in. She loves this pace—somewhere between crazy and stressful—that makes the days fly by and the nights too short beside Mia.
Her bond with Nell has grown deep, and the woman has become something close to a second mother to her.
She's also built a real friendship with Lexie Farhall, and the two of them grab a drink whenever their schedules line up and they get the chance.
She's grown so fond of Noah that she thinks of him more as a brother than a friend.
She'll miss several people on the crew she's worked with nearly every day, and then there's the singer—the one Erin feels things for so intensely that she's long since stopped trying to define them.
They don't scare her the way they used to, either.
She's accepted that she's in love with the girl with lavender hair, that the age difference between them doesn't bother either of them, and that she's willing to face whatever comes their way.
After another seemingly endless roar from the crowd, the lights go out and the singer and musicians make their way offstage guided by flashlights.
Mia follows the beam until she spots her and walks toward her, eyes just as wet as Erin's.
She's not only moved by the end of a tour that has brought her so much—she's also feeling the weight of this being the last day Erin will be with her.
They hold each other without needing anything else, and Mia ends up crying because her emotions are right at the surface. Erin kisses her neck and doesn't bother checking her vitals, because right now her pulse is through the roof.
"Go shower," she whispers, wiping her tears away with her fingers. "I'll be there in ten minutes."
Mia sniffles, they share a kiss, and she disappears down the hallway. Erin walks toward Nell, who's waiting with her arms crossed beside a massive speaker that's finally gone silent. They look at each other, and the doctor feels her throat tighten just before the woman smiles and opens her arms.
"I'll come see you when I pass through New York," Nell says, pulling her close, "and I expect you to sneak away and visit me in Baltimore."
"I promise." Erin wipes her own tears.
Tomorrow Nell catches an early flight home to get ready for the next tour she has to direct, so this is the last time she'll see her.
She spends the next few minutes saying her goodbyes to the crew, and finally—after a brief wave to Jude—walks toward the dressing room. They emerge half an hour later with the singer's security team.
They head to a back exit where a car is waiting, but as always, some fans have found their way there through what seems like pure magic.
They walk out hand in hand, and Mia presses close to her as camera flashes go off.
It's official now—they're together, publicly.
After talking it through between themselves and then with Noah and the singer's publicist, Mia made a short statement on social media confirming she was officially dating the doctor, and while Erin had a hard time adjusting to the attention those first few weeks, she's gotten used to it and doesn't mind posing with her anymore.
She gets into the car while Mia signs a few autographs, and when the singer finally climbs in, the driver pulls away—only this time they're not heading straight to the hotel.
They've asked to be taken to a lookout point Erin found while searching for things to do in the city, one they both wanted to see before leaving.
Getting there means winding up a narrow road for twenty minutes, then the driver turns onto a dirt path where they travel a couple of miles until the car's headlights finally catch the wooden railing at the edge of the overlook.
The driver stops a few yards back after turning the car around and leaving it ready for the return trip.
They get out, pull on jackets against the cold, and walk toward the railing alongside a bodyguard who circles the area, and once he's satisfied there's no one close enough to matter, steps back a safe distance and makes himself invisible.
"It's beautiful," Erin murmurs, taking in the sweeping view of the city spread out below them.
"It is," the singer agrees, and turns toward her, wrapping herself around her as her eyes drift across the lights. "I'm going to miss you," she adds softly.
Erin, her arm around Mia's shoulders, lowers her gaze slightly to meet the singer's eyes, dark in the dim light around them.
"It's two weeks."
"Two very long weeks." Mia's dramatic tone makes the doctor laugh.
Even though the tour is officially over, the singer still has a couple of trips before she gets back to New York, where she'll have a few weeks to rest before starting work on the new album.
First she's flying to Mexico in a few days to film an a cappella mini-concert in the city—five days of interviews—and then they'll head to Canada for another awards ceremony where the artist is nominated.
Erin can't go with her. Violette negotiated four months with the hospital, and those four months are up in a couple of days, so she has to go back and return to work.
"Will you be okay?" Mia asks, and she doesn't mean the two of them—she means she knows Erin doesn't want that job anymore.
"Yeah, don't worry." The doctor tucks a strand of hair behind Mia's ear before leaning against the railing, arms resting on the wood as she stares out into the distance.
They never reached an agreement with Jude.
The agent hadn't objected to Erin being part of the team as Mia's primary doctor—and the rest of the crew's as well—but he'd flatly refused to give her the authority she'd asked for.
He turned red and launched into how one bad call could cost them serious money, how they were bound by the contract with the label and by tour dates.
He rattled off a list of reasons why only he could make decisions in any given moment, until Mia suddenly snapped, told him she was done, that without her there was no tour, no contracts, no sponsorships, and demanded that Erin's terms be accepted.
Jude looked at her—stunned at first, then he collected himself and said something Mia hadn't expected.
He threatened to destroy her career, reminding her that he held all the industry contacts and that if he chose to, he could make sure no one wanted to work with her again.
Mia opened her mouth to fire him on the spot, then closed it when she felt Erin's hand on her leg.
"Fine—your terms," the doctor said, because she wasn't willing to put Mia through that kind of stress and risk her collapsing.
"Why did you agree to that?" the singer asked once they were back in the room, her voice tight with anger. "I was going to fire him. If he thinks he can threaten me—"
"Honey." Erin held her face in her hands and Mia felt her whole body go warm.
"I don't know a lot about how this works, but I don't think you can just fire him like that—he probably has a contract too.
And you can't make a decision like that when you're this angry, or blow it all up and suddenly have no agent.
I don't want you fighting over me. It's not worth it.
I'll keep negotiating with him the way I have been, and that's that—it's fine. "
The singer held on to her without a word while Erin rubbed her back to help her calm down, but for Mia it wasn't fine.
Jude had never threatened her like that before, never shown her that side of himself.
She was grateful Erin had stopped her, because she knew Erin was right and that acting out of anger would only make things worse—but she'd talk to Noah about this, and together they'd set up a video call with Violette to find out what her options actually were.
Now they're still out there, looking at the city lights while the cold air makes them shiver and slowly unknots something inside them both.
"Four months is a long time," Mia says quietly.
Erin exhales through her nose and says nothing.
After deciding she was going to leave the hospital, she'd reached out to HR, and after a video call they had a few days later, they explained that her contract included a clause requiring six months' written notice before a resignation could take effect.
There was no getting around it, so she'll have to work the four months she has left before she can walk away.
"Time goes fast," she answers finally, glancing at Mia with a small smile.
She knows they're going to see very little of each other—when the singer gets back to New York, she'll be buried in impossible shifts that leave only small gaps, and those gaps won't always line up with Mia's schedule.
Mia will only have about a month of real downtime before she's back to work, but Erin thinks of it as a test: if they can get through it, they can get through anything.
Mia leans into her and gives her a gentle nudge with her hip.
"We could do this more often," she suggests, meaning lookout spots like this one—finding quiet places with a good view and coming out at night. "I love how calm it is."
Erin agrees. She's just wrapped her fingers around Mia's wrist to check her pulse and finds a slow, easy rhythm that has nothing in common with the hours after a show, when it takes forever for the adrenaline to drain away.
"I'll find them. Places just like this—we'll go whenever you want." Erin pulls her close and presses a kiss to her neck that tickles the singer, who scrunches up and bursts out laughing.