“Hopefully,” I tell Leo, crossing my fingers in pretend excitement. I could care less about the club opening, I just want Sydney to have a great and successful night.
Leo finishes up with his questions and we eat the rest of our lunch without the recorder. He likes to discuss American football, which I know nothing about so we settle on discussing our favorite cities and the best places to go in each one.
Exhausted, I stand up and shake Leo’s hand. “Thanks Adam,” he says sincerely. “The article will be great. I’ll send a copy to your publicist to review before publication, but I’ve been told it’s next month’s cover story and you’ve already done the photo shoot, right?”
“I have. Last week, and thank you for being good company and knowing when to push and when to back off. You’re good at this, Leo.”
He smiles and I leave feeling good, something that doesn’t happen very often. I take it and embrace the happiness while it lasts, knowing it won’t last long.
* * *
“Have you seen my silver heels, honey?” Kiera comes out of the giant walk-in wardrobe in my hotel suite and begins searching the bedroom for her shoes.
“No,” I answer crossly. “Everything of yours that’s here is in the closet, I expect.” I wave my hand in the direction of the walk-in. She travels with way too many clothes. Kiera’s only in New York for the weekend to attend this big post-New Year’s party I promised Ross I would go to, and she brought three massive pieces of luggage with her.
“It’s good for your image, Adam. Get out there and mingle with the Hollywood ‘in’ crowd,” Ross said. “Kiera helps you with that now, the tabloids love you two together and that helps the band.”
Like I give a toss about the Hollywood crowd or tabloids. Pl
us, that prick Andrew Forrester is supposed to be there, and I still haven’t gotten over the way he had me shut out all those years ago. If I had been able to score just a single small role in a film, I might have had enough money to fly home and tell Ellie what an arse I was at that party and beg her forgiveness. He may very well have been the one who cost me my future with her.
I shake my head and curse myself. I can be as pissed off at him as I want, it was no one’s fault but my own for everything going arse over tit that night. Why he blacklisted me I may never know, but I’m the one who went off on Ellie and sent her running.
“Adam, are you listening to me?”
“What?” I turn my focus on Kiera who is standing by the bed with her hands on her hips, her blue eyes narrowed and a scowl on her gorgeous face.
“Have you heard a single thing I’ve been saying?”
“Sorry love, no,” I admit. Kiera loves to talk about herself, so much so that I’ve gotten in the habit of tuning her out when she’s on a long-winded discussion about how perfect she is. She still gets angry when I do it, which is silly, because I tune her out all the time.
She pouts and stomps over to the bed, snatching up her handbag and giving me the side-eye as she sulks. “Well, let’s go,” she says sharply.
I ignore her attitude, something I’m also very good at doing, and give her a quick peck on the lips. “Alright, after you love.”
Kiera squints at me as if she’s finally figured out that I’m completely mental, then turns and leaves the suite. Smiling at her irritation, I trail behind, eager to get this weekend over with so she can go back to Los Angeles and I can stay here and work on the new album.
The novelty of Kiera looking like Ellie has worn thin, no longer holding the sick fascination it used to. She’s such an unbelievable bitch sometimes, it’s a wonder that anyone can stand being around her. Of course, I think of it as a fitting punishment for my past sins, but even that excuse is getting old. I’ll have to do something about Kiera soon, maybe after the tour.
Kiera prattles on about herself the entire ride to the party. It’s at some big music producer’s house on Long Island, so Kiera has a captive audience, me, for an hour in this bloody car and she’s not likely to let it go to waste.
I tune her out until I catch a few words that spark my interest, and not in a good way.
“I’m sorry, what did you just say?”
Kiera rolls her eyes and huffs as if I’m the most annoying person in the world. “I said, my next co-star will be there tonight, Adam.”
“Yes, but who did you say that was?”
“God Adam, you never listen to me!”
This is true.
“Kiera, just tell me who the fuck it is and cut the whinging,” I snarl. She gives me a dirty look for my outburst. I almost never lash out at her no matter how bitchy she’s being. Usually I have on my ‘fun happy Adam’ personality for her, but it’s getting more difficult to keep up every single day. It’s easy to be fun happy Adam around Leah and Sydney, just like it was when I was with Ellie. Around Kiera? Not so much.
“Andrew Forrester, you know, the hottest actor around. I’m going to be his co-star. Full headlining role with one of the biggest leading actors out there. It’s huge for me,” she says slowly as if speaking to a small child. “Especially since they announced last month that he’s the ‘Sexiest Man Alive’ again.”
I pinch the bridge of my nose between my finger and thumb and press down. My head might well explode from the stress. “You’re going to be working with that tosser?”