Polly’s grin almost split her face. I could imagine mine was nearly as huge. Just being asked meant we were doing great things.
“Oh,” she said. “There might be an interview beforehand, too.”
“I need Fiona to do my makeup. I have to look sizzling.” I looked around but couldn’t see her.
“They’ll have their own makeup artists,” Polly said.
“Yeah, but they won’t be as good as Fiona. She’s magic. I’ll ask her when she comes down.”
Before that, Crow arrived. Even though I’d only seen him a few minutes ago, the sight of him walking into the room made my heart flutter. I wanted to jump up and fly into his arms, but I stayed seated. He’d be beside me soon enough, and I didn’t want to put on a public display.
Polly stared at me.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“Your necklace, it’s new?” she asked.
I put my hand up to touch it. I’d thought my grin couldn’t get any wider after the TV news, but remembering the necklace amped it tenfold. Crow must’ve been pretty confident of Polly’s answer to have bought this before he’d even spoken to her. I liked that.
“It sure is,” I replied.
Polly kept looking, but I didn’t explain. She could wonder all she liked.
I wanted to spend the morning with Crow, but he had to go pick up some drumming stuff from one of the shops in the city. I’d have gone with him, but this TV thing was freaking me out. I needed to be super-prepared.
I spent way too long doing my makeup and hair before heading to the arena. Even if it was going to be redone, I wanted to look perfect. Then I had to pick what to wear. It had to be cute and cool and sexy. I had outfits that hit two out of three of those things, but nothing that ticked all the boxes. Why did I have such shit clothes? I needed to go shopping. Did I have time? I checked the clock. Nope. Not nearly enough. Why hadn’t we had more warning of this?
I called Polly’s room. “Pick two of these: cool, cute, sexy?” I asked.
“I think you want Polly,” Damo said.
“Well, give me your opinion first,” I told him. “The more input, the better.”
“Sexy and cool,” he said.
That was what I thought, too. Then he gave Polly the phone.
“Cute and cool. Not sexy.”
I’d figured she’d say that. I wasn’t sure why I’d even asked.
“Don’t panic too much. Anything you have is fine,” she added.
“How do you know that?”
“I know every outfit you own by now. Anyway, no one will be looking at you with me onstage.” She laughed.
“Yeah, good one, Polly,” I said.
I hung up and tried on the tight, sexy black dress again. It would be perfect but it was a bit tight for easy movement onstage. I held it up in front of me. It did look better on me than anything else I had. A little tightness wouldn’t be too bad.
With that sorted out, I had an hour or so to kill.
I went back online to continue my search. I got about five likely results, but I wasn’t sure what to do with them now that I’d found them. I just stared at the names for a while. One of these people had to be Crow’s sister. Then I dug deeper and whittled that list down to three.
Screw it. I sent emails to those three. I didn’t mention Crow’s name. That would be stupid. If you asked anyone if they were related to the drummer in a famous rock band, they’d say yes. Instead, I put in the few details he’d told me about his past, hoping one of them would respond. I’d work out what to do next if that happened.
I was on a roll. The stars were all converging in my favor, and things would only get better.
Chapter 22
WE WAITED BACKSTAGE for the interview.
“They will speak English?” I asked Polly. I couldn’t sit still, but I knew the way I jumped around drove Polly nuts, so I tried to calm myself.
“You idiot. Of course they will. Otherwise, it’d be a damn boring interview.”
I loved being on good terms with Polly again. When we weren’t at each other’s throats, we really were best friends.
“Anyway,” she said, “it’s not like you won’t have anything to say. You never shut up.”