Luke groaned. “If we focus on that, you know we’re never going to change. We’re never going to get anywhere else,” he said. I hated to admit that he was right.
“Well, what did he say?” I finally sighed. This was it, then. This was how things came to a head. We needed to figure out some way to keep moving forward, even if it meant that we had to ditch the other two, reform the band in some other way.
I didn’t like to think about that.
“We’ve got a shot,” Luke said, his words dripping with import. “We need a better-quality album to shop around, though.” He was quiet for a moment. “I know that you’re looking for us to put some more new material into our routine, but to be honest, I think we have enough material. We just need to put it together into a better demo.”
I snorted. “What’s going to make a better demo is if we don’t record it in your basement next time,” I pointed out.
“Sure,” Luke agreed. A fleeting grin flashed across his face. “What if I said that I could get us into a studio?”
I blinked in surprise. “How?”
Luke shrugged. “Someone owes me a favor,” he said.
For a minute, I let myself consider the possibility of it. If only someone had owed him a favor months ago before everything started to go to shit. Now, though, things were different. If we wanted to make the most of our one shot in the studio, we were going to need to get our shit together. And besides, if this was our only chance in a studio, I wanted to get at least one new song put together.
Just for the thrill of it, really. Hearing a song come together, there was nothing like that. Besides, this might be our only chance, and I couldn’t help but feel that the songs we had written before, even the ones that hadn’t been written all that long ago, were in some ways juvenile. So much had happened since we had first gotten together as a band.
Things were different now than I had ever imagined they would be for us.
As if on cue, I looked over at the bar in time to see Carter polish off another shot. I felt bitterness tighten the corners of my mouth. “You know we’ll never be able to pull it off,” I said to Luke.
He was silent, and I knew he was thinking of the possibilities as well. What could we do—how could we get out of this situation? Neither of us wanted to ditch Mark and Carter, even if that was the only way to save the band.
Luke laughed bitterly. “I guess it was worth a thought, anyway,” he said.
The bitterness in his voice hit me hard. Even though I had spent weeks knowing that the band was falling apart, I didn’t want to face the fact that he knew it too.
“I’m not ruling it out,” I said fiercely. “But we’re going to need to have a serious band meeting first.”
“Sure,” Luke said, and I could hear from his doubtful tone that he didn’t think it would ever happen. That only made me more determined to figure something out, however.
Somehow, I was going to have to get Mark and Carter to get their shit together and focus. Without everyone working together, we were going to blow our shot at stardom, yet I knew that none of us could make it on our own.
For the first time in a while, I felt certain that we had to keep the band together, at any cost.
I looked back toward the bar, though, wondering what that cost might prove to be.
14
Leah
He was drumming again. He had been so great for the past couple of weeks, practically tiptoeing on eggshells when he knew I was at home, but now he was drumming again. I let out a huff as I looked at my clock. It was nearly two in the morning. What the hell was his problem?
I lay in bed for a moment wondering if I could ignore it. It was unacceptable, but on the other hand, I had been laying low since our hookup. I wasn’t sure I had it in me to storm over there, not right now. Who knew what might happen?
I felt a shiver go through me as I considered it.
I thought about the lingerie I had let Piper convince me to buy. It was wrapped in tissue paper in the bottom drawer of my nightstand. Not that I would ever wear it. It was tamer than what my coworker had wanted me to get, but it still wasn’t anything I would ever be comfortable in. Even if I agreed that I did look good in it.
What if I went over there now? Dressed in that? But no, I couldn’t do that. I just couldn’t.