Total pages in book: 87
Estimated words: 85135 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 426(@200wpm)___ 341(@250wpm)___ 284(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 85135 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 426(@200wpm)___ 341(@250wpm)___ 284(@300wpm)
I call Felicity. Maybe she’ll have heard.
“Hey,” she says. “You okay?”
“Yeah, I was just checking in. Do you ever sleep?”
“I can sleep when I’m dead. What’s going on, darling?”
“Beau came round last night.”
I’m met by silence on the other end of the line. And then, “Do you like him? I know there’d been some coffee dates before he signed up as Mr. Vivian Cross.”
“Don’t say that.” My stomach churns. Every now and then Matt would get called that—by his guy friends, his colleagues, sometimes even members of my team. He always pretended he wasn’t bothered, and I assumed he took it all in his stride. Maybe he didn’t. Maybe it ground him down over time.
“You know what I mean,” Felicity says. “So tell me why you’re calling. You’re wondering whether you should have let him come over? You slept with him and you think he might talk?”
“I didn’t sleep with him.” I was close to wanting to, but Felicity doesn’t need to know that. “But I’m attracted to him. It feels…odd to be thinking about anyone in that way. I was with Matt for so long.”
“I know. But a rebound fling might be the best thing for you.”
I sigh. I’m not sure I’m the kind of woman who has rebound flings. But who knows? I only ever dated Matt.
“The whole Matt thing is making me question everything. I suppose a part of me is a little concerned that what happened last night has been, or will be, leaked to the tabloids.”
“Nothing yet, darling. I’ve just done a sweep. Even checked Reddit. There’s lots of pieces about the two of you, but it’s only stuff we’ve put out there. I’m a little surprised there isn’t more from his camp. Not from a malicious perspective, but he’s young, he has friends and colleagues and even brothers. No one seems to be saying anything. Usually the paps or the journos can get something out of someone. But I suppose it’s early days.”
“Promise me something?” I ask.
“If you promise me something,” she replies.
“What?” I ask.
“You go first.”
“Make sure you tell me everything?” I ask. “I need to know it all, even if you think it’s insignificant. Even when Beau’s side starts slipping up because they’re being hounded or because someone’s been through his trash can. Tell me everything. I want to know.”
“I’ve promised I will. You’ll know everything I know, as soon as I know it. But you must promise me that you won’t let Matt make you bitter or suspicious.” She pauses. “Okay, you can be a bit suspicious—most people have an agenda with you—but don’t let him stop you picking out the good ones and sharing your heart with them.”
I sigh. Easier said than done.
“Try and put the past in the past,” she says.
I laugh a little cynically. “How am I supposed to do that when I’ve got this album to promote? I’m going to fly all over the world and sing songs about the man who betrayed me. Worse, they’re songs about how much I love him.”
She sighs. “God, I wish you could trash the entire album.”
“Yeah, me too.” I’d just finished recording it when I found out about Matt.
“Have you been writing any music since?”
“A few bits.” The last few days, I’ve been getting more and more ideas. I’ve been playing the piano more, but I haven’t put pen to paper on anything. “Nothing about the breakup. It’s so humiliating, I don’t want people hearing about it. It would be like filming myself in therapy or something. No one wants to see that.”
More silence on the other end of the phone. “Felicity? Did you fall asleep on me?”
“I’m just thinking. Does the label care about the songs released on the album? Do you have songs you’ve not previously used that you could supplement so you don’t have to sing about Matt?”
“But almost everything I wrote was about him, whether it’s been released or not. Two or three songs on every album were more general, but most of my music has always been about him. About us.”
Still, her question starts me thinking. “What do you think the label would say if I demanded we trash the album and start again?”
“I think they’d shit their pants,” Felicity says.
“But if I had new music. Better music. Like, that would be exciting from a publicity standpoint, wouldn’t it? If a boyfriend did me wrong so I dumped an entire album about him, and I met someone else and he inspired me to write an album in just…ten days.”
Adrenaline starts to pump through my veins and I swing my legs off my bed. “I could do that. If we got Bobby and Judo to fly over. I wouldn’t want to do it without them.” They’d been my producers for the last three albums. We’re practically telepathic with one another when it comes to music. “I could do a collab. Maybe even two. Wasn’t Katy’s team asking for a collab and I didn’t have time in the schedule?”