Ronni will be watching our every move. Maybe Dirk too. “You’d better leave unless you want to be introduced to my morning wood, Bria.” I move to get out of bed, and she covers her eyes and runs out of the room.
“We’re leaving in ten minutes!” she yells from the hall.
After a quick shower, I go to the kitchen, fill a bowl with cereal, and dig in. “Anyone hear from Brad?”
Garrett looks up from his phone. “Not a peep since we saw him at IRL.”
“Don’t you guys think it’s strange that he crawled under a rock after coming back from Florida?”
Bria takes my empty bowl and rinses it out. I kind of like having her around. Even though she’s a little bossy, she does pick up after us.
Bossy. I think of Ella. We’ve gone out to dinner twice since going to Dirk’s. She wanted me to go back to her place. Maybe sleep over again. But after being in his office, shit came back to me in a bad way. I’ve needed a minute.
“Brad’s never been in constant contact,” Bria says. “Before the tour, we only talked to him at rehearsals and gigs. He’s not as social as we are. Could be you’re noticing his absence more now that the rest of us are living together.”
“It’s not that,” I say. “Something’s changed.”
Crew joins us with wet hair. “Who used all the hot water?”
Garrett raises his hand. “That’d probably be me. Got a sexy text from this chick I met last night. Had to rub one out in the shower.”
“Ew.” Bria rolls her eyes. “I did not need to know that.”
Crew says to her, “There’s one way we could save on hot water. Shower together.”
“Yeah, baby,” Garrett says, giving Bria a wink and a thumbs-up.
“You guys really have no boundaries, do you?” Bria asks.
Crew laughs. “You agreed to the living situation.”
“Living with us means you have to put up with all our shit,” Garrett says. “Hey, speaking of shit, I was wondering if you guys drop duces in front of each other.”
“Oh my God, stop,” Bria says.
The rest of us are laughing.
Crew grabs his notebook and we head for the door. “To answer your question, no. There are some things you shouldn’t watch your lady do.”
“Yeah, that’s what I thought,” Garrett says. “And the tampon stuff?”
Bria looks shocked. Crew discreetly shakes his head at Garrett.
Garrett continues teasing Bria the entire way to IRL. He gets some funny looks on the subway because of his vulgarity. Bria’s a good sport, though. She’s learned to put up with us after a year of being the only girl in RA.
We stop laughing when we walk into IRL to see Ronni brooding. She glances at the clock. “You’re late.”
“We’re artists,” I say. “We don’t work on a schedule.”
“I expect you to be on time when we have a meeting.”
“Then you’d better not tell us about it the morning of.”
“Come,” she says, like we’re dogs that obey her command. “Jeremy and Brad are waiting in the conference room.”
Garrett raises an eyebrow. “Ooooo, the conference room. Fancy.”
“I’m already missing the barn,” Crew says.
We sit around a large table, and Ronni hands us each a packet. “What’s this?” I ask.
“Our new business plan.”
I glance at the others. “We’re a goddamn rock band, Ronni.”
“And you think that’s not a business? Until now, all you’ve had to do is play your music, sit back, and let me do the rest. Not anymore. Your brand is growing, thanks to me. You’ve seen the royalty checks, and they’re only going to get bigger.”
“She’s right,” Crew says. “This is a business. Now let’s get this over with so we can get to rehearsal and do what we do that makes them money.”
Ronni sits at the head of the table. “Open to page one. It’s the schedule I’ve set for you. It covers six months. We’ll need to cut two more albums and make a whole lot of music videos. You’re getting a lot of airtime, but we don’t want the songs to get stale. We need to freshen things up. On page two is a list of all the clubs I’ve booked. We’re in a different league now. No more bars and taverns. High-end dance clubs only from here on out. I predict that within a year, you may not be playing clubs at all. Tours and appearances only, that’s the goal.”
“We’re going to need more security,” Crew says, talking to Ronni but looking at Bria.