to struggle with.
“Tris, you okay?” Bash asked, cutting into my thoughts, concern on his face.
“What? Yeah. I didn’t sleep well last night,” I said. Or the night before that, or the night before that.
Fucking hell. We were leaving in another month to go back on tour, and there were so many things we still had to do. Being fucked up about Evie and her lies was not helping.
“Evie sleep over?” Jax asked, wiggling his brow.
“Fuck off. No,” I bit out.
“Uh oh. Trouble in paradise already?” Jax taunted.
“I don’t want to talk about it,” I muttered.
“Leave it, Ellie. Obviously, something is up and he will tell us when he’s ready,” Charlie said.
“Can we get back to work?” I asked, plucking at the heavy strings on the bass guitar in my lap.
“Yeah,” Bash said, standing up with his guitar and heading over to his mic.
We weren’t recording anything today, but Bash had another song to share with us. The man was on fire. I guess love will do that to you.
I wouldn’t know.
Fucking hell. Maybe I should legally change my name to Moody Blues and be done with it. This melancholy shit was annoying. Bash was the one who always held that title, not me.
“You okay?” Charlie asked, plopping down beside me when Jax jumped up to work through some lyrics with Bash.
“Yeah. I’m fine.”
“I know I’m still new here, but I’m a great listener.”
“Thanks, Charlie,” I said.
“And I have something very valuable that they don’t have.” She nodded toward Jax and Bash.
“What is that?” I asked.
“Women’s intuition and common sense. Actually, I’m quite sure those are one and the same.” Then she grinned, and I laughed, softly.
“I’ll keep that in mind. Sometimes we have common sense, too, you know.”
“Yeah, but it’s not often. And the men that do are like magical unicorns,” she said with a smirk.
“Get your asses up here and let’s learn this song,” Jax shouted.
“Fuck, man. Why are you shouting? We’re all right here,” Bash said, pulling his ear.
“I’m pumped. The new songs are going to be even epicer than all of the songs on the last album combined,” Jax said, bouncing on his feet.
The man was energy personified.
“Epicer? You making up words now?” I asked, shaking my head at his antics.
“Don’t harsh my vibe, man,” Jax replied, and Bash and I shook our heads and grinned. We were used to his insanity.
And right now that was just the distraction I needed.
A few hours later, after everyone left, I stared at my phone again. I tapped my finger on her name and re-read her texts. I hated being in this position, but Cassie was like a sister to me. I’d known her since we were kids.
Tristan: How soon do you want to tell Cassie?
Not even a minute passed before those three dots appeared.
Evie: Hi, Tristan. Thanks for texting me back. Will you be there?
Evie: That might be a good idea. I know you don’t want to see me. But
I waited to see if she would type anything else, but no dots appeared. I shouldn’t hate, after everything, how dejected she sounded, but I did.
I guess I wasn’t a complete asshole.
Tristan: Yes. I’ll be there. For Cassie.
Yeah. I was an asshole.
Evie: I get it. I’m assuming you don’t want to do this in public, like at a coffee shop or something?
Tristan: Nope. Can you come over here tomorrow afternoon?
Evie: Sure. James takes a nap from two to four and my mom can watch him.
Tristan: I’ll check with Cassie and let you know.
Evie: Thanks.
Evie: I’m sorry.
Evie: See you tomorrow.
Evie: I’ll stop now.
Goddamn. The ache in my chest grew steadily with every response. I shouldn’t feel like the bad guy in this situation, but for some reason I did.
I shoved that aside and tapped on Cassie’s name.
Tristan: Hey, Cass.
Cassie: Hey, Tris. Bash said you were a little cranky today. Everything okay?
Goddamn, could that man keep anything from her? He was like a gossiping hen.
Tristan: Yeah. I’m good. Any chance you and Bash are free tomorrow afternoon?
Cassie: You sure everything is okay?
Tristan: Yeah, just wanted to talk to you about something.
Cassie: Should I be nervous?
Tristan: With me? Never.
Cassie: LOL. I know that. Tomorrow’s fine. What time?
Tristan: Two?
Cassie: We’ll be there.
Tristan: See you tomorrow.
Cassie: See you tomorrow. Sometimes I like a break from Jax, too.
Tristan: LOL.
Then I went back to my text with Evie.
Tristan: Cassie and Bash will be here at two tomorrow. Does that work?
Evie: Yes. Thanks for helping me do this.
Tristan: See you tomorrow.
Evie: I’m sorry.
Tristan: You said that already.
Then I