trending.
It was nine in the morning here, which meant it was eleven at night in L.A., so I picked up the phone and called Stu. This was partly my fault, and I had to get in front of it.
“Hallo, mate.” Stu sounded lit, and I mentally grimaced.
“How’s it going?”
“Been a long day,” he replied, “but I’m feeling better now that I have a lovely lass to keep me company and Mr. Beam helping me sort out my feelings.”
“I’m sorry, man.” I sighed. “This is on me. Ariel and I—”
“Isalright.” He was slurring so much it sounded like one word. “I unnerstand… Imma go get pissed, ’kay?”
“You at home?” I asked worriedly.
“Safe and sound.” He disconnected, and I stared at the phone for a minute.
This sucked. Maybe it was time for me to get in front of this. I probably needed to talk to Darren Randall directly. We’d worked together for more than a decade, so there had to be some camaraderie, didn’t there? We hadn’t been close, of course, but Pretty Harts had made a lot of money for Whiplash over the years, so he owed me a conversation, if nothing else.
The problem was what to say.
Did he really believe Ariel was going to marry him? Did he consider me some sort of homewrecker? I didn’t know exactly what was going on with Ariel, but I knew she wasn’t engaged to him or even remotely interested in him. Maybe if Darren understood that Ariel had hired a lawyer and that Douglas wouldn’t have control of her for much longer, Darren would back down, and we could go back to a business relationship.
I felt like I needed to stop what was happening because it went beyond them deciding not to sign the band. It was personal now. I hadn’t cared so much about the news that Darren and Ariel were engaged because I knew it wasn’t true, but now they were going after my band. My friends. And that wasn’t cool at all. Stu had done his time, and while what he’d done would always be with him, it shouldn’t be trending again because I was involved with Ariel.
I needed to clear my head, so I opted to go for a walk, even though it was cold as fuck outside, so I grabbed my phone and room key. I’d just gotten to the bottom of the stairs when I saw Marcus going in the opposite direction, and I nodded a greeting.
“How’s it goin’?” I asked him.
“Another day at the office.” He grinned, falling into step beside me. “What’s going on with you? I saw some stuff about your guitarist.”
“Yeah.” I sighed, unsure how much to say. I didn’t want to say anything that would get him ragging on me about Ariel, but I needed to talk to someone. He was my twin brother, and if I couldn’t talk to him, what did that say about our relationship?
“You okay?”
“I’m struggling,” I admitted.
“Where are you headed?”
“Was gonna take a walk,” I said. “Do you have a few minutes?”
“I can’t go outside right now, I have to do a sweep of all the exits, but you can walk with me while I do it.”
“Okay.”
“What’s going on? Trouble with Ariel?”
I eyed him. “If you can’t be open-minded about her, there’s no point in us talking.”
He held up his hands in a placating gesture. “I’m open-minded. Tell me everything. No judgment. Promise.”
I hesitated and then blew out a breath. “I don’t know what to do. I’m falling for her hard, but all this drama and now the blowback on the band. I was okay with taking it myself, but I don’t want it to impact my friends just because I’m in lust with this super-hot pop star and can’t keep it in my pants.” There. I’d said it. I was a world-class jerk, but I’d said the main thing rooting around in my subconscious.
“Hang on.” He opened a door I hadn’t even noticed, checked the locks, ran his hands along the doorframe, and then closed and locked it. “So, there are some different parts of this to consider. First, is everything good between the two of you? Are you happy? Are you in the type of relationship you could be in long-term?”
I hesitated. “I am. Well, I was, until recently.”
“Meaning?”
“The sex thing was fun, but now I’m nervous she was having some kind of manic episode and I enabled it by being a willing participant. I knew she was bipolar going in, so this shouldn’t be