your art class. She was very proud of you for that.”
“Yes, and grift is a time-honored way of earning money.”
“Time-honored?”
“Historical, even. I’ve read Charles Dickens.”
“It sounds more like a case of situational ethics.” But I fish around in my wallet and pull out a pre-paid gift card to the ice cream shop. The owner gave it to me when I was in there last week, after I autographed a menu for her. “This will have to do. And, Fiona?”
“What?”
“You too. I don’t want to see you do anything to hurt Callie.”
She draws herself up indignantly. “Like what?” she snaps.
“Callie cares about you like a sister. She worries about you. If you got caught doing anything you shouldn’t, she’d be very upset.”
Fiona’s mouth curls up in a wicked grin. “If I were stupid enough to get caught, I’d be very upset too.”
I shake my head. “I’ve got to get going. Stay out of trouble, will you?”
“Unlikely, but I appreciate your optimism.” She stuffs the ice cream card in her pocket and skips off happily in the direction of downtown.
It’s just as well that the band is headed out of town, I guess. If I’m being that obvious when I see Callie, then the safest thing to do is get away from her for a while
Then why does the thought of leaving town fill me with a cold, gray sense of loneliness, on this sunniest of days?
Chapter Twenty
Sebastian
The tour bus rocks gently as we hit the road, driving towards the setting sun. I glance at my watch; in ten minutes I have a call scheduled with Chris. I’ve been dodging him for a couple of days, because he never has anything positive to say and I’m sick of dealing with it, but I can’t hide from him forever. Russell tries to act as an intermediary, but it’s hard to do when you’ve got a spine made out of limp celery.
The band members are gathered in the lounge. Once I get all my bags arranged in my room and go over all the backup supplies to make sure we have everything we might need, I go join them.
“What’s eating you?” Magnus asks as I plop down next to him.
“I’ve been thinking.”
“Uh-oh.” He smirks at me. “And you sprained something?”
“Shut your pie-hole.”
Magnus laughs. “Pie-hole? Who the hell says that? Oh yeah, Callie says that.”
I elbow him in the arm. “I’ve been thinking, we should just make it public that Callie is my mystery woman. That’s one less thing we’d have to stress about it. I mean, it’s a real relationship now. Why hide it?”
“What does Callie say?” Monica asks.
I shrug. “I sort of hinted at it the other day. She said it’s too soon. But ‘too soon’ is different than never.”
“Well, you’d have to talk to Chris first, since we have to get his permission before we so much as burp in public,” Parker says. “Run it up the flagpole and see how it goes.”
“I’d like to run a flagpole up his ass,” Magnus mutters. “Douchewad.”
I snort. “And that’s why I’m the band’s spokesman.”
“Please.” He makes a face as if he’s going to gag. “Blowing smoke up Chris’s ass? The job’s all yours.”
“Thank you for that lovely image.” Monica rolls her eyes. “Remind me again, how is it you’re still single?”
“I haven’t found the right woman.”
“That’s because she went into federal witness protection,” Monica whispers to her husband. They laugh and high five each other, earning an annoyed scowl from Magnus.
“All right, zip it, guys. I’m about to call our evil overlord.”
Chris is in a sour mood when he answers my video call, and the conversation starts out tense and goes downhill from there. He’s surly and unimpressed with all the progress we’ve been making. Terra Jones’s latest blog post claims I’m cheating on my fake fiancée, and apparently that’s my fault.
He looks horrified when I suggest that we reveal my fake fiancée’s identity. “Russell mentioned that you seemed to be genuinely getting close to her. And he agrees with me that it’s a problem You’re not getting engaged to her, you’re not marrying her.” Chris shakes his head vigorously. “She’s not the right type. She’d do nothing for your public image.”
It takes every ounce of my self-control to keep from telling him to take our contract and shove it up his ass. The only thing that stops me is the fact that Callie hasn’t agreed to go public yet, so there’s no point in getting into a big blowout fight yet. But when