of smoke before saying, “Kiera and I broke up for good.”
“When?”
“Two days ago.”
Keane and Zander stop talking. Those two have been sitting in side-by-side armchairs bantering. But something in Colin’s tone apparently caused them to stop talking and listen in.
“What’s going on?” Zander asks.
I fill them in.
Dax says to Colin, “No wonder you were such a dick in the studio yesterday.”
Colin scowls, making it clear he’s in no mood to be teased right now.
Dax softens. “Sorry, man. You really think it’s for good this time?”
Colin leans back into the couch, his body language defeated. “Yep.”
“Why didn’t you tell us yesterday?” I ask.
Colin looks out one of the floor-to-ceiling windows of Zander’s gorgeous living room again. “I guess I just wanted to get lost in the music and not think about it. Kiera got offered a world tour that’s going to last eighteen months and she took it.” Colin provides some details. He names the pop star Kiera will be dancing behind on tour—Kiera’s a professional dancer—and adds, “In the past, whenever she’s been offered extra-long tours like that, she’s always turned them down, so we wouldn’t be apart too long. But this time, she wants to go. And not only that, she flat-out told me she plans to fuck other people while she’s gone. Lots of other people.”
The rest of us grimace and say some version of “That sucks” and “Sorry, man.”
Colin exhales loudly and runs his tattooed hand through his dark hair. “It’s probably for the best. The spark in the beginning with Kiera was off the charts. Like nothing I’d felt before. I would have sworn back then we’d be together forever. But with both of us having careers that put us on the road for long stretches . . . being forced apart so much just snuffed out our flame, I guess. It was inevitable.”
Fuuuuuck. This is literally the last thing I need to be hearing right now.
Or, hell, maybe it’s exactly the thing I need to be hearing.
“Well, look on the bright side,” Keane says, taking the joint from Zander. “At least, you’ll get to enjoy all the attention you’ve been getting from that underwear ad. You’re a hot commodity with the ladies these days, son. Enjoy it.”
Colin nods, still looking miserable. “Yup. That’s exactly what I’m going to do. I’m done having a girlfriend for a long while. I’ve realized if I’m ever going to have one again, she has to be someone like Violet. Someone who can drop everything and follow me ingloriously around the world while I—”
Dax interrupts, “What does that mean? Violet has never ‘dropped everything’ to ingloriously follow me around, motherfucker.”
“Oh, Jesus,” Colin says, rolling his eyes.
But Dax isn’t finished. He says, “Besides taking care of Jackson and me, my wife works her ass off heading up a global cancer charity that—”
“Dax, I know.”
“Helps so many people! And while she’s doing that—”
“You misunderstood me.”
“She’s also designing incredible wedding dresses for women who are willing to pay top dollar for her designs. So don’t you dare—”
“Calm down, Daxy Pants. You misunderstood me.”
“Say there’s anything ‘inglorious’ about a goddamned fucking thing my wife is doing with her life. Violet Morgan does more glorious shit in one day than Colin Beretta, Drummer and Underwear Model, manages to do in a single fucking year.”
Colin rubs his face and chuckles to himself. “This is way too much passion for my stoned brain to process right now.” He comes out from behind his hands and points energetically at me on the floor, the same way he pointed at me when we were thirteen in Daxy’s garage, when Mrs. Morgan caught him with that can of Mountain Dew. He shouts, “It was Fish!” And, of course, everyone in the room laughs at our lifelong joke, even Dax. Because, come on, no matter what tension might precede that particular joke, it always vanishes immediately the minute it’s told.
Dax takes a long swig of his tequila. “Just think before you speak, once in a while, fucker.”
Colin replies, “Dude, I’m stoned out of my mind precisely because I don’t want to think before speaking. I don’t want to think at all. I know Violet’s a unicorn, Daxy. That was my point. What I was trying to say is I don’t have high hopes I’m going to be able find myself a unicorn like Violet. Someone who’s got the kind of lifestyle and career and temperament where she can be a badass in her own right while still following my sorry ass