Five came on Tuesday to do their “Weekend Preview” segment, the tickets had already sold out from Miles and Anneke’s Instagram posts, but the station wanted to profile the Turnaround. The reporter, a woman named Kyla, was intrigued by the guest list.
“That’s quite a who’s who,” she said to Jordan as he rattled off the confirmed VIPs.
I watched the interview from a booth off to the side. At first, I hadn’t wanted to come. I swear, for about a week straight after going viral, I’d gotten as much coverage on the local news as a hurricane until the national press lost interest in me. The local news had too, within another week. Too bad the meme hadn’t died as quickly.
But Miles had wheedled. “Come on, it’ll be fun. You can see me doing my rock star thing. I want to show off for you.”
“You don’t have to show off for me,” I’d told him. That had ended with him hoisting me onto my kitchen counter and kissing me stupid until we heard Chloe fumbling with the front door. But I’d agreed to come watch him do the Channel Five interview.
“What made you decide to come back to New Orleans?” Kyla asked Miles. Aaron settled in across from me and watched his cousin give a smooth answer about wanting to give back to his hometown.
“I don’t know how the camera doesn’t make him totally nervous,” I whispered to Aaron.
He shrugged. “The label gave him a lot of media training.”
It didn’t make him any less interesting to watch. Maybe I wouldn’t have torpedoed my whole life if I’d had the same kind of training during my viral moment.
Kyla asked a few more questions, then thanked Miles. “We’ll take some establishing shots of the murals and speak with your chef, then I’ll find you if I have any follow up questions.”
Aaron slid out of the booth. “Let me show you to the kitchen,” he said.
Miles took Aaron’s place. “How’d I do?”
“You know you were great.”
“Yeah.” He grinned at me. “I just want to periodically remind you I’m awesome so you’ll remember that you’re happy you’re dating me.”
It was a funny way to phrase it. “Have I ever made you think I wasn’t?”
“Sometimes I feel like I talked you into this, and I don’t want you to regret it.”
I stretched my hand across the table to take his. “No regrets. I promise.”
We talked through more of the details for the opening, going over the lineup again and again. It was my job to listen, mostly. Miles had it covered but liked to talk it out to make sure his own head was clear.
He was reviewing the cocktail list when Kyla stepped out from the kitchen with the camera crew behind her. Her eyes lit up as they landed on us in the booth. “Miles, there you are.”
“Hey, Kyla. Did Chef Le treat you right back there?”
“She sure did. But Aaron was filling me in more on your background. Do you mind answering a few more questions?”
“Not at all,” he said, sliding toward the end of the bench.
“Oh, you’re fine where you are,” she assured him. The lighting guy and the cameraman were already maneuvering into place for a shot of the booth. A shiver of alarm skittered down my spine, but they were in place within seconds, and Kyla was already turning to face the camera. The guy pointed at her to talk, and she drew back her shoulders and spoke in her newswoman voice. Why was she keeping me in the shot? I tried to scrunch my shoulders and slouch.
“Miles Crowe started playing and singing in French Quarter clubs when he was a young man, and now he’s come full circle, opening his own New Orleans club to give other young artists the same opportunities. But that’s not the only way he’s keeping in touch with his past.”
Miles wore his usual, pleasant public expression, his listening face, but the dread swelling in my stomach told me exactly where this was about to go.
“Miles rose to fame on Starstruck, but many of you may remember that he captured the national spotlight before he even won thanks to a moment with another familiar New Orleans face.”
I was going to be sick. This wasn’t happening. This couldn’t be happening.
“During his hometown performance in the semifinals, Gabrielle Jones rose to fame after the producers spotted her in the audience and zeroed in on her reaction to Miles Crowe’s performance. Her emotional response to watching her hometown hero