Page 104 of Don't Bang a Bandmate

I bob my head, still half-asleep, but fully hers.

“Sorry for waking you, but...” Jordan sits down on the bunk across from me. “I really need to talk to somebody.”

I sit up, setting my feet on the floor between us, trying not to look at her too closely. A strange change, for sure. I usually take every peek at her I can. But not tonight.

“Something happened earlier,” she says after a minute. “I’m not sure how I feel about it.”

“With Christian?”

Jordan looks up, surprised. “How did you know?”

“I saw you guys talking,” I say with a shrug, hoping I don’t have to say more than that. “Caught a vibe.”

Jordan nods. “Yeah, he, uh...” She hesitates, a bit of blush filling her cheeks. “He asked me to go out with him. On a date.”

“Are you going?”

“I don’t know.”

“Why not?”

She looks up, her big eyes locking on mine. “Well, we’re on tour,” she says. “I’m working. It’s probably not the best time for dating.”

“Others make it work.”

“Others aren’tme,”she says, chuckling. “I’m busy. So busy. All the time. And sure, you and I find time to have our fun, but that’s just fun. You know? There’s no pressure between us to be anything more than that.”

I nod, keeping quiet.

“But Christian Myers?” Jordan shakes her head. “He’s a lot. I mean, he’s a rock god. He can have anybody he wants, but he asked me. He… kissedme,”she says, the words sticking briefly as if she can hardly believe it at all.

But seeing is believing.

I study her, catching the lightness in her breath. The excitement in her eyes, albeit slight. “You want to go,” I say.

She says nothing for a moment, her expression blank. “I don’t know,” she says again. “I want to want to, I think.”

“What’s stopping you?”

“Well, it’sChristian Myers,”she repeats, breathing a laugh. “Back in the day, I had such a huge crush on him.”

“Me, too,” I joke.

“He was the hottest thing in the world until Cobraville...” She shrugs instead of sayingbroke up— two words we never say out loud in relation to a band. “I didn’t even think he knew I existed. Until tonight. He told me he thought about asking me out back then.”

My stomach tightens. “You want to go.”

“I...” She exhales hard. “I’ve seen his bad side. And I’ve heard the worst of it and more from Chrissy. I know that he’s nothing but trouble, but I also know how much he’s done to change. I’m not the same person I was five years ago, either. Who is?”

I don’t reply.

“It’s like Melanie and Robbie.”

“Who?” I ask.

“Melanie Rose. The romance author,” she reminds me. “When we had lunch with her back in Chicago, we met her husband. Or herex-husband. Her boyfriend? Handsome guy, but... anyway, they broke up because of his drinking, but he got clean and she gave him a second chance. Now, they’re so happy together.” Her shoulder rises and falls. “And Christian has been through so much, you know? Maybe he deserves the same. Everyone should get a second chance to be happy. Just look at Knox and Harmony!”

“You want to go,” I say again, this time slower.

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