Page 62 of The Lodge

The label needed more than two yeses and a maybe to make the band they had in mind, though, so Jason put out feelers to some of his contacts. Charly was from Orlando, grew up with four older sisters and had basically lived at the dance studio since before he could walk. Jason snapped him up immediately.

Jett was livid when Jason pulled the bait-and-switch on him after he’d spent all those months in the studio for his promised solo career, and even made noises about a potential lawsuit. We’d both signed management deals with Jason already, though—sketchydeals, we later realized—so he was locked in just like I was. He would’ve killed his career before it ever started if he’d walked away from it, and Jason knew it.

That didn’t stop Jason from promising him the world to get him to say yes—to get him to keep quiet about how unhappyhe was. Jason said yes to more money, more prominence, more everything. He even said yes to a whole otherperson.

Jett had a friend who could dance, he told Jason: his best friend, River, who’d spent years training as a figure skater. For whatever reason—probably just so he had someone on his side—Jett insisted he wouldn’t say yes to the band unless Jason offered the fifth spot to River.

Everything is history from there.

Hearing that Jett wouldn’t say yes unless his friend got to come along, that’s the first time I knew we wouldn’t mix. How do you consider saying no to an opportunity like that? Even if it wasn’t what we’d originally planned, this guy was still making a huge investment in us, in our careers, and we were about to be the biggest thing on the planet. Sorry, but I would’ve given everything up. Ididgive everything up.

The last thing I needed was to have some bitter guy sharing my spotlight after he’d made it clear he could take the band or leave it.

Things were sour from the day we first met, and they never got better.

I—

There are a lot of things I would say to Jett Beckett now, if I could.

19

Sebastian’s voice memo abruptly cuts off, my phone screen switching over to an incoming call.

It’s Lauren.

I shut my eyes, count to three, and pick up.

“Aliiiiiix,” she groans, sounding like the human equivalent of the distressed emoji.

“Good morning to you too.”

“It’snota good morning. I’m just, like, a total distracted mess today—my boss has already yelled at me twice. And I spilled coffee all over my favorite white dress.”

“Yelled? At the Met?”

“Well, itfeltlike she was yelling. She’s really hard to please.”

She pauses, like she has more to say but isn’t quite sure how to say it—and then it all comes out in a rush. “But like I said, I’m just really distracted today. I need to tell you something. My coworker who was so loud while I was waiting on the locksmith—Veronica—the one who caused the noise complaints? She’s, um,kind of been living here, too. Will you really get evicted if we get another complaint? I told her to keep it down, but she just rolled her eyes. I’m worried she’s going to get you in trouble and I don’t know how to fix it.”

I blink. That is… a lot.

“You didn’t think you should ask me first about someone else living in my apartment?Youaren’t even supposed to be living there.”

“I know. But I didn’t know it was going to turn into this, I swear! We were watching a movie and then she, like, dumped all her roommate drama on me and asked if she could spend the night. I said sure, but then she just… didn’t ever go home again. And now I don’t know how to get her out.”

“And this is someone you know through your internship?”

“Yeah. We work the same hours, so she keeps tagging along whenever I head home—I even tried to cut out early yesterday, but my boss was right there, so I couldn’t get away. It’s getting awkward.”

I pinch the bridge of my nose.

“Have you tried talking to her about it?”

“I’m still working up the nerve…”

“So that’s a no?”

Lauren sighs. “I’ve seen her get super petty with people at work when things don’t go her way. And it’s like she doesn’t even hear me sometimes—I’ll say I want Chinese for dinner, but she wants pizza, so we end up getting pizza. I’ll say I need the shower, but then she sneaks in to use it while I’m grabbing a fresh towel.”

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