Page 43 of The Duet

Phew. “I’ll do whatever the majority tells me to do.” What? No, Cleo. Grave error. Oddly enough, I only have Jess on my side for this. But I do have to ask myself whether Tim and Daphne are right. Have I been so smitten with Lana that I have become the worst friend ever? Did I lose track of what’s most important in my life: the friendship between me and my bandmates and the music we make together because of it? Because our friendship is the secret ingredient of our music and hence, also, of our success.

“I vote that you break things off with Lana,” Daphne says categorically.

Tim doesn’t say anything. At least he’s not agreeing with her—yet.

Jess shakes her head. “Stop it. You make it sound as though Lana just divorced me and Cleo swept right in. That’s not what this is.” She chuckles nervously. “My crush on Lana is… just that. A crush. Because she’s like this divine rock goddess and she’s amazing at what she does, and I’ve been getting too caught up in my head about it.” She wrings her hands. “I would never forgive myself for stopping Cleo from being with her.” Jess shakes her head slowly. “That’s not what I want, because what’s it going to solve?”

Tim squeezes Jess’s shoulder. “It’s your call, Jessie.”

“No, it’s really not my call. You know whose call it is? Lana’s. She gets to decide who she wants to be with and if she wants to be with Cleo, and Cleo wants to be with her, then so be it.”

“Guys, please, you’re making it sound as though Lana and I are running off into the sunset together. We slept together one time. That’s it.”

“I stand by my opinion.” Daphne locks her gaze on me. “This is your chance to show us what you’re really made of, Cleo.” She glares at me as though I actually ran off with Tessie. “To show us what’s really important to you.” With that, she turns and heads for the door. Before she leaves, she faces me again. “It’s really not that hard not to hurt your best friends, you know. It’s a low bar.” Then she exits the room.

Nerves jumble into a ball in my stomach. Lana was wrong. This is a big deal.

“Daphne will be all right,” Jess says. “Just give her some time.”

“I don’t suppose anyone wants to go see The Lady Kings?” Tim smirks at us. “It’s like they’re getting better with every show.”

Chapter 25

Lana

It’s the first time Cleo and I have sung our duet since we slept together and I had—wrongly—assumed it would be some sort of sensual musical celebration of that night.

It’s anything but. Cleo’s stiff and distant and when I walk over to her—because she clearly has no intention of coming to me—she takes a step away. Cleo distances herself from me. Right here on stage.

Earlier, it was obvious The Other Women weren’t playing the show of their lives, but these things happen. Tensions can get the better of the greatest bands. The crappy gigs The Lady Kings played when Joan and I were fighting over something stupid are epic in their own way. It’s all part of the deal, but Cleo can’t see that yet. I’m sure she’s had highs and lows with The Other Women, but she’s too young to put it all into perspective. She’s too young to understand many things that are glaringly obvious to me. Maybe she’s right to distance herself from me. Maybe it can make me see a harsh truth as well.

But while we’re up here, I will always try to do my very best—to put on a show. I lock my gaze on Cleo as we launch into the final chorus. She returns it, but it’s as though she’s looking right through me instead of deep into my eyes.

By the time the song ends and we’re ready to bow out, I’m not even sure I should take her hand as I always do. But I do. Of course, I do. Not because I’d do anything for the show, for this act we perform which has become so much more than the illusion we first wanted to create for the audience, but because I want to feel her hand in mine. I want to make sure she’s all right, even though she clearly isn’t, and I don’t need to feel her skin against mine to make sure. But I want to feel something of her, I want a way in, an opportunity to pierce whatever armor she’s gathered around herself.

I take her hand, and she lets me. We walk off and she doesn’t suddenly drop it as soon as we’re no longer visible to the audience. Instead, she looks at our joined hands, expels a deep sigh, meets my gaze for a fraction of a second, before removing her hand and walking off. Fun times.

“Trouble in paradise?” Billie whispers as she walks by. At least our show was good. Billie’s a pro, she has proved that. She can play under any circumstances.

I drink the water Logan hands me. “What’s up with Cleo?” he asks, as he escorts me to my dressing room. By now, everybody knows something’s going on between me and Cleo. The rumor mill has been running non-stop since the soundcheck this afternoon.

“I’ll find out.” Instead of heading to my dressing room, I go to Cleo’s. I knock on the door, hoping she’s alone.

She pulls the door ajar, but doesn’t open it fully, as though she has no intention of letting me in.

“Can we talk?” I ask.

“You should shower,” Cleo says. “We have meet and greets.”

“Just for a second?” I put my hand through the gap between the door and the wall and touch my finger against her wrist. “Please?”

In response, she lets me in. She closes the door and leans against it.

“Are you okay?” I ask.

Cleo suddenly looks so much younger, as though she just turned twenty instead of being almost thirty. Her hangover’s probably catching up with her as well as the emotions of a bad gig.

“My band… No.” Her gaze skitters all over the place. “They were right.”

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