Page 155 of Before Now

The look he lands could devour a lesser prepared person’s soul. “Never. Go order coffee or something useful.”

* * *

When Foster calls aheadof the concert that night, he’s backstage with people milling around him.

I haven’t talked to him since the Heath revelation because they had a meet and greet earlier. “I thought you were calling me when you were back on the bus.”

“I’ll call then, too,” he says. “But I have a couple people who want to say hi before they play.”

And then neon colors, feathers, and squeals fill the screen. The Forest Nymphs take over his phone.

“Oh my God,” I say as he steps back out of the chaos that is the band I worked with at Sound Clash.

Bianca screeches a, “Remiiiiii,” then the phone jerks from the bassist to Jaelyn. They both have blunt bangs to their bobs now, Jae’s hair’s purple and Bianca’s teal.

“Where the hell are you, woman?” Jaelyn throws a look over her shoulder to Foster and drops her voice quiet and unnaturally deep for her. “We’re opening for Of Men and Wolves. Can you believe it?”

I can because they’re amazing, but I’m handed off again before I respond.

Cys appears, not nearly as enthusiastic but a needed balance to her sisters. The drummer has buzzed off her long hair, and damn, she pulls it off. “Adams told us you’re directing a documentary about them.” She smiles. “Baby director all grown up, huh?”

“Baby band seems to be doing rather well themselves,” I tell her.

Her sisters barge their way in for a flurry of goodbyes and blown kisses. Once they vacate, she smiles. “We’re up. Keep killing’ it, film nerd.”

I laugh as she’s dragged backward by Bianca, the video tilting sideways to a random speaker until Foster rights it.

Just as fast as they arrived, they’re gone.

“They are an experience,” he says, slipping in his earbuds as he goes to a quieter space.

I’m shaking my head at him. “How is the band from my doc opening for you?”

He spins and leans on a wall. “I saw them play at Sound Clash two years ago.”

“You were there?” I ask, my heart falling out of my chest.

“All three of us went. ‘Echo’started charting number one a couple months prior, so we had to lay low all weekend to avoid attention.”

“We were in the same place.” I smile as he nods.

“I had no idea until I saw your video.” His head tilts then, his look the reverent one. “Even then I would have torn that place apart to find you.”

After I got back from Heath’s, I reviewed Felix and Dev’s perspectives from earlier in the tour.

Heath was right about the glimpses of Foster watching me.

Regardless of how invisible the crew and I tried to be, we showed up in frame from time to time when the band wore the glasses. Several times when it was me popping up, Foster looked like he might be spacing out, but his body was angled toward me, his gaze in my direction.

Heath missed something, though.

I watched Foster too.

While in the background, with or without a camera in my hands, my eyes would flit to Foster.

Then there are moments the lens captured us looking at each other. One of us first, and then the other. Our gazes often held, and the tension is palpable between us every single time. Whether harsh, hot, or longing, it threads us together, pulling and pulling.

“You said you haven’t looked at anyone else since you heard my name again.” It comes out softer than I intend, and I look down. “That wasn’t in Prague.”

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