Page 46 of Summer Haze & Tokyo Craze

"Nothing much," she says, but I can hear the deceit in her voice. Somewhere behind, I can hear rustling and then Millie's voice in the background, accompanied by a male chuckle, from her fiancée I presume.

"Why would you call me when the two of you are on a double date?" I ask her teasingly, knowing fully well that Asher, her boyfriend, can’t be far. She chuckles nervously, and I know I’m right. My leg is bouncing, eager to get into the hotel, so I start pacing in front of the entrance.

"It’s not a double date. We’re just hanging out at home," she says, a smile tugging at the corners of my mouth.

She wants something. I'm not sure what yet, but there's no way she would call me just to randomly check in about this conference. It seemed too unimportant to her for that.

“Get to the point,” I demand with a chuckle and brace myself for what’s about to come. “Please tell me it doesn’t involve any of you four beating up paparazzi or something.”

“As tempting as that is, no. Don’t worry,” she assures me quickly and my shoulders sag in relief. “We kind of want to go on tour."

“Oh. Alright," I say surprised and make a mental note of it. Where did that come from? I mean, it’s not a big deal to set up a tour, but it means I’ll have to call a few meetings once I'm back, with marketing, with sales, with finances, and all that jazz. Although, I’m a bit confused why this couldn’t wait until I’m back. "Should be doable. Do you have certain cities in mind?"

"That's the thing," she replies, nervously clearing her throat. "We kind of want to keep it low-key. Like, not arenas." I raise my eyebrow as she continues to explain. "So, we might have come up with this idea when we were a bit drunk," she admits, and I pinch the bridge of my nose, swallowing a sigh and instead leaning my head back to look at the sky. Just then, a raindrop hits me on the forehead and I roll my eyes. "And we thought it would be nice to do a tour for fans who were there from day one, you know."

“That’s-” I start, but I don’t even know how to finish that sentence. What I know is that what she’s proposing leads to one hell of a lot more work than a regular tour.

"You're not happy with it," Kayla says, like she’s reading my mind. I shoot a longing gaze at the hotel, knowing exactly that Adam is waiting for me.

But instead, I take a deep breath and continue pacing in front of the entrance as I try to gather my thoughts. Did they really have to plan an ambush like that right now?

"Don't get me wrong, Kayla. I love the idea," I say, racking my brain as to how I could best convince them otherwise. It’s not even a lie; intheory,I love this idea.

But… How can I say this delicately, without hurting their feelings? "But tours are a lot of work, as you know. And they are expensive. Especially when we're doing everything ourselves, which I'm assuming you want?"

"Definitely," she quickly assures me. "Hold on, I'm going to put you on speaker."

"Hi, Lily." I grin at the choir of voices on the phone and shake my head at the four of them. They're a lovely bunch, and I'm happy to consider them not only my bosses but also my friends, which leads me to the following.

"Hi, everyone.” I clear my throat before I continue. “I just want to clarify we're having this conversation as co-workers, not friends."

"Of course," they quickly assure me. Sometimes, it's difficult to separate these two relationships, but whenever we have to give each other bad news, a sentence like this is our go-to.

"We can definitely dissect this idea once I’m back, but I want to share some concerns for you to consider for when we do, alright?" I can hear shuffling on the other end of the line, and I think Millie is hitting her fiancé with a pillow from the sounds of it.

"I justmentioned it to Kayla: Tours are expensive. There's a lot of work for every single person involved, and there area lotof people involved, especially with your level of fame. There’s the jet, security, hotels, even more security, the venues, the printers, and all of them need to get paid. If we do shows at the level you're thinking, we are not going to break even unless you want each ticket to cost a thousand dollars, which would kind of defeat the purpose."

"Would that be such a bad thing, though?" Millie asks, adorably confused. I roll my eyes, happy that they didn't call me on FaceTime and can't see my expression.

"For you, maybe," I point out, knowing very well how much they are making and sure that they have more than enough money in their bank accounts. To them, paying all of this out of pocket would not be so much different than getting a new coffee machine.

"But we have a company and all of your other artists to think about here. Doing a tour that the company can’t afford wouldn’t be fair to them. You might be the owners, but if you don’t lead by example, it might leave a sour taste in their mouths."

"Hm," Kayla sighs, and I can just picture her disappointed expression in my mind. "You know, Lily, I hate it when you're the voice of reason."

"And I hate being the voice of reason," I assure her quickly. "But that’s literally what you hired me for, so suck it up, buttercup.” The two of them burst into giggles, and I just know they’re not sober anymore.I wouldn’t be surprised if they got the idea literally seconds before they pulled up my contact in their phone.

“As I said, I love the idea. Let's keep it in the back of our minds and brainstorm on it when I'm back, alright? Maybe we can find a compromise. I’ll sleep on it, you’ll sleep on it, most important of all, you’ll sleep off the alcohol, and then we'll have a more extensive talk about it when I get back."

"You're such an adult," Millie scolds me lovingly and I hear the pout in her voice, making me laugh. "And you're even younger than us. Seriously, it's kind of weird."

Kayla chuckles along. "Oh my God! I always forget you're younger than us."

"Me too," I say and roll my eyes. It might only be two years, but this is by far not the first time they act surprise they hired someone mature. "Now, I'm sorry to rush you, but it's starting to get late here, so—"

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry," Millie rushes, from the sounds of it grabbing the phone from Kayla. "Of course. We’re sorry to keep you. Let us know if anything exciting is happening. Bye, Lily."

Kayla also mumbles a ‘bye,’ but the line cuts before she’s finished.

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