Page 112 of If Not for My Baby
She takes a seat at the kitchen counter and I make us both coffees. Hers black, mine with enough vanilla oat milk and sugar to qualify as a milkshake.
“Lionel told everyone all the bullshit Jen pulled with you,” she says as I stir a caramel-colored whirlpool. “I guess Jen told him what happened…and how you left Halloran after.”
“Oh, great.” Jen was probably gloating to her protégé.
“She should have known Lionel’s allegiance is always to the hottest goss.”
I snort into the steam from my mug as I hand Molly hers. “She tell him why she went so psycho on me?”
When I look up, Molly’s expression has solidified into something kind of grave. The last time I saw that look she was apologizing to me in a marsh in Portland.
“About a month before the tour started, while we were in rehearsals, Jen asked me to fuck Halloran.”
My coffee nearly slips right out of my hands and onto the floor.
“I didn’t do it—don’t freak or anything.”
I am still motionless with shock. “Too late.”
“She told me he was thinking about canceling the tour altogether. That he wanted to refund every ticket sold and go back to Ireland for a while. She thought nothing would motivate him to stay on the road like a new muse.”
If you have no morals and no problem being revolted by yourself, I guess I can see Jen’s thought process. Molly is in many ways the Halloran-muse archetype: moody, talented, beautiful, hard to please. Gives off a slouching-toward-Bethlehem kind of vibe.
“I told her I’d try—he’s obviously hot and we’ve known each other since that first tour. I figured Jen was a good person to have owe me one as I try to build a career in music. But Halloran had zero interest in me at all. And I wasn’t going tothrowmyself at him, you know?”
I nod, still wrapping my head around the fact that at one point Molly attempted to seduce the man I’m in love with and he was not interested. That and Jen acting as a pimp to her own star client. A morning of revelations indeed.
“He still didn’t cancel the tour,” Molly adds. “Obviously.”
“He’d never do that to all his fans.”
“Guess not. But Jen had been trying to find a way to get him back into the industry machine ever since. Lionel said she freaked out when Halloran turned Brad down in New York. Jen knows he writes his best music when he’s sad…” Molly shrugs. “She played you into breaking his heart. Her plan worked, too. Apparently he agreed to another album the day after you left.”
It’s like finding out your favorite show is coming back on the air but knowing the whole cast hates one another. “No way.”
Molly sips her coffee with a nod. “Guess we’re going back on tour. In a few years, of course. He’s slow as shit.”
Everything about Jen crystalizes in my mind. When she’d given Grayson’s article to Tom—that wasn’t just for him—she was building up ammunition to send me packing. If Lionel knew Grayson went for the fresh meat, surely Jen had as well…she’dwanteddivision among the band so she could blame me for it.
And when she was furious about the Joe Jennings interview—that wasn’t because she gave a shit about Tom’s feelings. She was worried about how a negative experience like that might further encourage Tom to step back from fame altogether.
Even giving me the duet…She likely knew Halloran and I were falling for each other. Indy figured it out all on her own—and Jen knew Halloran ten times better than Indy knew either of us. Jen was building toward this orchestrated heartbreak all along, and I fell right into her trap.
And she succeeded, too—she manipulated Tom into his third studio album.
“Jen’s a mastermind,” I say. “I hope Tom fires her.”
“She’s not even that smart. Those lies were so unrealistic. I hope you weren’t dumb enough to believe her.”
I gulp milky coffee. “I knew you didn’t almost leave over ‘If Not for My Baby.’ ”
“I was pissed, but I’m not a nutcase. And Cara and Tom dating? Ridiculous. They’re like brother and sister.”
That halts the sugar in my mouth. In fact, I almost spit it onto Molly, but self-preservation instincts rear me back. “They aren’t getting back together?”
Molly looks at me like I’ve just blown marbles out my nose. “Back together? They never dated. I think she’s gay.”
I’m an absolute idiot. “Oh.”
