Page 20 of Follow the Rhythm
“Give the woman a chance,” I said.
Ellis made a noncommittal noise that I knew meant he’d behave himself at least for a little while. I went to find Grace.
She was on the street outside, smoking a cigarette like it had done her a personal wrong, and texting furiously.
“How the hell do you work with that guy?” she demanded when she saw me.
“He hasn’t always been such a twat.”
Grace scoffed. “I don’t even smoke anymore. It’s been like 5 years. I had to bum one off a tech.” She flicked ash onto the sidewalk.
“Come back inside. He’ll be less of a dickhead now, and we can get some work done.”
Grace grunted, ground the stub of her cigarette out on the bottom of her boot, and followed me back inside.
The rest of the rehearsal wasn’t smooth, but Ellis only yelled once, and Grace just rolled her eyes in response. It reminded me of her friend Jess, the prickly Omega she’d brought backstage.
I clenched my hands around the neck of my bass when I thought of her and quickly settled it in its case. I’d thought she was beautiful as soon as she stepped into the greenroom. But when I caught a whiff of her scent, I had to fight the racing pulse of my heart that wanted me to pick her up and carry her off like a caveman. The car had smelled of her when the driver returned to pick me up from the venue.
And she’d made me laugh, or as close as I got to it these days.
The one complication was that mark on her neck. It had looked a lot like a bite, and if she was spoken for, I didn’t want to get involved.
In the past, I would’ve run as far away as possible from an Omega whose scent was that tempting. A bit of fun was all well and good, but only when the stakes were low. I could already tell that anything with Jess would be intense.
I wondered if maybe I just needed to release some tension. It had been a while. Perhaps any Omega’s scent was enticing after a year of celibacy. But somehow I didn’t think so.
I caught up with Grace as she was leaving the studio. “Nice job today.”
“Thanks,” Grace said, beaming. “And thanks for whatever you said to him; he was almost bearable.”
“Are you heading to the label for this meeting?”
“Yep! I’m excited to be a part of the tour planning. It’s so cool to see how much work goes into it. My band has done some decent-sized tours, but nothing on this level,” Grace said.
Her band, The Valkyries, was an all-female punk group. When the label had pitched her as a possible touring drummer, I’d flown out to see one of their shows and left very impressed. If we had to do the tour, we at least needed to do Michael justice on the drums. They had different styles, but Grace had a similar frenetic energy that I appreciated.
The rehearsal space was only about ten blocks from the label office, so we walked. Ellis didn’t have that luxury and had already disappeared in a black town car, but not after being caught by a few paps waiting outside the back door. I didn’t know how they always found him; I was just glad they weren’t as interested in me.
I tried to come up with a good segue and failed, so I ended up just saying, “Your friend Jess. Does she have a partner?”
Grace smirked. “I knew you had a thing for her!”
I shrugged. There was no point denying it. “I’d like to get to know her.”
Grace bounced on her toes and said, “I think you’ll be able to do that.” Then refused to say anything else.
The meeting at the label was with Ursula to go over creative concepts. I was interested to see what she’d come up with; I respected the hell out of her work.
Ellis had beaten us to the office and was brooding in the smaller conference room with his girlfriend, Bea. I sighed. Bea was volatile at the best of times, but lately she and Ellis had been more turbulent than usual.
“Do you know how long this is supposed to take? We’re meant to be on a yacht in 45 minutes for a paid appearance,” she asked as Grace and I entered the room. Her accent was so posh it could cut glass. Ellis was looking out the window, disregarding everyone else in the room.
“No idea. Butyoucan leave whenever you like,” I said.
“I have to be here to approve the creative concepts. I’m Ellis’s brand consultant, remember?”
I didn’t bother replying.
