Page 91 of My Song for You
“No way, man,” Mason said. “Nolan already has a girlfriend. And I’m sure Hailey would rip his balls off if he even thought about kissing a girl in the video.”
“So let me guess,” Kirk said, smirking. “You’re volunteering to take his place for the sake of preserving his balls?”
“Damn straight. And I’m sure both he and Hailey will thank me extensively for making that level of sacrifice.”
The only person not laughing at that was Remar. Even Björn was chuckling. I was surprised steam wasn’t whistling out of Remar’s ears. The guy seriously needed to lighten up.
“Let me make this clear,” Remar said. “The song has the potential to catapult to number one. This video will help it get there. So if Björn wants to shoot Nolan having sex with a woman who isn’t his girlfriend, then he and his girlfriend will have to suck it up.”
If what he was implying hadn’t been so serious, I would’ve laughed at him saying “suck it up.” The phrase seemed foreign coming from his mouth.
Nolan blanched, and I couldn’t say I blamed him. The label had already tried to manipulate who he was romantically linked with. He didn’t need them doing that again. He and Hailey had been through enough as it was.
“Does this mean we won’t be playing unplugged for the song’s debut?” I held my breath. Part of my plan to win Callie’s heart involved us playing unplugged on the entertainment show as originally planned.
“No,” Remar said, “ ‘Tangled’ will still debut unplugged. It was what the show requested.”
I needed to send whoever had made that request a bottle of wine. An expensive bottle of wine.
We spent the next ten minutes listening to Björn’s vision for the video. Fortunately for Nolan’s sake, his nuts weren’t at risk. While “Tangled” might’ve been a love song, the video wouldn’t be too explicit.
“It’s not like you haven’t kissed a girl in a video before,” Mason pointed out after Björn mentioned that while there would be no sex, Nolan was expected to kiss the actress.
Nolan folded his arms across his chest. “I was single back then. I don’t want to give girls the idea they can kiss me whenever they want.”
None of us bothered to claim it wouldn’t happen. We had long since learned that some fans confused make-believe with reality when it came to music videos. If Nolan kissed a girl in the video who wasn’t his girlfriend, then some females would consider it open season when it came to kissing him.
All gazes shifted to me.
“Sorry, not happening. Nolan’s the lead singer. He’s the one who gets to be in the spotlight, not me.” Well, most of the time. There were a few exceptions, but this wasn’t one of them.
Mason opened his mouth, probably to tell Nolan and me that we were pussies. Or to once again offer his services as Nolan’s replacement. We never found out which one.
“As I’ve already pointed out,” Remar said to Nolan, “you don’t have a choice. But if you want, I can always have Björn rethink the video and we’ll go back to the option of making it super-sexy. Remember, over fifty percent of your demographics is female, and they buy into the sex fantasy. And that’s exactly what we’re selling.”
And here I thought we were selling music. Silly me.
Nolan grumbled about this all being fucked up, but that was pretty much the end of it. He agreed to be the sacrificial lamb.
“All right,” Björn said. “Filming starts tomorrow morning. At six a.m.”
Chapter 40
Callie
From the kitchen window, I watched Logan in the backyard, playing tag with his grandfather near the gazebo. Even though I couldn’t physically hear him through the closed window, I could hear him giggling in my head.
“He’ll be fine,” his grandmother said, next to me. “Enjoy yourself and let us worry about him. We’re looking forward to getting to know our grandson better.”
Guilt rushed me like a semi without brakes on the downward stretch of a mountainous road. “I’m sorry I never told you about him. I just…”
She redirected her smile at me. “I know. You were looking out for him and doing what your sister asked. No one blames you for that, Callie….Jared knows he’s here, right?”
I shook my head. “I haven’t heard from him in almost a week.” Not since he brought me home last Friday, after I got drunk, then sent me the one text four hours later.
“That’s strange. He hasn’t talked to Logan at all during that time?”
Not that I knew of, unless he spoke to him while I was at work. I hadn’t thought to ask Sharon or Logan if that was the case.
