Page 15 of Tattoos and Heartbreak
Shit.
“She’ll never agree to it,” I said hoarsely. Sure, Lila was insanely cute and too sweet for words, and if I was being honest I’d admit to myself that I’d fallen for her from the moment her big green eyes turned up to mine. But she was also smart.
She’d never agree to some fake-dating scheme cooked up by my agent.
Even if she did, the press wouldn’t believe it. She was the exact opposite of what I usually went for.
Taylor just shrugged and went on looking smug. “Course she will. She already did.”
Fuck.
“What? What did you offer her?”
“A contract. Luckily, she has the voice to deserve it. And she didn’t think hanging out with you while you’re on tour was the worst price to pay for it.”
I didn’t hear the rest of what she said. Some part of my brain knew that she was outlining how this was all supposed to work and what I was supposed to do to hold up my end of this deal. I distinctly heard the words ‘do this or you’re off the tour.’ But the rest?
Yeah, I was too busy staring at Lila Potter to listen. The girl was sitting at the table with Anna, chatting at her friend like she hadn’t just agreed to sign her life away for a contract with Avery Dawson’s label.
Until she looked up at me and I saw that she was just as doubtful about the whole thing as I was.
LILA
Anna didn’t approve.
I mean, ofcourseshe didn’t approve. We’d come out on the road to find Olivia and Connor’s tour with one goal in mind: getting in front of them and auditioning for that contract. Winning our way into a deal with Avery Dawson Records and finally getting our careers off the ground and into the big time. Maybe even getting on a first-name basis with Olivia Johns herself.
We’d thought that getting to ogle Rivers Shine while we were here might be great.
But we hadn’t actually intended to meet him.
Or get drunk with him. Find our way into his hotel room and then his bed.
Making a deal with his agent to play Rivers’ fake girlfriend in order to win the contract we wanted had never even crossed my mind, and judging by the look on Anna’s face, I definitely should have at least talked to her about it before agreeing.
“You did what?” she asked, her voice low and disbelieving.
I shrugged, trying to play it off. “I agreed to play his girlfriend. Not for long. I’m guessing like a week or two, max. And after that, we get first shot at the contract. Which is why we’re here, right? The contract? I figure I do this favor for Taylor James—you know, Olivia’s agent—and that contract is basically in our hands.”
I mean, it made sense. Taylor hadn’t exactly sounded desperate but I’d seen enough magazines to know Rivers’ reputation. If she wanted to clean that up—which she obviously did—she had her work cut out for her. She must have known that she needed a girl who could pull it off and would agree quickly. I didn’t know whether she’d figured out that I already knew Rivers or not, but she’d evidently seen me staring at him from onstage and drawn her own conclusions. She’d decided I was the perfect candidate.
And she was lucky I’d said yes.
And if all that held true, then I was doing her a big favor. As far as I was concerned, that meant she owed me. I was about to spend the next week or two hanging out with the guy who’d made me fall for him and then deserted me the moment he realized what he’d done. I’d have to watch my back—and my heart—the whole time. Be on my guard against anything that looked like it might hurt me.
And Taylor was going to reward me with a contract.
I grinned at Anna, incapable of stopping myself, and took her hand. “Anna, stop looking like I’ve just made the biggest mistake of my life. Taylor James owes me for this. And we’re going to get our contract out of it. I guarantee it.”
She didn’t look convinced.
But she also hadn’t believed me when I said I had a direct line to God. And look how that had turned out.
* * *
Word came downthat afternoon that the tour would be moving on in the morning, and Anna and I spent the evening staying out of the way of the chaos that ensued. It was like a whirlwind had suddenly come into town and settled right on the hotel where we were staying. Roadies, managers, band members, and a number of other people with unknown positions were constantly coming and going, pounding up and down the hallways and shouting at each other about grabbing this or that piece of equipment and making sure the vans and buses were ready to go. Everyone seemed to know exactly what they were doing, and yet it was like the place had become a beehive. Or an anthill. No one was standing still and everyone had a job.
Everyone but Anna and me. We’d spent fifteen minutes packing our things and then stared at each other, at a loss for what else we were supposed to do.
