Pleased, she smiled at him before going back to her cold noodle salad. “I’m very likeable. I guess I like you okay too,” she teased with a wink.
“You’ll turn my head with such effusive words of praise.”
He was really smart and funny. Sexy as fuck and magic on stage. A combo that left her weak in the knees.
“What are you listening to right now and don’t say Above Me,” she said.
“Why not? I like your music.”
She rolled her eyes. “Thank you. That’s nice to hear. But this is Harlow and Miles getting to know one another, right? I’ll go first. I’m listening to Wolf Alice and Earth, Wind & Fire. I think it’s impossible to be in a bad mood while listening to Earth, Wind & Fire.”
“It is Miles and Harlow getting to know one another, yes. Totally agree about Earth, Wind & Fire. I’m on a Who kick lately so I’m on “Quadrophenia” just now.”
They finished up their lunch and headed back to the car for their return to the hotel. As they drove under the building to a rear entrance, Miles took her hand and squeezed it. “Thanks for coming with me today. You’re really okay with riding to and from the venue with us? It’s a sincere offer and I want you to, but I don’t want you to feel pressured or anything.”
“It’s a very nice offer and I appreciate it.”
Miles noted the slight pause but when she didn’t say anything else, he waited until they were standing in a back service elevator lobby. “There was a but just now.”
“What?”
Her confusion delighted him for some reason, and he leaned forward quickly to brush his lips over hers. “Sorry. When you said you appreciated the offer of the ride. There as a slight pause. An unspokenbut. Tell me.”
“I just have to be aware of what people do or don’t do for me or around me. And whatever perceptions or assumptions come from that.”
“Say that again but like I’m not bright,” he asked.
“When women achieve things like, say, opening spots on arena tours, many people are happy and celebrate that. There are people who lift other women and their successes up. But there are people who watch for any excuse, any reason to assume she didn’t earn it like someone else –usually a man—would have. Those people see me taking rides and letting you kiss me as me fucking my way to where I am.”
In her tone he knew she was speaking from experience. He wasn’t ignorant of the double standard in the industry on so many levels.
“Fair enough,” he said. “I won’t remind you that Above Me is already plenty successful before now because that’s a fact. As for the rest. Plenty of bands share stuff like transport to the venue. It’s not unusual really. Sure, there are plenty that don’t, but it’s not going to raise eyebrows. We won’t make a big deal of it.” He paused and took a gamble. “I like being around you.”
“And what if you don’t in a week?”
“You’re already writing fuck you break up songs about me and I haven’t even used my tongue when I kissed you yet. That hardly seems fair.”
The tension she was holding in her body relaxed and she laughed a little as she got onto the elevator with him.
“You and I click,” he said quietly. “We liked each other before this,” he waved a hand back and forth between them, “so I think in a week I’ll still want to spend the hours and hours of transport time with you.”
They reached her floor, and she got off, taking the bags with Nora and Brian’s food with her. “See you at four.”
Yes, she most definitely would be seeing him at four. And if he broke her heart, she would most definitely use that to write a fuck you break up song.
Harlow made him laugh. She treated him like a person instead of a celebrity. There was something so confidently self-assured about her but here and there he’d catch a glimpse of a more vulnerable Harlow. That Harlow who’d just shared that bit about perception? Genuine interactions like that outside his very close circle were rare and he wanted more of that Harlow even as he craved the badass version. Wanted her to trust him even more than he wanted to kiss her again.
That’s what made him pause a little as he headed up to his room. This wasn’t just physical attraction. He kept finding new things about her to be fascinated by. She made him greedy for more in a way that felt different than anyone else.
There was a vein of worry, some terror even, that this path he sped on toward the heart of Harlow Martin could end up in a terrible mess. But by the time he got inside his room and flipped the latch, he knew he wasn’t going to shy away from this thing building between them. It just felt right in ways he couldn’t really articulate at that point. Every time he’d ignored his gut feeling about something it had bitten him in the ass.
At the very least, there’d be songs written one way or the other. And what he hoped, even if a romance fizzled, they’d have a deep friendship by tour’s end.
CHAPTERFIVE
Though Harlow wasn’t as disciplined and fit as Nora, who took her yoga very seriously, she loved the way it was her wake up ritual on tour. Loved the way it helped her focus on her body and mind for that time she was able to carve into the day. It was easy enough to do anywhere she could put a mat down and since she hated most other types of exercise but needed the strength and endurance to tour, yoga had become a regular thing.
In Salt Lake City, they stepped off the elevator on the lobby level because Harlow wanted to refill her water bottle and bumped into Maddie and Poppy.