Page 11 of Touch in the Dark

“Shit,” he sighs. This is a big deal cover. He grabs a t-shirt off the treadmill and heads for the door.

“That’s it?” I ask.

“What else do you want me to say?”

“I’ll make you breakfast would be nice.”

“Get bent,” he tosses me the finger as he walks out of the room.

I look down at my feet, wondering if I should push it and follow him. In the end, I choose to leave it. I wouldn’t appreciate being forced to talk, so I won’t make him do it either. There is one thing clear though, I can’t move out and leave Arch alone. Not until whatever is going on with him is fixed.

Janie, my assistant of the last six years, packs up her laptop, pushes her glasses up on her nose and quickly finishes her glass of apple Tango before getting to her feet.

“So the most important first, I’ll book La Traviata at the Metropolitan,” Janie holds up one finger after slinging her laptop bag over her shoulder. A second shoots up. “The meeting with the people from Warwick needs to be before the end of the month but push it as late as possible and,” For this one she grins. “One large, plush, I don’t give a shit what colour it is, bedside rug to keep your tootsies warm.”

“Yep,” I tell her, as I get out of my chair and start to follow her. “I’m glad to see you know where my priorities lay.”

“A world tour,” she rolls her eyes. “How important could that possibly be, when we need to prevent your precious little feet from getting cold.”

“Or, you know, my grandma’s eightieth birthday celebration,” I say dryly.

Janie laughs. I’d be lost without her so I don’t complain about her jabs. We’ve built up a good working relationship over the years, so much so, she very rarely needs to run things by me anymore. She’d been out of college a couple of months when she fell into the business of being a personal assistant to make some money during the summer. It wasn’t something she planned on remaining doing for a career but was having so much fun working for me, she couldn’t imagine doing anything else. I’m pretty sure that is because of the ridiculous amount of money I pay her to look after my life. She fully deserves it and more. I’d be lost without her. I trust her judgement and since I’m her only client, she is always here when I need her. She didn’t bat an eye when I said I was moving to New York for a while, just surprised me by gettting herself a place here and came along happily.

Also, I’m not embarrassed to tell her to prioritise the rug to keep my damn feet warm.

Not that she has any involvement in band arrangements, but with the release of the new album, another tour is in the works. It has been nine months since we wrapped up the last tour, which was across the US and Europe. The label wants a World Wide tour for the tenth anniversary. That could mean up to a year or longer on the road, with a few breaks between different legs to come back home, whether that be here or L.A.

“I’ll send you through some options for the jewelry, she will definitely want pearls?”

“They’re her favourite,” I say as we walk to the front door.

“Okay, and not too ostentatious,” she adds to herself. “Doris hates flashy.”

“That she does,” I laugh thinking of my grandma. She did a lot for me growing up. I’m looking forward to celebrating her eightieth birthday with her. It’ll be the first time in years I’ve been around to spend time with her on her birthday, and I’m pulling out all the stops doing the things she loves.

“Oh, shit, almost forgot,” Janie shifts the laptop bag around and pats her pockets, searching through all of them before she finds what she is looking for. She hands over an envelope. “Invites for the party tonight, they won’t let you in without them.”

I could be an asshole and say, of course they’ll let me in, they’ll see my face as the invite. I might be a celebrity but I’ve never looked at myself as more important than anyone else.

“There is one for each of you and a guest. It’s at his house. Lord knows why he has invites printed out to come to his house, there isn’t anything on them. They’re just black with his initials, a number and zip code, but who am I to judge? You need to be at the Meatpacking District for three,” she glances at her watch. “So you have an hour. Have you eaten? They’re catering the photoshoot if you haven’t.”

“I’m good, Janie,” I put a hand on her shoulder. “Promise. Been feeding myself for close to thirty years now.”

After a few more reminders, my neurotic assistant heads out. I’m glad she pointed out I only have an hour. I take a quick shower and change, then knock on Archer’s bedroom door. He disappeared when Janie arrived. He offers to drive, and I don’t argue because driving the streets of New York is not fun to me. Having recently discussed it with Janie, I bring up the tour on the drive over.

“Ad wants to postpone till after New Years,” he says, cursing a taxi driver who cuts him off.

“It’s not a bad idea,” I say. “We can get all of that out of the way and not have to worry about factoring in a break for it.”

Arch nods. “Not really sure Bianca believes him.”

“She thinks it’s because of Jenna?” I scowl. He nods again. “If she’d just give her a chance, B would realise Jenna is one of the nicest, most genuine people she’ll ever meet. She doesn’t have anything to say about the band and our commitments.”

“Preaching to the choir,” he points out. “And honestly, I don’t think Jenna particularly worries how Bianca feels about her.”

That got a laugh out of me. He’s right. Our manager had a real problem with Adam getting himself a steady girlfriend. At one point, we all believed Bianca fed some bullshit news story to the press to try and break them up, turned out it wasn’t her but she had known some of the shit stirring the real culprit was involved in. She had been pissed for a long time after Adam announced he is in love to the world at one of our shows. Once Jenna got over her fear of being involved in a relationship with a superstar, she went all in, and didn’t care what anyone thought about her. She doesn’t read any of the press about herself, unlike Adam, who is a maniac whenever anything disparaging is printed about her.

Interest in them has died down. It flared up because of his proposal at the album launch but nothing as bad as the initial ‘Aidan Gass is off the Market,’ bullshit that happened a few months ago. Another bone of contention between Adam and Bianca was his stage name. He wants to drop it, she won’t let him. It is a barrel of laughs around the two of them when they are in a room together. She went back to L.A. a couple of days ago so we have a reprieve today.

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