Page 25 of Touch in the Dark

Jordan laughs. “Poor foolish Nicholas. He told me to tell you you’re an asshole for treating him like a girl who needs to have her feelings protected. Then he called me and Ad dicks.”

“I didn’t do anything,” Adam splutters as he’s helping himself to more biscuits.

“What the fuck ever,” Jordan jumps over the back of the chair and sits back down. “It’s an intervention, we needed to be aware of the facts.”

“Don’t call it that,” I groan. That really will piss him off.

He storms in a few minutes later, slamming the front door. He glares at me before coming to a stop, eyeing all of us.

“Is three months okay? I’ll ask for six, that means I’ll be able to broker Bianca down to what we actually want. Unless you need longer,” Adam says, staring intently at his best friend, his eyes scrutinising him, like he’s trying to see under his skin to the part where Archer is hurting.

“Just like that?” Archer puts his hands on his hips, some of the bluster leaving him.

“Who loves you baby?” Jordan asks.

“And you’re seriously all okay with this?”

“I’ve already made plans,” Jordan says with a grin. “Red Alert just got a new pro-consultant on the team. I’ll soon whip them into shape. They’ll love it. I’ll love it. It’s gonna be awesome.”

“Is he for real?”

Adam and I just give him a look that says, ‘it’s Jordan’. He nods, takes a seat on what looks like a deckchair, but I can confirm is one of the most comfortable chairs I’ve ever sat on.

“Jenna needs a vacation. A proper one. Where we can go sightseeing and just get away from everything.”

“What will you do?” Jordan asks him.

Archer is speechless. “I don’t fucking know,” he says eventually, making us all laugh. “Who is gonna speak to Bianca?”

“I’ll do it,” I volunteer with a shrug. “Jordan will piss her off, Adam will end up arguing and you need the responsibility off your shoulders.” They all bluster at those observations, but I hold up my hand. “Makes sense, I’m the only one she actually likes.”

“Get the fuck outta here, I’m her favourite,” Jordan actually looks affronted.

“I say we do it together,” Adam says. “We all agree as a band, then we approach them as a band. We don’t say one of us asked, it’s what we all need. No negotiations.”

“What if they drop us?” Jordan asks.

“That isn’t going to happen,” I roll my eyes. “But you know what, if they do, they’ll be the ones breaking the contract and will owe us money. Plus, we’re the biggest fucking band on their books. They’re not gonna drop us. And hey, who’s to say we can’t start our own record label. I’m sure there are plenty of bands we could sign.”

“One fucking life altering decision at a time, please,” Adam gets up. He pulls out his cell phone and fires off a text. “I’ve asked B if she’s free this afternoon. That okay with everyone?”

We all nod. Archer is staring at his hands. He didn’t even have to ask.

“Don’t thank us yet,” Adam grimaces when Archer looks up at us all. “We still need to convince them. But we will.”

“Agreed Amigos,” Jordan slaps his palms. Adam’s phone beeps.

“She’s free in an hour.”

“Let’s get this show on the road then.”

A little over three hours later, we pile into Adam’s SUV. Bianca about blew a gasket, as predicted before we had a conference call with the execs. At first, they were dead set against it, explaining all the work and money that already went in to prepping for a world tour. Fortunately, they eventually agreed. They didn’t really have much of a choice, we aren’t saying we won’t do it, we are asking for a break. After the execs agreed, Bianca tried to get us to continue doing publicity work, she’d lined us up for a lot of stuff, but we put our foot down and said the break meant a break, from everything.

As Adam predicted, we asked for six months, they compromised at three and we got what we wanted. And for the first time in months, Archer looked like his old self.

We were halfway home when Archer asked. “What the fuck am I supposed to do for three months?”

Chapter Seven

---