Total pages in book: 85
Estimated words: 83961 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 420(@200wpm)___ 336(@250wpm)___ 280(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83961 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 420(@200wpm)___ 336(@250wpm)___ 280(@300wpm)
We’ve been on a single date.
We’ve fucked twice, and I stifle a laugh as I realize. We’ve never had sex in one of our actual beds. First we were in the grand suite bed, and then we were in the Brassica Rex courtyard.
But we’re going out again tomorrow. Checking out some of my sister’s other clubs.
It’s a date with a purpose behind it, but it’s still a date. He didn’t have to ask me to join him.
Maybe I’ll try to abstain from anything physical. Get to know Harrison outside of his prowess in the bedroom.
I don’t know if I’ll be able to resist him if he makes a move. But if I do have sex with him a third time, it’ll be because he’s a man that I see a future with. The kind of future involving two and a half kids with a white picket fence. It won’t be because I want my existence as a woman to be validated.
I’ve finally finished my makeup, and it’s time for my set. I open the door to my dressing room and am about to walk toward the stage when I’m waylaid by Rouge.
I blink. “Yes?”
She points at the piece of paper I’m holding in my gloved right hand. “Your set. Let me see it.”
I bite my lip. “I promise there won’t be any unauthorized pieces tonight.”
“I already assumed that to be the case. Still, let me see it.”
“Of course.” I hand her the piece of paper.
She reaches into her bosom and pulls out a red ballpoint pen. She scans the list and crosses a few pieces off before handing me the piece of paper back. “There’s the approved list for tonight.”
I raise an eyebrow as I look at the rejected songs on the list. “But why’d you cross these pieces off? I’ve sung each of them a hundred times before, to great acclaim.”
Rouge’s eyelids twitch slightly. “All those pieces I crossed out showcase the percussionist. And I’m afraid that Mr. Pons won’t be able to join you this evening.”
I cock my head. “Is he sick?”
“He didn’t say. But rest assured that the rest of the songs on the list will be fine without a drummer.” She purses her lips. “The show must go on, as they say.”
A fist closes on my heart. Something isn’t right about this. In all my years of performing, I’ve never had a member of my band call in sick. Sometimes one of them will take a leave of absence for a vacation or to attend to a family emergency, but the musicians have never dropped out at the last minute before. Last Christmas we all had a nasty flu, yet we still took shots of DayQuil and went on for the show, collapsing in a heap on the couch in my dressing room between sets.
But Pierce is the newest member of the band. He’s only played with us for a year or so. Maybe he doesn’t realize how big a deal this is. He’s also working full-time as an attorney, so he might have other things to attend to.
Still… I feel the familiar twitch in my eyebrow that tells me that things aren’t lining up the way they should be.
There’s something my sister isn’t telling me.
And I’m going to find out what it is.
25
HARRISON
It’s a slow Monday morning.
I called in sick today. Bianca and I aren’t going to check out Rouge’s other clubs until later tonight, but I still wanted the day to myself to look into that past-due notice I found in Maddox’s mailbox.
I never take sick days, and Dinah seemed suspicious on the phone when I called and told her I was going to take one.
I said it’s probably just a sniffle, but that I had been exposed to a friend who turned out to have the flu. Since we work primarily around immunocompromised people, it was an easy out for me.
Dinah, like me, is concerned about Maddox and Alissa. She had that friend that told her that Alissa blew off that important audition with the symphony orchestra.
And Maddox is never one to skip out on his bills. Even when he was scrambling for a living back when he first started the haberdashery and his dad was taking half his profits, he paid all his bills on time and in full. He always found a way. Half the reason that shop is still standing is because he stayed on top of his debt.
He’s in decent financial shape now. He doesn’t make as much as I do, but he’s got a successful small business that covers his bills and allows him to sock away a little on the side. A speeding ticket would be an annoyance, but not something he wouldn’t be able to easily pay off.
A quick Google search reveals that Toby Brillig, the cop who wrote the ticket, works at a police station on the west side of town just off I-290.