Page 4 of Grip Me Tight
“Thanks, pleased to meet you.”
Sterling pushes Claire’s arm away and stands up. I keep my ass parked and pretend Ajax swimming laps is the most fascinating thing in the yard. Eyes straight ahead.
“So Tanner, are you excited for the tour?”
Great, Sterling’s friend Claire has found her ability to talk. She’s going to ask a bunch of questions about work. Which is fine, and I always love chatting with fans, but right now we’re off for a few days I need to get some material ironed out for the tour. Laird says the label wants a few surprise new songs for the tour to tease at our next album and I’ve been working on an acoustic love song that is going nowhere. Probably because I didn’t know shit about love. But ballads are hot right now and Laird thinks it would be cool to pull something new out and record it live. But so far, I’ve got nothing. To be honest, I’ve had nothing since I got the news my mother died. It’s been months now – a year, maybe more, and I’m getting worried about the silence in my head.
We’ve got two shows in Chicago after this and then we’re off again for a bit and I’m planning to head to a cabin and write. No distractions.
I nod and make small talk with Claire who is telling me all about the places I should see in Europe while I’m there. We don’t have a lot of down time until early December, so the main attractions I’ll hit are some hotels when the tour buses get to be too much. But no one ever wants to hear about the not-so-glamorous side of stuff. I’m certain half the reason people are so into drugs and booze is because otherwise it’s boring as fuck, working all the time and being on the road.
Sterling struts over to the pool and sits at the edge, dipping her feet in the water. Ajax splashes over and pretends to grab them while she giggles.
My stomach tightens. Ajax is a decent guy and all, but he’s definitely not in the market for a relationship. At least not one that spans more than one night. Or sometimes in his case, more than a couple of hours in the afternoon. And if I can’t have Sterling, I’m sure not going to sit around while someone else does.
“Hey, Jax! Keep those hands where I can see them.” Noah calls, tipping his beer bottle up to his lips. “That’s my kid sister you’re flirting with.”
Ajax holds up his hands in a surrender pose, treading water, while Sterling shoots a dirty glare over her shoulder.
Noah blows her a kiss and clinks his beer bottle against my glass. “Glad you finally made it. Were you able to deal with the pregnant chick?”
I clear my throat as Claire’s eyes widen. “Um –“
“I didn’t know you had a girlfriend?” she says.
Noah laughs. “This guy doesn’t do girlfriends. Seriously. But he does have a problem with a girl who wants to be his baby mama.”
I take a long gulp of lemonade. “It’s not mine. I didn’t even lay a hand on that woman.”
Laird is having a conniption about this for some reason. I’ve never gotten into shit before, at least not anything that’s hit the news, but the label is unhappy and wants us to up our PR. I don’t know why we have to jump through hoops because some woman created a weird fantasy life about me, but I am definitely looking forward to some time alone in a cabin in a few weeks. No label, no Laird, just me and my journal full of shitty lyrics, hoping I can spin them into gold.
Noah lowers his sunglasses and peers at me over the rims. “You okay? You’ve been doing a lot of running.”
“Yeah.” I slump in my seat, hating Noah for knowing me so well. “Just frustrated by this whole thing.”
He sits back. “I get it. You’re the golden boy who never gets in trouble and now the label is treating you like the rest of us.” He laughs. “They’ll get over it when our next album goes platinum. We’re like, one of the only bands who hits that target anymore.”
“Yeah, but that only makes them far more focused on us.”
“You worry too much. You need to actually use your downtime as down time, if you know what I mean.” He takes out his phone, tilting it so he can see the screen against the glare. “Lexxie Crux will be in Chicago with us.”
“She’s going to be in Chicago with us because Ash is opening for us,” I respond drily.
“That makes her all the easier to find.”
“Man, I’m not interested in Lexxie. Isn’t she your fuck friend anyway?” The only woman I’m interested in is sitting by the pool her face tilted up to the sunshine.
“Lexxie’s great. Maybe I should ask her to join us in Europe.”
“Do you really need another girlfriend right now?”
“I don’t need a different lady every night, like Jax does.”
“Yeah, but swapping them out every six months or so isn’t great either.”
“I’m not that much of an asshole. And I don’t cheat.”
“That’s a different story than your last girlfriend sold.”
