Time (Laws of Physics #3)(44)

That sounded like Mona. “Was this when we all went sledding?”

“Yeah. I asked her if she wanted to hang out and she just, like, started telling me all this physics shit.”

“Huh.” Thinking back on that afternoon, I remembered that I’d suggested she try to let Charlie down by being honest. In her very Mona-like way, she must’ve taken my advice.

“Anyway, what I’m trying to say is, if it is her, if you two hooked up in Aspen and are trying to keep it on the downlow now, then you should know, as of January, she was still hung up on someone else.”

Clearing my throat, I lifted an eyebrow, working really hard not to smile at that. “Thanks for the information.”

“So, is it her?”

“If it was her, would it bother you?”

“No.” He shook his head, shrugged. “Why would it bother me?”

“You seemed interested in her.”

“Uh, yeah.” His eyes rounded. “I mean, she’s fucking gorgeous, right?”

I smirked but didn’t answer.

“But Abram, there’s a million gorgeous women. And that’s my point, man. The last thing you want on your first world tour is to be in a relationship with DJ Tang and Exotica’s daughter, unless you want to be under a microscope all the time. We might be famous, but that’s a whole different ball park. They’re level one billion famous, like in the stratosphere famous. People would go nuts.”

“I think it’ll be okay. People might be interested at first. But then it’ll die down.”

“Holy shit, man.” He reared back, gaping. “It’s true?”

“We’re—” I began, but was cut off by the swelling sounds in the hall mixing with the Vicious Pixies in the middle of their set.

Ruthie stood just inside, frowning at us both. “What are you doing?” She shouted over the ruckus. “Do you even know who is out here? Nico-fucking-Moretti! I swear!” She stepped inside, shutting the door, and made a beeline for the coffee table.

“I know,” I said. “I invited him.”

“You invited him?” Ruthie frowned at me, picking up the closed bottle of champagne and began working to remove the foil. “How do you know Nico Moretti? You two in the same underwear ad or something?”

I felt myself grimace at her joke, just a small one. That stupid ad. “His wife is friends with my sister.” I’d had lunch with Nico and Elizabeth earlier in the day. In fact, we’d driven to the venue together after. They already knew I planned to leave right after the concert.

“Huh. Well, you should go say hi. He brought his hot actor friends and has everyone laughing. We go on in less than an hour and you two losers are in here doing what?”

Charlie lifted his hand toward me. “Abram is waiting for a call from—” he paused, studying me for a moment before deciding on, “His mystery lover.”

“You mean your sister?” She twisted the wire holding down the cork.

“That joke isn’t even funny. Fuck you.”

“No thanks, your sister already did.” Ruthie grinned at me, wagging her eyebrows. “He falls for it every time.”

I smirked, shaking my head, glancing at my phone again. Any minute now.

“I’ll tell you what, Nico is hot. If I weren’t so into lady parts, I’d definitely be confused.” Ruthie braced the bottle against her hip, twisting the cork and indicating to me with her chin. “You know his wife? She is also hot. Some kind of doctor, right?”

Nodding, I set aside the acoustic guitar and picked up the phone, touching the screen just to make sure Mona hadn’t texted while I’d been distracted by my bandmates.

“See? See what I mean?” Charlie gestured to me again, and then let his hand fall to his knee with a slap. “He keeps checking his phone. Every night, it’s the same. Fucking hell, Abram.”

Glaring at Charlie, I gave my head a subtle shake. “Why do you care?”

“Because.” Now he gestured to Ruthie. “Ruthie broke up with her girlfriend after Aspen.” He pointed to himself. “I made sure to stay single. Even the roadies are unattached. Why would you do this to us?”

Examining my friend, I couldn’t tell if he was serious or joking. “What am I doing to you?”

“You’re raining on our parade.” Charlie said this like it was obvious.

“How so?” I rubbed my face, scratching my beard.

“Listen, fine, be in a relationship. Okay. But people want to meet you. They come here for you. Your lyrics. Your music—”

“Kaitlyn’s music.”

“—and night after night, you’re in your dressing room, hiding from everyone, waiting for a phone call. You’ve wasted the first two months of the North American tour. If your girl cared about you, she’d want you to have a good time. It’s sad, man.”

“It is kind of sad.” Ruthie pressed her lips together, looking me over. “We’re only young once. We only get this experience—of our first tour—once. You’re missing out.”

“See?” Charlie, again, made a big show of lifting his hand toward our guitarist.

“I don’t feel like I’m missing out,” I mumbled to no one, and it was only half true. I didn’t feel like I was missing out on the drugs, and the sex with strangers, and the hangover sex with strangers. But I did feel like I was missing out on Mona by being here. If there were some way to do the practices and the shows without the rest of it.