Rock Star Ex (5 page)

Kate’s tone rose with excitement but a stone sank in
Eve’s stomach.
 
Any hope she’d had of
handling the job remotely evaporated with a poof.
 
“No, I really can’t,” she said.

Chapter
Three

As the town car pulled away from the curb at the
front of her condo in Santa Monica, Eve still couldn’t believe the whirlwind of
the last three days.
 
Seventy-two hours
ago she’d had a vision of how her life would go but she never could have
predicted a twist like this.
 
This
assignment would mean a huge leap forward for their business, if they did well
at it.
 
The pressure and potential of
what lay before her stirred up fear and excitement that combined into one heady
cocktail.
 
The rush of it made her feel
vibrantly alive.

They’d met with Clayton Drake late on Saturday to
discuss the details of the position further.
 
It was still stunning how quickly he had hired them.
 
From what he’d said, he had been running into
a problem finding someone that the band would be comfortable sharing their
space with for the next five weeks as they toured the US.
 
She guessed he was running out of time.
 
He hadn’t even blinked and eye at their fee,
and they’d given him the high-end quote.
 

After looking at Arsenal’s Web site, and the other
sites they were plugged into so far, it was glaringly apparent that whomever
they’d had handling this aspect of their image had sorely slacked off.
 
The site was antiquated and their Facebook
page, the bare bones of what it needed to be.
 
The job was definitely going to need both of them to handle all the
setup that needed to be done as well as update and maintain new coverage from
the tour.

 
After about an
hour of discussion they’d shaken hands on the deal.
 
Clayton had looked vastly relieved and
promised to get a contract faxed over to them for signature right away.
 
 
After
that, they’d had to go home and start packing immediately.
 
The band was leaving Monday for Las Vegas, the
first stop of the tour.

She still didn’t know if she’d packed everything she
needed.
 
They would be going across the
country and every state had its own kind of weather.
 
It was just the beginning of October and
still warm, but by the end of the tour and their journey back east it would
definitely be much cooler.
  

She had waffled between outfits most of Sunday trying
to decide which necessities to bring.
 
Chloe had sat in her open luggage on the floor and watched her
suspiciously as she’d laid everything out on her bed, arranging and rearranging
things.
 
She’d tried on outfit after
outfit, trying to make sure she had the most versatile pieces.
 
It probably wouldn’t have taken so long if random
thoughts of Devon hadn’t kept disrupting her concentration.
 
With each set of clothing she’d tried on
she’d found herself wondering what he would think of it.

At one point she’d found herself back in the closet,
not knowing why she had gone in, as the memory of him staring down at her from
the stage played through her mind.
 
It had
kept getting worse as her departure time ticked nearer.
 
She didn’t want to think of him but it was
hard not to.
 
There had been a lot of
changes since she’d last seen him.
  
Maybe
her brain was trying to reconcile the old memories with the new ones.
 
Yes … that had to be it.
 

She’d almost forgotten to drop Chloe off at her
parents’ house because of him.
 
Thank
goodness for her mother calling to find out where she was.

The car was off the freeway now and making its way
up Figueroa Street.
 
Her heartbeat sped up
as the arena loomed into view.
 
The
driver pulled up to a gated entrance and the guard in the shack raised the bar
after checking his pass.
 
As they passed
slowly through the back of the arena it surprised her to see the amount of
people and activity.
 

There were all kinds of cars, golf carts, bikes, buses,
trailers and other equipment she could not name.
 
Men moved quickly in and out of large doors
with equipment and trash.
 
After thinking
about it for a moment, it all made sense.
 
Aside from being a venue for concerts, the Staples Center was home to
not only the Los Angeles Lakers but the Clippers and the Kings as well.
 
It had to take a lot of work to clean up
after all the fans from one event and then rearrange it for the next one.

The town car slowed and turned to park next to a
large, glossy, jet-black bus.
 
Kate was
standing next to it with Clayton.
 
She
waved as the car pulled up.

“Eve.
 
Good to
see you,” Clayton said as he opened the door for her.
 
  
He
was dressed casually in jeans and a t-shirt.
 
With light brown hair and dark eyes, he wasn’t a man that would particularly
stand out in a crowd but he had a pleasant smile and easy manner that made
people comfortable.
 
When they’d all met
on Saturday and gotten to know each other better her gut had told her that she
would like working for him, which was reassuring.
 
She’d learned to always trust her gut.
 
It usually figured things out before she did.

“Thanks,” she replied and shook his hand.
 
Then she turned to hug Kate hello.
 
Her friend was positively beaming with
excitement and she knew she had to be too.

“Let me show you your new home for the next five
weeks before the guys get here.”
 
Clayton
gestured to the bus as he checked his phone.
 
“They’re on their way.”

Eve turned to get her bags from the driver.

“Don’t worry about those, Eve, they’ll take care of
them,” said Kate.
 
“Just tell him which
one goes on the bus and which one goes under.”
 

They’d been told to put together a smaller bag with
their essentials and a clothing change.
 
The rest of their things were to go in a larger bag for underneath the
bus, where they could access it during stops.
 
She pointed them out to the driver and then followed Clayton and Kate up
the stairs.

Inside she could only stop and stare.
 
The few RV’s and busses she’d seen before
were a far cry from the Arsenal tour bus.
 
The inside looked just like a house.
 
The front section of the bus was a lounge area with two deep brown,
leather couches facing each other along the walls and large, flat screen TVs
overhead.
 
Drawers lined the space
beneath them.
 
The windows had blinds on
them and there was tile, actual tile, on the floor.
  
Overhead were all kinds of recessed lights
to create multiple kinds of ambiance.
 
The cream-colored, leather passenger seat next to the driver had also
been swiveled to point backwards, completing the look of a living room.

“This bus sleeps six,” Clayton was saying.
 
“You’ll be on this bus with the band for the
whole tour.
 
The bus has pop outs so
normally, when it’s parked, there’s more space to move around.”

He moved back further.
 
“This is the kitchen.
 
Sorry we didn’t have enough time to get you
things you might need.
 
Just give the
driver a list of what you want from the store and he’ll get it taken care of.
 
In the meantime there should be enough food to
go around.
 
I’m sure the guys will share.”

There was black granite on the kitchen counter top
and a stainless steel sink.
 
Wooden
cupboards were below and overhead, nicer than the ones in her condo, although
smaller.
 
Clayton pulled out the
stainless steel drawers that were the refrigerator and freezer and showed them
the latch that held them in place while the bus was in motion.
 
There was even a microwave.
 
Opposite the kitchen was a long curved dining
seat with a polished wood oval table.
 
The back of the seat had a pattern on it.
 
On closer inspection she realized that the
pattern consisted of all kinds of tiny guitars.

“This space is also a studio so that the band can
work on new material while they’re on the road.”
 
He pointed at the two microphones
overhead.
 
“They like to be able to play
and record while they’re travelling.”

“Oh, that’s right, the song
Ricochet
was written while they were on tour a few years back,” Eve
said.

“
Dry Fire
was too,” Kate chimed in.

Clayton grinned, pleased.
 
“You guys did your homework.
 
Yes, both of those were recorded on this very
bus.”
 
He walked further back and they
followed.
 
“These are the bunks.
 
You two get the ones on the bottom.
 
Each bunk is equipped with its own
iPad
so you can watch TV, surf the Web, et cetera.”
 
He pulled one from its holder in the ceiling
of a bunk to show them.

There were three bunks lining the walls on each
side.
 
They were going to be sleeping
inches away from the band.
 
Eve’s cheeks
flushed slightly at the thought of being so close to Devon.
 
There would be no avoiding him … quite the
opposite, in fact.
 
As the new lead
singer he would be the focus of their posts, blogs and tweets, which were
mainly her responsibility to put together.
 
I can handle it.
 
I can handle it
, she told herself.

Kate still didn’t know anything.
 
She hadn’t wanted to get into it with her and
there really hadn’t been time to.
 
It
actually was preferable to keep it locked away.
 
If she shared then it meant experiencing the pain and loss all over
again, and she was done with both of those feelings.
 
Besides, she’d rather not ruin Kate’s
experience of this trip with her old drama.

He showed them the lockers where they would keep
their stuff.
 
Each bunk had a
corresponding locker.
 
They continued
back and he showed them the bathroom and shower.
 
It was still amazing to see how similar
everything was to a normal house.
 
There
was a porcelain toilet in the bathroom along with a granite counter with a sink
and wooden cabinets.
 
Even a decent sized
mirror with a nice frame bordering it.
 
The shower was quite good too.
 
The
soothing cream-colored tiles reminded her of the walk-in shower stalls at her
favorite spa.

“Wow, I can’t believe how nice this is,” said Kate,
her eyes wide.

“I know,” Eve said.

“Oh, we’re not done yet,” Clayton said with a
grin.
 
“There’s one more section to show
you.”
 
He tapped a button and, what had
looked like the rear wall of the bus, slid apart to reveal a back lounge with
creamy off-white colored sofas.
 
It also
had a flat screen TV and a small granite table with two workstations.
 
There were plenty of power outlets and cables
as well.
 
“Here is where you can get your
work done in peace.”

“No way!” Kate squealed.
 
“This is so cool!”

Eve smiled along with her friend’s excitement, feeling
the same way.

“What?
 
You
guys have never been on a tour bus before?”
 
Clayton teased.

They shook their heads.

“Really?”
 
He
drew his head back, seemingly in mock disbelief.
 
“And here I thought, from the other night and
all, that you’d had experience with this sort of thing.”

They all laughed.
 
Clayton started to say something more but was interrupted by a voice
calling, “We’re home!” from the front of the bus.

“Oh good, they’re here.
 
Come with me.”
 
He strode toward the front of the bus and Eve
followed behind Kate.

As they emerged into the front lounge it suddenly
seemed packed.
 
When it had just been the
three of them there’d seemed to be plenty of space.
 
But now, as they stood with the four members
of Arsenal, it felt tight.
 
They were all
fit, handsome musicians and, in actuality, there was plenty of room for
everyone to sit.
 
It was their presence
that seemed to fill the space, she noted.
 
Especially Devon.
 
He stood the
furthest back, just at the top of the stairs, but he may as well have been
right in front of her.
 
His energy was
the strongest.
 
Which actually made
sense, being that he was the lead singer and all.
 
He hadn’t seen her yet.
 
She was hidden behind Kate and the other band
members who were slapping Clayton on the shoulders in greeting.