“I did. I think you’d be great in this kind of a job.”
“But you barely know me, and I don’t exactly have relevant experience.”
“I actually learned a lot about you the night we talked, and regardless of your experience, I feel pretty confident that you’ll do a great job. I can teach you everything you need to know, and you’ll pick up things along the way. You’ll be fine.”
“In that case, count me in. Thank you, Elisa.”
“You’re welcome.”
Andi smiled as she took a sip of her drink and looked out at the room with me. “This is really cool.”
“I’m pretty excited about it, although I’m not going to be able to start working for Laurie until the Westside tour is over. I don’t want to break my commitment to them.”
“Would Laurie want me to start right away?” Andi asked me.
“Would that be okay?”
“Actually, and don’t tell Cam I said this, but it would kind of be a godsend. I can still meet up with the band at different tour stops, but I was so afraid I was going to go stir-crazy over the next three months if I didn’t start doing something meaningful.”
“I have a feeling this is going to be plenty meaningful,” I said as I clinked my glass against hers.
“To us and our new adventure,” Andi said.
“Cheers,” I told her, right as Van sidled up to us with Cam.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Van
“Are we going to have to separate you two again?” Cam teased Andi and Elisa.
He and I had been across the room when we’d seen our girlfriends deep in conversation and decided to intervene. Actually, Cam had been complaining that he couldn’t find Andi, and then we’d spotted her with Elisa by the bar in the middle of the room and had decided to crash their party. I was secretly hoping Elisa was ready to leave.
Knowing what her schedule had been like as of late, I was surprised she even came to the party. It seemed like all she did was work these days. And I got it. Katherine was being an uber-bitch and loading up Elisa’s to-do list. I thought it was completely shitty, and there had been a few times when I’d had half a mind to tell Katherine what I thought of her, but I figured that wasn’t exactly my place and did my best to let it go. It wasn’t easy, though.
“Hey baby,” Andi said to Cam, throwing her arms around his neck and kissing him deeply.
I looked wistfully at Elisa to see that she was giving me the same look back. Three more months and that would be us. I wanted it now.
“Hey,” I said to her, sliding in next to her at the crowded bar, knowing it wouldn’t look odd for us to stand near each other.
My fingers danced with hers, and to my surprise, I felt her fingers lace with mine. Our hands were hidden behind us, but we weren’t completely obscured from view. I wasn’t used to Elisa being that bold in public, and I wasn’t sure what had gotten into her. When I looked over at her in question, she just smiled.
“What’s going on?” I asked her.
“I’m just happy,” she said around a sigh. “That’s all.”
“Because Katherine stopped circling long enough for you to take a breath? You know she could see us at any moment.”
“Let her,” Elisa said around a shrug. “I don’t care anymore.”
“You don’t care anymore?”
“Nah, not really.”
“Are you drunk?” I asked her, because I sort of felt like I had to.
She laughed, her blue eyes dancing. “Not so much. I’m just in a good place.”
I looked around in confusion, but Elisa’s free hand drew my face back so I was looking at her again.
“Are you ready to go?” she asked me.
“Yes,” I said in relief.
I’d already decided a few minutes earlier that I’d had enough of the party, but seeing the look in her eyes and being that close to her was starting to distract me and make me think of other things. Things we’d gotten to do so little of in the past few weeks due to her insane work schedule. Maybe that was it. Maybe she was going to get to relax a little now that the benefit was over.
“Come on,” she said, stepping away from the bar.
I expected her to drop my hand, but she didn’t. She just tugged me forward, stopping long enough to invite Cam and Andi to come with us.
“We’re heading back to the hotel. You guys want to come?” she asked them.
“Definitely,” Cam said, pulling Andi close as she laughed.
“Good,” Elisa said, texting with her free hand. “Marshall and Chris are going to meet us outside.”
“Aww, but Chris was talking to that cute back-up singer for Riptide,” Cam said, turning around to look for his bodyguard. “He’ll punk out and not invite her back to the hotel. I know it.”
“You want to run interference?” Andi offered, and Cam’s eyes lit up.
“Yeah, totally. Give me a minute,” he said to Elisa. “We’ll meet you guys outside.”
“Sorry,” Andi apologized over her shoulder as she and Cam started to walk away. “Chris is in the middle of a dry spell. Cam’s trying to help.”
“Huge dry spell,” Cam said loudly.
“I’m sure Chris appreciates the whole world knowing that,” I muttered to Elisa.
“Any concerns about Marshall’s love life you want to help out with?”
“No,” I said quickly. “He does just fine on his own.”
“Good to know.”
“Cam’s insane. Come on, let’s go outside and get some fresh air,” I said, letting her hand drop from mine.
I knew how many reporters and other industry people we’d have to walk by on the way to the car, so it was easier to put off the inevitable. It would be bad enough that people would see us leaving together. A part of me felt like telling Elisa to take a separate car, but I was feeling selfish, and I didn’t want to let her go.
When we got outside, Marshall was waiting for us. He told us the car would be around shortly. As I predicted, the paparazzi were camped out behind the ropes that had been set up, waiting to snap pictures of us leaving. We might have to make it look like Marshall and Elisa were leaving together like we’d done a few times when the three of us had gone out alone. Better people think she was dating him than me, I figured.
“Leaving so soon?” I heard from behind us, and felt my shoulders sink at the sound of Katherine’s voice.
I’d always liked her. She’d always had our backs, even if she was more than a little judgmental when we got in trouble, and she did a great job for the band. Now I kind of hated her. She was mean to the girl I loved, and I couldn’t stand that.
Elisa turned and faced her, so I followed her lead, telling myself all the while to keep my mouth shut and not say all the things I’d been dying to say for weeks.
“I have a lot of work to do,” Elisa said, in an almost mocking tone. “I figure I should head back to the hotel to get started on it.”
Katherine just smirked at her. “That’s what I like to hear.”
“But I’m also tired, seeing as I worked so hard on this entire benefit. It turned out so great, didn’t it, Katherine?”
“It wasn’t like you did it alone, Elisa,” Katherine said haughtily. “If you’re looking for a compliment, you’re not going to get one from me. You did your job. Bravo.”
“I did, and I did it pretty damn well,” Elisa said just as haughtily. “And because of that, I actually feel like I’m entitled to celebrate with my boyfriend tonight. Work can wait.”
With that, she turned to me and threw her arms around my neck, kissing me passionately as behind us flashbulbs went off like mad, the paparazzi capturing every single second of her lips on mine, her arms around my neck, and my arms pulling her against me, because if she was going to kiss me like that, I was absolutely kissing her back with everything in me.
I’d never been one for public displays of affection, and neither had she, but I realized as people around us started to whoop and whi
stle, that what she was doing was completely for show, and she was going to milk it for all it was worth. I had no idea what her motivation was, but in that moment I couldn’t bring myself to care.
When she finally pulled back from the kiss, she slid her hand behind my neck and looked up at me, her blue eyes shining. “I love you, Van,” she said, loud enough for most people to hear, which only elicited more flashbulbs.
“I love you, too,” I told her, leaning down to press my lips to hers once more. I figured if we were going to do this, we were going to do it right.
Elisa smiled, and then she pulled back and turned to Katherine who was looking at us with eyes narrowed into slits.
“You’ll have my resignation in your inbox tomorrow morning,” Elisa told her. “I’m giving you three months’ notice to stay through the end of the tour, but after that I’m done working for you. Feel free to relieve me of my duties before then, but keep in mind that my contract runs through October, and you’ll still be obligated to pay me until then.”
Holy shit, had she just flat out quit? What was going on?
“You broke your contract when you put on that little display,” Katherine sneered at her.
Elisa cocked her head to the side. “Actually, I didn’t. See, that was more of a promise to you, but nowhere in my contract does it say that I can’t be in a relationship with a client. I checked. So you can say that I broke my word, but it probably won’t hold up in court.” Elisa shrugged. “It’s up to you. Either way, I have another job waiting for me.”
“Laurie called you,” Katherine deduced, and even though I didn’t know what Sydney’s publicist had to do with anything, I figured Elisa and Katherine very much were on the same page.
It was me who was lost.
“She did call me,” Elisa confirmed. “It looks like we both got sick of working for someone who didn’t have enough respect to treat us like human beings. You’d better be careful, Katherine, that kind of behavior can lose you your best clients – although that already happened, didn’t it? I hope it doesn’t happen again. Westside brings in the majority of your money, don’t they? You wouldn't want to lose them too.”
“Laurie and her small start-up can’t handle the kind of publicity Westside needs,” Katherine sneered. “She’s barely going to be able to handle working for Sydney.”
“She’ll be just fine,” Elisa assured her, and I started to put the pieces together as to what was happening. “I’ll make sure of it.”
“Then why don’t you also go ahead and make today your last day,” Katherine said, and I sincerely hoped Elisa knew what she was doing.
“Done,” Elisa said confidently, letting me know that she knew exactly what she was doing as she took my hand in hers. “I’ll clean out my things and send my files to Brent. Thanks for making this easy on me, Katherine. I’m not sure I would have made the same decision if I felt welcome and supported in this role. I’m sorry things turned out like they did.”
“Get out of my sight,” Katherine hissed.
“Gladly,” Elisa said with a smile.
Then we turned and walked to the car amid flashes from cameras that we both ignored, although from the smile on Elisa’s face, I could see how vindicated she felt.
As soon as we were safely in the backseat, I turned to her. “What the hell was that?”
“That was me doing what I should have done a long time ago.”
“But she fired you.”
“She did,” Elisa said remorsefully. “I had hoped she wouldn’t, but I offered to stay. That was her decision.”
“So what are you going to do now?”
“Laurie is starting her own firm, and she asked me to work for her. I’m going to represent Sydney and Sabrina Tyler.”
“So Sydney left Katherine?”
I wasn’t sure I’d heard that correctly, and it surprised me more than anything.
Elisa nodded. “She did.”
“When did you find all this out?” I asked her, feeling like I’d missed a few days.
Elisa laughed and kissed me. “Tonight. It’s all been kind of a whirlwind, but it’s all so good. I feel better than I have in months. Oh, and the best part is, Andi’s going to work for Laurie too.”
“Andi? Cam’s girlfriend, Andi?”
Elisa nodded. “Yup, so that’s kind of great.” She let out a huge breath of air. “This is going to be a really good thing.”
“But you’re leaving me,” I said, pointing out the very obvious thing that she seemed to be forgetting.
“No, I’m not. Not for good.”
“But don’t you have to go back to L.A. and work for Laurie now?”
“Laurie is finishing out her contract with Katherine, so she won’t be doing anything for another week. Then I’ll probably go out to L.A. to meet with her and talk strategy, but everything I’ve been doing for Syd can translate over, and I can start working on things for Sabrina. I doubt I’ll have to be in L.A. full-time for that.”
I felt the grin start to spread across my face. “So, you’ll still be able to come to Europe and Canada with us?”
“I don’t see why not. It might be intermittent, but we’ll figure it out. The great part is, though, I can go as your girlfriend, and we won’t have to hide anymore.”
“Yeah, well, I think we’re pretty much done with hiding anyway after the little show you put on back there.”
Elisa smiled. “That wasn’t exactly my plan, but Katherine pushed me over the edge. I couldn’t take it anymore. I just acted, and do you know how good it felt to kiss you in public?”
“I’d say it was fairly amazing,” I said, putting in my two cents.
“I agree. I love you, Van, and I don’t want to hide that anymore.”
“I love you too,” I said, leaning down to kiss her.
The door to the limo opened, and Marshall, who’d been waiting outside, along with Chris, a brunette I didn’t know, Cam and Andi, all piled in.
“What did we miss?” Cam asked. “The paps are going nuts out there.”
“We came out,” Elisa said proudly as she snuggled closer to me. “And I got fired.”
“We’re going to work together,” Andi told him.
“Huh?” he said, looking back and forth between the two girls who were grinning at each other.
“Long story, man,” I told him as the limo lurched forward. “We’ll fill you in.”
As Elisa retold the story, with Andi adding in choice bits along the way, I watched my girlfriend in awe. I loved her. I freaking loved her, and I was so proud of her for standing up to Katherine like she had. She was incredible and dynamic, and I’d never been happier than when I was with her.
It was hard to believe that six months earlier a girlfriend had been the last thing I’d wanted, and now I couldn’t imagine my life without Elisa in it. She was the one person who’d always been able to completely disarm me, and I freaking loved her for it. I knew she’d continue to do it for years to come, and nothing made me more excited.
She was mine, and I’d worked my ass off to get us to this place, to redeem myself for what I’d done and to prove to her that she meant everything to me. I’d never been so grateful for a second chance in my life.
Epilogue
Van
“Hey,” I said as I snuck up behind Sydney.
She tuned and smiled at me. “Hi! I was wondering when you were going to get here.”
I shrugged. “I was aiming for the element of surprise. She didn’t see me, did she?”
Sydney shook her head. “No, she was too laser-focused on getting the show started that she wasn’t thinking of much else besides the crowd and Sabrina.”
I smiled as I looked out at the stage where Elisa stood, talking to the massive audience that had turned out for Sabrina’s last pop-up show. I had to give my girl credit. She’d done an incredible job building Sabrina’s fan base since she’d taken over promotions for her four months earlier. Even I was impressed with what she’d accomplished. Th
e turnout for tonight’s show alone was more than I’d expected.
I’d only been able to attend Sabrina’s first show six weeks earlier, so it was amazing to see how things had changed, and I knew it was all because of Elisa. She’d essentially taken the original plan to launch Sabrina’s album and blew it up. It was like she knew that hosting six shows in six college towns across the country wasn’t going to be enough to help Sabrina regain notoriety with her new sound.
With Sabrina’s past, she needed more than a handful of people to see how different she was. She needed to win over the entire country, and she needed to do it fast. That was when Elisa had come up with her killer idea.
She and her team did a social media blitz using a series of videos with the theme of ‘Where’s Sabrina, and who is she with?’. They started pushing the teasers at strategic times, they gave clues on certain days, and at the end of the first two weeks, they did a pop-up show in Central Park. Those who’d figured out the location were treated to a free concert where Sabrina performed, along with Riptide, a band who’d hit the big time over the summer and who was killing it with their first album.
From there things took off. Everyone who’d gone to the concert was all over social media, and everyone who didn’t go was buzzing about how they wish they could have seen it. And everyone was wondering if Sabrina would do more pop-up shows in the future, which was exactly what Elisa had been hoping for.
We’d been in a posh hotel room overlooking the park after that first show, and I’d watched as she closed her laptop with a huge smile on her face. Then she’d turned to me and said, “We did it. I can’t believe we actually did it.”
I’d leaned over and kissed her and said, “No, babe, you did it, and I’m not surprised at all.”
She grinned even wider as I pulled her into my arms. I couldn’t have been happier for her in that moment. She was in her element, and she was killing it.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to stay to see just how big things were going to get, since I had my own tour schedule to worry about. But Elisa and I talked every day, and she sent me pictures from the four other pop-up shows where Sabrina was joined by Liar’s Edge, Star Finger, Lost Among the Satellites, and Lawson Bryant, a singer-songwriter who’d sung a duet with her on her album.
Westside Series Box Set Page 78
