Driving Tempo

by Thomas, Raine

  “He took a last-minute recording gig,” Monique explained. “You know how that goes. I think he’s resurfacing later today. I’ll pass the message along.”

  “Thanks.” Deciding she was good to go, Rosemary turned from the mirror and started pacing to work off her nervous energy. “Do you think I’m nuts for doing this with Sage?”

  If the subject change rattled Monique, it didn’t reflect in her tone. “Are you kidding? You’re doing the highest of favors for one of the music industry’s hottest artists. He hired you to plan his best friend’s wedding, giving us two high profile clients within the span of a couple weeks. Ines is already talking about researching what it would take to make us partners. This is the smartest decision you’ve ever made, my friend.”

  Rosemary released the breath she hadn’t realized she was holding. “Okay. I appreciate the pep talk. I’ve got to keep reminding myself this isn’t for keeps.”

  “Wait. Are you fallin’ for him?”

  “No. I...” Rosemary paused. “Maybe?”

  “Huh. That just made things a lot more complicated.”

  “Ugh. I know! I’m an idiot, right?”

  “An idiot for developing feelings for a hot rock star who got you off in a towel shack? Oh, yeah. You’re certifiable.”

  Rosemary lifted her eyes to the ceiling. “Why did I ever tell you that?”

  “Because we tell each other everything.”

  “We really should establish some boundaries.”

  “Sorry. There’s no going back now.”

  The door to the green room opened and Lily and Sydney walked in. “Hey, Ron,” Rosemary said, “I’ve got to run. The ladies are back which means it’s show time.”

  “Oh, all right. Send more pics. And kiss Xander for me. Tell him it’s from your sexy mocha BFF.”

  “That would be one way to go. Later.”

  Rosemary clicked off just as she heard Monique say, “Use some tongue.” A few minutes later, she headed with Lily and Sydney to watch the concert. It amazed her that even though this was her seventh Void concert over the past ten days, it felt just as exciting and fresh as the first one. Part of that was because the song set changed for each show, but a bigger part was due to Sage’s talent. His audio manipulation made the same song sound different every time.

  Once again she thought what a shame it was that his father wasn’t more supportive of Sage’s career choice. Sure Sage wasn’t a talent scout, but he had still made a name for himself in the music industry. One would think that would give them plenty of common ground. It should have helped strengthen their parental-child bond.

  Then again, what the hell did she know about such things? She’d never met her father and her mother wanted nothing to do with her.

  “Rhonda left me a voicemail,” Lily announced shortly after they reached their green room after the concert.

  That was almost eerie coming on the heels of Rosemary’s thoughts about their mother. “What did she say this time?” she asked.

  Lily pulled up the message and hit the speaker icon. “Let’s find out.”

  “Why in the hell didn’t you tell me that your sisters have been whoring themselves out to Suddenly Something?” Rhonda began in an irate voice. “I had to find out on that stupid reality show right alongside all of my friends.”

  Rosemary winced. Lily tapped her phone’s home button and pulled up social media, probably looking for something to explain Rhonda’s rantings. They had all missed the airing of the latest House of Archer episode during that night’s concert.

  “It’s your responsibility to watch over your younger sisters,” Rhonda was going on. “I didn’t agree to allow them to spend this summer with you only to have you ignore them and let one of them get pregnant.”

  “You never asked if they could come on the tour,” Lily growled at her phone.

  Rosemary placed a placating hand on her sister’s shoulder as Rhonda ended the message with, “And you haven’t updated me on your wedding plans. I’ve been waiting to hear your color scheme so I can go wardrobe shopping. Call me back as soon as you get this message.”

  The call clicked off. Rosemary felt the tension in Lily’s shoulders as her sister scrolled through the feed on her phone.

  “Shit,” Lily said, rubbing the space between her eyes in a show of frustration. “They aired footage of Caroline and Bridgette exiting Vic’s hotel room. And apparently some of them in Suddenly Something’s green room doing...things.”

  “I hate to complicate matters,” Sydney said from where she sat on the room’s couch, “but I think I saw them heading to Suddenly Something’s green room on our way here.”

  Seeing the thunder in Lily’s expression, Rosemary said, “Okay. Here’s the plan. I’ll call Rhonda and handle the wedding planning update so you can do your thing on social media to reply to the feedback about tonight’s episode. Then we’ll go drag the Brat Pack over here by their ears and find out what the hell they’re thinking.”

  Lily lifted her hand. Rosemary smacked it with her own to seal the high five. Then they each began handling their unpalatable tasks.

  Rhonda was as hostile as expected. Rosemary endured a ten-minute lecture about her responsibilities towards her younger sisters, during which time she was pretty sure her mother didn’t draw a single breath between sentences. Rosemary listened until Rhonda wound down and then assured her mother that she’d take care of it.

  When the conversation transitioned to the wedding, Rosemary shared the established color palette—elegant eggplant purple and soft gray with touches of dusky blue—and a few of the venues they were considering so her mother had an idea of the styles to look for while shopping. She then spent another ten minutes listening to why Rhonda thought everything they were planning sounded awful and giving her opinions on how to “fix it.”

  “Sorry, my phone is dying,” Rosemary ultimately lied. “We’ll call you back soon.”

  She didn’t feel a single pang of guilt for the deception. No, the only panging was in her head resulting from the stressful phone call.

  “Ryan just issued a Brat Pack sighting,” Lily said from the other side of the room a couple of minutes later. “ETA sixty seconds.”

  “Good,” Rosemary replied. “Let’s get this over with.”

  “I can make myself scarce,” Sydney offered.

  “Nah,” Lily said with a wave of her hand. “This won’t take long.”

  Rosemary walked over to join Lily near the snack table. “How should we play it?”

  “Bad cop and worse cop.”

  “Sounds good.”

  The door opened, admitting a giggling Bridgette. Beyond Bridgette’s shoulder, Rosemary saw Caroline reaching out to stroke Specialist Westbrook’s lapel with what Rosemary guessed was a flirtatious smile. The security specialist easily deflected the contact, gently but firmly guiding Caroline towards the open door. Rosemary smothered her humor over Caroline’s resulting pout.

  “Where have you two been?” Lily asked the moment the door closed behind their sisters.

  “What’s it to you?” Bridgette shot back, grabbing a package of cookies off the snack table and tearing it open.

  “Yeah,” Caroline chimed in. “What business is it of yours?”

  “It becomes my business when you’re caught on camera having sex with one of the bands on The Void’s tour,” Lily snapped.

  Bridgette rolled her eyes. “Oh, please. What’s the BFD? Like you weren’t having sex when you were our ages?”

  “I sure as hell wasn’t having sex where it would be produced and aired on national television.”

  That just made the girls laugh. “They hardly aired anything,” Bridgette said with a shrug. “We were just giving the guys a little attention.”

  “It was enough to have Rhonda calling,” Rosemary said.

  The quietly spoken words had more of an impact than Lily’s anger. Caroline and Bridgette exchanged uneasy glances.

  “Mom saw it?” Bridgette asked.


  “Yep,” Lily replied. “She probably left you both voicemails that you haven’t bothered to check.”

  Caroline lifted her chin into the air. “So what? We’re of age. We can have sex with whoever we want.”

  “The ‘so what,’” Lily countered, “is that if I find out you’re engaging in any kind of sexual behavior with the members of Suddenly Something or anyone else on this tour, I’ll see to it that you don’t step foot inside another venue The Void is playing now or at any other point in the future.”

  The sharp in-drawn breaths from their half-sisters told Rosemary that the threat had hit the mark.

  “You can’t do that,” Bridgette gasped.

  “Try me.”

  When Caroline’s eyes narrowed, Rosemary lifted a hand in warning. “I spent twenty minutes on the phone with Rhonda. Trust me, you’re better off all around not getting involved with the guys on this tour.”

  “Says the chick screwing Sage Strickland,” Caroline huffed.

  “That would be untrue,” Rosemary said calmly, not rising to the bait even as she realized that Sage’s plan to make it look like they were involved was working. “And I’m not the one in Rhonda’s sights.”

  “So you can either go back to harmless flirting and enjoy the rest of the tour or try and hook up with Vic or Hunter again and get kicked off the tour, then go home and deal with Rhonda,” Lily summed up. “Your choice.”

  Rosemary watched her half-sisters fight their internal wars, their expressions mutinous. Both eventually seemed to realize they had been painted into a corner.

  “Whatever,” Bridgette said at last, shoving a cookie into her mouth.

  “Yeah,” Caroline agreed, jerking her shoulders like Lily and Rosemary had done her a favor. “The Suddenly Something guys aren’t anything to scream about anyway.”

  Catching Lily’s gaze, Rosemary saw her own wariness reflected there. What could have been a major meltdown had ended with little drama. Could it really be that easy?

  Or was the true drama still to come?

  Chapter Nineteen

  The next morning in Omaha was filled with band PR obligations. Lily traveled with The Void to two different local radio stations for live interviews and recorded promotion soundbites, then on to a morning talk show for an interview and single song performance. They had a working lunch in a small café closed to the public for the hour they were there, hovering over a speakerphone to brainstorm with the producers over the finishing elements for the “Not Mine” video.

  Lily participated in the interviews where she was asked and spent the rest of the time doing the other tasks required for her job. She recorded Lily’s Little Nothings and Lily’s Quickies to post throughout the day, fielded questions and comments on social media, outlined the basic points for a blog post about Omaha that she wanted to write and post before they left the city, and answered numerous phone calls from the press. It was all she could do to scarf down the salad she ordered as she listened to the conference call with half an ear and typed notes on her phone.

  When her phone rang yet again towards the end of lunch, the conference call had wrapped up and the House of Archer camera operators were taking a break, so she rose from the table and stepped away to answer the call. “This is Lily,” she said absently as she stared out the wide windows facing a bustling city street.

  “Hi, Lily,” responded a robust male voice. “Glad I caught you. I’m sure you’re a busy lady these days. This is David Fallon with Rolling Stone.”

  Lily felt her knees weaken and had to grab the ledge of the window to stay standing. So many thoughts flooded her head that she couldn’t grab onto one.

  Is he calling about my article submission? Does he want to interview me about House of Archer? Is he trying to access Dane and the band through me? Is he contacting me about my social media work or my writing?

  Am I about to be rejected?

  Am I about to be published by Rolling-freaking-Stone?

  She didn’t realize she had turned around until she locked eyes with Dane. He immediately rose from his seat and joined her at the window, allowing her to grab his hand in a death grip.

  “Hi, Mr. Fallon,” she managed to squeeze out past her racing heart. “It’s nice to hear from you.”

  Beside her, Archer mouthed, “Rolling Stone?”

  She nodded as David said through the phone, “I’ve been meaning to contact you for a couple of weeks now about the article you submitted. The one on Brewer Street. I apologize that it has taken me this long to get back to you.”

  Lily couldn’t even be upset about that. Receiving a phone call rather than an e-mail had to be good.

  Right?

  “That’s okay,” she heard herself saying, but her lips had gone numb.

  “We typically respond to queries by e-mail, but considering the strength of the article and your celebrity status, I thought it best to reach out directly,” he explained. “I’ve been traveling and this is the first chance I’ve had to give you a call. I hope you’re not going to tell me I’m too late to the party.”

  It took her whirling brain a moment to comprehend that he wanted to know if another publisher had picked up the piece. “Not at all,” she said, bouncing a little as she realized the direction the call was going.

  Feeding off her response, Dane grinned and tightened his hold on her. It meant more than she could say to have him standing by her side in that moment.

  “Great,” David said. “I’ve reviewed that article as well as the one you recently submitted on Mandy Dierx. They’re both solid pieces that will speak to our readership. We’d love to feature them in upcoming issues if you’re still interested.”

  She tried not to sound like she was gushing when she responded, “Of course. It’s always been a goal of mine to be published in Rolling Stone. You’ve truly made my day by reaching out to me.”

  “I’m happy to hear that. You’re a talented writer, Lily. I have no doubt that your work will bring many new readers our way.”

  A thought occurred to her that dampened her enthusiasm. “I, uh, want to make sure you noted that I’m publishing my articles as Anne L. Archer rather than Lily Montgomery.”

  “I did, and that’s fine. The explanation you submitted with the Dierx article made a good deal of sense.”

  She nibbled on her lower lip over that. She had waffled over whether to explain her choice to use the pen name. It felt unprofessional but necessary, and in the end, she had decided to include a two-sentence statement about writing as Anne. It was a relief to know the magazine supported her decision and wasn’t relying on her celebrity status to sell issues or draw readers.

  “I think your writing stands for itself,” David continued. “I’m confident you’ll find ways to direct your fans to the articles without revealing yourself until you’re ready.”

  She hadn’t considered that. “I sure will.”

  “Have you had an editor review the articles?”

  “No, but I’m certainly open to that.”

  “That’s fine. I asked because they’re both well-polished. We’ll have to do some work on the word count to adjust each piece to column length, but I assume you’re open to working with us on that?”

  “Of course. Whatever you need.”

  “Then I’ll send a standard agreement your way for your review. We appreciate your interest in Rolling Stone. I’m looking forward to working with you on these and future articles.”

  Lily kept waiting for the other shoe to drop. When was he going to ask her to sit for an interview herself or submit an interview with The Void in return for featuring her articles? Was he going to specify that she had to post about the magazine a certain number of times within her many social media posts?

  Could he possibly just be interested in her as a writer?

  “Thanks, Mr. Fallon,” she said. “I’m excited to be working with you too. I appreciate you taking the time to reach out to me directly.”

  “It’s my pleasure. I confess that I’m
a fan of the show. You had me curious about the incongruity between the professional e-mails and articles you sent versus your persona on the show. But no one understands the need for stage presence like a music journalist. It’s always interesting getting to know the person behind the mask. You’ll receive an e-mail from my office soon.”

  Lily exchanged goodbyes with him and thanked him again. The moment the call ended, she leaped into Dane’s arms, circling his waist with her legs and his neck with her arms.

  “Congrats, Lily Momilly,” he crooned.

  He accepted the many kisses she peppered over his face, laughing over her excitement. The laughter ended when she captured his mouth for a longer, more intense kiss. She released him before things got out of hand, accepting hugs and congratulations from the rest of the band. They had all gathered around her when the call neared its conclusion.

  Lily didn’t notice that Christopher wasn’t among them until he returned from the back of the café. He saw everyone’s happy expressions and gave them a puzzled look.

  “How did you already hear the news?” he asked.

  “What news?” Dane wondered.

  “I just found out that ‘Not Mine’ was certified platinum.” Christopher saw all of them exchanging wide-eyed looks and seemed to realize that hadn’t been what they’d been celebrating. “What is all of this about?”

  “Lily just got off the phone with Rolling Stone,” Dane explained. “They’re picking up a couple of her articles.”

  Christopher smiled and lifted his arms. “Congratulations, young lady.”

  Lily accepted the hug he was offering. “Thank you. But that’s not nearly as exciting as ‘Not Mine’ reaching platinum already. Wow! I’ve got to start spreading the news.”

  “There’s time for that,” Dane argued. “Your news is just as important. You’ve been working towards this your entire career. We need to celebrate.”

  “Agreed,” Christopher immediately replied. “We’ve got a few more interviews we can’t miss over the next two hours, but I’ve blocked some time for all of us to have a celebratory meal before tonight’s concert.”