Page 60 of Enjoying the Band in Lockdown

“Oh, my little Lolita.” Jax caught me, whispering so only I could hear. “What the hell have we done.”

“Happy? You wanted to break him, wanted to—”

“Oh, my Lolita the only thing I want is for you to make a decision.”

“And what would that be?” I scorned. Jax had nothing I wanted. Not anymore.

“Coffee or a kiss.”

For the third night, Xavier and I slept apart. Or at least, he slept somewhere, while I worked the social and online media.

The only winner out of lockdown appeared to be the band. Individually, we were all fucked.

“So, you’re the girl who’s stolen my brother’s heart!” Deacon Galis was more charismatic over skype than I expected. Seriously, who taught the Galis brothers how to creep into a woman’s soul just with a stare.

“Hi, Deacon, I’m Sydney. Pleased to meet you.” I ignored the comment about Xavier. We’d almost improved to a cold war status, but I didn’t like my chances of lasting longer than the concert.

“Didn’t answer my question, so I’ll ask another. Are you the dirty blonde I kept hearing about, or should I be talking to some other gorgeous female and take you for myself?”

“And who says charm isn’t genetic,” I laughed, “I thought you were in a relationship?”

“Doesn’t mean I wouldn’t have fun stealing one of my brother’s women.”

“Okay, this just got weird.” I looked around the pub for Xavier, Devon, or anyone to save me.

Instead Deacon just laughed, the familiar voice filling the restaurant, “Relax, babe. I don’t mess with what’s not mine. Xav has been single for years, glad to see he’s found a good woman.”

“You might want to catch up, he’s still single.”

“Really?” Deacon didn’t believe me.

“It’s complicated.”

“All the good ones are, but you two can fill me in when we catch up in person. Now, what cameras have you got set up?”

I swung my phone around until Deacon got the full sense of the pub.

“Like I told your people, I’m going to set up everyone’s mobile phones, so we’ve got home grown footage that the guys can use later.”

“Are you going to turn it into a video?”

“Oh, you’re thinking of copyright? Who owns the footage from the concert?” A dumb, rookie mistake that the real me would never have made.

“Sweetheart, Sydney, it’s fine. Whatever my brother wants is his.”

“Okay, thanks. I should have asked earlier.”

“The publicity we’re getting is insane.” Deacon turned from rock royalty into businessman. “We’re looking at an audience in the millions, mostly international. The guys and I are promoting like crazy, but Xav and The Flying Monkeys are getting mentions. All I need is to make sure that we don’t cock block each other.”

“I don’t think that’s possible,” I said, looking around for Xav. Wishing he was here to talk to his brother.

“I mean, I don’t want him to talk shit about me and I won’t talk shit about him.”

“I don’t know what you’ve heard, but Xavier respects the hell out of you. His problem isn’t that he disrespects you it’s the fact that he thinks he can never measure up.”

“To what?” Deacon seemed genuinely surprised.

“You.”

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