Page 27 of In This Together

But this was tradition. After a big concert, Andrea, Hannah, Rosalie and occasionally Sofia would come to this very bar for the best sliders in Manhattan. And tonight, of all nights, Andrea was considering where her true loyalties lay – to her family, to her friends, to her lover or to herself. She knew where they ought to lie and so, regardless of whether she wanted to be here or not, she had been unable to say no.

‘There’s something stuck on my knife,’ Rosalie said, holding the knife from atop her white paper napkin in front of her face. ‘Why do we always have to come here? Can’t we, just one time, break with the norm and go somewherenice?’

Despite herself, Andrea smiled. Rosalie was as sweet as she was dumb, as smart as she was uppity. Rosalie wasn’t like an onion with lots of layers to be peeled; she was more like a banana, with just one layer. On the outside, she was all glamour and – for want of a better word – simple. She cared about clothes, shoes, fine dining. Spending on her father’s credit card whenever he did something to annoy her. Finding Prince Charming. But on the inside, she was smart. She had investments across Wall Street and private funds, Andrea knew. What had once been a healthy but not remarkable inheritance and trust fund income, Rosalie had turned into a gold mine. True, she had advisors, but Rosalie was no fool. Very few people knew that. Beneath her superficial exterior, another thing people didn’t see was the size of Rosalie’s heart.

As Andrea looked at her friend now, laughing with Sofia and Hannah about the grubbiness of the bar they were sitting in, she felt a surge of guilt. What she and Hunter were doing was wrong. She had to stop it, she knew, but she didn’t know if she was strong enough – and that was not something she had ever thought before.

Hannah was right. Andrea did have feelings for Hunter. What had begun as an accident, then turned into an exciting affair, had somehow become something deeper. It had to end. She had to go back to her life before Hunter. Her. An apartment. A job. The strength of will to take on anything.

‘Andi… Andi?’

Andrea was pulled from her thoughts by Hannah, whose disappointment in her was clear in every look they exchanged.

‘Marco is asking what you want to drink.’

She looked up into the expectant eyes of the slightly shaggy-looking bartender, then looked along the row to see what the others were drinking – red wine, Hannah; white wine, Rosalie; bottled beer, Sofia. ‘I guess I’ll take a glass of white.’

‘What’s up with you, Andi? You seem out of sorts,’ Sofia said.

It always struck her as peculiar when Sofia asked how she was. It was as if their God-given roles were flipped on their heads. It had always been Andrea’s job to keep her younger sister safe.

She twisted her lips into a smile. ‘I’m fine. I was just thinking about work.’

It had been the wrong thing to say; better thanI was thinking about the affair I’ve been having with Rosalie’s dad,but not good. Andrea’s leaving Sanfia Records for the giant of XM Music Group had been swept under the carpet. In the first weeks, months even, after her switch, Sofia had avoided Andrea, and Andrea had been too consumed by making a good impression to seek her out. Time passed and softened her sister’s anger, but they had never truly resolved the conflict that Andrea’s move had caused between them.

In Sofia’s eyes, Andrea had abandoned her family.

Perhaps she had. Perhaps she had wanted to do something for herself for the first time in her life. Or perhaps she was doing what she thought had been in her sister’s best interests at the time. Andrea didn’t like Jay. He manipulated Sofia, undermined her, made her question herself and her confidence. But he was ultimately Sofia’s choice and as a couple they wanted to have a family. That changed things. Andrea leaving Sanfia Records had been the only way she, Sofia and Jay could all exist harmoniously.

Sofia nodded. If there was any animosity left, she hid it. ‘How’s it going at Stellar?’

Andrea could have gone into her struggles, her need to prove herself to her executive board, but wouldn’t that be weak? She was the big sister. She was supposed to be strong and successful, an example. ‘Fine. But I want to know more about Sanfia and that guy you put on stage tonight.’ There was no other option than to tell her sister, sincerely, ‘He’s a talent, Soph. He needs some fine-tuning but he’s got something.’

Sofia sipped from her bottle of beer, not hiding her turned-up lips. ‘I won’t argue with that.’

‘Does Sanfia have that kind of money?’ She regretted the question as soon as it left her mouth, but she couldn’t take it back, and it was a legitimate question. Sanfia Records didn’t have the kind of budget an act like Seth Young deserved, or needed.

Sofia set her bottle down on the bar with a clunk. ‘I have a strategy.’ And with those four words, what she told Andrea was,It’s no longer any of your business.

Andrea itched to discuss it more. To understand how Sofia intended to promote Seth Young. From where she believed she could find the funding. But she respected her sister’s choices.

‘Well, you know where I am if you would like any… if you’d like to chat through your ideas.’

‘And you know where I am when you want to talk about what’s really eating you tonight,’ Sofia countered. Because, though she hated to admit it, there were very few people who had insights beneath her armour, but Andrea was sitting in the presence of three of them.

Andrea picked up her wine, raising the glass toward her lips, and said, ‘Touché.’

‘Where was Jay tonight, Soph?’ Hannah asked, breaking up the terse exchange.

Jay. The wedding of he and Sofia being possibly the biggest argument she and Sofia had ever had, putting place of employment aside. He was a waste of good air and a leech. The truth was, even if Sofia ever stopped loving him, she would stay with him because that was who she was – loyal to the end, through thick and thin. It was a trait Andrea had to respect in her sister but that she often thought was naïve and misplaced. Sofia thought that their mom had paid the ultimate sacrifice for her family – giving up cancer treatment to have Sofia and dying just months after her birth. Sofia felt like she should give her all to family, too. But what she failed to see was that their mom had decided to leave her husband and eight-year-old daughter to fend for themselves. She had sacrificed forSofiabut she didnotsacrifice for all her family.

Sofia scratched at the white, unbranded label on her bottle of beer that simply said ‘light beer’. ‘Well, Jay got overly acquainted with two of his old friends before the concert. I left him to sleep it off.’

Andrea bit down on her lip to stop herself from speaking in advance of processing her thoughts. Jay was an asshole regardless, but the concoction of Jay, alcohol and drugs made for a demon.

‘Oh, don’t all look at me like that,’ Sofia said, swigging from her bottle again. ‘It’s not like last time. He’s had a couple of benders – work-related, I should add. I’ll talk to him tomorrow.’

Andrea’s scoff left her before she could stop it. ‘He’s an addict, Sofia. To add to his long list of undesirable qualities.’

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