Page 15 of When We Fell Again
“Interesting.” Claudia raised an eyebrow. “How come you aren’t still together?”
I pulled at the label on the beer bottle, wondering how to best answer that question. “Let’s say we started moving in different directions and being together was harder than being apart.”
“Right.” Claudia took a pull of her beer. “Sounds like it could have been messy.”
Oh, how little she knew.
Since Jordan and I split up, I had had a few short-term relationships. Nothing lasted longer than six months once the guy realised how much my career meant to me. None of them had liked the fact I went out on tour, particularly as the majority of acts I’d worked with were male. Who wanted their girlfriend going out on the road with a bunch of guys who would get drunk and party every night?
Jordan hadn’t, and he’d made it crystal clear.
Now, there I was five years later, out on tour withhimand his band.
You couldn’t make it up.
I turned my attention back to the stage, where Jordan had his phone out and was videoing his latest bit of interaction with the audience. He’d always been a charismatic frontman, involving the crowd in the set, getting them to give him as much as he gave to them.
“Is he meant to be doing that?” I jerked my chin in his direction.
Claudia grinned. “Yes. They need more interaction on the Idol Rev socials. I told him to make short videos and reels to get more likes and shares.”
“Looks like he’s enjoying himself.”
“I hope so.”
At that moment, Jordan chose to walk over to our side of the stage. Keeping his phone firmly trained on the audience, he stared directly at me, those chocolate-brown eyes full of fire. A fully-charged, on top-form Jordan Bowie was hard to resist, and I couldn’t help but stare right back at him.
“Tonight’s not only the night we start our band over again and reconnect with our fans, it’s also the time to reconnect with people we thought we’d lost over the years.” He paused, and I couldn’t breathe, wondering what the hell he would say next. “Here’s another old song for you. I hope you like it.”
He stalked back into the middle of the stage, placing the mic back into its stand and clasping both hands around it. The lights dipped, and almost instinctively, I knew what was coming next.
When Levi started picking out the first acoustic chords ofWherever It Takes You,my heart contracted. One of Idol Rev’s slower songs, the lyrics were a heartfelt plea to someone starting to distance themselves from a relationship. Jordan had written it when we first started to have issues. I hated the thought that someone might have picked up on who it was about, but whenever Jordan had been questioned about the inspiration behind one of their most popular numbers, he always answered with a vague generalisation about a couple growing apart.
While I didn’t like to put too much weight behind my being on tour, it had to be one of the reasons the song got included on the setlist.
I could barely hold it together as he moved through the song, the words haunting me as much now as they had then.
“You okay?” Claudia whispered.
Swiping my hand across my eyes, I tried to wipe away any moisture caused by the tears. It wouldn’t be good to crack on date one of the tour. “Yeah. Thought I had something in my eye.”
She nodded unconvincingly.
For the rest of the set, Jordan didn’t look in my direction once, which I was grateful for. After all the emotion that one song had stirred up, I didn’t know how I’d react if he had. Once their final song finished, the band walked off stage, filing right past Claudia and me.
Claudia congratulated each of them on a great gig, praising them for whipping up the crowd into a frenzy and reminding everyone how great Idol Rev was. I stood to one side, not saying a word, feeling like a spare part and pretending to check something out on my phone.
“Are you going to come for a drink?” she asked once they had gone back into the dressing room.
Tempting though it would be to spend the rest of the evening around the band, around Jordan, I wasn’t sure it was the right thing to do. Under normal circumstances, I would check in with the band after a gig, making sure everything was okay and that they knew what the next steps were, if we were staying overnight, or whether it was straight into the van to travel to the next destination. But these were definitelynotnormal circumstances.
“I think I’ll head back to the hotel. We’ve an early start in the morning if we’re going to get to Newcastle in good time.” It was an excuse I’d used a million times before, and usually it worked, but I hadn’t bargained on Claudia’s powers of persuasion.
“Come on, Lex. You can’t leave me on my own with this lot,” she all but begged. “Just one and then I’ll let you go. It’s their first gig in over a year and it seems to have been a good one. Surely, that’s worth celebrating? What else are you going to do? Go back to the hotel and check your emails?”
Was I really that transparent?
I sucked in a breath. “Go on then. But just one.”
