Page 7 of Love is a Harmony
His roguish grin flashed through her mind. Something was up with him. First, the scandalous photos with the British model after he’d been on his best behavior for the better part of a year.
Then, the disappearing act.
It took her a moment to recognize the ringing as her work cell, not the personal, and she sighed before answering. “Melanie Snyder.”
“I thought you were coming over.” Jo huffed out a breath, and Melanie could just picture her twisting her pink-tipped hair around her finger. “I even bought the good ice cream.”
Melanie leaned back in her chair with a laugh. She was less than ten years older than the Rockstars Anonymous crew, but sometimes she felt like their mom. “And what constitutes the good ice cream?”
“It’s cold.”
Melanie laughed at Jo’s surliness. Most people didn’t get the enigmatic drummer, but Melanie always had a soft spot for her. “Okay, I’m leaving now.”
“Just get here.”
Melanie hung up with a shake of her head and stood, swinging her jacket off the back of her chair and over her shoulders. After placing an order for her dad’s dinner, she stuffed the papers on her desk into her computer bag, figuring she’d get some more work done when she inevitably couldn’t sleep tonight. Looping her arm through the strap, she walked into the hall, passing dark offices, their occupants already home with their families. Her dad’s light was the only one still burning. She poked her head in his doorway.
“I’m heading out, Dad. Your food will be here soon. See you in the morning.”
He barely glanced up. “Love you, sweetie.”
Like father, like daughter. Both workaholics, both drowning their pain in stacks of papers and full email inboxes. She imagined most would call what they did unhealthy, but it worked for them. While they had the label and each other, they didn’t need anything else.
She thought of what she’d tell anyone in the rock star support group if she thought they weren’t dealing with their feelings.
Talk about it.
Use your music.
Don’t let the pain become all you are.
If only she could take her own advice. Her clients felt like they knew her, but they only saw what she showed them. Despite knowing everything about them, there were parts of her life she kept bottled up.
It took half an hour to drive to Jo’s apartment in the city. She lived in the same building as Ben Evans, front man of the bandFateand another of Melanie’s clients. She’d hooked them both up with their leases in the last couple years.
Unlike Ben, Jo wasn’t flashy. She didn’t live in the penthouse looking out on the L.A. lights. Melanie flashed the doorman a smile.
“Good evening, Miss Snyder.”
Passing the elevators, Melanie pushed into the stairwell. She was an exercise nut, for reasons she hadn’t revealed to anyone, but it had been a week at least since she’d found time to go for a run, and her calves burned as she made her way to Jo’s fifth-floor apartment.
She’d barely knocked when Jo’s voice came through the solid wood of the door. “If you think I’m getting up to answer the door, you’ve lost your mind.”
Melanie smiled to herself and pushed into the apartment. She hadn’t talked to Jo since the Rockstars Anonymous Zoom meeting two days before. Currently, she was the only one of the group other than Melanie in the city.
Jo lifted her head to look over the back of the overstuffed blue couch. “Good. It’s you. Get the ice cream out of the freezer.”
“You waited for me?” She quirked a brow.
Jo scowled. “No. I waited for someone to come in and get the ice cream so I didn’t have to get up. The doorman would’ve done. Or a burglar.”
“I feel so loved.”
“If you wanted to feel loved, you’d have gotten here earlier.”
Touché. Melanie wasn’t exactly a social butterfly. On the few occasions she did meet with people, she was late. Well, maybe that was why she didn’t have many dates or friend hangs. She called them meetings.
Melanie found bowls and spoons before taking the cookie dough ice cream out of the freezer and dishing it up. When she handed one to Jo, the drummer took it. “Bowls, Mel? You getting posh on me?”
