Page 27 of Songbird: Black Kite
Or I do, I added to myself.
“True, but he’s not gonna do that before we finish recording this album, so how about you keep your dicking of the boss’s daughter on the DL for a few weeks?” Alex kicked one foot up onto the coffee table as he spoke. “Really take one for the team, you know?”
“Yeah,” I said, knowing he was right.
We drank in silence for a few more minutes, waiting for Lewis to cool off enough to come back and finish today’s recording, but when the door opened and he returned, he wasn’t alone.
That was the other problem with Victoria Castor: she may have wanted me, but shelovedthe fact that Lewis wanted her, too.
They waltzed in the door, arm in arm, and I watched as she pawed at his chest, laughing at something he’d said like it was the funniest thing she’d ever heard in her damn life. Lewis leaned close, whispering in her ear while he threw me the evil eye, like he was winning or some shit.
But that was what he didn’t understand. To me, Tori wasn’t a competition; she was just a stop on the tour.
“Oh, hey guys,” she said, her voice low and surprised, like she was actually shocked to find us all here, in the studio.
Where we’d been every day for a month trying to put this album down.
“Hey, Victoria,” Gavin said blandly, his manners always better than everyone else’s. Alex gave her a silent chin lift, and I just stared at her, boredom painted across my entire person.
She blinked at me, her smile faltering for a second before she replaced it, even brighter than before.
“You boys just about finished here?” she asked, stepping away from Lewis and completely ignoring his frown. “I thought we could hit the town to celebrate.”
“We would be finished, but Lewis here keeps fucking messing everything up.”
Lewis scowled at me, his lips pressed into a thin line, but said nothing.
“I’m sure he’s doing a great job,” Tori replied, patting him on the shoulder awkwardly. “How many more takes do you think you’ll need?”
“One,” Lewis replied immediately, and I raised an eyebrow at him.
“You sure about that, big boy?” I asked sarcastically.
“Fucking positive.”
“Well, alright then. Let’s get this done.”
We all filed back into the studio, and with Victoria standing at the window, watching over us like a queen surveying her kingdom, Lewis played better than he had in his entire fucking life.
Later, the five of us sat around our usual table in the back of O’Reilly’s Pub, Charlie standing guard as usual, listening to some unknown band tear up the stage.
They were pretty good, actually, with hot riffs and clean transitions, their covers of some classics showing innovation and a fresh take that I normally would have appreciated.
But tonight, I was just pissed off enough to not give two shits about anything.
Fucking Lewis.
That stupid fuck had played like a fucking god the second that woman walked in the door, but he wouldn’t pull his head out of his ass for me? Forus?
Didn’t he see how she was playing him? Playing all of us?
Alex was right; Victoria was going to tear us apart. And as much as Lewis pissed me off most days, he was still my friend, and we had started this band together for a reason; to get our asses out of the gutter. I wasn’t about to let some silver spoon L.A. princess mess that up for us.
Not anymore.
Looking around the table, I saw that Tori was watching me, nodding along at whatever Lewis was saying, but never taking her eyes off of me.
Fuck. I knew what I needed to do, even if I didn’t really feel like doing it.
