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“Don’t call me sweetheart.”
I pop another chip in my mouth with a heavy scoop of dip and turn my attention back toward the TV to queue up the movie. Noting a mental tally for a win on my side, I keep quiet for a bit, knowing that if I keep pushing, I might run her off. However I can’t help myself when I ask shortly into the movie, “Find out anything interesting about me?”
She pulls her attention away from the movie, not that I think she was really paying much attention to it to begin with. It’s clear by the way that her eyes are slightly glazed over that she doesn’t find the subject matter of robots too fascinating.
Scar cocks her neck to the side, and just when I think she’s not about to answer my question, she goes all in.
“According to the latest TMZ article about you and the band, you’ve apparently had a healthy string of flavors of the evening in the past year, mostly spotted exiting clubs or bars past closing time, sunglasses often covering your eyes, your leather jacket that you keep on your bed always on your back. You apparently have also not had a serious girlfriend in recent years and people are beginning to speculate on what might be keeping you from settling down, some of it just plain nasty if you ask me.”
It’s mostly true. With the time off, I’ve been restless, needing to let out all of my pent-up energy. And I often channeled that into going out and picking up women. But what they don’t report is how many of those women I ended up dropping off at their own places without so much as a kiss before I went home alone. Sure, the occasional one made it home with me, but more often than not, I was the only one in my bed at night.
“I also learned that Hayden hasn’t been spotted out with you for any of these late night outings, something that apparently you two used to always do together. The speculation on that front…” She trails off, a look of sympathy crossing her eyes. She must know then, about the shooting that Hayden and Nikolai lived through.
“I’m sorry,” she says with sincerity, and without even really knowing her, I can tell she doesn’t say those two words lightly.
“Appreciate it,” I respond, knowing it’s sympathy not intended for me.
She clears her throat and continues, “Nikolai has been in a serious relationship with someone named Lauren, a gardening influencer. Who knew that was a job title? Although she has been notably absent from his recent social media posts and posting quite a few cryptic stories, so many are speculating if there might be trouble in paradise.”
I can’t help the laugh that escapes at that. They might spew a lot of bullshit, but trouble is never far from Nikolai’s paradise.
“And there’s not much to be found about Reid as he has apparently deactivated all of his social media and is rarely caught out and about by paparazzi.”
Reid deactivating his social accounts caused quite the headache for Arun as the label ripped him a new one now that Reid wouldn’t be able to promote anything on his account, even though there are three more of us, plus our main band account.
“Well, sounds like you got quite the inside scoop,” I mock, knowing that doesn’t even scratch the surface of the very deep swell that is the four of us and our history.
“Since you Googled me, it’s only fair game that I do the same for you. Unless you feel like sharing anything with me straight from the source?” I goad her, hoping she’ll give me even the smallest details of what makes her tick.
Instead, she just settles back on the pillow and turns her attention back to the movie. “Go ahead. There’s hardly anything out there about me anyways.”
“Well, that’ll change soon enough.”
She lets out a long exhale. “I’m sure it will.”
11
SCAR
We wake up in Seattle and are greeted with a downpour and while some of the crew seems to be bummed out by the weather, I like the dreary welcome the city has brought us. We have a day off before our show tomorrow night and I plan to make the most of it and get the hell off the bus as soon as possible.
After last night’s show, I talked with Naomi and we made plans to do some exploring together this morning before Boone joins us this afternoon after he’s had some studio time. It’s hard on the road to stay consistent with making music and working on what’s next, but Boone is one of the most diligent guys in the business, almost to a fault.
I think Naomi is just as grateful to have me along on tour to hang out with when Boone holes himself up with work as much as I’m grateful to have a woman on the road that I trust. We invited Carter to come exploring with us, but she said she and Daniel had too much work to do today in the downtime and promised us she’d join us out in the next city.
We begin our day at Pike Place Market, Naomi buying armfuls of flowers with plans to spruce up her and Boone’s bus, whereas I stick to buying a few fresh food items to stock up. I pass on the fish that is flown around, soaring from one man to the next behind the market booths. Flying fish wasn’t on my must-see bucket list for the road, but a unique experience nonetheless.
Naomi is particularly grossed out by the infamous gum wall. Meanwhile, I negotiated a fresh piece of banana bread I bought at the market for a stick of gum off of a stranger to chew myself and add to the wall. A gross but somewhat momentous thing to do. Long live my shortly chewed piece of bubblegum and therefore my stamp on Seattle.
After a mid-morning pick-me-up at the first ever Starbucks location and many streets roaming around in the rain, we settle in for lunch at a small cafe, chilled to the bone but both feeling fulfilled by the busy morning.
Our waitress takes our order and each of us slump back in the wooden chairs, letting out a sigh and a laugh at the mutual exhaustion that has set in.
“So how are you liking tour life?” I ask Naomi. She’s been on short legs here and there with Boone over the years of their relationship, normally on a jet or commercial plane. It’s a very different thing compared to a nationwide bus tour.
“It’s been great, honestly,” she says on an exhale. She fiddles with the paper straw in her water glass. “This is probably the most time I’ve gotten to spend with Boone since we first started dating. The past couple of years have been a week together and then he’s off for three more. Or he flies back into LA to do some work for an extended period of time, but then he spends most of it locked up in his studio. I know how important his music is to him, and he makes sure to let me know that I’m a priority as well, but it finally feels like he’s showing me that I’m a priority.”
“I’m happy for you,” I tell her sincerely. I didn’t know Boone before he met Naomi, but from what he’s told me, she brought a new sense of purpose and light into his life. Before her, he said his entire focus was on making music, touring, partying, repeat. And it was great for a time, but where the songs would once pour out of him, he was dried up. And to cope, he fell deeper into partying, not caring who was around or what he was putting into his body just as long as it kept him from feeling, period.
