AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Now I struggled to look around Oliver’s balding head to try to catch Darcy’s gaze once more.
“It was a group effort,” I said, using some of my stock responses when I spoke about the Horizon’s most recent album. “Everyone contributes a little bit to make these things successful.”
There! I caught sight of Darcy over the man’s shoulder, but she wasn’t looking at me. Instead, she grabbed her purse and headed to the door. Wait! Where was she going?
“Would you excuse me?” I asked, interrupting the couple who were now telling me all about their grandchildren. I pushed past them, an uncharacteristic move for me, and I heard Liz apologizing on my behalf. But I was only focused on one thing: I had to talk to Darcy.
But just as I pushed my way around the couple, I saw Darcy slipping out through the side door, a hard slam drawing the attention of a few people standing around us. I felt the energy drain out of me as I realized Darcy had disappeared.
“Sorry, man,” Liz said, appearing next to me. “I think she’s a little spooked.”
“Spooked? What did you say to her?”
My sister tended to meddle a bit too much in my business. I couldn’t help wondering what Liz had said to Darcy to freak her out.
“Nothing!” Liz said, putting her hands up in the air like someone about to be arrested. “I just said you were looking forward to saying hello.”
“Why did you do that? No wonder she’s freaked out.”
“I thought it would make things better! Let the two of you have a fresh start.”
“Fresh start? We hardly know each other.”
“Not anymore. But there was that date …” Liz let her voice trail off, letting me know there was something more she wanted to say.
“When we were teenagers?” I thought back to that time. I remembered my friend group hanging out with Darcy and hers here and there. That was in the last summer before I went to college. For a little while I thought Darcy might be interested in me, but that first and only date told me definitively that she wasn’t.
“That was a million years ago,” I said. “We were just kids then. Times have changed.
But even as I said this to Liz, I wasn’t sure I believed it. If Darcy didn’t like me back then, what made me think she would like me now? Maybe I should take Darcy fleeing the house for what it looked like: she wanted nothing to do with me.
“Cheer up,” Liz said, jabbing her elbow into my arm. “It’s a long summer. You have lots of time to meet someone.”
A man came to ask Liz a question about the layout of the second floor, and she walked away, heading toward the stairs. I was left standing alone at the kitchen island, wondering why I had bothered to come here. Even after all these years of fame and attention, perhaps because of it, I still felt bad in the face of rejection. It was particularly bad when I was rejected by someone I actually liked. Someone I wanted to get to know better.
I was looking for something real in my life. Not the endless string of women who hung around me on tour, more attracted to fame than the guy underneath it. Some part of me had fantasized about finding someone in my hometown who might see me for me rather than the character I played. I realized now how stupid that idea was.
I felt my phone buzz in my pocket. I pulled it out and saw my manager’s name pop up on the screen. This made me groan. The last person I wanted to talk to was my fast-talking, money-obsessed manager. But I knew the man well enough to know he would keep calling until I picked up. And he would only get more animated and upset the longer it took me to answer.
I slipped outside through the same door Darcy had left by and picked up the phone.
“Hey Brady,” I said, trying to keep the annoyance out of my voice.
“Callum! My man! Where are you?”
“At my sister’s real estate open house,” I said. “Didn’t you get my email?”
“I did, buddy, I did. It’s why I’m calling. Look, I knew you were heading home for a charity concert. That’s all good, man. But this email, it says you’re going home for the summer. The band itinerary has you home for three nights. We can’t lose you for three months, man.”
I sighed as I heard Brady’s words, even though I wasn’t surprised to hear them. I knew Brady wouldn’t be happy about my email announcement telling him I was taking three months off. I knew it was the cowardly way to communicate, but if I’d tried to talk to Brady in person, I would still be in Singapore. Lately, it felt like I was constantly on a different page to Brady and the rest of my band.
“I know, Brady,” I said, running my hand through my hair. “But we’ve been going nonstop. Don’t you think we could all use some time off?”
“But our momentum, man!” It was Brady’s favorite thing to talk about: Momentum. Keeping things hot. Staying on top of fame. They were Brady’s constant refrains.
I held the phone away from my ear as Brady started pontificating on what hard work it took to be a rock star.
“Like you would know,” I muttered under my breath. Luckily, Brady was too in love with the sound of his own voice to hear my dig. As Brady prattled on, I felt anger and frustration rising in my body. I knew I needed to move, or I might explode, so I started walking. The house Liz and Darcy had been showing wasn’t far from the town’s Main Street, and I took off toward it, excited to see all the old haunts of my childhood.
