Page 92 of Wild

"It is," the singer agrees, and turns toward her, wrapping herself around her as her eyes drift across the lights. "I'm going to miss you," she adds softly.

Erin, her arm around Mia's shoulders, lowers her gaze slightly to meet the singer's eyes, dark in the dim light around them.

"It's two weeks."

"Two very long weeks." Mia's dramatic tone makes the doctor laugh.

Even though the tour is officially over, the singer still has a couple of trips before she gets back to New York, where she'll have a few weeks to rest before starting work on the new album. First she's flying to Mexico in a few days to film an a cappella mini-concert in the city—five days of interviews—and then they'll head to Canada for another awards ceremony where the artist is nominated. Erin can't go with her. Violette negotiated four months with the hospital, and those four months are up in a couple of days, so she has to go back and return to work.

"Will you be okay?" Mia asks, and she doesn't mean the two of them—she means she knows Erin doesn't want that job anymore.

"Yeah, don't worry." The doctor tucks a strand of hair behind Mia's ear before leaning against the railing, arms resting on the wood as she stares out into the distance.

They never reached an agreement with Jude. The agent hadn't objected to Erin being part of the team as Mia's primary doctor—and the rest of the crew's as well—but he'd flatly refused to give her the authority she'd asked for. He turned red and launched into how one bad call could cost them serious money, how they were bound by the contract with the label and by tour dates. He rattled off a list of reasons why only he could make decisions in any given moment, until Mia suddenly snapped, told him she was done, that without her there was no tour, no contracts, no sponsorships, and demanded that Erin's terms be accepted.

Jude looked at her—stunned at first, then he collected himself and said something Mia hadn't expected. He threatened to destroy her career, reminding her that he held all the industry contacts and that if he chose to, he could make sure no one wanted to work with her again. Mia opened her mouth to firehim on the spot, then closed it when she felt Erin's hand on her leg.

"Fine—your terms," the doctor said, because she wasn't willing to put Mia through that kind of stress and risk her collapsing.

"Why did you agree to that?" the singer asked once they were back in the room, her voice tight with anger. "I was going to fire him. If he thinks he can threaten me—"

"Honey." Erin held her face in her hands and Mia felt her whole body go warm. "I don't know a lot about how this works, but I don't think you can just fire him like that—he probably has a contract too. And you can't make a decision like that when you're this angry, or blow it all up and suddenly have no agent. I don't want you fighting over me. It's not worth it. I'll keep negotiating with him the way I have been, and that's that—it's fine."

The singer held on to her without a word while Erin rubbed her back to help her calm down, but for Mia it wasn't fine. Jude had never threatened her like that before, never shown her that side of himself. She was grateful Erin had stopped her, because she knew Erin was right and that acting out of anger would only make things worse—but she'd talk to Noah about this, and together they'd set up a video call with Violette to find out what her options actually were.

Now they're still out there, looking at the city lights while the cold air makes them shiver and slowly unknots something inside them both.

"Four months is a long time," Mia says quietly.

Erin exhales through her nose and says nothing.

After deciding she was going to leave the hospital, she'd reached out to HR, and after a video call they had a few days later, they explained that her contract included a clause requiring six months' written notice before a resignation couldtake effect. There was no getting around it, so she'll have to work the four months she has left before she can walk away.

"Time goes fast," she answers finally, glancing at Mia with a small smile.

She knows they're going to see very little of each other—when the singer gets back to New York, she'll be buried in impossible shifts that leave only small gaps, and those gaps won't always line up with Mia's schedule. Mia will only have about a month of real downtime before she's back to work, but Erin thinks of it as a test: if they can get through it, they can get through anything.

Mia leans into her and gives her a gentle nudge with her hip.

"We could do this more often," she suggests, meaning lookout spots like this one—finding quiet places with a good view and coming out at night. "I love how calm it is."

Erin agrees. She's just wrapped her fingers around Mia's wrist to check her pulse and finds a slow, easy rhythm that has nothing in common with the hours after a show, when it takes forever for the adrenaline to drain away.

"I'll find them. Places just like this—we'll go whenever you want." Erin pulls her close and presses a kiss to her neck that tickles the singer, who scrunches up and bursts out laughing.

Chapter 35

Four months later.

Erin watches Mia — whose hair is no longer lavender but back to her natural blonde — as she signs her name across the pages of the contract. The doctor can barely breathe, relieved that it's finally happening, that her girl has shed an agent who only ever cared about how much money he could squeeze out of the singer.

After a fairly long meeting with Violette once Mia finally made it back to New York, the lawyer explained that Jude had been extremely clever in every clause of the contract he'd had her sign — except in the one that mattered most to him.

"All you need is three months' notice to terminate the agreement," the lawyer said. "There's a clause requiring you to pay him one million dollars if he hasn't earned that amount from you before the partnership ends. I still need to go over everything, but I can tell you he's made significantly more than that, so you can let him go without any problem."

Erin managed to keep a straight face. Noah couldn't, and let out a snort he barely smothered by turning away and faking a coughing fit.

"How do I do it?" Mia asked. "Just tell him and that's it?"