Page 125 of The Encore’s Crown

“For my part, I'm sorry. I shouldn’t have kissed him in front of you,” I say.

Something flickers across her face. I leave before Celeste can accuse me of creating a dramatic exit too. My phone rings on the way to my car.

Denise.

“I just heard from Lustre.”

“Fast communication. Love that.”

She sighs.

“I’ll put you back into the active database. I can’t promise something immediately. I’ll call when I have another placement.”

“Thank you.”

She disconnects as I stand beneath the gray Seattle sky with my bag hanging from one shoulder and my entire schedule suddenly empty. My phone buzzes with a message from Kasia.

Have you heard from work about the time off?

Oh yeah. I'm definitely available.

Amazing! I'll let Rafe know!

I hold my breath, waiting for what exactly, I'm not sure. The earth to open up and swallow me whole? A few minutes later, she sends another text.

Flights booked for Friday morning. I’m sending you the details now.

I stare at it, then I look up at the clouds.

“Just great.”

Kiri

Rithy takes my phone out of my hand, unlocks it, and adds her beneath Radhika Malhotra like there’s anything casual about seeing that name on my screen again.

“There,” he says, handing it back. “Now stop being pathetic.”

Ever since Hong Kong, the band's treated Radhika and me like some foregone conclusion. Like one apology and a ten-minute conversation beneath expensive lighting means we might as well set a wedding date and start naming children. Ronan suggested we could merge our celebrity surnames into some kind of media dynasty, Rafe started talking about Orpheus again and Rithy has decided the universe personally returned Radhika to me because it was tired of watching me ruin my own life.

None of them seems concerned with whether Radhika wants anything to do with me beyond accepting an apology she should have gotten a decade ago.

The label has taken over some rooftop hotel with a crazy ballroom in West Hollywood for the tour wrap party on Friday. A celebration wrapped in a networking opportunity, which means we’re expected to stand around pretending we aren’t exhausted while executives congratulate themselves for our hard work. Rithy mentions Radhika six times before breakfast. At lunch, I’m ready to throw him into traffic. That afternoon, I’m sitting alone in my hotel room with her contact open. I press call before I can invent another reason not to.

It rings twice. I’m preparing myself for voicemail when she finally answers on the third ring.

When I walk into the greenroom before our interview that night, Rithy somehow already knows. He looks up from the sofa with a grin.

“She’s agreed to come! I can tell from your face. You’re welcome.”

Ronan raises both hands. “Do we need to start planning the kiddos names?”

I throw a bottle of water at him. He catches it against his chest, laughing.

Rafe barely looks up from his phone. “Orpheus and Eurydice never had children.”

“Don’t encourage the bullshit.”

“I’m correcting the mythological framework.”