Page 26 of Smoke and Glitter

I'm standing close enough to see what she's looking at.

The snickerdoodle creamer is in the door.

Autumn mentioned liking it once. I saw it at the store a few days later and put it in the cart.

I haven't thought about it since.

Bex closes the refrigerator and turns toward me.

Her eyes stay on mine.

"What?"

For a second, I think she's going to say it.

Whatever it is.

She doesn't.

She takes the ice back into the living room.

I dry my hands and follow her.

Chapter five

Chapter Five

Autumn

Sometime after two, I hear Sam on the back stairs.

I'm still on the floor with my laptop open when he comes in, jacket over one shoulder. He shuts the door and stops when he sees the coffee table.

"There are piles."

"There are."

"Should I be worried?"

"Only if you've recently become a twenty-five-year-old British pop star with a sponsor problem."

He steps over the press schedule. "Not that I know of."

"Then you're safe."

Instead of going to bed, Sam gets a beer and lowers himself onto the floor beside me. His shoulder settles against mine while he looks over the papers scattered around us.

"What's happening?"

"One sponsor wants Nix to apologize for something she isn't sorry for."

"Can they make her?"

"They can make things uncomfortable."

He picks up the sponsor list. "And you're telling them no."

"I'm telling them she can apologize for what she actually did. I'm not putting words in her mouth because they photograph better next to a corporate logo."