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“Until the day I die.”
“Didn’t you break one of your cousin’s jaws?”
“Next question.”
I hid a smile behind my hand and asked my next question. “It seems like Syrus and Sylas butt heads a lot. What’s the deal with that?”
“Personality conflict.”
“That’s it? Personality conflict?”
“They’re literally the same person. Syrus and Sylas are identical, whereas Symon is fraternal. It’s frustrating. Syrus and Sylas will argue just for the sake of arguing.”
“That sounds exhausting.”
She rolled her eyes. “You have no idea. They argue so much that they’ll be saying the exact same thing and not even realize it.”
“Jesus. Okay. What song do they hate performing?”
“‘Neon Dreamz’.”
My mouth dropped briefly before I regained my composure. “‘Neon Dreamz’ is arguably their biggest commercial hit.”
“Which is why they hate performing it. The song doesn’t hit the same way it used to.”
I nodded and folded my arms over my chest. “I can see that. Are they making another album?”
“Recording should begin in December.” The relief hit me harder than I anticipated. Vera laughed. “You look like Maury just read your paternity results and determined you weren’t the father.”
“Because I thought they were done. They announced they were taking a break, then called it a hiatus, and after that there were no updates. Do you know how many bands go on hiatus and never fucking come back?”
“Plenty.”
“It’s been years.”
“It’s been two.”
“Doesn’t matter. At some point, I figured ‘hiatus’ was just the polite way of saying they’d broken up without making it official. And then you’re sitting here telling me they start recording in December like you just told me the weather.”
Vera’s smile faded as her gaze drifted past me, and I wondered if I struck a nerve. For a few seconds, she said nothing. Her lips pressed together, then parted, only for her to change her mind and close them again.
“Vera, I’m—”
“Sometimes… you can love something so much that you have to step away from it for a while.”
I frowned because I knew exactly where she was going.
“Because if you don’t, that love can start consuming you. It becomes work, pressure, and obligation. All the things you loved about it get buried beneath all the reasons you have to keep doing it. Sometimes, you have to miss something, and you have to remember what your life feels like without it.”
Her gaze hit me right in the soul.
“Then, when you come back, you’re choosing it again. Not because people expect you to, or because you’re good at it, or because it’s all you’ve ever known.” A small smile touched her lips. “You come back because you missed it enough to fall in love with it all over again.”
Something about the way she said it made me think we weren’t talking about her cousins anymore. Her explanation didn’t sound like an observation. It sounded… lived.
I reached across the table and took her hand. Her eyes dropped to where our fingers intertwined.
“You miss it?” I asked quietly.
