She blinked as she processed that. Her answering smile was genuine this time.
“And you tried again after all that?” she asked with a wink before she returned her attention to sorting a stack of flash cards.
He knew she was teasing. He also knew she hadn’t tried again.
Reaching over and taking her chin to prompt her to look at him, he said, “Don’t let one experience ruin it for you.”
She held his gaze for a moment before nodding. When he removed his hand from her face, she continued to stare at him. It felt like words flowed between them, significant and unspoken. He was suddenly deeply afraid she would decide to voice them.
“So,” he said to break the humming silence, “this bee allergy...how severe are we talking? Rash and swelling or tragic My Girl ending?”
One corner of her mouth lifted. She reached into her purse and pulled out an EpiPen. “To prevent the tragic ending,” she replied.
“Good to know.” His gaze moved to the papers in front of them. “All right. Let the torture commence.”
* * *
“This had better be good, Regina.”
Regina looked up from her menu as Malcolm O’Dell sat across from her at her favorite L.A. restaurant. She had contacted him earlier that day to ask if he’d come out and meet her for a business dinner. He’d initially said no until she made it nothing short of a command.
“I’m sure you’re missing out on a pressing social engagement,” Regina said drolly.
He waved at a passing server. “If that’s code for getting laid, you’d be right.”
Regina hissed at him when a couple of heads swiveled in their direction. “Keep it down. This isn’t one of your usual clubs.”
“Oh, unclench,” he said, turning to the server. “Jack and Coke. Double.”
Regina could have mentioned that the guy wasn’t their server, but Mal dismissed him and turned back to Regina. The server just shrugged and hurried off.
“Now what the hell is so important that you had to speak with me today?” Mal asked.
She once again picked up her menu and gave it another scan. “There’s been a change of plans.”
“What do you mean?”
“You’ll find out any minute now.”
She ignored his glower. Their actual server arrived a few minutes later and placed Mal’s drink in front of him.
“Are you ready to order or would you like to wait for your other guest?” the server asked.
“I’ll have the house salad and a cup of the minestrone soup,” Regina replied.
As she waited for Mal to listen to the specials and decide on his meal, their last guest arrived. Regina smiled and waved her over.
Mal watched Nikki sit down with mild interest. He kept his gaze on her as he said to the server, “I’ll have the shrimp pasta thing you mentioned.”
“Very good,” the server replied. “And for the young lady?”
“She’ll have the same as me,” Regina said.
“And a Mich Ultra,” Nikki tacked on.
“Of course, ma’am.”
The server collected their menus and departed. Mal sipped his drink and assessed Nikki, who was dressed in one of the usual body-skimming dresses she considered formalwear.
“You don’t look so hot,” Mal said. “Why have you been crying?”
Nikki sniffed and lifted her chin. “I haven’t been crying. I’ve been seriously pissed off.”
Even Regina could see otherwise. It was hardly the time to get into it.
“This is the change in plans I was referring to, Mal,” she said.
“Ah.” He sat back in his seat, draping his elbow over the back of his chair. “Connors finally dumped you, eh?”
“No,” Nikki retorted. “I was sick of him not showing me any attention.”
He gave her a dry look. “Give me a break. You being with that asshole was never supposed to be about love and romance. You had a job to do and you screwed it up.”
“Shut up,” Nikki said, gripping the edge of the table and leaning towards him.
“How’d you manage that, anyway?” Mal pressed. “Jesus, all you had to do was fuck the guy’s brains out and get us the inside scoop on The Void.”
“Enough,” Regina said in a low voice. She didn’t like the attention Mal was drawing. “Things are what they are. We’re here to figure out where to go from here.”
Mal and Nikki sank into hostile silence. Regina struggled to hold onto her patience as the server brought Nikki her beer and a pilsner glass and poured it for her. Lifting her own half-finished glass of white wine, Regina sipped it and gave the restaurant a scan to make sure everyone’s attention had gone back to their meals.
This meeting, while scheduled at the last minute, was hardly unexpected. Regina had known for a while that Nikki’s relationship with Keith Connors was tenuous at best. Regina gave Nikki credit for managing to hold Connors’ attention for as long as she had. The guy was far from relationship material.
If Nikki had been able to snare Archer, now that might have been something. Unfortunately The Void’s front man hadn’t shown any interest in her throughout the time Nikki had been following The Void.
Still, Regina had been willing to take what she could get. Having someone inside the enemy camp was a dream come true. She had been sure Nikki would be able to get her some dirt to feed anonymously to the press or to somehow use to benefit Suddenly Something. She only wished it had gone as well as she had hoped. How could she have known The Void was really as on the level as they appeared?
“We weren’t getting anywhere with Connors,” Regina said after the server departed. “Even with Nikki staying in his hotel room and riding on the tour bus, the information we got wasn’t enough to help us.”
“Maybe that’s because Nikki was holding back,” Mal suggested, giving Nikki a sly smile. “She didn’t tell us about House of Archer, after all.”
“Fuck you,” Nikki spat, making Regina rub her forehead. “I signed a nondisclosure, asshole.”
“But your job with us was to disclose,” he pointed out, much as Regina had a couple of weeks ago upon learning about the show in a meeting that had caught her completely off-guard. “Admit it. You got too close.”
Nikki drank some beer, staring lasers at Mal. “I didn’t get too close. I erred on the side of caution. If I had told you and they found out, they would have known it was me. I’d have been out of there in a hot minute.”
Regina had already gone around this issue with Nikki. They had cleared the air and Nikki had assured her she wouldn’t withhold any other information. That didn’t mean Regina didn’t share some of Mal’s concerns.
“Sounds like you’re out of there anyway,” he said with a smirk. “You should have gotten the information while you still could.”
Nikki’s face shifted into a brooding pout. “I tried, damn it. Is it my fault that the guy never texts or e-mails? There wasn’t any information to find. Keith always takes important calls in private and I wasn’t invited to any closed-door meetings even when I asked.”
“Then why is Lily Montgomery always invited to them?” Mal asked.
Nikki stiffened. Regina knew Lily was a sore spot with her. It was something else they had in common.
“You already know Lily has been with the band since it formed,” Regina intervened, giving Mal a look warning him to back off. “This is getting us nowhere. I asked you here for a reason.”
“I damn well hope so,” he said, taking another swallow of his drink.
“Nikki can still serve a purpose for us,” Regina continued. “With her and Connors split, it will add more tension for House of Archer. Long will love it,” she said, referring to the show’s producer who traveled with the bands.
“He probably would have loved it more if they had split on camera,” Mal commented.
“Keith won’t allow cameras into his personal space,” Nikki replied. “And he never would have allowed them near his sister.”
?
??Is that where he dumped you?”
Regina lifted her gaze to the ceiling as Nikki’s back went up again. “That’s enough. I feel like I’m sitting with a couple of ten-year-olds.”
Both Mal and Nikki seemed offended enough by that to drop it. Mal had to get the last word in, though. “I still think the show’s producers will be teed off to learn the breakup happened off-camera.”
Regina happened to agree with him. Mal had a head for this reality show stuff. It was one of the reasons she had brought him into her inner circle after learning about the show.
“I’ll work on that,” Regina said. “In the meantime, we need a Plan B.”
“And I’m Plan B?” Mal asked.
“Yes. I think you and Nikki should become an item.”
Nikki had been apprised of this ahead of time, so she sipped her beer and watched Mal without comment. He tilted his head in consideration.
“You want me to hook up with Nikki?”
“Yes,” Regina answered. “I think having Nikki connected with a member of Suddenly Something while they’re touring with The Void will add undeniable dramatic tension. The producers will eat it up and Suddenly Something will get plenty more airtime. You will get plenty of airtime.”
His dark eyes moved to Nikki. Regina knew he was intrigued by the idea. He had come to Regina early on to say he was her guy if she needed something done for the show. He wanted his face on television.
“What about the whole Sydney angle?” he asked. “I’ve been boning up on libraries and books and shit. Was that all for nothing?”
One of Regina’s first ideas to connect the two bands more closely during the show’s filming was to try and get Brandon to pursue Sydney Ward or Aria Simpson since they were almost as close to the band as Lily was during the tour. When Brandon hadn’t shown any interest in catering to what he called Regina’s “whims,” Mal had stepped up. He said he found the straight-laced Miss Ward worth pursuing. Things had been going too slowly for Regina, though. Sydney wasn’t taking the bait.
“Let’s table that,” she said as the server arrived with two bowls of soup. “This is more important and will add more tension.”
“So are we going to get it on now, Nik?” Mal asked with a lascivious grin.
Thank God he waited until the server left, Regina thought. “Whether or not you have that kind of relationship in reality is up to you,” she said before Nikki could spout a reply. “We all know this is more about appearances. Mal, we need you out with Nikki as much as possible while we’re in L.A. Anywhere the paparazzi frequent, you need to be there. We’ve got to set this up for success on the next leg of the tour.”
“If you want me to give up all my spare time for this, there had better be sex in it for me,” he said.
Nikki dropped her soup spoon with a loud clatter. “Oh, for God’s sake. Is that all that matters to you? Fine. Let’s go find somewhere and do it.”
Regina watched in bemusement as Mal shoved himself to his feet and gave Nikki a challenging look. Nikki immediately followed, storming away from the table with Mal on her heels. Regina couldn’t even think of something to say to bring them back without drawing more attention.
By the time she finished her soup, the pair returned to the table, both of them looking satisfied.
“All right,” Mal said, tossing back the watery remains of his drink as he sat back down. “I’m in. Tell me what you’ve got in mind.”
Chapter Fifteen
“I’m not convinced this is a good idea, Syd,” Lily said.
She was sitting with Sydney and Aria in their green room before the start of the first L.A. concert on the tour. Sydney had just finished informing her and Aria about her plans to bunk on Keith’s couch that night so they could both take Lex to the zoo the next day.
Lily was mystified over why Keith had agreed to allow Sydney to stay over when she knew he didn’t typically have women at his place. She could only assume he felt bad about honing in on Sydney’s visit with Lex and had offered the couch as a sort of peace offering.
Though that didn’t sound much like Keith either.
While Sydney staying with Keith did make sense from a logistical standpoint, Lily was more concerned about Sydney being alone with him. Her crush on him was bound to influence her judgment. Add in the recent breakup between Keith and Nikki and it seemed like a recipe for disaster, especially for someone as inexperienced with guys as Sydney was.
Lily was still working with the band’s PR team to field the various responses to the breakup, from comments on social media to questions from the press to the vexation of the House of Archer producers. Elijah had known about the breakup even before Lily, something she was still trying to figure out. The only possibility was that Nikki had told him. She did seem to like being in the spotlight.
Elijah was understandably upset that such a dramatic “scene” hadn’t happened on camera. Lily didn’t blame Keith for not wanting the cameras in his personal life, but it did make it tougher at times like these. She sure didn’t need to add to all of the drama she was juggling by something developing between him and Sydney.
But that was selfishness talking. Of more importance was trying to keep Sydney from getting hurt.
“I’ll be fine,” Sydney said. “It’s just a few hours on his couch. Really not a big deal.”
Lily and Aria exchanged glances. Sydney noticed.
“Look, I’m friends with Keith,” she said. “That’s all. Lex is a common point between us. She’s so excited about this. Staying with Keith just makes sense.”
Lily studied Sydney for a moment, trying to picture something happening between her and Keith. She couldn’t do it. No matter how she sliced it, Sydney just wasn’t his type. It helped her feel better about Sydney’s plan.
“All right,” she said at last. “I hope you two have fun with Lex.”
“If you change your mind,” Aria added, “we can leave together later.”
Sydney smiled. “I won’t, but thanks.”
They all looked up when there was a knock at the door. “Come in,” Lily called out.
Barney opened the door from his post outside. “Mr. Spencer would like permission to enter.”
“Sure,” Lily said. “Send him in.”
She had been expecting either Duff or Spence to get some coverage before the show that evening. She exchanged looks with Aria and Sydney as Spence entered and set himself up in a good location to capture footage. Her friends understood that it was time to switch to one of the topics Lily had scripted.
“So, are you ready to deal with Caroline and Bridgette later?” Aria asked once the camera started rolling.
Lily’s stomach churned even though she had expected the question. “Not really, but I’ll have to be. They’re going to be at the after-party.”
“What do you think they’ll try and pull tonight?” Aria asked.
“My money’s on them somehow getting onstage and ending up on YouTube,” Sydney said.
Lily wished that was completely asinine. “Hopefully that’ll at least make good social media content.”
Her friends laughed.
“The Void did get extra security for tonight, right?” Aria joked, making Lily groan.
“Have you heard from your mother since you gave your sisters the tickets?” Sydney asked.
Lily grimaced, making sure it was in the general direction of the camera. “Yeah. She texted about getting together with me and Archer while we’re here in L.A.”
“Really? Are you going to do it?”
“I don’t know. We’ve already got so much going on. If we don’t, though, I’m sure I’ll never hear the end of it.”
Her friends issued empathetic sounds as another knock sounded on the door. Once again, Barney opened it when Lily called out to him.
“Mr. Laceny is here for you, Miss Lily.”
“Oh, right,” she said, looking beside her for the pen and notebook she’d set there earlier. “I’ll be right there.”
&n
bsp; Bill Laceny was The Void’s production manager. He had been kind enough to serve as her escort a few times during the tour so she could get to know more about how everything worked behind the scenes. She had also used these excursions to get to know the road crew and conduct mini-interviews that she later turned into informative biographical articles.
That evening she was looking forward to shadowing Noelle’s girlfriend, Mandy Dierx. Mandy was a lighting technician with The Void’s crew. Lily had already interviewed her a few times and was in the process of writing an article about how Mandy had gotten into the male-dominated music tech industry. The piece was taking good shape. It just needed a little more meat to round it out. Lily hoped that getting some firsthand experience at what Mandy did for every show would give her the edge she needed to make the piece sellable.
She was still waiting to hear back from all three of the magazines where she had submitted her story about Brewer Street and Gregg Hoover’s cancer recovery. She was trying to take it as a positive sign that they hadn’t already written back with a “Thanks, but no thanks.” The waiting game was all part of the career she had chosen. That didn’t mean she was any good at it.
She collected her things and got to her feet. Aria rose with her and stepped closer to make some last-minute adjustments to Lily’s hair. She had been staying on top of Lily’s appearance ever since learning about the show. It had gotten worse since the House of Archer trailer aired.
“It’s fine, Aria,” Lily said.
“It is now,” Aria agreed as she pushed one of the hairpins back into place. “Hope it goes well. We’ll see you after the concert.”
“Thanks.”
She wasn’t surprised when Spence followed her out of the green room. He had to stay behind her, Bill, and Barney as they made their way backstage. It continued to feel odd that she essentially had her own entourage. She wondered if she’d ever get used to it.
“Hey there, Lily,” Mandy said when Lily reached her.