You can’t afford to get attached. This is show business, Mason said to me.
I frowned at the truth of his words. None of the starboys had even contacted me in the two weeks I’d been back in L.A. They obviously didn’t want anything to do with me now that I was a nobody again.
As the washing machine clunked away next to me, my mind whirled around with fantasies of what a relationship with more than one person would look like. I’d have all of them — Crim, Mason, Oliver, Leo, and Reese.
We’d be unstoppable.
I was jerked out of my fantasy when my phone buzzed loudly where it was sitting on the washing machine.
Scrambling up to get it, I allowed myself to believe that it might be the production company. They’d tell me that the investigation was over with, that everything was in the clear, and that they wanted me to fly to Morocco as soon as possible to resume filming.
Imagine my surprise when I saw an unknown number on the screen.
Normally I didn’t answer the phone when the caller ID didn’t show the name of someone I recognized. This was a special case.
It had to be the production company — who else would call me from an unknown number?
“Hello?” I asked into the receiver.
“Fucking finally,” sounded Crim’s musical voice.
“Crim? Is that you?” I asked, hardly daring to believe it.
“Of course it’s me, Charmander,” he said.
It might have been my imagination, but it sounded like there was a slight panic to his voice.
“What’s wrong?” I asked before I could stop myself.
“We’ve been trying to get ahold of you for days. Do you know how hard that is when you give everyone the wrong number?”
“I… I what?” I asked, dumbfounded.
Crim recited a phone number that was just like mine except for one digit. When we traded phone numbers back in that booth in Italy when Reese had given us the bad news, I must have been so shaken by the whole thing that I said the wrong number.
“That’s… not my number,” I said. “How did you get my real one?”
“Alina,” he said.
“She’s talking to you guys?!” I asked. “She’s not talking to me at all.”
“She doesn’t want to talk to us,” Crim said, a smile lurking on his face. “But we’re not going to let her close herself off from everything. We all have her back,” he said.
I was speechless; so thankful that Crim was finally able to contact me.
“I hope she’s okay,” I said breathlessly. “How did she sound?”
“She’ll be okay. We’ve all gone through career deaths before; it’s pretty much par for the course in this line of work,” he said. “Anyway, the reason I called was to check in on you. We’ve all been worried since we can’t get ahold of you. It’s not easy since you don’t have an address, you know. And you haven’t been checking your Instagram at all, have you?” he asked.
I swallowed guiltily. I couldn’t bear to check Instagram for a while, so I turned off notifications.
“I haven’t,” I admitted with a grimace.
“Well, you’ve gotten us all worried,” Crim said. “I’ve been asking you to come to Iceland with us while we all wait for the production company to make up its mind about The Black Castle.”
“I thought the reason you were going to Iceland was to stay in a remote cabin and make music by yourself?” I asked in disbelief.
“I lied,” he said simply. “Like I’m going to tell any of the other ones about my next project…”
My heart was in my throat. Was he being serious?
“Black Castle was never my primary focus. There’s another project I want to do — it’s way better, and it’s working with an Icelandic film company. All the guys are here with me too. Well, all of them except Reese right now,” he said.
“You can’t be serious,” I said breathlessly, hardly daring to believe it.
“Of course I’m serious,” he said. “One project goes belly-up, you start on another. It’s the way of the artist. So… will you come?” he asked, the smile lurking in his voice.
“Yes,” I said a little too quickly, my mind whirring as quickly as the washing machine next to me. “Will I be a stylist, or will I be acting?” I asked breathlessly.
“Come on, Charlie. You’ll be acting,” he said. “We’re all staying in this bougie AirBnB with a view of the mountains. Right now I’m staring at this bomb-ass mountain that’s chillin’ right outside the window.”
I swallowed, hard. I pictured him with the other guys in a rustic, cozy cabin. Leo would be reading on the couch, Mason would be sitting in a chair going through his phone, Oliver would be locked away in a room somewhere, working.
“There’s a room with your name on it,” Crim said, a smile lurking in his voice.
It was like I was finally being accepted; I was finally being welcomed somewhere.
I finally belonged.
“When do you want me out there?” I asked, hardly daring to believe my luck. It felt like I’d been struck by lighting twice now.
Crim went over the details with me. They soothed my worried mind like warm bathwater.
“Oh, and you’ll get to meet my mother,” Crim said. “She’s just like me, though impossibly more awesome.”
I stiffened. Was Crim… was he introducing me to his family?
I was flooded with a validating sensation of importance.
“I’d love to meet her,” I said breathlessly. “What’s her name?”
“I think you and her have already met,” he said. “Her name’s Hazel.”
A Note from the author
Thank you so much for reading my book! Doing this would not be possible if not for all of you wonderful, wonderful readers!
Here’s the part where I beg you to leave a review. Whether you loved it or hated it, it does not matter to me. Feedback is a gift!
Again, thank you so much for reading! I couldn’t do this without you all.
Thank you, thank you, thank you, from the bottom of my heart!
- Jeremy
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