Christ, I can’t even say it, but I do lean to the side and look past Tyler to Emma again. I’m fucking powerless it seems.
Tyler turns slowly and focuses in on Emma, Cap, and Dilana. He turns back to me and in a low voice of disbelief, he says, “Are you fucking kidding me? You’re tagging that little plain-Jane?”
My head whips to face him, and I utter a low warning. “Watch it, Tyler.”
“Oh, my God,” he says with a sarcastic laugh. “You actually got it bad for the little bookworm attorney.”
“So fucking what?” I snarl at him.
Tyler thinks this is hilarious, and he throws his arm back over my shoulder. With an almost maniacal laugh, he says, “Jesus, Evan… if you need to get laid, I can find you something a little spicier than—”
I spin on Tyler, knocking his arm loose, and ask, “What is your problem with Emma? You’ve been nothing but rude and dismissive of her, and I get it… she’s offering me options contrary to your wants, but she’s also doing the job that I’m paying her to do. She’s looking out for me the way you are, and she stands to gain nothing but a measly first-year attorney salary. So what is your fucking problem?”
I expect this to cow Tyler, who will usually back down when I’m pissed, but instead, I’m dismayed to see a coldness filter in, although his voice is heated. “I am your friend, Evan. I’ve got your back better than anyone, and particularly more than someone you’ve known for all of five minutes. She might be great in the sack or whatever the fucking reason you seem fixated on her, but you better keep your head out of the clouds. You’ve got some major decisions to make, and your head better be on straight when you do. And I’m sorry, man… but if that means I might have to point out all the things that could be bad for you, I’m going to do it.”
“She’s not bad for me,” I mutter.
In fact, I have a feeling Emma can be very, very good for me.
Tyler doesn’t respond but just gives me a nod and says, “I’ll catch you later. Got a few other people here I want to meet.”
“Alright,” I say, not feeling kindly to him and not wanting to engage him further.
In fact, as Tyler turns away from me, I lean over, place my half-empty beer on the bar, and make my way toward Emma.
I’m done with this party. It’s time to go.
CHAPTER 16
Emma
“Ninety-eight degrees and it’s only the beginning of May,” Red grumbles as we walk back toward the arena parking lot and the tour bus. His bald head is shiny with sweat, and he’s huffing and puffing a little.
“Well, we are in Phoenix, Captain Obvious,” I point out to him.
“Your dog looks stupid,” Red retorts.
Looking at Sirius as he walks in front of us on his leash, leading the way with his nose to the ground, I have to admit… he does look stupid with his feet and half his legs covered with white socks that I “borrowed” from Evan. It’s so hot outside that I didn’t want Sirius’ pads to get burned on the concrete, so I may have rummaged through Evan’s clothes for some of his socks to put on my dog.
Red and I just took Sirius on a little walk for our afternoon break. We’re coming up on the end of the second week of the tour having gone from Miami, to New Orleans, to Houston, then Dallas, and finally into Phoenix. After the show tonight, we head for Los Angeles, where he has two shows scheduled and some pretty hoity-toity parties to attend with the record labels.
We’ve gotten into a good routine these last several days. One of the things Red convinced me to do was to join him on his afternoon walk with Sirius because, in his words, “No one should sit at a desk for that long and not take a break.”
The tour is going amazingly well, and by that, I mean practically everything associated with it. Evan is magic up on that stage. I’m getting extremely comfortable taking press questions about the legal issues, but really, it’s Evan who does most of the talking. And I’m actually getting some solid work done on the copyright case. I’ve spent most of my time researching the law, and I’ve even reached out to a few copyright attorneys to pick their brains. I’m now spending time on crafting all of my discovery questions to send to the other side, which will help to narrow down the issues.
The only thing that is causing me some heartburn is the fact that there truly is no reason for me to be on this bus. For the Atlanta and Miami concerts, there were quite a few questions about Keith’s death—which had nothing to do with Evan because an arrest had been made, but it was sensational fodder the reporters were going to ask about. There were also questions about the copyright case, but we were only in the beginning stages and it would be months before we had something solid to report. Since then, there are days where nothing is needed of me except to work on the copyright case and, let’s face it, I can do that from back in Raleigh.