Page 102 of Hard Rock Muse

As I had my own internal mental breakdown, the others started packing up, done for the day.

“We can work on this later this week when the whole band is together,” Cerise said. “Good work Julian.” She nodded to me as she and Nathan left the room. ”Good work to you, too Everly.”

Seth bounced up and threw an arm around my shoulder.

“Good job,” he said. “For a while I didn’t know if you’d be able to work with this tight-lipped jerk.” He threw Julian a wink. “I should have known you two would be great together, even after all this time.”

I shrugged off his arm, ducking out from under him.

“That reminds to be seen,” I murmured.

“If you need help wrangling this one,” he jabbed his thumb at Julian, “just let me know, all right?”

“Sure.”

Seth left, leaving me and Julian alone in the room together.

“So Cerise liked the song,” I said. “I guess all our hard work paid off.”

“I wish she’d been a little more enthusiastic about it, but…” Julian lifted one shoulder. “I don’t know what else we could do with it.”

“It’s a good song,” I said. “Nothing wrong with it.”

The twist of Julian’s lips told me he clearly did think there was something wrong with it, but I was over trying to read his damn mind.

“Guess we’re done, then,” I said.

“Not quite yet,” he said. “The song still needs to be arranged and recorded. But I don’t need you here for that.”

My heart clenched in my chest. A hard, sour lump settled in my gut.

“Ev, is something wrong?” Julian asked, his eyes concerned. “You look upset.”

I wanted to bark out that I was fine and stalk out of the room. But that was what had caused all our problems in the first place. We hadn’t communicated with each other. We’d jumped to all kinds of conclusions.

I whirled on Julian, determined to get to the bottom of this.

“Did you walk away even after Keith agreed to change the contract?” I asked.

“What?” Julian’s eyes widened. “Why are you asking?”

“You said you left because you didn’t like the contract and I wouldn’t budge on it,” I told him. “But Keith offered to change the terms, didn’t he?”

His eyes narrowed.

“Where is this coming from?” he asked.

“Just answer me,” I said. “Yes or no?”

“I don’t understand why you’re asking,” Julian said, shaking his head. “Yes, Keith told me he would change some of the wording, but I told you before, Seth and I didn’t—”

“I don’t care about you and Seth!” I said loudly.

“Why are you getting upset?” Julian asked, sounding frustrated. “Who cares what happened back then?”

A million thoughts roared through my head. I tried to make sense of them all.

Julian said he wouldn’t stay in the band if I took the contract. He didn’t like giving up creative control.