Page 168 of Hard Rock Tease

The three of us lay there panting heavily for several long, quiet minutes. Neil laced his fingers with mine and pressed the back of my hand to his lips. Jayce took my other hand and held it to his chest, over his heart.

“Thank you,” Neil said, breaking the silence, voice still breathless.

“Don’t say that as if it’s goodbye forever.” I squeezed his hand. “We’re still AudioAiley and PointShootNeil. We were friends before this and we’ll be friends after. Okay?”

Neil pressed another kiss to my hand. “Always.”

Chapter Twenty-Five

After the situationwith the crazy stalker, there had been some discussion among the music executives about whether to cancel the tour or not. If anything was going to put a stop to it, a crazy fan attacking one of the band members was going to be it. They’d flown down one of their representatives to talk to the band. I’d been pulled into the meeting because I was at the center of it all. We piled onto the tour bus for some privacy while we discussed our options.

The entire band had protested when canceling the tour was brought up. They’d worked so hard and didn’t want to disappoint their legions of fans. Jayce, in particular, was adamant that he was fine to go back on stage. The police had kept the whole thing quiet, and news of the incident hadn’t yet been made public. No one outside the employees at Dark Sound Studios, Neil and myself included, knew what had happened. In the end, Kell made the final veto, and Deena gave in.

There were still a lot of questions about how the fan had managed to pull off her attack.

“She had a fake staff badge,” one of the police officers had explained. No doubt she’d been following the band across the country and attending every concert. There would have been plenty of opportunities to run into a staff member and get a look at the badge. They weren’t very complicated. Anyone with a good knowledge of photo editing software would have been able to mock one up.

“We’ll make sure we come up with something better next time. We’ll make it less easy to copy,” Deena had assured us.

“But how did they know to follow Ailey?” Ren had asked. “She was jealous of whoever ran our social media accounts, but how did they know it was her?”

“That’s my fault. I went and outed myself online.” I glanced briefly at Jayce. I wanted him to know I didn’t regret it, that he shouldn’t put any of the blame on himself. “Everyone who follows me knows what I look like now. Any fan of the band would know they have someone acting as their social media coordinator. If the fan saw me at the concert with a staff badge, it wouldn’t be hard to put two and two together. A lot of my followers figured out I’d been doing something cool this summer, even if I couldn’t talk about the details.”

As soon as the music exec left, Kell, Morris, and Ren fell upon me.

“Are you really okay?”

“You sure you want to continue with the tour?”

“Are you scarred for life?”

I huffed out a laugh. “No, Kell, I’m not scarred for life. It was scary,” I admitted, “but I’ll be fine. I have you guys to look out for me, right?”

They all nodded adamantly, Kell the most adamant of the three. Jayce gave me a warm smile and my insides gushed.

When Neil, Jayce, and I woke up the next morning, things had surprisingly not been awkward between us at all. Instead, everything felt right. I shared sappy smiles with each of them as we’d worked out who got the shower first. I worried about leaving Neil and Jayce alone while I cleaned up, but it was for nothing. The two of them were discussing the filming schedule, no stiffness between them at all. They’d both turned to look at me as I exited the shower wrapped only in a towel. They had both taken in the sight and exchanged a glance, smirking at each other. I had known exactly what they were thinking.

After the guys took off for rehearsal, Deena pulled out a stack of papers.

“Your job contract.”

I took the papers from her hands and went over the details. Even though I was going to drop down to part-time studies, I was still worried about juggling school and a full-time job. The contract eased some of my worries. I’d be working thirty-five hours a week, dates and times to be flexible based on my availability and the band’s schedule. If there was a conflict, I would speak with Deena directly and we would decide what to do on a case-by-case basis. I didn’t mind missing a class or two to take care of band business, but there was no way I would miss a final exam. Deena assured me she took my education just as seriously as I did and would make sure I never had to do something to compromise that.

The salary almost made me choke. This was certainly no minimum wage student job. It was daunting to know they were giving me so much responsibility. I pushed back those thoughts and sat up straight. Deena thought I was awesome. Iwasawesome. I was good at my job, and this salary confirmed it. I had no reason to be intimidated.

“Everything look good?”

I was about to say it all looked great, but I paused. Everyone always said when it came to salary to never take the first offer. The amount was so far above what I’d expected, though. I didn’t know what to ask for. I pretended to frown and examine the contract more closely.

“This is no nine to five job, like you said. If I’m going to be working nights, weekends, and holidays, I think the salary should reflect that.”

My heart was pounding as I spoke, and my palms went clammy. Would she be upset I was trying to play hardball? Would she rescind the offer?

Instead, she nodded and took the contract back. “Sounds fair. I’ll go back to the CEO and see if we can give you a bump in salary, or perhaps work out some overtime pay.”

My heart leaped. It had worked. My very first job negotiation. I felt more pleased with myself than I should have. I held back my grin and settled for a smile and a nod. “Thanks, Deena, much appreciated.”

“Everything else in the contract look good?”