“You don’t get it, Bristol. I don’t care if Rhyson’s bagging groceries,” Kai says. “I fell in love with a man, not a brand, and I wouldn’t ever do anything to jeopardize that. Certainly not cheat on him in broad daylight. Or at all for that matter.”

Damn, I love this girl. I don’t know what the explanation is, but there is one. I don’t understand the guilt I saw in her eyes yet, but I will.

“Both of you get out.”

My words are quiet but fall heavy like a hammer in the room.

“Rhyson, we—”

“Shut up, Bristol.” I look at Marlon, still lounging on the floor cushion. “Out, dude. I need to talk to my girl.”

Marlon slides a glance between Kai and me, and raises his eyebrows, silently asking if I know what I’m doing. I just nod, needing them gone. Marlon stands and grabs Bristol’s hand. He’d use any excuse for that.

“Come on, Bris. You heard the man.”

“Rhyson, don’t fall for a line of bull and a good lay.” Bristol holds up her phone. “These pictures don’t lie.”

“She doesn’t lie.” I look at Kai, and I know I’m right. I know Kai like I know music. In my blood. In my heart. Woven into the fibers that connect us.

Bristol and Marlon leave a waiting quiet behind in the music room. I’m waiting for Kai to speak, waiting for her to explain. Waiting for her to touch me. To remind me of how perfect her skin is against mine.

I sit on the piano bench. She looks at me from under her lashes for a few seconds before sitting down beside me, leaving a space between us.

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you I was having lunch with Dub.” Her quiet voice wavers. “I am so sorry I put you in this position. That people think I’m cheating on you.”

“I don’t care about that.” I pause, fighting the burning in my chest when I consider anyone thinking she belongs to someone else. “I mean, I do, but I’m more concerned about you keeping it from me than about what everyone else thinks.”

“I know. I’m sorry.”

“I was completely blindsided, Pep. I couldn’t even defend you.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Stop saying you’re sorry and tell me why you did it,” I say, my words staccato.

She sucks in a breath, her cheeks flushed, her full pink lips pressed tight together.

“I knew you wouldn’t like it.”

“That’s a shit reason for not telling me. And you’re damn right I don’t like it. Videos and jobs are one thing, but meeting Dub outside of that, not cool.”

“This was work. What else would it be?” She turns on the bench to face me, folding one knee under her. “I know you don’t like him.”

“I don’t like him because he likes you.”

“We talked about that.”

“Oh, did you? So he admitted he’s using jobs to get closer to you?”

“He’s not, Rhyson, and for you to say that makes me think you don’t believe in my talent.”

“Bullshit.” I stand up and pace away from the piano. “I offered to sign you to Prodigy months ago.”

“You’d barely heard me sing when you offered, and warned me against being a dancer who sings.” Her eyes narrow and her nostrils flare. “So consider that before you accuse someone else of making me offers just because they want to fuck me.”

I won’t be sidetracked by logic.

“Why were you out with him?”

“He wanted to show me some of the finalized footage from the video and to talk about some other jobs he’d like to book me for.”

“No agenda there.”

“I knew you’d respond this way.” She turns to put both feet on the floor, dropping her head in her hands. “That’s why I didn’t tell you we were meeting.”

I hate her keeping things from me.

“So what happened?”

“We were done eating and all these photographers crowded around.”

“Shocking. That’s why I told you—”

“I know. To take Gep.” She looks up at me. “I should have.”

“So then what happened?”

“We took off for Dub’s car, and obviously he’s faster than I am. He grabbed my hand—”

“Sure he did.”

“So I could keep up, and that’s how they got those pictures of us holding hands.”

“His car? You rode with him?”

“He dropped me off at my apartment so I could pick up some things, and San brought me here, just like I told you.”

“You brought things to stay here?”

“Yes, of course.” She sits up, leaning her back against the piano, locking our eyes together. “I told you I would.”

I make my way back over to the piano bench, settling beside her and walking my fingers across the small space separating us until our hands clasp.

“I didn’t mean for any of this to happen,” she says, eyes sorry and sober.

“I know, baby.” I pull my hand over her silky ponytail, passing my open palm over her shoulder. “But you have to remember, the stakes are so high at this level. It’s the cost of playing this game.”

“I don’t want to play a game. I just want to be with you.”

I smile at her, leaning in to drop a kiss on her lips.

“Same here, but it’s not that simple for me. You’ll see soon enough. It’s only a matter of time before things break for you.”

A wide grin spreads across her face.

“Speaking of, I’ve got some great news.”

“What news?”

“Dub said—”

“It’s already awesome.”

The look she warns me with threatens bodily harm.

“Dub said Luke’s team loved me in the video, and when he told them I sing, they invited me to audition for Total Package.”

Great. This just gets stickier and stickier.

“I don’t like that show, Kai.”

“Rhyson, come on.”

“No, Pep. I’m serious. I don’t like John Malcolm.”

“You don’t like anyone. That’s the guy Dub said wants to meet me.”

“I’m sure he does. They invited me to guest judge this season, but I turned them down. I didn’t want Luke to go on, and I don’t want you to do it.”

“You can’t make these decisions for me.” Her face falls, and she breaks the contact between our hands, clasping hers in her lap, a sigh leaving her lips. “You don’t get to map my career out like some Svengali.”

“I’m not.”

“No, you’re not.” She glances back up at me, a stubborn set to her mouth. “You’re my boyfriend, not my manager.”

“I want what’s best for you, Pep.”

“I bet that’s what your parents said to you too, right?”

“Don’t do that.” I clench my fists on the piano bench on either side of my legs so I don’t shout at her. “It’s not the same.”

“It is. You needed to make your own way, and so do I.”

“I know what this industry can do. How it can eat up people and spit them out. I won’t let that happen to you. I won’t risk you. You’re the most important thing in my life, Pep.” I pause before looking her in the eyes. “Do you know that? Can you say that?”

I immediately regret my confession. Little by little she has crept into even the broken places of my heart. She has taken me over, usurped even my music, and it shakes me how completely I love her. And there’s not a doubt in my mind that she loves me too, but not like that. Not over her career. Not yet.

“It’s not fair of you to ask me that from your position, Rhyson.” She runs her hands over the hair smoothed into a tight ponytail, looping her fingers at the back of her neck. “Like Bristol said, you’re already a star. A brand. You’ve got nothing to prove and nothing to lose.”

She swallows and drops her hands back to her lap.

“We both have an incredibly strong desire to perform. To create. The difference? Yours has been at full boil most of your life, and mine has been simmering. Delayed over and over. You can say I’m more important because you’ve had it. You’ve tasted it. I haven’t.” She quickly swipes at the tear rolling down her cheek, but not before I see it. “At least let me taste it before you ask me to choose you over it.”

“I would never ask you to choose me over it.”

She blinks at me through tears, wrecking me, condemning me because on some level, that’s exactly what I want.