"Don't move The Shrikes," Pia ordered.
The image of Zoey at the New Year's Eve party popped into her mind, standing near the champagne fountain, her face lit up by the shining lights in the bubbles. She had looked otherworldly in that moment. She grinned to herself at the memory. God, that woman was fucking gorgeous. Her curly hair, her dark skin, the deep red lipstick she was wearing...
Pia hadn't talked to her since. In fact, she had avoided her at all costs.
Straight women like that always wanted something more than a kiss.
They wanted to experiment. They wanted to be shown how to fuck, how to touch a woman, exactly what to do with their tongues...
Not that doing those things with Zoey wasn’t appealing… but she was straight and Pia was too old to put up that that level of drama anymore. Besides, her best friend Freya would never let her hear the end of it.
"Can I see that?" Pia asked, motioning toward the clipboard.
Kelly handed it to Pia as she sat in the chair. After all, she wasn't the Executive Producer of her own show so that she could have zero power over what happened.
Two dates were highlighted with O's next to them.
"Is this when she can make it?" Pia asked.
Kelly nodded.
"Let's move Hanson and Hugh Jackman instead," she said, then handed Kelly the clipboard back.
Kelly raised a brow. "Okay, P-Dogg" she said simply.
Elizabeth and Mariana stepped in between them with brushes and new shirt choices.
Pia took one last bow, waving to the audience with both hands as she walked backstage after her morning taping session. Although she had new shows five days each week, she only filmed on two days. It made for long, long hours, but then she and her crew largely had four or five days off a week, and that was worth it to her.
Not that she actually had any days off. What was that saying? Do what you love and you’ll never spend another moment not working ever again.
She walked past her assistant, Mark, who handed back her cell phone and a new clipboard with a pen.
"Just need you to sign off on this new schedule," he said.
Pia checked her phone.
Sabrina: I will take your silence as an apology for moving my girlfriend's band on your schedule.
Pia smirked.
Pia: Mea culpa. Will never happen again.
Sabrina: The silence or moving The Shrikes?
Pia: The latter. No promises on the former. I'm very busy and important.
Sabrina sent back an emoji with a flat smile and a raised eyebrow.
For as sweet and innocent as Sabrina portrayed herself on television, and how fun and kind she was in person, she was truly a businesswoman who got shit done.
Kind of like Pia.
She pocketed her phone and signed the schedule. The Shrikes would be on next week. Something in her stomach did a small flip — the tiniest of flips, more of a casual lean, if she was considering it — at the idea.
She loved The Shrikes. She hadn't been lying to Zoey about that.
On the sixth anniversary of Elle's death, Heart's Content had come out, full of raw emotion and heartache and yet, hope.
She had come a long way in the past four years, and hopefully, so had the band.
She'd get a copy of the album any time this week, and she knew that she'd be putting it on the stereo the second it was in her hands. And by hands, she meant available for download via email. But it was better to picture the record in her hands. She'd have to remember to have Billie and Domino sign a copy of the album for her.
Maybe Zoey if she was lucky.
She touched her lower lip, remembering the kiss.
She wasn't typically the type to steal kisses from near-strangers, but New Year's had always brought out the mischief inside of her. She saw it as a time when she no longer had to worry about anything the past year had brought. A time for firsts and brand new ideas and rejuvenation.
And Zoey had given her all of that with a kiss.
Why ruin it by wanting more?
Still, the lesbian world was a very, very small one, and she half-expected gossip about her kissing Zoey to start circulating soon after the kiss. Yet, it never had.
Pia hadn't told a soul.
Had Zoey?
A secret of their own.
She closed the door to her office and sank onto her couch. Her stomach growled. She'd need to eat lunch, then go back out for the early afternoon taping.
If it was something that definitely didn't matter, kissing an almost-stranger, then why was she still thinking about it?
She shook her head, texting Kelly about lunch.
Nope, she would no longer think about Zoey. Like she had been for the past five months. She'd absolutely stop. She didn't think of Zoey constantly, but she'd start being mindful not to drift to thinking of the way her lips has tasted sweet, like the champagne, and how warm and soft and desperate her body had been, pressed into hers.
Until next week, when she had to face her again.
Maybe she’d have Freya talk her off the ledge of entertaining the idea of trying to seduce Zoey McCarren, too…
Chapter Three
Zoey
The green room where they sat was spacious, with multiple couches, a large television accompanied by video game consoles, a gigantic air hockey table, and most importantly, a gigantic snack table.
Zoey hadn't done many television promos — had the Shrikes done them at all for Heart's Content? It was so many years ago, she couldn't remember anymore.
Domino and Sabrina were playing air hockey with enough gusto for the puck to fly across the room — it had, twice — and Billie and Vero were snuggled up on a couch watching something on Vero's phone.
Meg was curled up next to her, asleep inside of an oversized hoodie.
Micah, their manager, was on the phone in the corner, fixing her lipstick in a mirror.
Promotional tours were exhausting. Shows often had way earlier start times than she was used to, and they never got to pause. At least this first stop was in LA, so they didn't have to fly to NYC quite yet. They'd be there soon for both the Sirius XM and Spotify appearances and shows in June.
Zoey tapped her foot nervously on the floor. She stood, pacing around the snack table, taking the occasional pretzel to keep it from looking like she was a ball of frantic energy.
In truth, no one in the band had noticed that Zoey couldn't sit still. They had noticed that in their private rehearsals for the show, Zoey was totally off.
It wasn't even like they were singing ‘Midnight’. They were singing one of Domino and Billie's co-writes, ‘Kaleidoscope’, which was also the name of the new album.
Zoey picked up a small bundle of grapes, then set them down. She grabbed a La Croix sitting in an ice bucket, but put it back.
"You doing okay?" Micah asked, appearing suddenly beside her.
Zoey jumped, startled by woman's stealthy moves. "Yeah, totally fine," she said automatically.
"You seem nervous. What's up?" Micah continued.
"Just kept getting that bridge wrong in rehearsal. Feeling a little nervous about it," Zoey lied.
In truth, even though it had been five months since she had seen Pia or spoken to her, she was still looking forward to seeing her.
She didn't understand the bundle of nerves in her stomach that dominated the early months of the year.