“I’m still here, yeah.”
“Where are you?”
“California.”
“So it’s what...one there?”
“Yeah. We’re just finishing packing up.”
“You’re helping?”
“Always do.”
“Don’t you have fans waiting outside or something?”
Sarah pursed her lips. “Probably.”
“Shouldn’t you go make nice?”
“Do you want me to hang up?” Taken slightly off-guard, Sarah pressed her lips together. “Because just two seconds ago it sounded like you didn’t want me to hang up.”
Eli groaned and rustled around on the other end of the phone. “No, no, don’t hang up. I’m just...you woke me up. Give my brain a bit to catch up with everything. How was the concert?”
“It was good.”
“Just good?”
Sarah grinned. “No, it was really good. Probably one of the best I’ve done in a long time.”
“How many have you done since you started?”
Disappointment edged its way into Sarah’s chest, and she rubbed at it with her fist. For some reason, she had hoped Eli might have cared, might have looked it up to see where she was at or even where her tour would take her. She didn’t expect Eli to have it memorized, but some indication she had cared would have been nice. “Umm...we’re two weeks in, so…six events, I think?”
“You think?”
“I lose count after a while between concerts and press stuff.”
“Press stuff?”
“Yeah. Like in a few hours I need to go down to some news studio and do an interview and sing a song or two.” Sarah had already decided what songs she was going to do. The hit from her current album, but also the song she had written when she’d been with Eli. She would do that one alone, just her and the guitar because she hadn’t had time to write the rest of the music yet or have her team learn it.
“What station? Maybe I’ll watch.”
“I honestly don’t remember, Eli. I let the big important people handle all that. I just go where they tell me to.”
Eli sighed. “I don’t believe for a second that you’re as hands-off as that.”
“You’re right, but this was a last-minute addition, so I really don’t know where I’m going, but press is press, right? Any of it is good.”
“If you’re trying to build a bigger audience and sell more.”
They fell into a quiet silence, Sarah realizing quite clearly that of all the conversations she imagined having with Eli over the past few months, talking about the logistics of her tour and how things were planned was not one of them. She’d wanted to ask about Buddy, maybe try and convince Eli to send her a picture of him, but at the same time, she was scared to ask.
“How’s everything there? Bridget behaving?”
Eli snorted. “Yeah, she’s behaving if you want to call it that.”
“Oh no, what happened?”