“Thank you.”
“Have you ever been to a recording studio?” Simon asks, studying her curiously.
“No.” Her answer is timid.
“So let’s start there. Let’s take a little tour, then you can let us hear your songs.” He motions to the guitar.
Emma nods, much less anxiously than before, and my nervousness fades with hers. When they disappear behind the door of the recording studio, I breathe a sigh of relief.
“I hope she never loses that innocent air,” Evan sighs.
“I’ll try to keep her style as much as possible,” I reassure him, even if this industry irreparably changes people, and Emma may decide to try something different. In that case, I wouldn’t stop her. I want her to always feel at ease, even experimenting with new things.
“I think using her natural beauty to push her image in that direction is the way to go. I want to avoid squeezing her into sexy clothes like they tried to do with Lilly or Haven,” Iris explains as she follows me into the conference room.
“I’ll leave you two to your work with Emma. I have a couple of appointments. See you at home?” Evan asks me before kissing my lips.
“Yes, I’ll try to come back at a reasonable time,” I tell him before watching him walk out of Jail Records.
When I turn around, Iris is gazing at me curiously. “You’ve been radiant since you started this home life with him.” Her statement makes me smile.
“I have to say, I like the routine we have. I love my independence, but Evan’s never made me feel trapped like I can’t live my life. It looks pretty rushed, moving in together after a few months…but it was spontaneous. In fact, when we decided to do it, we were already living together. We slipped into this life as a couple without even realizing we were doing it,” I explain a little shyly.
Iris reaches out her hand and rests it on mine. The nervousness in my voice is evident, not because I’m afraid she can’t understand but because it’s been a long time since we talked like we used to. We’re both busy with our careers, and lately, we’ve drifted apart a bit, mainly because of me.
“You don’t have to justify yourself to me. I’m glad you’re happy and got over the fight you had. I was really worried you wouldn’t come back from Los Angeles. I’ve never seen Evan so desperate and angry, and I understood the risk that you might decide to stay there was real,” she admits.
The guilt that settles in my chest is almost suffocating. The secrets I kept from her are so many and so big I don’t know if she can ever forgive me for keeping them, but one thing I’m sure of, after all that happened with Evan, Aaron, and their father, I don’t want to carry this burden anymore. So I tell her everything, from the sugar daddy website I used for a while, to that night on the boat, to the following months trying to navigate between feelings of guilt and anger. Iris listens to me, nodding, suffering for me until the silence falls between us and she embraces me. She grips me tightly, and all my doubts and worries melt away.
“I knew you were hiding something from me, but I didn’t think that,” she admits quietly. There is no judgment in her voice, just a simple observation.
“I wasn’t as smart as I thought,” I smile, avoiding her gaze.
“It was the little things. When you disappeared for entire weekends or had very expensive designer accessories you couldn’t afford working in a cafe. Things I’ve never seen again in your house… And the clothes you’ve been wearing since you started working here. I know how much they pay you and that certain things are insanely expensive. I always wondered how I could find that kind of money, but I never asked,” she explains.
“Are you mad?”
“No, more than anything, I’m sorry. If I had known, I would have tried to help you,” she admits.
“That’s why I didn’t tell you. Because you already had enough to think about without my worries.”
She nods, thinking about my words. I know I hurt her by not asking her for help. We’re a lot alike in this way.
“Now I understand Evan’s anger. I had sensed there was something personal, I thought maybe you’d had sex and that it hadn’t worked out, but I couldn’t understand his reaction. It seemed blown way out of proportion.”
“I almost slept with his father.” I cover my face in shame before returning my eyes to her. “That kind of a mistake is hard to forgive.”
Iris smiles and puts her hand on my leg. “But he did, which explains why you started your relationship moving in together. If a relationship overcomes something that big, you’re pretty much guaranteed it’s not a fling. And we all knew you were going to be a couple eventually,” she smirks.
“That’s not true! We’ve always been very professional!” I gasp, scandalized by her statement.
“Of course, you’ve always been the perfect colleagues. But you two are so in tune you finish each other’s sentences and understand each other on the fly without even talking. You don’t find that kind of chemistry with just anyone. This next step in your relationship was inevitable.”
Actually, in some ways, she’s right. I’ve never allowed myself certain freedoms in bed with a man, to really be myself, without any brakes or inhibitions, and this was possible right away because I have such complete trust in Evan. That total respect for his work made me put my most intimate fantasy in his hands because I knew he wouldn’t hurt me.
“But let’s talk about Emma and how to make her a star,” she says, relieving me of my embarrassment.
I dive in with the ideas I’ve been keeping a secret since I met Emma. “I think we should promote her on TikTok, get her enough followers to verify her account, and then start sharing a mini-documentary on social media from when she was nobody to the recording studio and her first real concert. We’re lucky because she has a lot of never-seen-before material to give us. Then I thought about hiring Nicholas for the documentary. Do you think we have the budget for that?”