I smile and bring the pillow with me onto my own bed. I flop down and switch modes on my phone, showing him the same. With the red light and sharp shadows, the bruising is lost in the silver and teal and black that swirls around my eyes.

He sighs, his gaze flitting over the screen, like he’s studying me. Memorizing.

It feels almost more intimate, looking at only his eyes and the sea of black surrounding them.

“You were wrong,” I tell him, lying naked aside from the arm warmers. “This was a worse idea.”

“Hmm, was it now?” I can hear the smirk.

I nod, study, memorize. “Nothing like this is ever happening again.”

Foster chuckles—staring right at me. “Whatever you say, my beautiful liar.”

17

REMI

Now…

“Here’s next week’s scene list.”

I copy it from the notes on my phone and send it to Glory and Nate in our group chat. “The key one will be the meet and greet. We’ll go over specifics that morning, but I want all of us on cams, getting as much footage as possible since we haven’t snagged much fan interaction.”

Thanks to Mac Records for that one.

Felix mentioned they had more time with fans up until this leg of the tour. From what I can guess, it was the easiest cut to make to account for the extra shows, other than days off for the band.

Who cares about the artists and fans so long as the former performs and the latter buys, buys, buys?

Of Men and Wolves are feeling the effects of their tightened schedule. They won’t admit it, but the entire point of me being here is to see them. Audible sighs when climbing on the bus without downtime after a show. Ducking the cameras more often to do what I assume is coke. Even with it, Dev and Felix crashed during their writing session yesterday.

All of us could use a breather. I want to sleep while standing still. A shower not shared with four dudes. Maybe even a break from toting my camera around—a short one. Like a day.

“Who’s the best bet for spy glasses there?” Glory asks.

She slips on her own glasses so she can scan over what I sent. Nate’s doing the same, the third side to our little triangle in the parking lot by the buses. I’m sure they’re feeling the bars on the cage, too. Which is why I opted to meet out here rather than on their bus like we have been.

I worked with the two of them a few times last year on different shoots with Heath. When the label and band came back with the requirement for minimal crew, I easily decided on them. Glory has a similar instinct to me for grabbing a camera to capture what others might overlook. Nate’s quick to learn and mimic different styles.