“You meant that shit,” I accused and shrugged. “But that’s cool. It makes sense to me. You repping my last name. I’ll rep your first. It’s only right.”
“So you don’t expect me to get your name now?” She lifted an eyebrow.
“Nah.” I stood.
“Well, I’m not going to beg for the opportunity,” she said.
“Yeah. I bet.” I pushed the door open and held it for her to walk out. “Come on. Let’s go home so you can sit that ass on this tattoo.” I smacked her ass, making her giggle and lightly push me away from her while we walked toward the car.
CHAPTER 17
MYOME
Iadjusted my hair and rolled my shoulders to loosen up a little bit. I blinked a few times because of the blinding lights and took a deep breath.
“Are you okay?” Charm asked.
“Yeah. Why?”
“Because you look like you’re going to be sick,” Allison offered as she walked over and handed each of us a water bottle. “You’re doing fine. You have great buzz surrounding your performance at the festival. Preorders of the album are up as well as sales for the current music. Things are going great. They’re just going to ask about the album, the process, and the group… and maybe Drix?” She gave me a small smile. “The posts the two of you made were trending a few days ago, so…”
I nodded. She was right.
Drix had posted an actual post of us, his first since he’d shared the video of our marriage as a real post and not one that would delete in twenty-four hours. He’d made a carousel of four items, which was miraculous considering how little he actually shared things to his page and not just his story. Of course, it had racked in the views.
The first photo was one someone sent to a gossip blog of him carrying me through the festival grounds. The second was a video of me winking at him at the festival while he was backstage. Then he’d shared one he took of me and one I’d taken of him. The picture he took of me was when I’d been in the booth with my newly upgraded ring, showing it off and smiling like a goofy. The one I’d taken was him lying in our bed, his bare chest on full display and his eyes closed. He had our fingers twined together and was kissing my hand, my ring and his face tattoo at the center of the picture.
That had been the one that took off. People were sharing it all over their pages and calling it relationship goals, which I thought was hilarious.
His caption said, “Till Death”.
And people had been in his comments and messages ever since.
Of course, I’d piggybacked off of his post and made one. I hadn’t posted anything since our marriage video, so I shared most of what he’d already shared as well as an unposted picture of the two of us in the studio as the cover. Berlin had a hand on my knee while we looked at each other. I was full on laughing and he was just grinning at me, his other hand holding a blunt.
I’d posted ten pictures to his four and there were still people calling me stupid for being with Berlin but I didn’t care.
I was in my “my man, my man, my man” era and floating on cloud nine after his tattoo and him telling me he loved me.
I’d even filled out the paperwork to change my last name on all of my documents. I was already Mrs. King but we were going to make it officially official.
“Is that why Myome is sitting in the middle?” Retta asked.
“No. She’s sitting in the middle because she’s the shortest and we don’t want to look like we’re raising the bar or lowering it,” Allison deadpanned. “She’s in the middle because of thecamera’s optics. That’s it, Retta. We’re all part of the same team.” Allison turned toward Charm and wiped a little smudge from beneath her lip. “So smile and act like you like each other, okay?”
“I’ll try my best.” Retta elbowed me as she adjusted how she was sitting.
I shot her a look that I hoped let her know I would fuck her up then readjusted how I was sitting as well.
Allison pulled a pen from her pocket and scribbled the first letter of each of our names on the tops of our water bottles.
“Good luck, and if you don’t know an answer, pull in another member of the group. Smile. Don’t fidget. Sit confidently. It’ll be great.” Allison stood up straight as the two women scheduled to interview us took their seats across from us.
They flipped through cue cards, trading them quickly, then nodded and cleared their throats. I looked over at Allison who smiled and gave us two thumbs up.
“Ready, ladies?” the interviewer asked.
“Of course,” Retta said. “Let’s do this.”