Aidan looked across his living room coffee table at his publicist, Annette. He forced himself to listen to what she was saying, even though his mind kept returning to a different woman entirely. Kate. The woman who'd dominated his every waking thought for the past three weeks.
“Well," Annette said, her voice cutting through his thoughts. "The Today Show finally returned my call."
Aidan winced. He remembered the morning in question. His band had been playing the Today Show’s live summer concert series in the middle of midtown Manhattan, when he’d caught sight of Kate in the crowd. It was the first time he’d seen her face in seven years, since the disastrous night she walked out on him. He’d spotted her pressed up against a barricade, her designer suit and heels sticking out like a sore thumb amid the throng of screaming fans. His only thought at the time had been to talk to her. He’d left the stage in the middle of the set and pushed his way through the crowd. The few shouted words they'd exchanged in the frenzy had set the events of the past three weeks in motion.
“Do you want to hear the voicemail?” Annette asked him.
“Do I need to hear the voicemail?”
“I think you might find it instructive."
He watched Annette lower her white-haired head and squint at her phone through the reading glasses she kept perched on the tip of her nose. She looked almost maternal, Aidan thought. Anyone observing them might have taken her for some doting aunt or grandmother. Looks could be deceiving. She stopped scrolling through the messages and hit play. The irate voice of the Today Show’s executive producer blared around them:
“—The guy’s a loose cannon. If he can’t manage to stick to the script long enough to perform a two-song set—“
Aidan waved for her to stop. “I get the picture.”
“I can try to smooth it over, but you gotta give me some kind of explanation.”
Aidan sighed. An explanation. She wanted an explanation.
“It was her?” Annette asked him. “It was Kate? That’s why you left the stage?”
“Yeah, it was Kate.”
Annette nodded. “You can’t do that, Aidan. I need you to exercise a little impulse control.”
He chuckled. Impulse control had never been his strong suit, and they both knew it. “Sorry,” he muttered.
“That means you can’t go tweeting unreleased material you don’t own the rights to, either.”
“Those were my songs,” he shot back. Annette had her laptop open, and she pulled up his twitter account. He didn’t need to look at the screen to know what his tweet had said.
*********************************
Messages to Kate... how many was I supposed to send?
http://bit.ly/14nNdY8
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6:42 AM – 04 June 2013
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It was an allusion to his band's debut album, of course. There wasn't a music fan alive who could've failed to catch the reference. Message To Kate was the title of the album that had first rocketed him and his friends to fame, propelling them almost overnight from a group of complete unknowns to one of the most recognizable rock bands on the planet. It had been an instant classic, considered one of the best break-up albums in recent memory by critics and fans alike. Twelve songs, chronicling all the pain and anger, sadness and regret – everything he'd felt after Kate walked out on him.
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Hollywood Remake (A Celebrity Love Story)
RomanceKate Morgan walked out on her boyfriend seven years ago, without so much as a backward glance. She had no idea he'd go on to become the notorious Aidan Sands, Hollywood 'It' Boy and frequent flier of the celebrity gossip columns. Now Aidan's back in...
