12. Alex

12

Alex

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" I ask Phoebe and Maggie. I've been questioning their idea since they contacted me last week. When they told me how upset and miserable Rosie has been I wanted to come to her immediately, but they had a plan.

"Yes, we talked to her this morning, and she regrets it all." Maggie nudges Phoebe in the ribs. "Not all of it. You know what I mean. She regrets leaving, the note, and ignoring you. She wants to be with you, she just still doesn't see how."

"I will do whatever she wants. I can't live without her in my life."

Both sisters smile at me. "We know and we have a way of solving that too. We are tired of touring for eight months straight. We plan to renegotiate after this album. Before we weren't in a place to make demands, but we are now."

"What would you like to do?" I feel hope for the first time in weeks. I would never tell these women how to manage their business, but I am interested in what they want to do. Hopefully, it's part of my future too.

"We'll tell you after we talk to Rosie about it. It's a band thing. We all have to agree, or it doesn't happen."

"Got it."

"Okay, so you're going to wait in here and we will come back in a while. Rosie should be here in the next ten minutes." Phoebe and Maggie start to leave the room.

"I just want you two to know how thankful I am that you guys are willing to help me. I love your sister so much. I promise that I don't want to limit her in any way. I will always just want to help her be whatever she wants to be."

"We know," Maggie says.

And then Phoebe adds, "Or you wouldn't be here."

The next ten minutes feel like the longest in my whole life. When I hear the doorknob to the studio turn, my heart starts to beat out of my chest. This is it.

Rosie walks into the studio and freezes when she sees me sitting by the mixing board instead of whoever was supposed to be there.

"Alex?"

"Hi, my sweet girl."

She looks beautiful, but like she hasn't slept well or eaten much in the last three weeks. I probably look just as bad. I feel like I'm breathing for the first time in weeks just being in the same space as her.

"What are you doing here?" she asks as she walks closer to me.

I stand and hold my hand out to her. She stares at it for seconds before taking it. A weight falls off my shoulder as her skin touches mine and I have her back within reach.

"I can't be without you. It's hell."

"I know. I'm so sorry." Rosie begins to cry, and I don't want her to feel like any of this is something to feel guilty for.

"No, I don't want you to apologize. We moved so fast, too fast, and you got scared. That's a perfectly reasonable response. I just want to be with you, Rosie. Forever if you'll have me, but I will take it a day at a time if that's what you want."

"I want to be with you too…forever. I don't want to live like the last three weeks ever again," she sobs. "I never knew I could love someone so much. I love you, Alex."

"I love you, too."

"How can this work though? I'm here, you're in LA. Then I tour all over the world. We will never see each other."

"This is not true. I can work from just about anywhere. I'll have to go to LA for board meetings and some things, but I'm actually really rich and own the company outright."

"I thought you were just like a partner or something. Like your family started it."

"Nope. I did it from the ground up. I'm the Young from Young and Associates."

I pull her body against mine and kiss her head.

"These are the kinds of things we would know if we had spent more than one day together before falling in love," she says. Then she leans her head back to look at me, "Or if I had been obsessed with you for weeks before we met and looking for any information I could find."

"Busted," I laugh. "Who told you?"

"Maggie."

"You're not mad or creeped out?"

"Nope. I think it's kind of sweet."

I kiss her and it feels like coming home. I wish we were somewhere this could go further, but I know that her sisters are going to be here soon.

A few minutes later the door opens and in walks Phoebe and Maggie. They look at the two of us cuddled together on one chair and smile.

"Finally. Do you think you can start writing pop songs again instead of funeral dirges?"

"Yes, ma'am," Rosie answers.

"I'm so happy that you guys seem to have worked things out. Especially since it was mostly because of our plan. Now, we need to talk about part two of the plan." Maggie sits down and pulls out a sheaf of papers. She explains their plan to spend more downtime working on other things but still being the amazing pop group that's loved around the world.

I don't pay too much attention. It's really not up to me what they do and whatever Rosie wants to do is fine with me. As long as I get to love her then I will be one happy man.