Vance rolled over when the phone rang, still half-asleep. He groped across his bedside table to find it, then pulled it, jabbed the answer button without looking and held his phone to his ear. He already knew who it was. “Hey, baby. Did you sleep okay? I’ve been thinking about you.”

There was a pause. “I’m not sure who you think this is, Vance, but I’m not them. It’s Rebecca.”

Vance opened his eyes and blinked a few times, shaking off his early morning fog. “Rebecca? I wasn’t expecting your call.”

“It has been a while,” Rebecca admitted. “I’m sorry I didn’t call you sooner. That was wrong of me.”

“No, no, it’s okay. What’s up? Did you find a new gig for me?” Vance rubbed at the corners of his eyes. He swung his legs over the side of the bed and made his way to the bathroom. Rebecca had been his agent for almost a decade, but they’d fallen out of touch the more Vance tumbled into obscurity. She was a little brash, which he supposed came with the job. There were few agents out there who sugar-coated things.

“Well, that’s the thing.”

Vance splashed some water on his face with one hand and looked at his reflection in the mirror. He was starting to get a little too scruffy. “What’s the thing?”

“There isn’t any more work for me to book,” Rebecca said. “I’ve been in touch with everyone now. New, rising bands just about to make it big aren’t interested, televised talent shows aren’t interested… hell, I even tried to get you into Dancing With the Stars, and they politely declined. No one is biting anymore, Vance. The small-time stuff you’ve been doing over the last few years isn’t leading anywhere. You’re starting to tumble into the point of obscurity where there is no coming back.”

“That’s not true,” Vance said, but his heart had already started to race. “I’m not out here doing nothing. We’re on the verge of coming back big time. That was the plan — that was why we sent me out here to begin with. I’m almost done with the new album, and I’m going to be performing come June.”

“Performing where?” Rebecca asked. “Some bar in Nowheresville, Georgia? Vance, you’re a sweet kid, but sometimes, you really need to take a minute to stop and think. The new album is great — fantastic, even — but how are you going to generate hype when no one wants anything to do with you? You’ve let too much time go by, and you’re old news now.”

“That’s not true,” Vance said, doing his best to keep his voice relaxed. He looked at himself in the mirror and saw the reality of his situation. His brows were knitted together with concern and his face was drawn. “Give me another few months to turn things around, Rebecca. You’ve done fantastic work for me in the past and you’ve kept me afloat for way longer than any other agent would have.”

“And that’s the problem,” Rebecca said with a heavy sigh. “Vance, I understand that this is your career, and I’ve done my very best to help you make the most of it. You blew up, got famous, and then shit happened. You made choices that impacted your future. I did my very best to make sure that your bad choices impacted you in the smallest ways possible, but there is a limit to what I can do. I’m not a miracle worker. I work with talent that continues to provide entertainment value. That’s what I do. I don’t try to keep talent that’s dying on life support for as long as I can because my heart is too big, and I can’t stand to see it go.”

Vance didn’t know what to say. He already knew what Rebecca was going to say, and he was trying to handle it.

“I’ve had a really good time supporting you over the years, and you’ve done a lot of amazing things with your talent, but there comes a time when your one trick from ten years ago just isn’t enough to sustain you anymore. You’re better off working with someone new, Vance. I’ve tried all I can try, but there’s no turning this around. I need to focus my attention on the talent that wants to stay front and center — not get there for a second, then drop off the map.”

“Rebecca,” Vance said softly. “Give me a few more months. Wait until you see what June brings. The album is almost done, and there’s going to be media hype. You’ll see.”

“I’ve heard it before, and I just don’t believe it anymore,” Rebecca replied. She sighed. “I hate to do this, Vance, but I’m letting you go. I’ll be removing myself from your payroll effective immediately. There are too many opportunities out there for me to waste my time on a failed one.”

“Rebecca—”

“I wish you the best of luck going forward, and I hope that your career does turn around. Use whatever you’re feeling to prove me wrong. Get back at me by exploding back onto the scene. You’ve got that fire in you somewhere, Vance. I only hope you can ignite it again.”

The call ended abruptly. Vance glanced at the screen to see that the call had been terminated. Rebecca had let him go.

He set his phone near the kitchen faucets in total disbelief and braced his hands on either side of the sink basin. He ducked his head and focused on his breathing as the first wave of panicked nausea hit. How could this have happened? He’d been down on his luck recently, sure, but to quit on him after he’d made plans with Rebecca to go back home and find his inspiration again?

She sent me here so that I’d have somewhere familiar to be when she cut me loose. She doesn’t want me in Los Angeles anymore. To her, I’m just a washed up has-been that’s been weighing down her career… a burden for too long.

Vance spat into the sink, but he couldn’t find it in him to throw up. He squeezed his eyes shut and wiped his mouth with the back of his arm, then abandoned the sink and went to run a shower. He needed to wash the crawling feeling off his skin and shake away the negativity.

I can still do this. I came to town determined to do this. All I need to do is finish the album and generate enough interest when it comes time for the show. It’s not going to be hard. With a few anonymous calls to the right people…

He sucked in a breath and tested the water. It was warm enough to step into without freezing to death, so he stripped his boxers off and stepped under the stream. Water washed over his skin and soaked into his hair, but he still felt like shit. His nausea didn’t lessen.

All of this is bullshit. Total bullshit. Who does she think she is to do something like that to me? I paid her for almost a decade. I listened to her advice and jumped through whatever hoops she wanted me to jump through. I figured out that I was destroying my career and I tried to turn things around… and now that I’m hard at work to fix my mistakes, she leaves me? That’s a shitty thing to do to someone. I didn’t deserve that.

He stood beneath the water, not interested in getting clean as much as he was rinsing away the filth he felt all over. He braced his hands against the shower wall and took a deep breath. The water was still heating, and it was starting to get uncomfortably hot, but at the moment, it didn’t matter. The rose colored glasses he’d worn since he’d hit superstar status were shattered, and he saw the world for what it was… and himself for what he’d become. He’d been swayed by the easy life, and he’d assumed that whenever he chose to come back to the entertainment industry, it would be ready to welcome him with open arms. He’d been disillusioned. Rebecca had been trying to show him the way all this time, but he’d had to fall to his lowest point before he could realize it — and his lowest point was losing his agent. Without her, what was the point? He was just another singer with a failed dream.

If I’d had enough of a brain to see this was coming when the band let me go, I could have prevented this. I could have worked harder to make things right and get back on track… but then what? I always thought that once I got my act together, they’d want me back. Now I’m not so sure…

Vance turned down the heat once the water started to scald. He gave himself a little time to think and reflect. There were too many thoughts buzzing in his head, and he wasn’t getting close to sorting them out by torturing himself. He waited until the water had cooled, then lathered up and washed away last night’s grime. He turned off the shower, stepped out, and toweled off, ignoring the boxers he’d left on the floor.

Would the guys in the group have taken me back?

Vance returned to his phone and unlocked the screen. He went back through his albums on his cloud drive, scrolling back years until he came across pictures of him with the band. Most of them were professionally taken — he’d changed phones too many times to have saved all of his pictures. But in the pictures he did have, he started to notice something he’d never seen before. His band mates looked miserable. Not outwardly — not enough that outsiders would be able to clue in — but Vance knew what each of them looked like when they were genuinely joyful. It didn’t match what he was seeing on his screen at all. The fake happiness they’d plastered on their faces was a front… and there, hogging the majority of the spotlight, was him.

I didn’t recognize the signs that I was a jerk back when I was with Aaron, I didn’t recognize them when I was in Midnight, and I didn’t recognize them in all the years I spent working with Rebecca. I really am deplorable, aren’t I? All this time, the only one I’ve been thinking about is me…

Vance carried his phone back to the bedroom and tossed it on the bed. He dressed quickly, no longer able to sit still. He’d been dealt a lethal blow, and he couldn’t afford to sit around and wait for himself to feel better. If he didn’t get it off his chest soon, he was going to explode.

There was only one person in Prescott that he felt he could trust with his troubles. Before he headed out the door, he grabbed his phone and dialed him.

“Hello?” Aaron asked.

“Hey,” Vance said. He kept his voice strong even though he felt like breaking down. “Something just happened and I need to come over. Are you around? You don’t need to entertain me — you don’t even need to talk to me — I just need to be near someone right now, even if you could care less about what’s going on in my life.”

“No, come over,” Aaron said. He sounded worried. “I’m heading home now. I’ll be there in five minutes.”

“I’ll be there in ten,” Vance said. “Thank you, Aaron.”

“You’re welcome.” Aaron sounded shocked, and it only hurt Vance more. How had he allowed himself to become like this? This wasn’t who he was. He was proud of his chart-topping accomplishment, but the man underneath? He couldn’t be proud of him. But he had hope that before Aaron’s big summer event that he could turn things around and say differently. He’d made a mess of his life so far, but it wasn’t too late to turn it around. He’d keep trying even when hope was lost. He’d come to Prescott to find himself again, and no matter how much it hurt, he knew he’d been given exactly what he needed.