"How did you score this interview again?" Nathan asked Gael.

"I know a guy who knows a guy," my brother replied.

Nathan smacked him in the chest. Gael made an oomph sound.

"No, seriously," Gael said. "Cerise's friend Morris? His bandmate is dating some girl who writes for a magazine. She's offered to interview us before, so I figured now would be a great time to reach out."

The group of us were hanging out in the music studio, waiting for the journalist. We'd tried to rehearse while we waited, but most of us had been too nervous to concentrate.

Well, that wasn't quite true. The others didn't seem fazed at all. I was the one full of nervous energy, jiggling my crossed legs as I sat on the sofa and tapping my nails against the cushions in a staccato rhythm.

This wasn't our first interview, but it was the first since we'd signed on to our label. Small-time music blogs doing a Q and A with some local band after a show was one thing. This was another. This was legit. We were going to talk to an actual journalist who wrote for a real magazine.

"What if she brings up that trash talk?" I spoke up. "That stuff about—" I grimaced, "—about me sleeping my way to the top?"

"I'm sure she won't," Gael reassured me. "She's a professional."

I hoped my brother was right.

It was only a few minutes later when a young woman rapped her knuckles on the door and poked her head in. I instantly recognized her. I’d met Emily once before, earlier in her journalism career. She was smartly dressed in a blouse and knee-length pencil skirt. She held a notebook in one hand and what looked to be a small digital recorder in the other.

Emily scanned the room. When her eyes landed on me she gave me a bright smile.

"Cerise," she said, cheerfully. "It's great to see you again."

I returned her smile, although the corners of my lips twitched nervously. Just because she looked friendly didn't mean she wouldn't ask hard-hitting questions.

Emily did the rounds, shaking hands with the other guys and introducing herself. When she got to Nathan, he flashed her his most winning smile, and opened his mouth, ready to spout some clichéd come on, but she easily side-stepped him to greet Seth and Julian.

When she got to Liam, she blinked in surprise.

"Are you a new member of the band?" she asked. "I thought there were only five of you."

She must have done her homework on Cherry Lips. We hadn't made a formal announcement to the public about Liam’s addition to the band for the tour.

"I'm Liam Knight," he said, shaking her hand firmly. "I'm going to be helping out the band as a session guitarist for their upcoming tour."

Emily immediately took out her notebook and scribbled something down.

"Do you want this interview to only be about the original five or will Liam be joining us as well?" she asked.

I looked to my brother. We hadn't discussed whether or not Liam would take part in the interview. It hadn't occurred to me that he wouldn't. Although he'd only just been brought onboard, it somehow felt like he'd been with us forever. Liam fit in so well even after such a short amount of time.

The more I thought about it, the more disconcerting the thought became.

Liam had already wormed himself into my every thought. I didn't know if I was comfortable with him also inserting himself into the band like this, too.

My brother shot me a look and shrugged.

"I'm okay with it," Gael said. "Our fans are going to notice there’s a new guy onstage when we start touring. We might as well introduce them to Liam beforehand."

"It’ll help us, too," Nathan said. "Liam has his own flock of fans from his old days with Forever Night. If we can poach a few of them over to our side, I say we go for it."

"So you're using me for my fame and not my talent, is that it?" Liam asked.

Nathan and Liam grinned at each other — another sign of the easy camaraderie that had developed between him and the guys. I was the only one who acted out of sorts whenever Liam was around.

"As long as you’re cool with it?" Liam asked me.

"It’s fine."

Like almost everything else when it came to Liam, I didn't really have a reason to say no, aside from the fact that being around him perpetually knocked me off balance.

Emily perched on the arm of a sofa and crossed her legs with a straight back. Her expression turned serious as she flicked on the tape recorder.

"First," she said, "Can we talk about some of your musical influences?"

"I've always been a big fan of the band I'll Never Say," I said. "I've always looked up to their female lead singer."

"I've never heard of them," Emily said.

"They’re a bit more obscure," I told her. "And they broke up a few years ago. When I heard that they were going their separate ways, I think I moped in my bedroom for a week straight."

"And what about you?" Emily asked the others. "What bands do you guys look up to?"

"You can never go wrong with the big names," Gael said. "Metallica, AC/DC, The Stones."

"Us too," Seth nodded. "Julian’s the one who introduced me to rock music, and he’s a big fan of the classics."

Emily nodded and jotted down some notes.

"Next question. Can one of you explain the meaning behind the name Cherry Lips?"

I tensed up. I’d been asked this before, and I had a lie ready to go, but this time was different. Liam was in the room. He would know immediately I was making it up. Would he call me on it?

The guys looked at me expectantly. I was always the one who answered this question. I felt Liam's eyes on burning into me.

"My name means cherry in French," I said. "And, as the lead singer, I thought using the word lips was an appropriate choice."

That was the easy answer of course, but Emily just nodded and made another mark on her paper. Liam shifted in his seat with an amused smile but he didn't say anything out loud. He was happy to let the fib go unchallenged. I continued with my explanation.

"Maybe it's kind of a narcissistic thing to do, naming your band after yourself. But I’m not the first artist to do it. I'm sure you can tell I sort of have a theme going." I gestured to my hair with fingers tipped in cherry-red nail polish.

"I had noticed you seem to like that color," Emily laughed. With her curiosity satisfied, she turned the conversation to another topic.

"Cerise," Emily said, turning to me with a determined look. "I want to ask you about something more serious."

My shoulders hunched up to my ears before I forced them to relax. I didn't want to seem on edge. I just had to hope she wasn't going to bring up those awful rumors. If she did, I didn't know if I’d be able to keep calm enough not to embarrass myself.

"Go ahead," I told her.

She leaned forward, as if getting closer to me physically would help her get closer to me in a more personal way.

"Can we touch on what it's like to be a woman in the music industry?" she asked. "I'm sure there are challenges you face that your band members don't, especially considering you’re in the rock genre."

That wasn’t a bad question to ask. She wasn't bringing up the gossip directly, but she was giving me a way to address the hardships that came with my career choice.

"It's tough," I said. "Truthfully, you're right when you say I have to deal with a lot of stuff my brother and the other guys don't. It's hard to be taken seriously. People always underestimate you, patronize you. You have to work twice as hard at everything. The industry is still male dominated, and it can be really tough as a woman to break into it. That being said," I continued, "there are a lot of female musicians who have come before me who have broken through that glass ceiling. They’ve paved the way for other girls like me to follow in their footsteps, and I'm eternally grateful for that."

Emily smiled at me and nodded emphatically. "I totally get what you mean," she said. "I experienced something similar as an independent journalist."

The interview continued as Emily quizzed us on the meanings behind our lyrics, the process we went through to write songs, and other questions that had to do with the techniques and nitty-gritty details of our work. There were no mentions of gossip or rumors. She was completely professional, just as Gael had promised me she would be.

And then she said something that made my stomach drop.

"Can you tell me a bit about your love lives?"