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Whole different story this time,' Bosco began. 'I'm going to make you work, Stephi-babe. This album is going to be my comeback.'
Stephanie assumed he was joking. But he met her gaze evenly from within the folds of black leather.
'Comeback?' she asked.
Jules had been wandering the loft, eyeing the framed gold and platinum Conduit albums paving the walls, the few guitars Bosco hadn't sold off, and his collection of pre-Columbian artifacts, which he hoarded in pristine glass cases and refused to sell. At the word 'comeback,' Stephanie felt her brother's attention suddenly engage.
'The album's called A to B, right?' Bosco said. 'And that's the question I want to hit straight on: how did I go from being a rock star to being a fat fuck no one cares about? Let's not pretend it didn't happen.'
Stephanie was too startled to respond.
'I want interviews, features, you name it,' Bosco went on. 'Fill up my life with that shit. Let's document every fucking humiliation. This is reality, right? You don't look good anymore twenty years later, especially when you've had half your guts removed. Time's a goon, right? Isn't that the expression?'
Jules had drifted over from across the room. 'I've never heard that,' he said. '"Time is a goon"?'
'Would you disagree?' Bosco said, a little challengingly.
There was a pause. 'No,' Jules said.
'Look,' Stephanie said, 'I love your honesty, Bosco - '
'Don't give me "I love your honesty, Bosco,"' he said. 'Don't get all PR-y on me.'
'I'm your publicist,' Stephanie reminded him.
'Yeah, but don't start believing that shit,' Bosco said. 'You're too old.
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