Page 93 of Wild

"No. It has to be a formal written notice — your word alone isn't enough. If you're sure, I've already drafted the document you'll need to make it official the moment you hand it to him."

"Send it to me," Mia said without hesitating.

After that, the next step was going through the offers she had from other agents. Noah set up meetings with two of them, butthe second had to be canceled, because Mia didn't have a single doubt when she walked out of the first.

"I want her," she told Noah, then looked at Erin for her opinion without even needing to ask, and Erin answered with a wink.

And now here they are — yesterday marked the end of Jude's contract, and today she's signing with the new agency.

"That's it," Mia announces, sliding the pages to her left, where Abigail Stone, seated beside her partner Liam, lays her elegant hand over the documents and pulls them in front of herself.

Liam hands her a pen, and Mia Wilder's new agent signs her name next to the singer's. When she's done, she squares the pages on the table, sets them aside, and fixes her gray-green eyes on Mia's blue ones before offering her hand.

"Welcome to Stone & Cottet, Mia."

The singer breaks into a wide smile and shakes it firmly. Abigail curves her lips just slightly without losing her icy expression, and then it's Liam's turn to congratulate her.

"And now yours, Erin," Abigail says, picking up another contract and sliding it toward her. "You'll be Mia's attending physician with authority — above mine," she adds, raising an eyebrow, "to cancel any event if it's in the interest of her wellbeing."

The doctor looks at her for a moment and takes the pen Mia had been holding just seconds before.

This had been one of the deciding factors in choosing Abigail Stone — among many others — when Noah laid out the singer's conditions, which included Erin as her doctor with full authority to make medical decisions. Neither Abigail nor Liam, who had also been in the room, raised a single objection.

Erin finishes signing and slides the contract back. Abigail does the same, adds her signature, and shakes the doctor's hand.

"Then we're all set." Abigail and Liam stand, and Erin and Mia follow. "Give me a couple of weeks to go over your schedule with Noah. I'll set up a meeting with the label about your new album, book the recording studio starting next month, and reach out to Helen Casterley to start planning the next tour."

"Nell," Mia says.

"Excuse me?"

"Don't call her Helen. It makes her feel old and she hates it."

Abigail blinks as if she hasn't quite understood.

"She'll take care of it, don't worry," Liam says on her behalf, giving her a pat on the back that earns him a withering look from the executive — which makes Mia laugh.

"Fine, then — Nell," Abigail says. "I'll call you if I have any questions. In the meantime, keep writing and take it easy."

Mia and Erin leave the building ten minutes later, hand in hand, with the singer's security detail flanking them. They get into the waiting car, which takes them straight to the doctor's apartment.

Even though Erin had been very clear about her independence when she accepted the job with Mia, she hadn't seen this coming. It had simply happened, without them ever sitting down to talk about it.

The singer came back to New York two weeks after the doctor, and since Mia had always shared her place with Noah — the two of them practically siblings — it was Mia who started coming to Erin's apartment to see her, who began staying when Erin didn't have a shift, who accepted the key Erin gave her — because they often planned to meet at the end of Erin's shift, and if things ran late, Mia would have to wait in the lobby — who would be there with dinner ready, and who, a little over a month ago, had started staying every night.

"Erin," Mia says, as they walk into the kitchen and the doctor opens the fridge to see what they have to eat.

"What?" she asks without turning around.

"Can you sit down for a second?"

Erin tilts her head and sees Mia sitting at the small kitchen table, so she closes the fridge, a little worried, and sits down across from her.

"What's going on?"

"What's going on is that I've been taking over your home without asking, half my clothes have invaded your closet with no real order, and I've claimed the left side of the couch," the singer says.

Erin stays quiet, watching her through half-lowered lids, trying to read where this is going.