by J. S. Cooper
“Oh my God, he’s just a hookup.” I sighed, my face turning red as I knew in my heart that it was becoming more than just a hookup for me. “He doesn’t have any intentions because he’s told me that he only likes to have fun and that’s fine because that’s what I’m after as well.”
“So why are we going to his show? And why are you worried we’ll be late?”
“Well, I’m not worried we’ll be late, because we’re already late. I’m worried we’ll miss the entire show.”
“Who cares?” He made a face. “None of my hookups have invited me to come to see anything.”
“Really? They haven’t invited you or you haven’t wanted to go.”
“Touché.” He laughed and put his hands up. “I’m just saying you’re awfully defensive for someone in a no-strings attached relationship. I’d just be careful. I don’t want to see you getting hurt.” He put his hands on my shoulders and looked me in the eyes. “You’re a beautiful girl inside and out and I want to make sure you meet the right guy. Because honestly, if I really thought you were the sort of girl that was interested in a hookup I would have set you up with one of my cousins.”
“Which one? Blake or Steele?” I pretended like I was considering it and we both laughed.
“Oh Lila,” he said. “What am I going to do with you?”
“Hurry into the show with me?” I asked hopefully, and he laughed and then pulled out his phone again.
“Okay, they have two more minutes. If they’re not here, we will just head in.”
“I don’t see why we had to wait on them before we could go inside.” I moaned. “I mean they’re grown adults. They’re lawyers for frigging sake. They can’t go to a rock show by themselves.”
“Now, now, Lila,” Dante said, but I just rolled my eyes. He had to know I was right. I knew that the other reason we were waiting was because Dante was hoping to hook up with one of them tonight, but he didn’t want to be alone with either one of them. He wasn’t that interested in making it a one-on-one date but interested enough to make it a “we stumble back to my place after the show” kinda night. He could talk about Carter all he wanted, but he was just as big a player. “Here they are.” He pointed to two women walking toward us and I let out a breath I didn’t know I’d been holding.
“Finally, oh my God. Let’s go.” And with that I started walking toward the bar, reaching into my handbag while I walked so that I could have my ID ready as soon as I hit the front entrance. My heart started racing with excitement as we got closer to the bar. I didn’t even say hello to my friends or wait for them to catch up with us before I started heading toward the door. I was about five yards away when I started to feel guilty and stopped. I looked back and saw that they were all running to catch up with me, Dante leading the pack with a huge grin on his face. As they reached me, Dante gave me a wink.
“Not interested in this guy at all, are you?” he said, and before I could answer he had walked in front of me and was handing his ID to the bouncer and walking into the bar.
“Hey, Lila,” the girls chorused in unison.
“Hey, Kate, hey, Sarah. Sorry for the rush, I just didn’t want us to miss the show.”
“New boyfriend?” Kate asked me with keen eyes.
“No, just a friend,” I said. A friend I’m boinking, I thought to myself. And really could I even call him a friend? Were we friends? We’d known each other less than a week. I mean I guess we were kinda friends. I think we both liked spending time with each other outside of the sex. We laughed a lot, and I really felt like he was interested in getting to know me as a person. I don’t know why he cared or if he really did, but it felt nice to have someone ask me questions about myself. That hadn’t happened in a while. Most of the guys that I met only talked about themselves.
“Oh, okay.” Kate looked disappointed. She was most probably hoping that she could go back to the office and gossip about me with the other associates.
“Their band is great. You’ll love them,” I said as I handed my ID to the bouncer and hurried inside. The room was darkly lit, but my eyes soon adjusted to the light. The stage was dead center at the front of the room and there stood Carter, tall, dark, and handsome singing his heart out to some song I’d never heard before. I stood next to Dante as we waited for the girls to make it in, and I grinned at Carter and gave him a huge wave as his eyes made his way toward me. He looked at me for a few seconds, then at Dante and then continued surveying the room without acknowledging my smile or wave at all. Maybe he hadn’t seen me? He continued to sing, and I grabbed Dante’s arm and dragged him to the front of the crowd so that we could be dead and center in front of Carter.
“Can we get a drink first?” Dante said as he looked around the room. The place was packed with people that looked like they were all in their early twenties. “I’m going to need it to get through the night.”
“Fine, come on.” I looked around for the bar and started walking to the side of the room.
“Shall we do shots?” Kate said as she and Sarah caught up to us.
“No,” I said as soon as Dante said, “Yes.”
“Fine.” I groaned. “But I’m only doing one shot.”
“I’m ordering double shots of tequila and vodka and Sprites for everyone,” Dante said as he called the bartender over. And of course, she came right away. I guess that was the power of being a tall, handsome man when it came to female bartenders.
“Fine,” I said, but I wasn’t really paying attention. I looked toward the front of the stage again, and my eyes met Carter’s, but he looked away as soon as we made contact. What was up with him? I looked over to Sarah, who was dancing along to the song playing and grinning.
“Thanks for inviting me tonight,” Sarah said. “This is awesome.”
“I’m glad you could make it. The band is great.”
“What’s their name?”
“The Bedroom Rockers,” I said and I couldn’t stop myself from laughing. It was such a suitable name for a band Carter was in. He certainly rocked my world in the bedroom.
“Okay, don’t look now, but the lead singer is totally checking you out,” Sarah said with a huge grin. I could hear Carter singing Santana’s “Black Magic Woman” through the speakers. “Got a black magic woman, Got me so blind I can’t see . . .” The words were raspy as he sang and I wondered if he had chosen the song on purpose.
“Oh, yeah?” I said and looked toward the stage again because I had absolutely no chill. As soon as I looked toward the stage, I saw Carter singing to some girl standing in the front of the crowd. My eyes narrowed as I looked to see what she looked like. My breath caught as I saw her face, she was beautiful, with long black hair, and deep red lips. She was wearing a very revealing red dress and I could feel myself flushing with something akin to jealousy. I looked away and back toward the bar. I was not going to let Carter make me feel jealous.
“Ready for a shot?” Dante asked, his eyes watching me carefully. He could sense that my mood had changed slightly.
“Yes!” I almost shouted. “Bring it on.” I waited for Dante to hand me my shot and I heard Carter speaking to the crowd.
“We’re going to be taking a small break, folks, enjoy the music and our next set will start up again in fifteen minutes.” I didn’t look back to the stage to watch him getting off. I didn’t want to see him flirting with that girl. And I didn’t want him to think that I’d come here for him. Well, it was obvious I had come to the show to see him, but I didn’t need him to know how upset I was feeling right now. He didn’t owe me anything. I wasn’t his girlfriend. He didn’t need to acknowledge me.
“Can I get a whiskey on the rocks?” I heard Carter’s voice behind me before I saw him. I looked over my shoulder and saw he was standing at the bar. I looked away, my skin feeling hot and bothered as I realized he had gone to the bar instead of coming to say hi to me. Had he not seen me? Was he mad at me? Why had he texted me to come if he wasn’t going to say hi? “Lila?” I felt a hand tappi
ng on my shoulder and turned around and saw Carter was now directly behind me. He had a small smile on his face but it didn’t reach his eyes. His blue eyes looked slightly angry and annoyed, and I wondered what had happened to him.
“Hey, how’s it going?” I said as I smiled at him widely. I didn’t want him to think he had affected me in any way. “You guys rock.”
“You didn’t really hear much though, did you?” He looked at Dante, Kate, and Sarah. “You guys just got here. Where were you before this?”
“Oh, Dante and I just got a drink at this cute Italian place and then we were waiting for Kate and Sarah.” I gestured to the two women who were staring at us in interest. “Kate and Sarah, meet Carter, the lead singer of the band.”
“Hi, Carter.” Kate grinned at him, but he just gave her a slight nod of his head.
“Had fun getting your drink?” he asked, his eyes accusing.
“Sorry, what?” I blinked up at him.
“I assume you had fun getting your drink with Dante?” He nodded toward Dante who was standing at the bar gazing at us with narrowed eyes. He gave me a look to ask if I was okay, and I nodded slightly.
“Yeah, we had fun. He’s my friend, Carter.”
“Friend, yeah right.” Carter looked pissed. “I already told you what I think.”
“We just wanted to come out and support you tonight.”
“Does he know you were in my bed last night?” He hissed.
“Well, technically you were in my bed,” I joked, trying to lighten the mood, but Carter didn’t laugh. “Frosty ate the quiche we left on the table, by the way. I noticed the whole dish was empty this morning. Hopefully, he didn’t get sick.” I tried to change the subject, but Carter wasn’t having any of it.
“Well, I have to start getting ready to go back on stage again,” he said as he took a long gulp of his whiskey. “I’ll talk to you after the show.”
“This is really ridiculous, Carter,” I said with a frown. I really didn’t appreciate him treating me so coldly for reasons that made no sense, given our situation. “You’re really just a totally moody, grumpy, asshole, aren’t you?”
“Who are you to call me moody and grumpy?” His eyes bore into mine and he looked like a petulant little boy.
“Carter, listen to yourself.”
“I don’t have time for this right now. We’ll talk after the show.” And with that he headed back to the stage, his black jeans clinging to his muscular legs in ways that made him look even sexier than ever. I tried to ignore the fact that I still found him to be the most gorgeous and compelling man I’d ever met. I hated his mood swings, and I hated how he just jumped to conclusions. A fling shouldn’t be so complicated. It should be fun, but maybe I was slowly coming to realize that I didn’t want a fling with him. I’d never really wanted one and now I remembered why.
“The show was, absolutely, amazing,” I praised Carter as he packed his guitar into a case in the backroom of the bar. “You really are so talented.”
“Thanks.” He nodded his back to me. “I see your friends left before we ended the last set.”
“They needed to get up early tomorrow.” I walked over to him. “Are you mad at me?”
“Why would I be mad at you?” He shook his head as he glimpsed at me briefly. “If you want to go have drinks and gallivant around town with some douchebag that obviously wants to fuck you, then that’s up to you.”
“Really, Carter?”
“My piece of advice though?” He paused and stood up straight to look at me. “I’d make sure to do an STD test first to make sure he’s clean. He looks like the sort to have all sorts of diseases.”
“Really, Carter?” My jaw dropped. “You’re such a bloody asshole. How dare you? I have already told you that Dante and I are just friends. He actually was warning me about seeing you.”
“Surprise, surprise.” He snorted. “Of course he was.”
“It’s not like that. He just wanted to make sure I wasn’t hooking up with a douchebag, turns out he had reason to be concerned.”
“You weren’t so concerned when I was going down on you last night. In fact, I seem to remember you begging me not to stop.”
I just stared at him as he spoke, his mouth thin and his nostrils flaring. His eyes looked slightly cold, and I took a step back from him.
“I don’t like you right now,” I said as I shook my head. “I came out to your show to support you and have some fun, but you’re being an absolute dick and I’m not going to let you talk to me that way.”
“Am I lying though?” he asked, but he looked taken aback. “That’s just really unprofessional of you to be hanging out with workmates wearing skimpy clothes and flirting and stuff. He is going to think you’re up for the taking, even if you’re not interested in that. Just because you’re just being friendly doesn’t mean he’s going to see it that way.” His voice was softer. “You have to understand where I’m coming from. I’m not trying to be a dick.”
“Carter.” I just shook my head. “If you listened to yourself, you would realize that you’re making no sense, and, in fact, I find you to be very insulting right now. I think I’m just going to leave.”
“I can get us an Uber back,” he said hopefully as he tried to reach out to touch my hair.
“No thanks. I think I just want to go home by myself tonight.”
“Okay,” he said. “I’m sorry if I hurt you or said something I shouldn’t have. I just like to be honest though I know most people can’t handle the brutal truth.”
“Carter Stevens, you do not know me at all.” I sighed. “Look, what we had was fun, but maybe we should just leave it at the two nights and both of us can just move on.”
“Is that what you want?” His mouth thinned and his eyes darted back and forth on my face. “Fine,” he said as he turned away from me. He hadn’t even waited for me to respond. “Fine, have a great night, Lila. Thanks for coming to the show. I hope you and your friends had a good night.”
And with that, he turned back to his guitar and started fiddling around. I wanted to ask him what his problem was. I wanted to ask him why he was the way he was. It just didn’t make sense to me. All this drama and jealousy, well, I assumed it was jealousy, and he didn’t even want a relationship. I was so confused and upset I didn’t know what to think. I walked out of the room without saying anything and left the bar with my head high. I wanted to cry, but I was not going to allow myself to give in to the feeling. Instead, I decided to walk a little while and just think.
I pulled out my phone and checked the world clock to see what time it was in London. I knew I shouldn’t, but I had to speak to Danielle. She was the only one that would be able to give me some sort of clarity as to what was going on with Carter, because even if we never hooked up again, we would be living next door to each other for the next month, and I didn’t want it to be awkward.
“Oh, Lila.” Danielle’s voice was warm as she spoke to me. “I did try to warn you.”
“I know.” I groaned. “I didn’t expect this to happen. He’s just so confusing.”
“My brother is a doofus.” She groaned. “I’m going to be honest here, it sounds like he’s reeking of jealousy.” And then she laughed. “Sorry, I know it’s not funny, but I’ve never seen him jealous before. Good on you.”
“I wasn’t trying to make him jealous though. Dante really is just my friend. We like to hang out after work.” I sighed. “And anyway, Carter is the one that made it plain to me that he was only interested in a hookup because he needs to concentrate on his career as a musician.”
“He takes himself way too seriously.” Danielle’s voice was dry. “I’m not sure who he thinks he is. Yes, he can sing, but he’s no Freddy Mercury.”
“Oh, Danielle.” I laughed. “That’s horrible.”
“It’s true. I have no idea why he thinks it’s a good idea to quit his job, but that’s on him. He better not try to move in with me. Trust me, he’s just acting like a jealous fool.”
“Why would he be jealous though?” I kind of wanted him to be jealous, but not if it was for the wrong reasons. “Do you think he likes me or do you think he’s just scared he’ll lose the attention that I give him?”
“Girl, if I knew how to understand men I would be a millionaire. Scratch that, I’d be a billionaire,” Danielle said, and I laughed. “Look, here’s what I can tell you about Carter, he’s not a bad guy. He’s my brother, and I love him, and he has his faults, but he’s not a bad guy. He’s not one of those guys that’s a jerk because he had his heart broken either. He’s been in relationships before but none of them were ever that serious. He’s really always been about having fun and jamming. I suppose he’s seen friends getting their hearts broken by girls in college and stuff, but I don’t think he’s ever gone through it himself.”
“Really?” I was surprised by her statement. I’d totally assumed that he was an asshole because he’d been hurt in the past. “Never?”
“Look he’s been in shitty relationships. I remember this one girl he dated, Elizabeth was her name. She was a huge bitch and totally played him, but he didn’t love her. His ego was hurt, but he wasn’t lying around the house crying, if you know what I mean?”
“Yeah, I guess so.” I didn’t know what to think of that. I didn’t feel like I was any closer to getting to know or understanding Carter than I had been before the call.
“My brother is an enigma that even I don’t understand. He’s the reason I know that the saying men are from Venus and women are from Mars is true.”
“Ugh, I just wish I could figure him out. I mean if he only wants a hookup why would he care if I was flirting with or sleeping with Dante?”
“Because men are weird.” She sighed. “Look I don’t mean to say this, but maybe try to talk to him and see how he feels.”
“No way, we don’t even know each other. This is all so weird.”
“Sometimes people have instant chemistry and a connection that can’t be explained. Maybe the love spell has hit him and he doesn’t know what to do or feel.”
