by JA Low
“Seriously, what the hell happened here?” Sienna questions, looking pissed.
“Evan punched Blake because he brought up that you two had hooked up before,” Christian fills everyone in. What the hell? Sienna and Blake from Sons of Brooklyn hooked up? She never told me any of this.
“What did you say?” Charlotte looks as confused as me by what’s happened. Hang on, is Charlotte and this guy dating? Did Blake cheat on her with Sienna? So many questions. “Evan, what is he talking about? Blake and Sienna?” You can hear the hurt in her voice.
“Charlotte.” Sienna moves closer to her. “When I arrived in LA, Vanessa threw me a welcome party, things got a little crazy. I had just seen Evan getting a blow job in the bushes.” What the fuck? I look over at Evan whose face is bright red with embarrassment.
“What?” Charlotte looks at her brother with disappointment.
“Seriously?” Christian questions his friend.
“I was drunk, and we kissed, but that was all,” Sienna adds. Charlotte looks taken aback by this news.
“I’m sorry. I need a moment.” She turns on her heel and dashes away. These Hollywood parties are awfully dramatic. So much for Sienna having a drama free birthday this year.
After a dramatic start to Sienna’s birthday, all parties kissed and made up. Okay, that was a poor choice of words, but you get what I mean.
“I bet the view’s a little different to home.” A deep voice rattles my bones. Turning around I see Oscar Eriksen walking toward me. The man is enormous and ridiculously hot. He has to be seven foot tall. Okay, that’s probably an exaggeration but either way he’s a giant. The way he’s wearing that custom tuxedo; yes, yes, yes. Because let’s be honest there is no way a man of that size can fit into a standard tux. His arms are enormous, I could swing off them. I bet he could throw you around the bedroom, he’d be strong enough. Go away, dirty thoughts. You need to be able to have a normal conversation with the hot Viking so you can’t be picturing him doing dirty things to you while talking. Who knows what could come out of your mouth, Stacey.
“Yeah it is. So many lights.” Good start, even if you sound like a moron. At least you didn’t blurt out how you wouldn’t mind viewing him naked. Take a sip of your beer, you dirty bitch.
“You’re drinking beer?” He seems quite amazed by this.
“Um, yeah. Sorry, was I not supposed to take one? Did someone bring them?” I turn the bottle in my hand. First social event with celebrities and I’ve already caused a major faux pas.
“No,” he laughs. The throaty sound vibrates through my body, especially between my legs. “No. You just don’t see any women in LA drinking it, that’s all.” I look down at the green bottle.
“Oh…the carbs.” I realize what he means.
“Yeah. Most women in LA are pretty self-conscious about those kinds of things.” Is he inferring I’m fat? “It’s refreshing,” he adds, resting his elbows on the fence.
“LA is pretty different to home. It has an intensity about it.” I rest my arms back on to the fence too.
“Yeah, it is, but you’ll get used to it…eventually.” His attention is focused on the twinkling lights.
“You know what I won’t get used to?” I say to him. “The coffee.” This makes him chuckle, again the vibrations hum over my body. “I’m already missing my favorite brew from my local cafe.”
“Ness, D and Sienna say the exact same thing. Seriously is it really that bad?” He raises his blond brow at me. “I guess I moved here before I drank coffee so I’m used to the American stuff.”
“I won’t hold that against you.” Are you flirting Stacey Ferguson? You naughty girl. “When you taste good coffee, you’ll understand.” He doesn’t look convinced. “I need to find a great Aussie café somewhere in LA, where I could grab some smashed avo on toast and a good coffee, which basically is my weekend staple back home.”
“Smashed avo?” He looks at me confused.
“Avocado.” He just smiles shaking his head, taking a sip of his beer. We stand there in silence, nothing awkward or anything just comfortable in each other’s company.
“Oh, hope I’m not interrupting anything? If I am, continue. I’ll just watch from behind this bush,” Derrick calls out. Oscar and I look at each and laugh at Derrick’s not so subtle comment.
“My virtue is still in tack, Derrick.”
“Dammit. How boring. Are you losing your skills, Oscar, since retiring from being a rock star?” Oscar just shakes his head.
“What? I can’t just have a conversation with a pretty girl?” He thinks I’m pretty. Hold it in. Hold it in, Stace.
“Stacey is a helluva lot smarter than your usual type, so she probably won’t fall for any of your normal lines.” Yes, I would. I’m not that smart. Not when it comes to a real life Thor standing in front of me.
“Well then, I best be getting back to the party. See y’all around.”
“Yeah, sure.” Act cool, Stacey. Derrick and I watch him walk back into the party.
“I would climb that Viking dick as quickly as he looked at you,” Derrick comments.
“He could throw me around any day of the week.” Derrick gives me a high five and we burst out laughing.
“So…” He’s fishing for some gossip.
“Nothing. Nothing happened. We just chatted and looked out over the city.”
“Boring. My vagina shriveled up over that story.” I shake my head. “It’s interesting that the Viking tracked you down when you were by yourself.”
“Don’t,” I warn him.
“What?” He flutters his eyelashes at me.
“Don’t try and match make. Nothing is going on between Oscar and I and nothing will.” Derrick sticks his tongue out at me. So childish.
“I thought you wouldn’t be so boring coming over here. Where’s my little whore, the one I know lives deep inside of here.” He pokes me in the chest.
“Your little whore is exhausted after working really long hours for a tyrant boss.”
“It’s Sienna’s hormones. She can be such a bitch some days.” I playfully slap him. We both burst out laughing. “I’m so happy you are here.” He wraps his arms around me, pulling me in close to him.
“Me too, D.”
239
Stacey
“Hi. I have a delivery for a Stacey Ferguson,” the courier states, placing a large brown paper bag onto the front counter with a drinks tray.
“I’m Stacey. But I didn’t order this.” I point to the food.
“Yeah, I know. Someone called Oscar did. He said to say hope it tastes as good as home.” Then the courier is gone. I open the brown paper bag and find a plastic container. I take the lid off and there’s a smashed avocado on toast. My stomach does a little flip flop thinking that Oscar ordered this after our conversation the other night.
“I smell coffee.” Derrick walks out. “Like real coffee.”
“Um, yeah, Oscar sent it over.” Derrick’s eyes widen. “To all of us.” I take note of the three cups with each of our names on them.
“Interesting. Flowers would have been better.” He takes his cup and takes a sip of the piping hot liquid. “Oh my God, this is just like home. Shit. Did he fly this directly in from Australia?” I take a sip of mine and almost orgasm. Oh, coffee how I have missed you so. “Whatever was happening in the dark the other night, keep doing it. I need more coffee.”
“D, honestly nothing is happening. I told him how crap the coffee was, and I guess he wanted to prove me wrong.” Derrick doesn’t look convinced, but I honestly don’t have stars in my eyes like he does over this. It’s really a nice gesture.
“Do I smell coffee?” Sienna comes out, looking a little disheveled, Evan not far behind her.
“Seriously?” Derrick moans. Those two really can’t keep their hands off each other. Thankfully today we couldn’t hear them.
“There’s a decaf one just for you.” Sienna takes an enthusiastic sip.
“Oh my God, it’s just
like home.” She sips again.
“Oscar sent it over.” Derrick tells her. Sienna stops sipping.
“For who?” She looks between us.
“For Stacey,” Derrick adds smugly.
“It’s not like that. We just had a conversion about crap coffee and he sent me non-crap coffee. He was just being nice.” Evan chuckles behind Sienna.
“Oscar isn’t known for being nice.”
“Would you all stop it? Please. Evan, could you thank Oscar for the coffee, it was lovely and now I know where to get good coffee from.” Evan smirks.
“You can thank him yourself. Here, let me give you his number.”
“What? No. I don’t want it.” Evan hands me a bit of paper. He kisses his bride-to-be for way longer than is decent, before rushing back to his office next door.
“Guys, I mean it. Stop it.” I hold onto the bit of paper.
“Not doing a thing,” Derrick says smugly, sipping his coffee.
“Me too,” Sienna adds.
“He’s just being nice.”
“Yeah, awfully nice,” Derrick adds.
“Would you two fuck off? I have work to do.” They both pull funny faces at me but walk off laughing. Such assholes.
The piece of paper is burning a hole in my pocket. I really need to thank Oscar for the coffee. Will he think I asked for his number? Should I tell him Evan gave it to me, that I didn’t ask for it? Stop over thinking it, Stace. Just say thank you and be done with it.
Stacey: Thank you so much for the coffee this morning. What a wonderful surprise. Finally, good coffee in LA, this is going to be my new favorite place from now on. Stace. PS: Evan told me I should message you, just so you didn’t think it was weird or anything. But truly, thank you.
And send. See that wasn’t so hard. My phone vibrates minutes later.
Oscar: You were right. Once I had good coffee, I knew the difference. It’s delicious. And the smashed avo, as you call it, yeah I see why you love it. Hope you’re having a good day. O
My heart is thundering in my chest. Oh my God. What the hell is going on? Oscar Eriksen is talking to me about avos and coffee.
The next day, another three coffees arrived.
And the day after that.
And the day after that.
“Hey, do you mind dropping this over to Ness please?” Sienna points to the black cocktail dress. “I would but my feet are so swollen.” Sienna shows them to me. Yep. They are pretty bad.
“Of course.” I take the dress off the rack, walk out the back door and down the street that connects the two buildings. As I walk into the Dirty Texas Records car park, a swarm of paparazzi converges around the back door where I need to get in. “Excuse me. Hey. Excuse me. I need to get through.” I try and push my way through, but they just push me back. “Hey.” I get an elbow to the stomach. “Fucker.” Guess I’ll go walk around the front then. Off I go back around and down the little street, but next thing I know I’m being knocked over and trampled on. I scream and scream but people are still walking over me. Fuck. Fuck.
“Stacey?” A deep voice calls out my name. A moment later I am being pulled up to my feet. “Sammy, what the fuck?”
“Sorry, boss,” another voice calls out. A few seconds later there is distance around me. The black dress I was carrying is all crumbled and dirty. I brush the dirt off of my pants, my hands are stinging. I look down at them and they are all cut up. And before I have a chance to look over anything else, I’m being bundled into the back of a car. Panic laces my body, what the hell is going on?
“Are you okay?” Turning, I see Oscar getting in beside me. I’m utterly confused. “Drive,” he yells at his driver and we take off.
“What the hell just happened?” I feel utterly disorientated.
“I’m so sorry. That was all my fault. The paparazzi were out in force because of some bullshit story someone wrote.”
“And that warrants them to mow down pedestrians?” Oscar looks over at me, catching the grimace on my face.
“We have to stop at a CVS, Stacey’s hurt,” he tells his driver and security.
“No. I’ll be fine. You can just drop me off back at work. There’s a first aid kit there.” Oscar looks out of the car where paps on motorcycles are following us. Are they insane? “Never mind.” I slump back in the chair. “They ruined Vanessa’s dress.” I point at the dirt covered material.
“I’ll get it cleaned.”
“She needs it for tonight. They’ve ripped it.” Oscar looks angry now.
“I’m so sorry, Stace. I…” He rakes his hands through his hair. I reach out and touch his arm.
“Look, it’s not your fault. It’s their fault. I need to tell Sienna what happened…but I don’t have my phone on me.”
“Sammy, can you call Evan and let him know what happened?” The big Samoan man in the front nods and I hear him start to call Evan. I listen quietly as he relays what just happened.
“Guess this isn’t how you saw your Friday going, is it?” He gives me a weak smile.
“I’ve had better.” He nods and we both fall back into silence, as I stare out the tinted glass of the car. LA flashing by me.
“Where are we?” I ask as the car pulls into a driveway.
“My place.” Huh. What?
“Really?”
“Don’t worry. Derrick is coming to pick you up, but I thought you might like to get fixed up first.” He points to my hands. Oh, yes of course. Not that you would try and mend my broken vagina, because I haven’t had a decent shag since arriving. Shut up brain. You’re only acting like this because you’re horny. I follow him inside his house, of course it’s a stunning, modern mansion.
“Here, take a seat.” He places the first aid kit on the kitchen counter as I prop myself up on one of the bar stools. He pulls out the antiseptic and starts cleaning up the graze ever so gently. I can’t help but look up at him. He smells so good. Our eyes catch, and we have a small moment before he clears his throat and declares me clean.
“So…what was the story about?” He grabs himself a beer, then hands one over to me too. I gladly take it. I need a drink after all this craziness.
“It was about me and some actress.” I look at him over the bottle, taking a long sip.
“Is it true?” He shakes his head.
“You won’t see any of the girls I’m with in public,” he adds, drinking his beer.
“You value your privacy, I get it.” He gives me a look but I’m not too sure what it means.
“I’m very private,” he adds. Of course, you’re a megastar. I just nod and enjoy my beer. “You have to be in this business.” Sure, I get it.
“It must suck that people make up stories about you,” I tell him.
“Yeah it does, especially when they are so vanilla.” He rolls his eyes.
“Don’t want your reputation tainted by being too ‘vanilla’.” I use air quotes over the word.
“You could say that.” He gives me a smirk. Is he flirting with me? Maybe I’m drunk. Did I hit my head? “Have you been enjoying your coffee?” he asks, suddenly changing the subject.
“Of course. It’s amazing. I look forward to it every day. But honestly you don’t have to keep buying us coffee.”
“Look, I’m addicted. I order the office a round so thought I might as well send a round to you guys too.” Of course he does. Did you actually think you were special, Stacey? This man is a rock star. He’s interested in supermodels and non-vanilla women, which is not you.
“Well thank you. Sienna appreciates it.” Have another sip of that beer, Stacey. Fill in those awkward gaps. “Your house is nice.” I internally groan at my assessment of his multimillion dollar, architecturally designed mansion.
“Thanks. Want a tour?”
“Sure.” Because sitting here any longer means I’m going to embarrass the hell out of myself. He shows me around the bottom level first where there’s a movie theatre, wine cellar, games room, and a bar which leads out to his pool.
It’s very nice. He takes me upstairs next showing me the guest bedrooms, which are all pretty impressive. Then we stop at the last room.
“This is my room.” He points through the open door.
“Cool.” Now I’m picturing him sleeping naked in his bed. These are not the kind of thoughts I should be thinking about right now.
“You don’t want to riffle through my underwear draw?” I give him a strange look. “It happens more than you think.”
“You mustn’t be bringing home the right kind of girls then.” Oscar smiles.
“I think you’d be right there.”
“You should have higher standards.” Shut up, Stacey.
“Stacey. Where’s my Stacey,” Derrick bellows from below. He looks up and see’s us walking out from Oscar’s room. His eyes narrow on the two of us, assessing what he thinks was going on.
“Oscar was just giving me his crib’s tour,” I yell down to Derrick. “Thanks for today. It’s been an adventure.” I hand him my empty bottle of beer. I have a real buzz going on now.
“Maybe we should do it again?” he suggests.
“Yeah, probably not.” The words are out before I even realize how that sounds. I quickly descend down the stairs before I say anything else that’s stupid.
“Are you okay, princess?” Derrick pulls me into his arms and holds me tight. “You’re safe now, Uncle Derrick is here.” Nothing creepy about that at all, D. But I’m ready to go.
“Thanks for the beer,” I call back to Oscar. He gives me a small smile.
“I want all the details. Because what the fuck happened today?” Derrick questions.
“I have no idea, Derrick. No fucking idea.”
240
Stacey
Three months later
Australia
What an absolute whirlwind these past couple of months have been. As much as I love my new life in Los Angeles, coming home to Australia and soaking in that sunshine and clean air is just what I needed to revitalize myself before going back again. I’ve been having so much fun with Derrick, we live in the best location right in the heart of everything in WeHo. We never use the kitchen in our apartment because most nights we are out having dinner. I’ve become good friends with Vanessa too, Sienna’s best friend, and Isla, Oscar’s sister. She’s also the band’s assistant. It’s nice having them around, especially Isla as Sienna’s in a different phase of her life compared to us single ladies who are still out partying until the early hours most weekends. Not that I’m looking for anything serious at the moment, maybe in a year’s time when things have settled down with my job. At the moment I’m working eighteen hour days and have little time for anything outside of work, but it’s not like I’ve been a nun while in LA. I’ve hooked up with a couple of different guys, mostly one night stands, the perfect stress relief and that’s all I’m looking for at the moment. I haven’t heard from Oscar since I was attacked by the paparazzi. It’s probably for the best. I’ve become close friends with his sister now, and she told me all these horror stories about him and her friends. Plus, one of his band mates is marrying my close friend, and if anything happened and then it turned sour it would ruin all the fun dinners and get togethers we all do as a group.
