by Leila Lucas
“I do. I mean, that’d be anyone’s dream, but I want to have something to fall back on. It’s fun hanging out with the guys and playing gigs, but that’s all it is for me. I want to teach music, but if the band happens then of course I wouldn’t pass up the opportunity.”
“That’s great that you want to have a career.”
He bursts out laughing.
“I mean, like, a teaching job… teaching kids… music.” I was doing so well until now.
“I have never met a girl who was so unimpressed with a guy in a band,” he says.
“Sorry that came out so wrong.” I face palm. “I just meant it’s cool that you have other ambitions, not that being in a band is bad.” I try to backpedal.
“No, it’s cool, I get it. I think every second person in Nashville is aiming for a music career. There’s a lot of competition. I don’t want to be a forty-year-old rock star wannabe.” He takes off his jacket and throws it on the chair next to him. His tattoo looks even more impressive up close.
“Oh, come on, let me guess, you don’t like tattoos either?” he asks, obviously noticing a concentrated look on my face.
“Not my thing, but I have nothing against them.” I crinkle my nose. “But you look good… It looks good on you,” I correct myself, hoping he didn’t notice. He chuckles.
“And here I thought being a tattooed guitarist in a band would impress all the girls. Do you mean to tell me I went through all this pain for nothing, Chloe?” He pulls his T-shirt sleeve up a little higher to expose the other end of the tattoo. Suddenly I love tattoos.
“How long did that take?”
“A couple of years. I think I got them done in about four sessions.” He puts his sleeve back down.
Before I could ask more questions the waitress comes over with two plates of eggs and bacon and puts them in front of us. I move my laptop out of the way and see another two plates being placed on the table. One has a huge stack of pancakes with sausages and the other has French toast. I stare in confusion and then she brings us two cups of coffee. I look up at him and he has a huge grin on his face.
“Are ten more people joining us?”
“Nope.”
“Then why did you order so much food?” I ask.
“I figured that the more I ordered the longer I’d have an excuse to sit with you.” He smiles.
“Smooth move.” He’s keeping me in his company by buying me food. I have been dating all the wrong guys my whole life.
“Do you go to college here?” he asks, taking a sip of his coffee.
“No, I went to USC. I just moved here.”
“Sorry, this is a college town. I just assume anyone wrapped up in work is a student. So what brings you to Nashville then?”
“I wanted to get out of California and by good timing my best friend needed a roommate here. And, well, I’m a writer, so I can work from anywhere. So yeah… that’s why I’m in Nashville.” Why am I rambling?
“Ah, so that’s what you are typing on your laptop all the time. What do you write? Anything I would have read?” He takes a bite of the pancakes.
“I doubt it. Unless you’re into romance novels.”
“Like the naughty ones?” He wiggles his eyebrows.
“No.” I laugh. “It’s targeted at teens, so I have to keep it clean.” But if he’s interested in inspiring naughty stories then I’d definitely write some.
* * *
“Since you are a fan of our music, can I put you on our mobile subscription list? Just to keep you updated where we play next.” He hands me his phone as we stand outside the café. I would have stayed there all day talking to him, but he had a class to go to and I had some errands to run. “Maybe you and your friend can come watch us again?” I put my number in and hand it back to him. He looks down at his phone. “Jennings.”
“I didn’t know how many Chloes you had in your phone so…” A guy like that would have a billion girls’ numbers listed in his phone.
“You’re the only Chloe I need in my phone.” He tilts his head and puts his hand on his heart.
“Oh, wow, you’re cheesy.” I laugh.
“I’ll see you around, Chloe Jennings.” He heads toward his car and I walk in the opposite direction.
A minute later my phone buzzes in my pocket and I pull it out. It’s a message from a number I’ve never seen before.
We don’t have a mobile subscription list. I just really wanted your number. - Dylan Holt
I smile down at my phone.
C: You could have just asked, Dylan Holt.
D: I didn’t want to deal with the public humiliation of being rejected
C: Somehow I don’t think you get rejected very often
D: There’s a fist time for everything
I walk all the way home with a stupid grin on my face.
* * *
“Holy shit, did I walk into a florist by accident?” I scan the room that is filled with about six enormous bouquets taking over our hallway.
“Ugh, this client we’ve been working for the past few weeks has a thing for me, I guess.” She grabs a bouquet and I follow her to the lounge with another one.
“You guess? Is this not enough of a clue for you?” I grab the card sitting on the rose bouquet. There must be at least one hundred roses in this one. It smells amazing and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t jealous. I never got a bunch of flowers in my entire life and she is unimpressed with getting six of them in a day.
Dearest Victoria,
Thank you for your amazing work. I hope you are willing to give me a chance to take you out for dinner while I’m in town.
David Lockhart
“Wow, he sounds—”
“Old,” she interrupts. I was going to say fancy but old sounds about right.
“How old?”
“Forty-something.”
“What’s with all this, though?” I wave my arms around all the flowers.
“He’d been hassling me to go as his date to a work function and once he realized I definitely wasn’t going all these started showing up this morning.”
“He’s very keen.”
“Honestly the only reason I said no was because it’d be unprofessional. He’s kinda hot in a George Clooney way. Plus, I’ve seen his house and cars. There’s nothing unimpressive about that.”
“So are you going to accept his date offer.”
“Oh, I did, that’s why he sent those.” She points to the bouquet of lilies sitting on the kitchen floor. “It was my last day working for him, so why not?”
I squat down to get the card.
Dearest Victoria,
Thank you for accepting my dinner date. I will have my driver pick you up at 7:30 on Friday.
David Lockhart
“So I think we need to put one bouquet per room so we don’t die from floral inhalation.” She laughs at herself.
I take a bunch into my bedroom and place it near my window. I wanted to tell Vikki about my breakfast with Dylan this morning but decided to leave it for another time.
Chapter Five
DYLAN
“What the fuck happened to my apartment?” I yell out at Jenna, who is standing on a stool hanging some pink and silver tassels on my wall. She’s wearing a tight silver glittery dress with her blond hair up in a fancy looking hairstyle.
“How cute is this?” She jumps back down and stares proudly at her decorating. My apartment looks like Barbie’s Christmas special. There are fairy lights on the balcony, pink and silver balloons, tassels, and a table of candy in jars. Not going to complain about the candy jars, they’re pretty awesome. Not that I’ll tell Jenna that.
“Why does it look like Christmas in here?” Jackson comes in through the front door carrying two boxes of beer.
“They’re pretty, huh?” She beams at the fairy lights.
“They look ridiculous,” I mutter.
“Still a grouch when you wake up, I see,” Jenna teases. She’s right. The place doesn’t look that
bad. I just don’t function well without my coffee after I wake up. Ben got us a bunch of weekday shows, plus my study load is so huge that it feels like my brain is going to explode. I’m starting to regret letting Jenna have her party here now, but it’s too late as I can hear people knocking on the door already. I retreat to the kitchen to make a coffee and disappear with my mug into the bathroom to have a shower.
* * *
Bruno Mars is blasting from the speakers and our place is in official party mode. I head straight to the fridge to get a beer, because God knows I’ll need it to get through tonight.
“Well, well, look who decided to show up to his party!” A short brunette leans over the kitchen counter, batting her eyelids at me. Kathryn is one of many of the band’s groupies. She and her friends attend basically every show we ever do, which is sweet, but they tend to be cock blocks sitting at our table whenever possible.
“It’s not my party.” Does the girl in a shiny dress with a ‘Birthday Girl’ sash not give it away? I wanted to ask, but Kathryn isn’t exactly known for her academics in college. Come to think of it, if Jenna didn’t invite her… who the fuck did?
“I gotta go mingle with the guests,” I lie and go stand with Ben and a bunch of guys I don’t know.
“Good morning, Princess.” Chester taps me on the back.
I just manage to grunt in response. It will take more than just the one beer to make me a functioning adult tonight.
“Heeyyyyyyyy.” Jenna runs past me and my head follows her direction. She embraces both of the girls who just walked in. One is fairly tall with short blond hair and the other is… fuck.
Chloe.
I know it’s rude to stare, but I can’t look away. She has darker makeup on around her eyes than she usually does, her hair is straight, and she is wearing a black dress that reaches just above her knees. There might be at least thirty other hot girls in here, but she stands out. I’m not the only one who noticed because everyone in the group just stopped talking. And I’m a complete asshole because we exchanged numbers almost two weeks ago and I haven’t spoken to her since. The breakfast wasn’t a date, but I’m sure exchanging numbers with a girl is going to make her think she’ll be expecting a call. Truth is I thought about texting her every day, but I didn’t know what to say.
The moment I turn my attention back to the guys to avoid an awkward moment with Chloe, Jenna decides to bring the awkward moment to me.
“Dylan, Ben, Chester.” She points at us. “This is Vikki. I’m doing an internship at the company where Vikki works. And her friend Chloe.” She grins. I could kill Jenna right now.
“Hey, ladies, welcome to my humble abode. Grab a drink and party hard. Just don’t throw up on my carpet,” Ben says.
“Thanks for having us! We won’t be throwing up anywhere. I promise.” Vikki reassures him.
“This one has work early in the morning and I don’t drink,” Chloe adds.
His eyes widen and he points at them.
“Hey, everyone! Australians! Hey, matey!” he yells over the music and then salutes them. The thing about Ben is that he has no filter. Shit just pours out of his mouth and in some instances, like this one, the shit makes no sense.
“They’re not pirates, man.” I roll my eyes.
“Throw the shrimp on the barbie,” he yells out excitedly before looking out into space.
Wait for it…
“That’s not a knife… THIS IS A KNIFEEEEE,” he yells out again in an accent that’s definitely not Australian. Fortunately for everyone in this current conversation a girl grabbed him by the shirt and pulled him over to her group.
“Well, he’s different.” Vikki laughs.
“That’s putting it nicely,” Jenna adds.
“I didn’t know you guys knew each other!” Vikki looks between Jenna and me.
“Oh, you guys met already?” Jenna looks at me with a puzzled look on her face.
“Kinda, we watched the band perform a while ago after Dylan invited us.”
I just nod in agreement.
“Oh duh, didn’t think of that. Everyone in the area knows them.” She grabs my arm and leans against me. That’s Jenna’s way of being territorial. When we were together, anytime a girl would talk to me she’d get really close. I didn’t mind it much then, but now? Now it’s fucking annoying because the girl standing across me is the one I do want close to me.
“Small world.” Chloe’s eyes are focused on Jenna’s awkward arm hug.
Fuck. My. Life.
“Are you sisters?” Jackson shows up out of nowhere and asks, staring at them both like he’s never seen women before. I don’t blame him, the girls are both stunning in their own way, and Jackson is probably drunk as shit right now.
“Identical twins,” Chloe responds without missing a beat. The girls are basically complete opposites. Chloe is shorter, tan, with dark brown features. Whereas Vikki’s blond hair just reaches her chin and has big blue eyes.
“Wow, that’s so cool.” He looks amazed. He’s normally not the brightest crayon in the box, but alcohol dumbs him down to the lowest level possible.
“We’re going to go explore the candy table. Nice to meet you properly, boys.” Vikki grabs Chloe’s hand and pulls her toward the kitchen. At the same time Jenna and Jackson run off to talk to someone else and I’m left standing in the middle alone like an idiot.
The party is slowly starting to die down. Some people are passed out on the couch. Others are sitting on the floor watching a game on TV. The one person I’ve been avoiding is standing alone at the table with the candy. While most of the girls who started off with perfect hair and makeup look completely trashy and are walking around with no shoes on because they can’t balance in them, Chloe Jennings looks as immaculate as she did the second she walked in five hours ago. And seeing her standing there studying the candy jars like they’re a fascinating science project, I realized I need to man up and talk to her.
I stand next to her, but behind enough for her not to see me watching her. She is holding a party favor bag and is placing Hershey’s Kisses into it one by one. She pauses for a second but keeps her head down and then continues filling up her bag, this time with sour snakes. She knows I’m here and I have no fucking clue what to say to her.
“I don’t like cake, so this is my dessert,” she says, still not looking at me. The combination of her choosing candy like a child and her accent is making her so incredibly cute right now.
“I’m not judging.” It was a choice between saying anything and saying it fast, or taking way too long to say the perfect thing. I move closer to her and pinch a jellybean from her bag and watch a small smile creep up on her face.
“You ruined my chocolate to candy ratio now.” She throws another jellybean into her bag.
“I’m sorry.” I laugh. “Where’s Vikki?”
“She had a work emergency and I was in the middle of a conversation, so it felt rude to leave. But she’ll be back in an hour or so to pick me up.” She finally turns around, leaning back on the table.
“Do you want me to drive you home?”
“You want me to go home?” She raises an eyebrow.
“Shit. No, not like that. I was just offering. I don’t know how long you’ve been waiting alone for her.”
She smiles at me.
“I wasn’t alone the whole time. I was hanging out with that guy. I was so boring that he fell asleep.” She tilts her head toward James, who is passed out on the couch. James started drinking before anyone even arrived, so I know he was so drunk he wouldn’t even remember spending time with Chloe. He’ll hate himself when he finds out he missed his chance with her.
“Do you want to sit?” I motion for her to sit on the balcony and she walks in front of me.
“These are so pretty.” She looks up at the fairy lights.
“Yeah… they look good out here,” I lie. They might look ridiculous, but if Chloe loves them, they’ll stay until we move out.
“Liar. He total
ly hates them.” Jenna stands behind me and puts her hands on my shoulders.
“You guys did a good job with this place.” Chloe smiles at Jenna.
“The perks of working for an event planning company. Vikki hooked me up with so much stuff for our place.”
Our place?
“Well, it looks great.” Chloe looks at Jenna, who is still standing behind me, her hands brushing my shoulders.
“Took a while to convince this one to have a party, but he always gives in to me.” She giggles.
I’ve seen Chloe’s genuine smile and the one that’s plastered on her face is definitely forced. Well, this is awkward. With Jenna behind me I can’t hint for her to fuck off, so now we’re just sitting in this awkward silence and all I want to do is talk to Chloe.
“Speaking of Vikki.” She looks at her phone. “My ride is here.” She gets up and grabs her candy stash. “Thanks so much for inviting us. It was a great party.” She smiles at the both of us and walks toward the door. “Happy Birthday, Jenna.” She waves quickly and disappears into the house.
“Phew, saved you!” Jenna takes her hands off my shoulders and sits in Chloe’s seat.
“Saved me from what?”
“The princess. So not your type.”
“The princess?”
“Come on, Dyl, who wears Miu Miu heels to a college party and refuses to drink?” She rolls her eyes.
“You lost me at meow meow.” Let’s be real, nobody was paying attention to Chloe’s shoes.
“Mew-Mew,” she says slowly, like it makes more sense that way. “Shoes that cost more than my car.” She makes a face.
“So what?”
“So what?” she huffs. “Those girls are the worst! Spending daddy’s hard-earned money until they find a rich husband to take over to fund their designer wardrobes and organic salad brunches with girlfriends.”
“How did you get all that from the few hours she was here?” I’ve seen Chloe a few times and she definitely does eat more than organic salads. In fact, I haven’t seen her eat a salad once. Not to mention the bunch of candy she took home with her just earlier. As for the money? I don’t know anything about designer things so, whether true or not, I don’t really care.
