“Reid, you have to remember I have been surviving without you these last couple months. Sure, I missed you, and yeah it hurt, but I have been taking care of myself.”
“I know and I’m sorry.” I could hear the tenderness in Reid’s voice through the phone line. Leaving tonight killed me, not knowing where we stood. We obviously have chemistry and still care deeply for each other, but neither of us was willing to bend after that last little tiff. How could we ever make it work on two separate paths; Reid recording a new record and going out to promote it, and myself on tour with PD?
“So where do we go from here?” I asked casually, trying hard not to get my hopes up. I always had that little black rain cloud that followed me around constantly. Just when things started to go my way that dark cloud dumped buckets of shit upon me. This was the perfect instance for the rain cloud to open up and start pouring its bad luck all over me.
“We make it work. We have another two, three weeks in the studio until it goes for mixing, and then we have the next four weeks off as it gets finished and PR decides the best path to take with the release. How much longer do you have on tour?”
“A couple weeks. After that I think we are headed back to Seattle and the guys are heading into the studio to rework some of the tracks,” I replied gloomily. Too late on getting my hopes up, cause it was already crashing down around me.
Reid let out a sigh on his end of the line, which in turn caused me to sink lower in my seat. Cue the heartbreak in three………..two………..one.
“Ma’am, I’m going to need you to turn off your device,” a flight attendant told me as she was passing through the cabin.
“Reid, I’ve got to go.”
“Okay, I’ll call you tomorrow.”
“Okay, bye,” my voice said quietly while fighting the tears pooling underneath my lashes.
“Molly Anne?”
“Yes?”
“We are going to work this out. I love you.”
“I love you, too,” I replied, quickly ending the call and wiping the tears from falling down my cheeks.
With all the heartache and pain that this man had brought in our relationship, I could honestly say it had all been worth it one-hundred percent. I would cry a million tears over and over again to hear the simple words of ‘I love you’ coming from his lips.
“So obviously you are still tickling his pickle,” Danielle blurted out after taking a sip of her white wine.
“There was no pickle tickling today,” I replied, rolling my eyes in the darkness of the plane.
“Alright, fine. Are you back to fucking the man? Does that sound better?”
“You are so crude.” I laughed lightly, pulling the blanket further up on my lap. “When do you think there was time for us to do any fornicating in the last twenty-four hours?”
“Really? All you really need is a dark corner and five , tops. Sometimes I can get it done in sixty seconds, but that entirely has to do with the size of the cock I’m working with.” I could see the grin Danielle had plastered on her face, and knew she wasn’t kidding on the whole sixty second’s thing.
“No, Danielle. There was no bashing the beaver, no tubesteak fandango, no parallel parking, no shucking the oyster, and definitely no quickie sex.”
“Are you insane? You had a hot piece of ass that was basically all cave man hormonal on you and you didn’t get a peek at his pecker?”
“I didn’t say that.” I laughed, snatching the wine glass from her hands and taking a quick gulp. The dryness from her Pinot Grigio slid down my throat with ease, tempting me to take another sip or order my own glass for the remainder of the flight.
“Alright, so if you’re not knocking uglies, then what in the hell was that phone call about earlier?” I loved this girl something fierce, but keeping this a secret was like a fox in the hen house. Something was going to get eaten, or in her words blabbed when I didn’t know if I wanted anyone in on what was going on with Reid and me right now. Hell, I didn’t even know what exactly was going on between us.
“So I take it that blonde tramp of a movie star is no longer in the picture?” Danielle questioned, raising her eyebrow for dramatic flair.
“He said they were never a thing in the first place.” I shrugged casually. I had to trust that man, considering if we were going to make anything work, we had to have some foundation to stand on.
“Well, then………can he explain these pictures?” Danielle shoved the gossip magazine she was reading into my lap and pointed at the half page spread of said blonde and Reid. My mouth dropped open as I stared at the pictures. There, the happy fucking couple was doing dinner, holding hands, oh, and better yet……………..kissing. “I don’t think that is a friendly, I love you like a sister kind of kiss,” she said dryly, snatching the magazine back.
“Son of a bitch,” I grumbled, hitting the call button for our flight attendant. I was going to need something stronger than wine to get this awful taste out of my mouth now.
“What a cock,” Danielle said while flipping the pages. Little black rain cloud again? Fuck that, it was a damn tsunami that wrecked my life this time. Send out the Coast Guard, because my boat was sinking fast.
It was the same talk I had with myself constantly. I really should have been able to just recite the whole conversation and my thoughts in autopilot; however I still struggled with the battle almost daily now. Why I let things get to me, how they ended up in my head, why I battled them so hard is something that I can’t explain. Most people can pick up and move on. Dust themselves off. Hell, roll with the punches. But no. I sat there and stewed over the same damn thing each and every single time. Relationships in this business ended up like a bull in a china shop; broken, damaged, and non refunable. Why I couldn’t force myself into the life raft and get off the damn boat was something eventually I had to come to terms with.
“Stop waging war in that pretty blonde head of yours and call the man,” Danielle hissed as we waited at baggage claim.
“It’s not that simple.” I glared. If it was that easy don’t you think I would have done it the moment the plane landed?
“Aren’t you always spouting off some nonsense that it’s ‘simple as that’ or ‘it’s that simple’ bullshit?”
Reaching over and grabbing my small bag from the belt, I knocked my shoulder into the side of Danielle, throwing her off balance.
“Bitch move, Molly. Complete bitch move,” she grumbled, readjusting her hat with a scowl.
“I don’t want to call him and come off as a stark raving mad lunatic. Shit, Danielle. We just started talking again.”
“Well, I think ramming your tongue down his throat constitutes for more than just talking.” Danielle shrugged, grabbing her ginormous suitcase and popping the handle. Stepping out into the cool air of Salt Lake City, I took a deep breath in and held it. There was something soothing about getting out of LA. Maybe it was the air quality, or actually having some cloud coverage for my poor pale skin. I really didn’t know what people saw in that city, considering I would never subject myself to living there.
“So did you grow a pair of balls and decide to call him?” Danielle asked as we flagged down a cab to take us to the arena.
“I’m going to sleep on it,” I said with a frown. Maybe a good night’s sleep was all that I needed to clear the fog from my head. Then again, maybe a couple shots of Fireball could clear the haze as well.
“I don’t believe you.”
“Well, it’s a good thing that you really don’t matter then,” I snapped, slamming the cab door shut harder than I should have.
“Good Lord. What have you done with the nice Molly? Can I request you send this epic bitch back and let the old one take her place?” Danielle started to dig through her hobo bag, fumbling around for something.
“I resent that comment.” Crossing my arms snugly under my chest, I glared out the window while watching the traffic pass us by.
“Someone needs to get laid,” Danielle grumbled as
she handed over a set of batteries. “Please, do everyone on the tour a favor and stick these in your vibrator. Otherwise, I believe we might just kill you.”
Letting out an unsatisfied snort, I snatched the batteries out of her hand and stuffed them into the front pockets of my black skinnies. I didn’t need to get laid; I needed a good man who wasn’t going to break my damn heart with every magazine page turn.
“I’m so glad you are back!” Megan shrieked as I wandered in the backdoor of the arena. Throwing her arms tightly around my neck, she squeezed my body so tightly I almost lost my breath.
I chuckled, prying myself away from my assistant. “It couldn’t have been that bad.”
“You have no idea,” she replied in exasperation. “I hate to throw this at you this second, but you might want to see this………….” Grabbing my hand, Megan pulled me down the hallway quickly.
“Please don’t tell me there are hookers in the dressing room?”
“Ha ha, nope not this time,” Megan said with a nervous laugh. Tossing the headliners door open, I noticed Chance sitting on a table in the back corner.
“What is going on?” I questioned, nervously looking around the room. Chance was sitting upon a table with his shirt off, and some strange man in a blue dress shirt was examining his left arm.
“Well, technically we don’t know yet. But the doctor said he would send the scraping off for analysis right away,” Megan said with panic in her eyes.
“Chance, I told you not to fucking touch the hookers!” I shouted at the idiot across the room. Shaking my head in disgust, I quickly wandered over to see the extent of the damage.
“Hey Molly, long time no see.” Chance laughed, letting his pecks flex as the laughter tore through his body.
“I was gone for two days, Chance. Two fucking days and you go and get yourself contaminated with some disease.”
“Hi, I’m Doctor Aphtner,” the older gentleman said as he peeled off his gloves and extended a hand to me.
“Molly McGlenister,” I replied as our hands touched. “Can you give me a little insight as to what is going on here?”
“Well, from what I have gathered, it seems to be some kind of bacteria of the flesh. I have done a skin scraping and will send it out first thing once I leave here.”
“So is this, like, contagious?” Taking a half step backward, I looked at the ugly red patch covering his forearm.
“Not that I can tell, but I’m advising you to keep it covered until we get some answers from the lab.” Doctor Aphtner put a clean pair of gloves over his hand and set out to cover the nasty looking rash on Chance’s arm.
“Thank god,” I muttered, silently cursing Chance out in my mind. I had told that man a million and one times those girls on the road were dirty, nasty, filthy creatures that should not be trusted with skin to skin contact.
“Um……….Molly?” Megan piped up, looking like she was about to hurl all over the room.
Turning around, I raised an eyebrow in question.
“Would a flesh eating disease make me skinny?” Megan laughed nervously as she pulled up the hem of her tank top and flashed another disgusting spot on her hip.
“Fuck. You might want to rethink that contagious comment, Doctor.”
Chapter 16
“Condoms are no longer an option, or a mythical creature you have to go searching for.”
“Please tell me that isn’t what I think it is,” I groaned, dropping my head into my hands.
“Um, well. Yeah.” Megan gave me a half smile while dropping her top back down. Of all the idiotic things that woman could have done, getting herself felt up by Chance probably topped the list. Well, thinking things could work with Reid was pretty stupid, too, but Chance?
“Why in the hell would you touch that man? Do you know where his penis has been?”
“I’m sorry, Molly. It just sort of happened. I mean………….” Megan looked like she was about to cry. Hell, I wanted to fucking cry.
“Alright. First, go get a shower and scrub the nastiness off your body. Then I want you to see the medics and have it taped off. I refuse to let whatever this stupid thing is spread any further.” Cringing at the thought of my assistant and my client getting naked together, I had to push it further back in my mind in order to get a hold on the situation. “Please tell me you wore a condom?”
“Of course. It may have been a stupid moment, but I’m not dumb.” Megan offered me a weak smile and headed for the door. Turning around to the other band members sitting on the couches, I narrowed my eyes at each one of them.
“Strip,” I demanded, looking at each of them directly.
“We didn’t touch, Chance, Molly,” Eric said defensively.
“I sure as hell hope you haven’t.” But, in the case that this could have possibly spread from being on the bus, everyone needed every damn nook and cranny checked. “Drop your drawers, boys, because this is the only time I want to see any of you naked. Got it?” I watched as Brantley started to open his mouth, but quickly held up a finger to him, signaling I had no time for his smart ass comments on us being naked together before.
The guys started stripping off their shirts, and glanced around the room at all the other participants. “Everyone out,” I shouted, looking at all the bystanders just standing there gawking at the events unfolding. “I’m serious! The only people I want in this damn room right now are the band, the doctor, and myself. So move!” The crowd scurried out of the room, some tossing nasty looks as they exited.
“I want to see skin, boys.” Pursing my lips together, I placed my hands on my hips and forced a tight smile. As ridiculous as this situation was right now, having these men standing almost naked in their boxers was giving me some satisfaction. “Doctor?” Gesturing to my half naked boys, I forced a snicker from escaping my lips and nodded my head. Idiots.
“I’m really sorry that this happened,” Megan apologized for the twentieth time as we stood listening to sound check.
“Just don’t let it happen again. Have more respect for yourself, Megan. Chance is not a knight in shining armor.”
“It was a hasty decision that I have completely come to my senses on now.”
Smiling at her, I turned back and watched as the guys tore up the stage. Thankfully, the only two people affected by the skin eating bacteria were the ones doing the horizontal mambo, and luckily one half of that equation promised it wouldn’t happen again.
“Delivery for a Miss. Molly Anne?” The poor delivery guy was engulfed behind a massive bouquet of orange lilies, that we could barely hear who they were for.
“Molly?” Megan said in confusion, raising her eyebrow in suspicion.
“Sorry, did you say Molly Anne?” I asked the guy, racking my head as to who in the world could have possibly sent them.
“Yes, Miss. Molly Anne,” he stammered again, shifting the bouquet in his arms once more.
“Sorry,” I rambled while reaching for the colossal overload of flowers. “Who in the world would send me these?”
“There’s a card,” Megan piped up, standing on her tiptoes to reach the cardholder. “Want me to open it?”
“Yeah, considering I don’t think I can one hand these things,” I muttered through flowers in my face.
“All it says is Reid.” Just when I was finally getting all the little ducks in a row this afternoon, one went and fucking waddled off, causing major chaos in my otherwise uneventful life. Wow, I really needed to stop lying to myself; my life was far from uneventful.
“What am I going to do with those?” I said out loud, staring at the beautiful flowers sitting in a chair.
“Put them in water?”
“You officially suck, Megan.” Grumbling quietly, I continued to glare at the flowers. How could something so freaking pretty and simple make my mind spin a thousand miles per hour? Flowers could be any kind of gesture. They could have been an ‘I’m sorry for making you be in the video’ or even an ‘I’m sorry for going all caveman on you at
the shoot.’ Or, just to throw a stupid crescent wrench into the mix, they could be ‘I’m madly still in love with you and next time we see each other I want in your pants’ kind of flowers. Coming from Reid, I was leaning toward the sex flowers, but then I been completely wrong in the past too.
“Alright, well if you are just going to stand there, looking like an idiot, I’m going to go find some water for these,” Megan piped up, grabbing the bouquet from the chair and wandering off.
“Don’t think this small act of kindness if excusing you for your gigantic lapse of judgment earlier!” I yelled after her. The fact that she actually got naked with that man, and had skin to skin contact made me want to call an exterminator and have the busses fumigated. My phone started to buzz in my hand, startling me from my skin rash infection haze. Reid’s name flashed across the screen, instantly sending chills down my spine. Of course he would call right now. Exactly in the middle of pondering what the hell those flowers meant and how to keep Chance and Megan far from me.
Tentatively, I pressed accept and slowly brought the phone up to my ear. “Hello?”
“Did you get your flowers yet?”
“Um………..yep. Just putting them in water right now,” I lied, biting the inside of my lip and shaking my head. Could I sound anymore lame?
“I miss you, Molly Anne.” Reid’s voice instantly melted my ice cold heart; making me swoon for all the right reasons for once in my messed up disaster of a life.
“I miss you, too,” I whispered, quickly glancing around and silently praying no one heard me.
“Is that PD in the background?”
“Yeah, sounds good, huh?”
“Fuck yeah; their new sound is great.” Wasn’t conversation supposed to come easy when you were in love with the other person? Seriously, I felt like this brief little chat was completely forced and awkward.
“Well, I should probably get back to the studio,” Reid’s voice trailed off, letting that horrible weird silence fill the line again.
Cheap & Classy (Hide Your Crazy) Page 10
