by A. L. Wood
He stares at me frozen for a minute, I stunned him. Obviously it’s rare for someone to tell him how it is.
“Okay.” He says before letting my arm go.
Showered and dressed in sweats laying on the bed that was formerly the main couch, I sit straight up my legs bent and wrapped underneath me while I lay every single piece of paper I received from the record label about this tour. Trying to learn more about this band that I’ve been following for years. Their backstage rider list is ridiculous. Everyone has different wants when at venues, on stage and even backstage.
Take Ryan for instance, his usual things consist of water, any flavor of herbal tea, Gatorade and fresh lemons. Nothing strange there. On the other hand, he favors having only two brands of alcohol on hand at any time.
I can’t help but to search for Gage’s, my curiosity for his wants and needs are getting out of hand. When I spot his name, I can’t help but to read his list. One word is located below his name, chocolate.
I laugh out loud. The guy can put anything he wants on that list, he could choose to put that he wants only red Skittles, and they’d do it. Instead, he leaves one word that could be filled, simply with anything that involves cocoa. Things like that shouldn’t impress me, it shouldn’t, but it does. It makes me want to know more about him, even though I should hate him for the things he has said.
I put the papers back in a folder then into my bag, opening my laptop I send off an E-mail to everyone that’s part of the tour. Letting them know where we will be stopping for our group meet before we reach the hotel.
Closing the laptop, I stand up, lift one of the cushions on the black leather couch up and place my bag and computer in the compartment where my other things are. When I joined the roadie bus earlier, one of them offered to grab my bags from the hatch of Gage’s bus so I could have everything I needed with me. The bus was already full when I joined, but one of the guys nicely offered me the couch bed. He’s now sharing a bed with another member of the road crew, one head at each end. And of course the entire staff is male. Friendly male, so far.
I lay one of the blankets I was given, down on the bed. Everyone else has since gone off to bed. I stand up to shut all the lights off and lay down. Just as soon as I close my eyes, my cellphone dings. I slide the unlock bar over and see it’s an unfamiliar number.
Unknown: Hey.
Usually I would ignore text messages from numbers that I’ve never seen. Usually. Tonight, why not?
Me: Hello.
Unknown: Do you know who this is?
Me: Nope. Do you know who this is?
Unknown: Yes.
Me: Who?
Unknown: How about we play a game…
I feel like this conversation could end with a very unfortunate scenario, like this persons about to tell me I have one hour to get off the bus before it catches fire. The bus being locked from the inside though, with a chain and the key is tied to a ten foot rope dangling off the bumper. It feels like a Saw line.
Me: I’m not into playing games.
Unknown: Just this once, play.
Me: You’re not about to tell me I’m going to die unless I do some heroic act to save myself are you?
Unknown: Lmao. No. This is a game that doesn’t involve risk.
Me: Fine, I give. I’ll play, but only once.
Unknown: Good. Every day I’ll text you something about myself. In return, you’ll do the same.
Me: I thought the game would end tonight.
Unknown: You can’t back out now.
Me: I enjoy making lists, for everything.
Unknown: I love chocolate, all kinds. Good night.
Me: Night.
If this is how he wants to make up for his behavior, then I’m in. I smile, for myself. Gage.
Chapter 8
I wake up the same as I went to bed with a smile on my face. Because I’m a member of the band, it was a pretty easy task calling the label to get Abagail’s number. I couldn’t resist sending her a message as soon as I added her as a contact in my phone. I know that I shouldn’t be trying to get to know her, even as a stranger because deep down I know how she really is. But I can’t stay away. Friendly texting has to be the only way. She cannot find out that it’s me.
“Rise and shine bitch.” Jason says as he slides my curtain open.
“Rules dude, rules. What if I was jerking myself off in here? You wanna see that shit? Does that turn you on?” I ask huskily.
“You know it baby, just some advice though, I like the rough tugs, not slow and gentle.” Jason says while motioning just how he likes it with his hand.
“Get the fuck out of here,” I say while closing my curtain.
I hear him laugh as he walks away, douche. He’s the one who created the rules, and because of that he feels like he’s the only one who can break them, any time he wants.
Deciding that sleep is no longer an option, I open my curtain and go in search of my luggage. On our last bus, we had one large private room in the back that had a separate bathroom and closet with a large bed. We used to rotate nights in the bed, even if we didn’t have a partner until Ryan and Natalie became more than enemies. With our new buses, they took out the room and installed storage. The room was now opened, and used as an extra living room. Where the bathroom would be was instead a wall of closed-door closets. We each had our own, including two more empty closets.
I grab some jeans and a tee-shirt out of the closet and change, while throwing my dirty clothes into the hamper we installed on board for dingy clothing. No more wearing already soiled clothes, because we wouldn’t be stopping at a laundry mat for weeks. With our new tour schedule, we can stop weekly now.
Luxury is what it is. Temperance makes everything better. I thought it might take a bit more to get used to, touring with family, with a baby. But the slowing our traveling down is turning out to be better No doubt we’ll be able to recover from shows.
Just outside of Raleigh we stop at a gas station, not only to fill up but to regroup with everyone as to where we will be staying, where the show is and what it is that everyone wants to do before our show tonight. We ended up arriving with tonight free and the show being tomorrow, not only that, but we will also have three additional days before our next stop. So if we all choose we can spend an extra days here and have two additional days before our next show in the city of the next stop.
I step off the bus as does Jason and Zepp following me over to a picnic table that sits outside of the store, where Ryan, Liam, Layla, and Natalie, Temperance in her hands are located. Abagail is already there too, she looks more beautiful then I remember her, even if it was only yesterday. She catches my stare, for a moment I remain frozen in her clutches. Her eyes are pained, I look away first, not wanting her to know how much I want her.
Seeing her in pain, knowing that I’m the cause of her pain only makes me want to take her hurt away. Turning away from her gaze, only so she doesn’t get her hopes up. I’m not the person for her, I never will be. There is no way now or in the future that I would be okay with someone pretending to care or even love me for their gains, and theirs alone.
Pissed at Ryan, I choose to stand next to Jason, who’s at the other end of the circle that’s now gathered.
“By now you should have all gotten my email about how we are on time. The first show of the tour isn’t until 10 P.M. tomorrow night so you all have at least tonight free, tomorrow I’ll need everyone on their game. I would like it if you all reported back to the hotel tonight at a decent time, that way you all get a good night’s rest, in the afternoon we’ll ride over to the venue together. I’ve already taken care of a limousine, for some reason the label only worked out venues contracts and hotel stops. They didn’t help with anything else. So I spent most of this morning calling services in every area and caterers. You will all be sleeping in warm beds tonight with full stomachs. The drivers know where to go from here, to the hotel. We will regroup on the way over to the venue tonight. Anyone have any questi
ons?”
“I’m not going to have to share a room with anyone am I?” Jason barks out. “Because if I do, I’d rather share my room with you.”
I give him a glare of death. She’s mine damn it, I say with my eyes. Clamping my lips shut so I don’t end up saying it out loud.
“You will all be sharing rooms, all except for Ryan, Natalie, Liam, and Layla will have two beds in their room. Sorry to burst your bubble though Jason, I’m already paired up with someone.” Abagail laughs.
“Who?” I can’t help but to ask.
Now she gives me her attention. She focuses on me with question marks in her eyes.
“Zepp.”
“No.”
“No? I don’t think it matters who I will be rooming with Gage.”
“You’re rooming with me, not him.”
Zepp interrupts, “I don’t think it matters either, Gage, leave her alone.”
I glance at him, anger and a hint of jealousy in my eyes.
“She’s rooming with me, you can share a room with whoever I was supposed to. Decision made.”
He puts his hands in the air as a sign of defeat. “Sorry Abby, I tried.”
“Whatever. You’re rooming with Jim then, Zepp.” She says walking away, boarding the roadie bus soon after.
“Who’s Jim?” Zepp asks me.
“Hell if I know. But he’s your new roommate for the night.”
“No, really, who is Jim?” He asks again, his eyes scrunched up in confusion.
We all board our buses and head to the hotel, meanwhile I hear Zepp still asking who Jim is. Fuck if I know.
Almost a full until meet up time, I’m sure I can find something to do to waste my free time away.
“You know Gage, you really confuse me.”
“How so?” I ask harshly, not recognizing my own voice. It’s this damn haze that she puts me in, when I’m around her. I can’t come out of it long enough to remember that I really shouldn’t want anything to do with her.
“The first night that we met, that wasn’t how I usually act.”
“What do you mean, you don’t share the bed of a stranger regularly? Or is it that you don’t usually go rifling through their clothes? Exactly what isn’t you?” I ask sitting my suitcase on my assigned bed, the one she didn’t claim.
She stops from taking clothes out of her bag to answer my question. “I don’t usually share the bed of a man I just met, and I wasn’t going through your shit. If you had let me explain, I could have told you what I was doing. Instead you decided to be a complete dick and insinuate that I was a whore.” She says, angry all over again about the entire situation.
“I have time now. Why don’t you explain why I caught one of your hands in my jeans and another holding my wallet? Enlighten me.”
“So I told you I don’t do random hook ups. I didn’t know how to leave, should I have woke you? Say goodbye, given you a hug? What? I’m not familiar with that etiquette. ‘Thanks for a splendid time, I’m leaving now. See ya around’ is that what I should have said after waking you? I can’t change how it played out, but what you actually caught me doing was searching for your phone. I left mine back at my friend’s apartment, I never bring my cell out with me. I was going to call for a ride. I wasn’t snooping through your shit.” She sighs out, taking her first breath.
Well, if she’s telling the truth, this certainly changes things.
“You could’ve woken me up and maybe asked to use my phone. It wouldn’t have been so alarming if you did. How the hell was I supposed to know? You didn’t say anything.”
“I tried, you wouldn’t let me.”
Fuck. She’s right.
But, Sam.
Sam.
“Even now, you’ve had time to come up with a reasonable excuse how do I know you’re actually telling me the truth?”
“Are you being serious right now?” She pokes me in the chest. “Call the hotel we stayed in, ask them. One of the ladies at the front desk are sure to remember me.”
“Why? What would make them remember you?”
“They’d remember the total stranger they attempted to console trust me. The one who ran into their hotel lobby face a complete mess, crying like an adolescent teen whose hopes were crushed. That’s why.” She says as she enters the bathroom.
“An adolescent teen?” I question.
“I’ve liked you for years, I thought you were someone you apparently aren’t. When I walked away that morning, I wasn’t just hurt by what you said. I was hurt that the person I built you up to be wasn’t the same person I came to know in that short period of time.”
“Abagail…” She slams the door in my face.
Chapter 9
She must have done a number on him, the girl who held his heart before. Not that I know if anyone ever has, but it’s obvious in the way that he has no trust for anyone other than his close circle of friends. I don’t even know why I chose to run into the bathroom other than to get away from the intense conversation he wanted to have. Okay, maybe I wanted the discussion too, it was long overdue and it seems that if my job is to be a successful and peaceful one, starting over with Gage would be a good choice.
One thought keeps nagging at me though, he didn’t give me a chance then, why even ask me to explain myself now? When he could have months ago, or fuck, any time after that.
Start over.
Forget every mean word he spoke in my direction.
I can do it, forgive, I mean. A new chance. Throw whatever feelings I still have for him and lock it away. He’s not a safe choice, his career requires just as much traveling as mine does. I want someone to be my safe choice, no risk, and my home, stable. Gage isn’t that for me.
Reality stabs my heart, making it hard to breathe. The truth that I had wanted, in my past, him to be a choice, I was willing to make that risk for him, before he shoved me away with insults. Friends. That’s what I’ll try to be.
“Gage?” I call out through the bathroom door, in my haste to get away from him I forgot to bring a change of clothes in the bathroom with me.
No answer.
“Gage?” I yell out a little louder, this time through the crack in the door that I made by opening it slightly ajar.
Still no answer, I open the door slowly checking to see if he was actually in the room but just choosing to ignore me. I walk over to my bed the towel wrapped around my body, my suitcase still opened laying on top of the white down comforter I quickly grab a clean change of clothes out, in case Gage comes back into the room.
“Ahhhh Jesus-fucking-Christ!” I scream, my hand flying to my chest completely forgetting to hold onto the towel was holding in place.
“I was going to apologize for scaring you, but now that I think about it, I’m really not sorry. Actually I’m pretty damn happy that I decided to sneak up on ya.”
I roll my eyes, before bending down to retrieve the one scrap of modesty I have left.
“You don’t have to cover yourself, I mean I have seen it before.” Gage says while trying to pull the towel out of my hand.
“I’d rather not do this with you, please just let go.” I beg with my eyes, my tolerance with him has hit its limit for the day.
Instead, he pulls harder on the lightly damp towel, my hand holding onto it just as tightly causes me to be yanked in the same direction he pulls.
To him.
I land with my naked chest rubbing against his clothed one, one of his hands clutching the towel, the other gripping my hip. My breath hitches and he hears it.
“Gage, I don’t think…”
He cuts me off, “stop thinking. Just stop.”
His lips land against mine roughly, taking and giving. He swipes his tongue along my lips, begging for entrance. I cave, opening my mouth to him, silently asking him to plunge into the depths with me.
He bites my lip, then soothes it with the swipe of his tongue. He clutches me to him, every contour of his body aligned with mine. His mouth possesses mine, he takes all
of me.
I pull back, just a little, “please.” I plead breathlessly.
He grips my hip roughly with one hand, while slowly grazing his fingertip over my nipple.
“More.”
This time he pulls back. “Tell me what you want.” He demands of me, his eyes looking directly into mine.
‘You. I want you.”
His mouth plunders mine at the end of my words, swallowing anything else I was going to say, robbing me of breath. Gage swiftly lifts me up, I wrap my legs around his hips, tightly. Undulating myself against his rigid member that’s still hidden by clothes.
Deep down I know that I could come to regret this. That maybe I should be berating myself. That goodness should be sitting on my shoulder telling me that this is a mistake, this could cost me my career, I should stop it now. Evil wins, it always does; it’s reminding me that there’s a possibility this won’t happen again. I’ll be damned if I don’t take the opportunity to taste him, even if it’s just one last time.
Gage sits me on top of his bed. Here I am in all my naked glory, legs spread shamelessly. He rips his shirt off, followed by his jeans. The outline of his glorious cock made visible by his current predicament.
I attempt to sit up, so that I can pull his briefs down, just for a little taste, but he stops me.
“I need to kiss you.” He says in a guttural tone while glancing down to the lips between my legs.
He pulls me down the bed, so that I’m on the verge of falling off. He lifts my legs up over his shoulders. Kissing each thigh as it greets his check. He swipes his tongue at my entrance, once, twice, then pulls back suddenly replacing his tongue with his finger. He slides one in, slowly thrusting in and out. He looks to me with a knowing smirk that he is my undoing.
He continues thrusting in and out of me, bringing me to the brink of orgasm. Stopping mid-thrust he places his mouth on me again, this time nibbling and licking my clit. He keeps me on the cliff that I’m dying to dive off, a cliff of complete bliss.
