The Winner Takes It All (Love in L.A. Book 3)

by Audrey Harte

  “I’ll be waiting,” Trey said, nodding his head in agreement.

  She only felt mildly guilty as she got ready for dinner with another man. Casey hadn’t been the most attentive since they’d been in New York. She understood that he was here with his crew, but why hadn’t he invited her along to dinner with them? Why was it okay for him to invite Trisha and not her?

  Then she reminded herself that her phone had been dead for a few hours. Reaching for her purse, she fished out her phone and plugged it in to start charging. Sure enough, once she had enough juice to turn it back on, she saw that there were several messages waiting for her, three of them from Casey. First he called around four and asked if she already had plans for dinner. Then he called her back around five and said they were heading to the restaurant if she got the message soon and wanted to join them. The third one had come in about ten minutes earlier. Casey sounded drunk… and a little pissed off. He said he guessed he wasn’t important enough for her to return his phone calls and said not to bother waiting up for him.”

  Annie stared at the phone in shock. Why was Casey acting like that? Just because her phone had been off for a few hours? What if it had been off for reasons beyond her control? That last message only fueled her resolve to go to dinner with Trey and enjoy herself as much as possible. So that’s exactly what she did.

  Trey took her to a little Italian restaurant that he loved, and she fell in love with the place as well. The food was impeccable, the staff was friendly and loved to laugh, and the furnishings were clean and classic. And the wine… their house cabernet was like crack to Annie. She’d never been a fan of red wine before, but for some reason on this night with Trey, she was relishing it. So the wine was flowing, the conversation was light and easy, and the dessert was life-changing… it was turning out to be quite the night. Annie swore that she’d never had better tiramisu in her life. She was considering begging the owner of the restaurant for the recipe. It was that good.

  To her dismay, Trey grabbed the check before she had a chance. She really wanted to split the bill as she didn’t want him getting the wrong idea of what she wanted from him, but finally she figured, to hell with it. If he wanted to buy her dinner, let him buy her dinner. So instead of protesting, she thanked him sincerely and flashed him her most winning smile.

  When they got back to the hotel, Trey offered to walk her up to her room. Annie assured him it wasn’t necessary, but he insisted on accompanying her to her floor at the very least. When she got off the elevator, he followed her, but she quickly turned around to big him a good night before he could follow her any further. She began to thank him for dinner when suddenly he leaned forward and kissed her. Taken off guard, she stood there momentarily frozen with shock before finally reacting. She was about to shove him away from her when she heard the elevator doors open with a soft chime, and then a female gasped loudly in outrage.

  “What the fuck?” was the next thing she heard, and to her dismay, the expletive was uttered by Casey.

  Annie pushed back from Trey and slapped him across the face. “Yeah, what the fuck, asshole?” she spat angrily at him before turning to Casey to explain and start doing damage control.

  Before she could say anything, Trisha was in her face. “What the hell is wrong with you, bitch? Are you trying to steal my boyfriend?”

  “I’m not your boyfriend,” Trey started to say, but Trisha whirled around to confront him next.

  “Oh you’re not, are you? You just spend most nights at my place, and I just do all your laundry whenever you’re home from the tour, and we’re just fucking almost every day, but you’re not my boyfriend. So what am I to you then?”

  “Trisha, we’re just hanging out. I’ve told you that many times. If you came to other conclusions on your own, that’s not my fault.”

  “Look, asshole, I think you need to leave now,” Casey said in a menacing tone. “You’ve done enough here.”

  “Oh fuck off, dickhead. Did you tell your new girlfriend that you’re still hung up on your ex-girlfriend?”

  “Shut up, fuck face.”

  “Whoa, why are you so angry, sir?” Trey asked in a sarcastically mocking tone.

  “What ex-girlfriend?” Annie asked curiously with a frown on her face. It didn’t bother her that Casey had an ex, but when she’d overheard Kelli and Kelly talking about him before, they had made it sound like he didn’t really date. So to now find out he had an ex-girlfriend was a little confusing.

  “Laura,” Trey said, earning another glare from Casey.

  “Dude, shut your fucking mouth already. You need to get the hell out of here before I rearrange your face.”

  “I’d like to see you try,” Trey countered as he stepped forward and puffed out his chest.

  Annie slid in between the two fuming males to intervene. “Hey now, no need to fight. Casey, let’s just go to our room. Trey, I think you should go talk to Trisha and get your shit sorted. I don’t even like the chick, but she doesn’t deserve to be treated the way you’ve been treating her.”

  “Lady, I don’t need you fighting my battles for me,” Trisha snapped at Annie.

  “What the hell are you doing with this asshole anyway?” Casey demanded angrily.

  “We bumped into each other and you’d already gone to dinner with Trisha and your boys, so we had dinner together instead and kept each other company.”

  “As you can see, he’s bad news.”

  “That’s a matter of opinion,” Trey muttered. “Well, I can see I’m not welcome here, so I’m heading to bed.” He turned to punch the elevator button and then glanced back at Trisha. “You coming?” he asked with a raised eyebrow.

  “Well, seeing as we’re sharing a room, doesn’t look like I have a choice,” Trisha muttered, following him into the elevator as the doors opened. “But you’re sleeping on the couch.”

  When the doors slid shut, Annie tried again. “Who’s Laura? You told me in San Francisco that you had never met a girl that you wanted to be around continuously until you met me.”

  “Come on, Annie. I was trying to be romantic while asking you to be my girlfriend. Of course I said that. But if I’m going to be completely honest… okay, fine. Yes, I had one other serious girlfriend before I met you… Laura”

  “How did you meet? How long did you date? When did you break up?” She fired one question after another at him.

  Casey just glared at her for a moment without speaking, then finally sighed and shook his head. “Laura was another back-up dancer who I toured with. We dated for a while before we moved in together.”

  “I see,” Annie said as she carefully searched his face for proof of unresolved feelings for his ex. “How long were you together?”

  “I dunno, couple years, but we only lived together for the last few months of our relationship. It ended when I came home early from work one night to find her in a hot and heavy make-up session with none other than Trey on my couch.”

  “Shut the fuck up. Are you serious?”

  “Yep. I told her to pack her shit and be out by that night.”

  “Wow, I’m so sorry. I didn’t know.”

  “It’s not exactly something I like to talk about.”

  “Well, now it makes sense why you hate Trey so much.”

  “I don’t hate the guy. He’s not worthy of that strong of an emotion. I just don’t like him. And I obviously don’t trust him.”

  Annie shook her head. “No, I wouldn’t, either. But I hope you can trust me at least.”

  Casey eyed her warily. “I did trust you. However, you obviously don’t trust my word enough to stay away from that prick. He is selfish and self-centered. And he just tried to kiss you!”

  “I didn’t ask him to, and I certainly didn’t kiss him back,” Annie protested.

  “Maybe not, but I don’t think he would have tried if he hadn’t gotten the impression that you would be a willing recipient of his kiss.”

  “So it’s my fault that a guy I barely know tried to
shove his tongue down my throat.”

  Casey just looked at her and shook his head again. “I don’t want to fight with you anymore. I’m going to bunk with Chris tonight. I’ll see you later.”

  And with that, Casey turned and left her standing there as he headed towards the room he and Chris had been assigned for the duration of their stay. Annie was furious. She’d done nothing wrong, but now she was being treated like she had committed high treason. Huffing in frustration, she spun around on her heel and stomped down the hallway to her door, fumbling in her purse for the room key along the way.

  Desperately needing to bitch to someone, she called Alex and gave him the rundown. He listened and made sympathetic noises at the appropriate moments, then apologized when he said he had to cut the call short.

  “Listen, baby girl, I’ve got to cut this call short, but that doesn’t mean I’m not thoroughly interested in listening to you mope. It’s just that I… well, I actually have a date tonight, and he’s going to be here to pick me up any minute now.”

  “You have a date?” Annie repeated, giving a thrilled little squeal. “Oh yay! And no worries at all. Sorry to interrupt you while you’re getting ready for your hot date. I can mope to you another time.”

  “Thank you and try not to worry too much. You and Casey are both under a lot of pressure right now, and I’m sure that has to be stressful.”

  “Yeah, I know. Okay, well get going and finish getting ready. I hope you have a fabulous time, and I want to hear all about this new guy when you have time.”

  “You mean when you have time! You’re the one off in New York competing for a five million dollar Vegas contract.”

  Annie laughed. “Okay, well I’ll call you when I have a chance.”

  “Sounds good. Love you, talk to you soon.”

  “Love you, have fun!”

  Annie sat there for several long minutes, staring at the door to her room, wishing that any moment, she would hear Casey knocking and asking for forgiveness and telling her he couldn’t sleep without her next to him. She hated the knot in her stomach that seemed to be growing by the minute. The more she reflected on the evening’s events, the angrier she became. What Alex said was true. She and Casey were both under a lot of pressure, and it was a stressful situation to be in. But she still didn’t think that was a good enough excuse for him to be angry with her for having dinner with a friend, even if it was a friend who pretty clearly wanted in her pants, whether she was in a relationship or not.

  Once Casey had finally explained the reason for his animosity towards Trey, it made sense, but she didn’t really understand why he hadn’t just been honest with her about the whole situation from the beginning. It’s not like she’d expected him to never have had a serious relationship before her. That was just silly. Sure, she wouldn’t really want him to talk incessantly about an ex, but just admitting that he’d had a girlfriend before wouldn’t have bothered her in the slightest. How could it? She’d been in other relationships before him.

  So because he hadn’t chosen to just be honest and trust her with that knowledge, she hadn’t understood the gravity of his feelings towards Trey and had caused this huge rift between them for no good reason. Life really sucked the big one sometimes. Sighing, she finally pushed herself to her feet and wandered into the bathroom to start the shower. Maybe the hot water would help her relax and sooth her enough that she could fall asleep. Tomorrow would bring the results of who had made the final cut and would compete in the first round of live tapings.

  As she let the water wash away her worries, Annie smiled to herself. She was feeling pretty confident that she had made it into the final round. That was pretty damn amazing just by itself. If she didn’t make it any farther than this, at least she could say that she tried and made it all the way to the live tapings. How many people could say they had done something like that? And she knew that her family and friends would be immensely proud of her for giving it her best shot and going for her dreams.

  By the time she had dried herself off and crawled wearily into bed, Annie was feeling a lot better. Whatever happened with Casey wasn’t the most important thing right now, and she’d almost lost sight of that. It was time for her to stop moping and start concentrating on winning this competition and her dream job. Ignoring the fact that she was curling up with her pillows alone tonight, Annie reached over to the nightstand to retrieve her purse and pulled out a small joint. If she was going to sleep well tonight, she needed a little help. She smoked half of it and then tucked the other half back into her purse. In no time at all, the marijuana did its job and she was fast asleep.

  “We made it!” Erin squealed with excitement, jumping up and down in front of the wall in the lobby where the results had been posted as she tugged on Annie’s arm. “We made it into the next round!”

  “Yay, go us!” Annie squealed along with Erin as she felt the goose bumps forming on her arms. She could hardly believe that this was really happening to her. Less than a year ago, she’d been a nobody, stuck in a dead-end job with no immediate hope of doing something more interesting with her life, and now look where she was—in New York, progressing to the first round of performances that would be nationally televised. It was almost too good to be true.

  “Where’s your man?” Erin asked as she grabbed Annie’s elbow and skillfully steered her to the side, out of the way of the other contestants who were trying to get closer to see the results. “It looks like Pure Flow made the cut as well!”

  Annie rolled her eyes and sighed. “We got into a fight last night, so he slept in Chris’ room. I haven’t spoken to him since he stormed off.”

  “Uh oh, what happened?”

  “Long story, but I had dinner with someone he doesn’t like, and unfortunately, he happened to get off the elevator on our floor and see us just as this someone tried to kiss me.”

  “What?” Erin’s eyes bulged. “Are you serious?”

  “Yeah, wish I wasn’t. At first I was happy and maybe felt a little smug that this extremely attractive man was keeping me company since Casey bailed on me to have dinner with his crew and Trisha, but I quickly regretted my decision when he tried to shove his tongue down my throat at the hotel after dinner.”

  “Wait, who the hell is Trisha?”

  Annie couldn’t help smirking. “You know, that’s exactly what I said when I first heard of her.”

  “And?” Erin prompted.

  “And her brother Austin is one of the members in Casey’s crew. I guess they’ve all been friends for a long time. Think their families go way back.”

  “Oh, I see. So is there something going on between Trisha and Casey?”

  “Funny you should ask. According to him, she’s had a crush on him for years, but he’s never been interested. Just sees her as a family friend, so she’s pretty much a sister to him.”

  “But he ditched you to have dinner with her instead of you.”

  “Well, it’s not one hundred percent his fault. I was sightseeing around the city all day, and my cell battery finally died, so he couldn’t reach me to find out if I could join them for dinner.”

  “So how’d you end up having dinner with this other guy? What’s his name anyway?”

  “Trey.”

  “Ooh, I like it.”

  “Ha, yeah, the name and the guy are pretty cute, but trust me. You don’t want any part of that. He’s one of the other back-up dancers for Kayla Miles, so I met him in San Francisco a few months ago when I flew up to spend the weekend with Casey and catch the show.”

  “So what’s he doing here in New York? Is he here to audition himself, or did he just come to cause trouble for Casey?”

  “No. Apparently he’s been seeing Trisha for a while, but won’t commit to her. But he flew with her to New York because she was coming to show support for her brother and the rest of Pure Flow. I guess they got into an argument right before dinner, so she ended up going out with the guys and left Trey at the hotel to fend for himself. I bumped in
to him, and he asked me to join him for dinner. Anyways, she was with Casey when they came back to the hotel from dinner and saw Trey trying to kiss me. She and Casey were both upset.”

  “Uh, understandably so. Did she try to claw your eyes out?”

  “Ha, no, but I’m sure she wanted to.”

  “Well, that’s good at least. She should be clawing Trey’s eyes out instead. Not your fault he doesn’t want to commit to her.”

  “I know… I kind of feel bad for her, though.”

  “Even though she wants your man, too?” Erin teased.

  “Fuck that. She can have Trey, but like hell if I’ll let her have Casey. He is mine. End of story.”

  “Speaking of the devil,” Erin started to say, but trailed off as Casey walked up just then.

  “Hey, Erin. Do you mind if I steal Annie for a minute?” Casey said as he leaned down to greet Erin with a quick hug and kiss on the cheek.

  “Not at all. I need to use the little girl’s room anyway.”

  After Erin left in the direction of the restrooms, Casey cleared his throat before speaking. “Hey um, look… I’m sorry about last night. I know I may have overreacted, but when I saw Trey kissing you, I just saw red.”

  “And I totally get that, but what upsets me is that you actually thought I was kissing him back. And it bothers me that you think I’m the kind of girl who would do something like that.”

  Casey nodded as he grimaced slightly. “I know you’re not.”

  “Then you should start acting like you trust me. I trust you when you’re gone for weeks and have all these beautiful girls throwing themselves at you when I’m not around. Do you have any idea how hard it is to not let my imagination get the best of me and not dwell on whether you might have a moment of weakness one time and give in to one of them? It fucking kills me knowing that you’re hundreds or thousands of miles away from me at any given time and I sometimes I can’t stop thinking that maybe one day the distance will be too much for you or you won’t miss me anymore or that you’ll meet someone else you like better. But I believed you when you told me you loved me.”