Elijah:
God. Yes. Yes, you should. But I may have bad news. My niece is here and I think I’m going to be stuck watching her until my sister gets off work. I’ll let you know for sure in another hour, but it’s not looking good.
He hit send and took a deep breath, going back to that picture and staring.
Josie really sucked.
Lily slowly rolled over and slid her way off the couch. Elijah looked at her as she safely landed on the floor and began to explore. “Where do you think you’re going, missy?”
She looked at him, brown eyes shining and a little split glistening on her chin. Elijah smiled and opened up a new message thread.
Elijah:
I need you.
He kicked his feet up onto the coffee table as Lily leant against it and watched the TV show. It was something with ducks. He didn’t fucking know. It occurred to Elijah that he’d better rehearse a couple cover songs since he had the time to now.
Fallon:
We’ve been thru this. You’re just drunk, but I promise you’re gay. You don’t want me, Elijah.
He rolled his eyes.
Elijah:
I’m not drunk, nor do I need you in ~that~ manner. I’m hoping you aren’t busy because I have a 1 year-old here that is wide awake, AND I have a guy that wants to come over – said guy is wearing a jockstrap and has a new toy he wants to test out. Please help.
A reply came in from Tony after he hit send.
Tony:
That sucks, babe. I was looking forward to this all day. Especially after classes ended.
“Oh, so was I,” he said aloud. “But…”
Lily turned around and looked at him. “Hm?”
“Not you, big head.”
Elijah:
Rule #4: No pet names, kiddo.
Maybe Tony’s “babe” was innocent, but it was breaking a rule. Elijah was already going against what he believed in by giving this kid a round two. He didn’t want him to get too comfortable.
Fallon:
Not only am I incredibly behind on school assignments, I am pretty sure I’m coming down with a cold. I’m not exposing that angel Lily to whatever this is. Tell your booty call that there will be another night.
Elijah sighed. Well. There would be other nights, he guessed. Lily was worth his time more than any guy in the world.
Tony:
Yeah, yeah. I could come watch her with you if that’s cool? I would dress appropriately and we could watch Disney movies or something cute.
Something cute? No. No way. Elijah wasn’t looking to raise a kid with anyone right now. He knew how this worked. You invite a guy over for something that wasn’t a wham-bam-thank you Sam, and they were going to assume that there was more to what they were.
There was nothing more.
Besides that, he didn’t know this guy well enough to bring him around his infant niece.
Elijah:
It’s fine. We’re just going to have one-on-one time. Haven’t seen her in a while. I’ll text you later, though. Maybe when she’s gone we can do something quick. Save everything else for another day.
Tony:
We’ll see if I’m up to it…
Elijah tossed his phone down and scratched lazily at the stubble forming on his cheeks. That guy would come running.
“Hey. Lily.”
She looked up from where she was playing with the stereo remote, seconds away from putting it in her mouth. “Hm?”
“Go get my guitar.”
She tried to say the word ‘guitar’ and only ended up saying something that sounded like ‘gar’. Elijah smiled and looked up at the duck show on TV. He felt his phone vibrate and lazily reached for it.
Josie:
Marvin just texted me that he can’t make it. I’m sorry. I don’t get off until 2 but she should go to sleep pretty early. Put her bottles in the fridge if you haven’t yet. Also she hasn’t been pooping, so just keep an eye out on that and let me know if she does. Her teddy is in the bottom of the bag. Love you, Eli. Thank you so much. I’m sorry again
Elijah tossed the phone back down and leant back. Lily tapped something on his laptop to make it come back on, and he saw the pictures of Grayson Paul on the screen. He shook his head and shooed her away from it to shut down the device.
“Don’t look at him. Douchebag. Douchebag that doesn’t know how to text.”
Lily smiled.
∞
“I want to hear more about this dude.”
Grayson worked on fixing the look of The Pretty Committee’s Twitter account as he tried his best to ignore his best friend. So far, he got them verified and had 10K followers. It was all about getting the content out there now. With the help of the internet and Millennium’s rabid – loyal – fans, that wouldn’t be hard at all.
“You can pretend you don’t hear me if you want to.” Oscar sounded out of breath as he said it. He’d been jogging on the treadmill for all of five minutes, probably less. Most of his grunting noises were for show. Basically, he wanted it to be known that he was working out.
Grayson figured it was a macho guy thing.
“Alright,” he said. “I love pretending that I don’t hear you. In fact, it comes easy to me. So thank you for your permission, Sanchez.”
Oscar pressed some buttons on the treadmill and Grayson heard it speed up a little. “You mentioned that an attractive guy found your cell phone yesterday. My girlfriend mentioned that you and this attractive guy who found it had a cute little coffee date and then proceeded to leave the shop together. All I want to know is what’s this guy’s deal?”
Grayson smiled, but he couldn’t help but roll his eyes. He was happy to be on the couch right now, focused on his work, facing a direction that Oscar couldn’t see his face, because if his friend could, he’d know he was smiling, and Oscar would take a smile to mean that something was up, and absolutely nothing was up.
“I don’t know the guy’s deal. I thanked him for returning my phone. Offered to buy him –”
“Offered to buy him a coffee to show your gratitude, but he’d already bought something, and you were walking in the same direction so went together – yes, yadda-yadda blah-blah. You said that fifty times already –”
“Then why aren’t you listening to me?” Grayson asked, turning to look over his shoulder at his roomie.
“Because I know there’s more to it. You think I don’t know when you’re smiling just because you’re facing away from me, but I can tell. Something happened. Did you do him?”
Grayson looked at Oscar like he’d officially lost it. He wondered how many times a week he gave his friend that look.
“Oh my god. That’s it. You did him –”
“I did not have sex with the guy who returned my phone to me, Oscar. What kind of a man do you think I am?”
Oscar looked away, continuing his jog. “Okay. I’ll pretend to believe you.”
“You want to know what happened?”
His friend glared at him. “I’ve been asking for the truth for twenty-four hours now. Of course I want to know what happened.”
Grayson put the laptop down beside him and angled his body on the sofa so that he could better see Oscar. “He walked me back to my job like I said. We talked for a little while and he told me about himself. I told him about myself. He gave me his number and that was that. The two of us went our separate ways.”
Oscar hummed in response, and Grayson could tell by the look on his face that he was trying to decide whether or not he believed that story.
“So what happened when you texted him?”
Grayson shook his head. “I didn’t text him.”
Oscar stopped the treadmill and got off, reaching for his towel. He wasn’t even sweating because he’d barely done anything, so Grayson wasn’t sure why he had it to begin with.
“You’re telling me you met a guy who was sweet enough to return your iPhone to you – a guy who Eleanor described as ‘a hottie with a body’ – y
ou got this guy’s number and you haven’t texted him?”
Grayson licked at the corner of his lips and sighed. “Look. You and your girlfriend wanted me to hang out with this Bryce dude tomorrow night, right? I’m focusing on that. I don’t even want to get into anything while I’m trying to accomplish what needs to be done at work, but you two say I need an outlet –”
“You do,” Oscar said.
Grayson nodded. “Well can I focus on the one Bryce guy and having a good time without bringing other random people in?”
Oscar shrugged, wiping his already dry face and tossing the towel over his shoulder. “I mean. I guess. There’s nothing wrong with just talking to him. You could text him and still hang out with Ela’s doctor friend tomorrow.”
“I just want to focus.”
“Understood. I won’t talk about it anymore.”
Grayson turned back around and picked up his computer. He knew his friend’s heart was in the right place, and he was no doubt grateful for him. It was just that he had enough stress to deal with lately, and nothing that Bryce, nor Elijah, nor freaking David Beckham did could help ease his mind. It was something that he wanted for himself.
“One more thing.”
“Of course,” Grayson said. There was always one more thing with Oscar.
“You deserve to have a little fun. I know your father is driving you crazy making you work with talent you’re not exactly invested in, but there’s more to life than being Harvey Jr. You have to realize that you’re twenty-fucking-four going on twenty-fucking-five and you don’t want to waste this time away being so focused on work that nothing else matters.”
Grayson sat there in silence for a while, digesting all that his friend had just said to him as he walked off. Oscar was right, and Grayson rarely admitted that. He rarely had to admit that. But now, he couldn’t deny the truth in what he’d heard.
At the end of the day, whether he was unhappy with his work situation or unhappy about being forced to attend various parties with a fake smile on his face, he deserved something that made him feel good. Genuinely good. Grayson obviously wasn’t getting that in his career, and he probably wouldn’t get it from Millennium any time soon. He knew that something casual had the potential to make a world of a difference, but Grayson didn’t even want to take a chance. After his first love broke his heart, he almost threw everything away. He didn’t want to ever lose focus like that again.
His career goals were his priority right now. Priority number one was to start his career at Millennium as an A&R scout, eventually manage a few people, and once he had the experience, he’d take over and change the direction of Millennium Records. His mother had often told him not to fix something that wasn’t broken, but changes needed to be made. All that a guy was good for right now was distracting him. Distractions were never good.
As Grayson looked down at his laptop, the doorbell rang twice. Oscar shouted that he’d get it and a few seconds later, he came running out in his workout gear. He pulled the door opened and smiled when he saw Eleanor there.
“Hey, sexy –”
Grayson cleared his throat.
Oscar sighed. “I mean… hello, Eleanor. Please come in.”
His girlfriend chuckled as she walked into the penthouse. “Hi, Oscar. Hello, Sonny.”
Grayson looked up at her and smiled. “Lovely to see you, blabber mouth.”
Eleanor looked taken aback at first, but eventually things started to click. “Well I had to tell somebody! That Elijah was so freaking cute and he came into Symphony again today.” She dropped her overnight bag and began to take off her coat.
Oscar locked the door and shoved his hands into the pockets of his track pants. “Elijah, hm?”
“He came back again today?” Grayson tried to hide the interest in his voice as he asked. “Is he a regular or something?”
“This week has been my first time seeing him,” she answered with a smile. Oscar took her things for her. “Thank you. My guess is that he was looking for you, Sonny.”
He quickly dismissed that thought, not wanting to talk about it anymore. He’d been spending the past 24 hours, and then some, telling himself not to text Elijah. The guy’s entire demeanor screamed that he was a playboy, and Grayson wasn’t about to be another notch in anyone’s belt. “I had to shadow my father for 10 straight hours today so I didn’t exactly have the time to meet boys in coffee shops. So did you come over here to tell me that Bryce wants to cancel or…?”
“That’s the last thing Bryce wants to do after I talked you up to him so much, my friend.” Eleanor walked across the living room and took a seat beside Grayson. He was in a bathrobe and fuzzy slippers. She felt overdressed in her nursing scrubs. “He’s really looking forward to tomorrow night. I hope you are too?”
Grayson smiled, shrugging his shoulders. “Meh.”
“I’m going to hop in the shower,” Oscar told them, carrying his girlfriend’s things back towards his bedroom. “Promise me you’ll kick his ass if he tries to back out of it.”
“You got it,” Eleanor told him.
As Oscar walked off, Grayson rolled his eyes at the both of them. “I’m not backing out of anything. I’m keeping my word as long as you keep yours, and you’ve been doing a good job.”
Eleanor smiled. “We’re probably going to be twice as disgusting as normal after this little deal is over. You do realize that, right?”
“Impossible.”
“I don’t think so,” she said. “But back to business, Sonny. I talked to Bryce and we went over all the details today. You two are meeting at Amo Pasta – a 5-star Italian restaurant in Chelsea. The reservation is for 7:30, but keep in mind that he is a doctor and may not be able to get there in time. He wanted me to let you know that you shouldn’t assume you’re being stood up if he’s running late.”
Grayson nodded. For a casual not-date, this sure did sound a lot like a date.
“He’ll be wearing a navy blue blazer and a white button-up with a gold handkerchief. Reservations are under Bryce Winston.”
“Bryce Winston,” Grayson smiled as he said it. “He sounds like a trust fund baby. I think I would know.”
“He’s a good guy and I think you’re really going to like him,” Eleanor stood up. “He’s goal-oriented and about his business – much like you. Oh, he’s a bit older than us, but the guy is smoking, Sonny.”
“I’m curious to know what you’ve said about me…”
She smiled. “Nothing but great things. You can rest assured.” She began to walk off, back towards her boyfriend’s side of the condo. “Amo Pasta. 7:30. You’ll have a blast.”
Grayson shook his head and looked back down at what he was doing. He wasn’t sure about this whole date with the guy, but he was looking forward to going out. It did feel good to hang out with someone who was going to pay as well. Grayson had rarely been on the other side of that equation – in fact, people knew he was the ‘son of Harvey Paul’, so they expected him to foot the bill.
He took his mind off of Bryce and looked down at his phone. The time was just after 9 at night. For a moment he thought about texting Elijah. He was curious about whether he’d gone back to Symphony Café looking for Grayson that afternoon, but in the end he decided not to. Whether he did or he didn’t, it didn’t matter. He had to stick to what he told Oscar. He had to be consistent.
He also had to help spread the news about The Pretty Committee.
Grayson groaned, throwing his head back against the sofa. This was absolutely ridiculous.
∞
Elijah carefully placed his sleeping niece into the arms of her exhausted mother.
It was just after two in the morning now. Elijah had successfully gotten Lily to fall asleep around 11. She’d been fighting it for a couple hours. He tucked her in and went back into the living room, finished writing a new song, and watched a documentary on the Discovery Channel. He usually only did the latter when he was high, but this documentary was about meerkats. Meerkats we
re fucking awesome.
Elijah absolutely did not do any more digging on Grayson Paul.
Josie thanked him as quietly as she could. “I’m sorry again about Marvin –”
“Forget about that,” he said softly. “Just… I can’t have you popping in and leaving her, Josie. What if I’m not home one evening?”
His sister nodded. “I know. I was in a bind, okay? And maybe next time you can actually reply to me so I know that you wouldn’t be available?”
That much was something he couldn’t argue. He nodded. “Do you need a drive back to your place?”
“A coworker is waiting for me outside,” Josie answered. “Get some rest. Love you, baby bro.”
“Love you, too.” He lowered the hat over Lily’s ears and watched the two make their way to the staircase.
Elijah closed the door and leant against it, checking his phone for a message.
Tony:
It’s practically 2:30 in the morning, I have class in a matter of hours, yet I’m walking up to your building. This better be worth it.
He hoped it would be, too. Elijah needed a little stress relief after his day, and if you had a dude that was willing to come into Hell’s Kitchen for you at this time, why rely on your hand?
He grabbed a condom from his bedroom, a small bottle of lube, and a couple pillows. This quickie could be accomplished in the living room. Elijah worried that if they made their way to the bedroom, Tony would try to stay like Craig-Greg did the other night. That was so not cool.
There was a knock on his apartment door, and with the timing, he wondered if Josie saw him coming into the building. Elijah opened the door and smirked when he saw the bartender dressed in his NYU hoodie and flannel pajama pants. His black hair was spiked and when he spoke, Elijah could see the piercing on his tongue.
“I hope you know how lucky you are.”
Honestly, if Tony wasn’t willing to come over, Elijah would probably find another who was. Still, he answered, “Yeah. I’m lucky. Come in.”
Tony took a step inside and leant in for a kiss. He was smoothly denied, though. Elijah shook his head.
Something Real Page 6
