The Bet

by J. D. Hawkins

  “I wasn’t lying,” I say, though I can barely look her in the eye. Her words fall like a sack of bricks, crushing me. It was bad enough losing her, but knowing that I hurt her this much is enough to push me over the edge. I try to speak. “I… I…”

  “Brando!” comes the call from across the hall. We turn in the direction of Rowland’s office and see him peeking out from the doors. “Get your ass back in here. Lexi’s on her way.”

  It’s the last thing I want to hear right now. The last thing I wanted Haley to hear.

  She flashes me one last go-fuck-yourself look. “I’m beginning to feel like all I do is keep you warm for her.”

  “Haley!” I call, as she steps behind the elevator doors just before they close. I think about putting my arm in to stop them, dragging her out, getting on my knees to beg, but I don’t – I can’t. All I want to do is take her pain away – even if it that pain is me.

  Rowland is talking about something but I’m not really listening when Lexi shows up. I’m still somewhere deep in my thoughts, still trying to swim out of all the feelings swirling around inside of me.

  I wish I was anywhere but here. Hell is Rowland’s office. Where I’m forced to listen to a boss I find repulsive, where Haley tells me how much she hates me, and where the girl I once loved more than anything in the world, only to lose her to the shallow, plastic, star-making machine, is about to show up and piss all over my hopes and dreams once again.

  “Lexi!” he calls out suddenly.

  I turn slightly to look at the doorway. She’s still beautiful. Still remarkable. Still capable of making time stand still. Even now that she doesn’t wear the latex dresses and miniskirts that Davis had her in. Instead she’s wearing her gym clothes, yoga pants and a tank top – but she’s still unbearably hot. I turn back around to face Davis.

  “Hi baby,” she says to me, as she sits on the chair Haley was in and crosses her legs slowly, aware of the effect it always had on me.

  Rowland’s gaze flickers between us in the same way it did when Haley was here, only this time it’s me giving off the ‘let’s get this over with’ vibe.

  “I’ve got awesome news, Lexi. Haley’s gonna be supporting you on your tour!”

  Lexi times her derisive laugh perfectly. It’s the one she used to use in order to let all the men in the room know who’s in charge. “Why? To make me look better?” Her gaze slides over to me. “Or is this a pity thing? Your little protégé can’t book a gig, is that it?”

  “Come on now, Lexi,” Rowland says, his voice going as feeble as the poor guys who try to pick her up. “Haley’s the next big thing! She’s got a lot of people out there excited.”

  Lexi turns to me with her wet-lipped look. “Does she get you excited, Brando? Let me guess; this was your idea.”

  “Hell no!” Rowland exclaims, leaning back in his chair as if the insult blew him back. “You think he could come up with something like that?”

  “Rowland thinks that having a genuine musician on your tour might help you last long enough to be worth a second album,” I say, staring back at her, my voice deadpan. “Maybe some of her talent will rub off on you.”

  “Which talent is that, honey? The one she uses in the studio? Or the one she uses in—”

  “Ah-hem!” Rowland interrupts, struggling to gain our attention. She and I are locked in a stare, two bulls pushing each other until one breaks. If the last meeting was all about Rowland, he may as well not exist for this one.

  “Take your pick,” I growl, “she’s better than you at both.”

  “Enough!” Rowland shouts, slamming his palms on the table. “Jesus Christ! I almost regret arranging for you to go with them.”

  “What?” Lexi and I say at the same time, our heads swiveling back to Rowland. I can’t have heard him right. This must be some kind of bargaining tactic, some kind of threat.

  “Oh,” Rowland says, adjusting his collar as if he’s just been in a fight, “that was the other thing I wanted to tell you; you’re going on the tour with them, Brando.”

  “Ha!” Lexi laughs, throwing her head back and sticking her tongue between her teeth. She’s loving this.

  “Why, Rowland? I have work here, and—”

  “These are your two biggest artists, Brando, and they’re about to go on the biggest tour of their careers together! We need this to go smoothly. What are you going to do here in LA? Continue booking gigs and arranging studio time for your other groups? We could get an intern to do that. Your work is on the road.”

  “Yeah, come on, Brando. We can ditch the third wheel and make it just like old times again,” Lexi says, winking. Her eyes are sparkling at how much she’s enjoying this. “Shit. She can join in if she wants.”

  “This is maybe the most important event in Lexi’s, Haley’s, and Majestic Records’ history,” Rowland says, before I can snap back at Lexi. “I can’t leave it to chance.”

  I roll my eyes away and fix them on the building across the street. Three weeks of Lexi twisting the knife every chance she can. Three weeks of trying to stop the only two women I’ve ever loved from killing each other.

  Three weeks to get Haley back.

  And then it hits me: this is the best chance I’ve got.

  The only one.

  21

  Haley

  “I WANT TEXTS, emails, phone calls, every day,” Jenna says, so excited I’m scared she’ll drive the car into oncoming traffic. “And you better come prepared. I want diary-level insight. I want to feel like I’m there with you. How it smells, how it sounds, what it’s like. I wanna know about the crowds, what it must be like to stand in front of so many people. You better promise to give me all that.”

  “I promise.”

  “You better,” she repeats, as she pulls the car off the road and into the big parking lot. “Oh my God! Look at how many people are there! Three tour buses! It’s just like in the movies! HolyshitthisisamazingohmygodIcan’tbelievethis—”

  Her voice gets faster and more high-pitched until I have to squint and hunch my shoulders to stop my eardrums from bursting. She brings the car to a halt and looks around her like she just drove through a portal to Neverland.

  “This is amazing!” she squeals again, bobbing up and down in the driver’s seat.

  “Thanks for giving me a lift, Jenna,” I say, opening the door. She walks with me to the back of the car and we both pull my luggage from the trunk.

  “Well, I guess this is it,” she says, when I’m standing there with my guitar case in one hand and my luggage in the other.

  “I’ll tell you everything. I promise,” I repeat with a smile. She hugs me tightly, and I try not to cry. Not because I’m going to miss Jenna (though I will), but because I’m about to embark on a three week tour of my own personal hell. And on top of that, I’ll still have to perform with a smile on my face at every show. “And hey, good luck with that audition.”

  Jenna waves it away. “I’m more nervous about your tour than the audition, to be honest.”

  “Still, I really hope you get it.”

  “Me too,” she says, stepping back to the side of the car and opening the door. “See you in three weeks, Haley. Go give them something to remember!”

  “I’ll try flashing my breasts.”

  “Doesn’t Lexi already do that in her show?”

  I’m still laughing as she reverses her car back out of the lot, and then I watch as she concentrates so much on waving at me that it’s a miracle she re-joins the flow of traffic without crashing. I take a deep breath, turn around, and start walking toward the buses.

  My band’s already there. Paula, the drummer, and Aaron, the bassist, are loading bags into the open bay doors underneath the bus. Brian, my guitarist, is having a cigarette. He comes to meet me and takes my luggage.

  “Thanks,” I say.

  “Can you believe this is really happening?” he says, his voice nowhere near as calm and collected as he looks.

  “Nope. Why are there three b
uses? And so many people. Is there another band?”

  Brian laughs. “Us, Lexi, and her band.”

  “Lexi gets a whole coach to herself?”

  “Could her ego fit in otherwise?”

  We laugh and Brian lifts my luggage into the storage bay. I put my guitar case in and take a moment to soak it all up.

  “Sorry I’m late,” I apologize. “Traffic. I hope I didn’t keep everyone waiting.”

  “You’re always late,” Brian replies, teasing, before adding, “but some people are always later.”

  I turn my head toward wherever he’s looking and see a black Mercedes with tinted windows pull up. A big guy who looks like a bear in a suit jumps out of the passenger side and runs to one of the rear doors. He opens it and stands upright, his eyes engaging in their usual rapid-scan for paparazzi and rabid fans. But he’ll find none here.

  Her leg comes out first, long and slender, a practiced motion, and then the rest of her. I do a double take. She’s dressed like a valley girl who just got a promotion. White jeans, red high-tops, and a turquoise off-the-shoulder t-shirt. If it wasn’t for the big sunglasses and the destroy-every-thing-in-its-path walk, she’d almost be approachable.

  Seconds later, I realize how wrong that idea is. She makes a beeline for me and Brian, entourage of black-suited bodyguards and slightly less attractive hangers-on following her in almost perfect V-formation. She takes her glasses off slowly.

  “So you’ve finally got your big break. Tagging along behind me. Scared, little girl?”

  “What’s there to be scared of?” I reply, noticing Brian is frozen in place. “I’m doing what I love, what I do best.”

  Lexi laughs as if I’m a pet that just did something cute.

  “I forgot, you’re all about ‘real’ music, aren’t you? So long as you get those audiences warmed up for the main event, we won’t have a problem.”

  “Just make sure you don’t get them cold again, Lexi.”

  She takes a step closer to me and I noticed her bodyguards shift closer. Are they supposed to protect her – or me? Maybe they know something I don’t.

  Her voice goes cruel and sharp, all the teasing gone. “Let me just remind you quickly why you’re here. It’s because you’re too small to do it without trying to catch some of my glow. It’s because you fucked a guy who took you this far. It’s because Brando wanted to win a bet – to win me. You’re an open-mic also-ran, a bargaining chip, and a third wheel. We both know you don’t belong here, so just try your best, and try not to fuck up my shows too badly, okay?” She leans back and flashes me that sexy mega-watt grin, sliding her sunglasses back on.

  Now I know what the bodyguards know: Lexi has the consistent, indefatigable habit of making you want to slap her. Maybe it’s her superpower.

  Before I can decide whether I want to hit her or give her a detailed, expletive-ridden account of her many flaws as a person, she’s buried in her entourage and heading away toward the other bus.

  “Uh. We should get going,” Brian says, his voice a little shaky.

  “Why didn’t you say anything?” I ask, as we climb onto the bus. “You’re not scared of her, are you?”

  He laughs nervously, then changes the subject clumsily.

  “Check this out! TV, PS4, awesome stereo,” he says, leading me toward the back where Paula and Aaron are already booting up the game console. “And a fully stocked fridge! This bus is pretty much better than most of the apartments I’ve lived in.”

  “Even those beds?” I say, nodding at the cramped bunks.

  He leans in and sniffs. “Yeah.”

  I punch his shoulder. “Eww, gross! I don’t even get why we have a bus though, aren’t we just going to stay in hotels?”

  “Most of the time,” a voice behind me says, unmistakeably strong and commanding. I spin around and see him, stepping onto the front of the bus and making his way back to me. The very sight of him getting me hot for too many reasons to pick one. “But there are a couple of dates that are going to be a squeeze without it. Better this than sleeping on a plane.”

  “What the hell are you doing here?” I ask tightly, as he nods Brian away toward the back of the bus.

  “What did you think I’d do? Follow you on a bicycle?”

  “You don’t need to be on the bus with us,” I say in a childish voice.

  Brando draws himself close, squeezing beside me in the slim aisle between the beds.

  “I’m supposed to make sure everything is alright, that everyone’s happy. I can only do that when I’m on the ground with them.”

  The bus lurches forward, and Brando falls against me, my face almost in his neck, my hands raising up to hold his chest, his arm grabbing my back to stop me from falling.

  Can hate make you want to fuck someone even more? Because I’ve never wanted to tear Brando’s shirt off more than I do now, in this cramped, moving bus, and ride the weirdly thrilling mix of emotions I’m feeling by holding him to me.

  “Well it’s not alright,” I say, trying to keep my voice steady as he pulls himself back away from me far slower than he could, “and I’m definitely not happy.”

  He leans in close, his lips against my ear.

  “Then it’s my job to make you happy.”

  I shove him back as suddenly and as reluctantly as I shove the hotness I’m feeling back down deep inside of me.

  “I’ll never be happy with you, Brando. Never.”

  I spin on my heel and storm off toward the back of the bus. Because right now, that’s as far away as I can get.

  22

  Brando

  HALEY’S first show is in San Francisco. Thousands of people, completely sold out, and the news that she was supporting Lexi only made it out a couple of weeks before. It’ll be a baptism of fire, not least because until now Haley’s only played for an audience at open mics, one showcase, and a TV spot. It won’t help that she’s spent the last month cooped up in a studio with Josh. Still, she made it through this far with my help, and I’ll be damned if I’m not gonna help her nail these gigs – even if she doesn’t want me to.

  I turn up at the soundcheck early to wait for her, only to find that she’s even earlier. I watch her guide her band as they blast through a song, and goof around with the ending, turning the song into a silly parody of one of Lexi’s songs. I start smiling, but something about the way she shares the laughter with her guitarist makes me drop the smile pretty quick.

  When they’re done laughing and checking with the engineer in the stands that everything’s okay, I walk straight to Haley – but my eyes are fixed on the guitarist. He gives me a weak wave, before pretending to have somewhere he needs to be and leaving. Haley turns around to see what scared him.

  “Oh,” she says, as if I’m a major disappointment.

  “You guys sounded good.”

  “Easy to sound good in an empty theatre,” she says sardonically. I try to keep my hands to myself as she bends over to put her guitar in its case.

  When she stands back up and looks at me I lose myself for a second. She’s got a new kind of sexiness I’m seeing for the first time. If the girl I met at the open mic was sexy because she was so innocent, naïve, and keen to see the world, this new Haley is sexy for a whole new set of reasons. No more of the round, whites-of-the-eyes looks that she used to get; now they’re hard, like two pools of suppressed fire. The lips that once curled outward as if tasting something for the first time are now tight and ripe. Even the way she carries herself now is different. No more hanging her head, hiding behind her hair, standing sideways: now she stands with her shoulders back, her chin high, and it’s impossible not to notice the swell of her breasts, the roundness of her hips.

  Once upon a time everything about her said ‘take me, I’m yours,’ and now it says ‘you’re mine, and I’ll take what I want.’ I think back to the time we fucked in the studio, my head between her trembling thighs, her fragile body shaking under my hands, and realize I’d give anything to taste her again, th
is new Haley.

  Before I can stop myself, I say something stupid. As usual. “I’m sorry about how this turned out.”

  She folds her arms, shifts her weight onto one leg, and I have to look away to stop my cock from reacting to the way the line of her ass syncs so perfectly with the outline of her lifted tits. “Are you?”

  “Look Haley, I know—”

  I’m interrupted by the sudden onrush of Lexi’s people to the stage. More than a dozen colorfully-dressed men and women with flamboyant haircuts emerging from the sides and taking up spots with the precision of a military operation.

  “Do dancers need to soundcheck too?” Haley says, noticing them as well.

  I take her by the arm and lead her off to the side, a sense of joy spiking in me when I see she doesn’t resist – little victories. We stand by one of the quieter corners in the backstage area and Haley promptly assumes her ‘I’ll listen but I’ll also judge’ position again.

  “I know you don’t believe anything I say anymore,” I continue, sounding like I’m not pleading, but looking every bit the beggar, “but you’re the best musician I’ve ever worked with.”

  I stand aside slightly to let a couple more dancers run to the stage, and when I look back at Haley she’s still glaring at me – only there’s a little more softness in her eyes than there was a second ago. She doesn’t say anything, she’s expecting more. Fine.

  I’d beg all night for her.

  “Yes, I made a bet. And yes, it was to get Lexi back. But do you think I’d be here if that was all it was? I mean, I won the bet, I got Lexi back, I got you a hit record, I should be happy, right?” I point at my face. “Do I sound like a happy man right now? Or do I sound more like a whining idiot who’s desperate to fix the dumbest mistake he ever made?”