I turned my head and saw Candice looking at me.
With disgust.
Perfect and beautiful disgust.
I pointed to her. “There she is. I need her over here or else I’m going to keep going…”
I pointed down to the bulge in my jeans.
Two other people stood up and walked out of the cafe.
The guy who wouldn’t stop talking - Greg? Grey? Gregory? Gregon…? - went up to Candice and touched her arm. He whispered something to her and the look of disgust became hate.
I knew he told her to get me off the table.
So how are we going to do that, sweetie? Should I have you take your shirt off? Or maybe make you wear nothing but your apron?
Candice disappeared into the back of the cafe for a few seconds.
Then she came rushing toward me.
Carrying a towel.
I laughed.
Was she going to swat me with the towel?
Get the fuck out of…
At the table, Candice dropped the towel and showed me a big knife.
A really big knife.
“Get down now,” she whispered.
“You wouldn’t stab the biggest rock star in the world, would you, sweetie?”
She got even closer to me and moved the tip of the knife right to my balls.
No, it wasn’t the first time a pretty girl had a knife to my dick and (or) balls.
But I was on a table and she had the position to cause some damage.
“Get off the fucking table,” she whispered.
“Fine,” I said. “All you had to do was ask.”
I jumped off the table.
Candice picked up the knife and hid it under the towel.
When she turned, I touched her arm.
“Wait,” I said.
“What?” Candice growled.
“I needed you.”
“For what?”
I looked at the table and grinned. “My table is dirty. It looks like someone was walking on it.”
Candice’s face looked so beautiful and disgusted.
Instead of wiping the table, she spit on it.
She walked away.
I nodded.
Now that’s a woman worth more than just one night.
* * *
“I’m not really all that bad,” I said. “I just like to have fun.”
Toby lifted his phone off the table and within two seconds he had a picture of me standing on the table, making a lewd gesture to my dick.
I shook my head.
“I don’t know about that, Toby,” I said.
“It was right here!” Toby yelled.
He slapped the table, drawing the attention of the last two people in the cafe.
They looked for a quick second and then went back to their laptops.
“This indie shit music rotted my brain,” I said. “I don’t remember a thing.”
“Do we have to sit through this?”
I looked across the table to the pencil neck in a tie. Everything perfectly groomed on one, while the other guy looked like he belonged in an old school porn video. What the fuck was it with these lawyers who loved the feathered hair or bushy ‘staches and shit? This guy looked fucking terrible.
“Fuck you,” I said to the lawyers.
Toby leaned over the table and looked at me. “Dex. They’re here to save your ass. Okay? SLECK RECORDS wants to pull out.”
I laughed.
“What’s so funny?” Toby asked.
The perfectly groomed pencil neck said, “I believe it’s because you said pull out. Meaning, right before ejaculation, you pull-”
“I know what that is,” Toby said. “Thank you, Franklin.”
“Franklin?” I asked.
“Franklin and Barry,” Toby said.
“Where’s the third one?” I asked. “You know… it’s usually three names for a law firm…”
“They’re not a law firm,” Toby said. “They’re on retainer by the record company. And they’re here to talk about what you did.”
“Which is what?”
“You were arrested twice in the same night, Dex,” Barry said. He had a stern voice. “you were bailed out of two different police stations within hours of one another. Charges are pending. And with the record you have…”
Franklin reached out. “It’s nothing we can’t handle.”
“Good,” I said. “I fucking love this. Get it done, boys.”
I started to stand but Toby sat me back down. “It’s not that easy.”
“Fuck,” I said.
“Fuck,” Toby said.
“You fucked up,” Franklin said. “And we love fuck ups. They’re our favorite. But…”
“Always a but,” I said.
“Can I get you gentlemen anything else?” a sweet voice chimed in. It was like a breath of heaven as I turned my head, knowing it was Candice.
“We’re perfect,” Toby said. “And thank you for letting us sit here and talk. And I again apologize about earlier. If there’s any business that was lost…”
“I’ll pay for it,” I said. “I’ll stuff the register. You don’t mind one dollar bills covered in glitter, right, sweetie?”
“Christ, Dex,” Toby said as he looked up at the ceiling.
Barry and Franklin were stone faced.
Candice stared at me. “You know it’s only cool if you’re giving those one dollar bills out. Not keeping them. Not putting your own glitter on them. And what kind of man has glitter?”
“A rock star,” I said.
“And what do you need glitter for?” Candice asked.
“No,” Toby said.
He lowered his head to the table and hit it on purpose three times.
I grinned. “Well, sweetie, I like to cover my balls in glitter. That way after the show I can play a game called disco balls…”
Candice shook her head and walked away, her face bright red.
“What the hell are you trying to do?” Toby asked.
“I think we need to have an even more serious talk,” Barry said.
“Like what?” I asked.
“You need to figure something out, Dex.”
“Barry, wait,” Franklin said.
“No,” Barry said. “This guy is laughing in our faces.”
“They all do,” Franklin said.
“There’s four more of him,” Toby said. “Buckle up.”
“I’ll keep it simple,” Barry said. “You need to do something, Dex. What? I’m not sure. But something. You need to take the attention off of this crazy side of yours. Without it, we can’t do our job. I’m not going to stand representing you while you’re acting like this.”
“That’s a decent point,” Franklin said.
“So what do I do? Build a park for kids? Donate to a school or something? Clean trash off the highway?”
“That’s where you’re headed with these charges piling up, Dex,” Toby said.
“Fuck that,” I said. “We’ve got songs to record. Shows to play.”
“Not at this rate,” Franklin said.
I stood up.
“Fuck this,” I said.
“Dex, just listen,” Toby said.
I walked away from the table and left the cafe.
I climbed onto my motorcycle and made the fucker growl. I throttled it, making her scream as loud as I wanted to make Candice scream.
Then I took off, getting the fuck away from Toby, lawyers, and whatever bullshit charges that were waiting for me.
My only regret was not stealing a kiss from Candice.
* * *
It had been my idea to rent the warehouse and turn it into a rehearsal spot for the band. Jamming at each other’s houses had its ups and downs, but there was nothing like having a real space. We filled it with a shit ton of instruments, recording equipment, plenty of couches, and we got some really cool lights installed on the ceiling so the annoying buzz of the fluorescent lights didn’t drive us too crazy.
; I probably spent more time there than the others.
It was a home away from home.
It took me back to the earlier days, before the fame. All the shit places we would find to practice and live in. Waking up in some room in some house, trying to find some clothes and maybe a couple slices of pizza to swipe before darting out only to have the midday sun punch me so hard in the face it was almost impossible to open my eyes.
And all we wanted was more.
More of everything.
The hunger and the greed were the lifeblood of the band and the music. And anyone who wanted to stand in the way ended up flat on their ass.
Including these legal issues.
SLECK RECORDS wanted the band, signed the band, and they’d been a pain in the ass since day one. First they rode the hell out of Nash over his tabloid reputation. And now it was my turn. Except I was facing charges. Charges meant lawyers, court, judges, talking, defending, convincing, listening… fuck, I’d end up having to wear nice clothes to face it all too.
“Fuck,” I whispered as I punched in the code to the rehearsal space.
I swore it was the most desolate building on earth.
It looked like some steel container you’d see on a dock.
And you’d never know what was inside unless you… well, were invited inside.
I opened the door to find the rest of the band waiting for me.
Jay and Reed strumming acoustic guitars. Reed’s bass stood next to him on a stand, waiting her turn. Sab looked passed out on one of the couches, his right arm over his face, his left foot on the floor.
And Nash sat on a table and stared right at me.
He looked pissed.
But then he smiled.
“How was your night?” he asked me as he slid off the table.
I walked right by them and went to my guitar. I flicked the power button on the amp and sat down as I strummed the guitar. The tone was clean, deep, with a good chunk of reverb to keep the sound bouncing. I climbed my fingers up the neck of the guitar and bent a note as far as I could before answering Nash’s question.
“They set me up,” I said.
“Who did?” Sab asked as he spoke from the couch without moving his arm off his face.
“Those fucking assholes,” I said. “I was at Dicky’s. Minding my own business. Besides Destiny…”
“Destiny?” Reed asked. “Never mind. Sorry I said that.”
“Not what you think,” I said. Then I puckered my lips. “Shit. It is what you think. Just a fake name thing. I was sitting there while she went to the bathroom and then these guys jumped me. They set it up so the cops would be there as I fought back. Cops took me in.”
“That was one of two,” Nash said.
“The second one… I was just giving Destiny the attention her man wasn’t.”
“Wait a second,” Sab said as he finally sat up. “You met two women named Destiny in the same night?”
“Shit, that’s destiny for sure then,” Reed said.
“No,” I said. “I called the second one Destiny. To complete the night. Couldn’t stop thinking about her, so I replaced her.”
“That’s messed up,” Nash said. “Even for us. That’s serial killer thinking.”
“Nobody died,” I said. “Except my hard dick. You know how long it’s been-”
“Did you talk to the lawyers?” Reed asked.
“You knew about that?” I threw back at him.
“Toby told us he was meeting with you,” Nash said. “Then he slipped it in at the last second. We would have been there for you, Dex.”
“What did they say?” Sab asked.
“I may have caused a scene,” I said. “Used some language. Walked out.”
“Fuck,” Nash said. “If the charges hold up…”
“We don’t get charged,” I said. I stood up. “We’re fucking rock stars, Nash. We’re Filthy Line. We don’t get charged. We don’t get into real trouble. We don’t go to jail. Come on…”
“Can I say something here?” Jay asked.
“Sure,” I said. “Can’t wait to hear your opinion on this.”
“Someone is fucking with me,” he said.
We all looked at him.
“Fucking with you how?” I asked.
“There’s a story going around that I fucked a pineapple,” Jay said.
“You did what?” Reed asked.
I started to laugh. “Shit… that’s a crazy story…”
“How did we go from Dex ending up in jail to Jay fucking a pineapple?” Nash asked.
“Rock stars,” Sab said.
“Let’s just play something here,” I said. “Let’s write something fucking awesome.”
I stepped on my distortion pedal and let my guitar growl.
I stood there and the growl sound turned into screeching feedback.
Jay walked to his guitar.
Sab got behind his drum kit.
Reed traded his acoustic guitar for his bass.
And Nash stood at the microphone.
I started to play a riff I had been messing with for a little while. It was sloppy and catchy. Kind of like me…
Sab started to step on his hi-hat pedal, finding the pace of the riff.
He added in some drums and it started to sound like a song.
I turned to face Jay and it took him all of five seconds to pick up what I was playing. He mimicked the riff a few times and then started to play something on his own. Which gave the song a true sound. A good sound. That Filthy Line sound.
Reed started slamming on his bass and that filled in the gaps, where the drums and guitars couldn’t fill.
And just like that… we had the beginning of a new song.
Nash looked around at us, feeling the song, and then he waved at us to stop playing.
“That’s good,” he said.
“Can’t just play that for four minutes,” Reed said.
“Then write a fucking riff,” I said.
“I’ll get something,” Jay said.
“Let me work on the beat too,” Sab said. “Can we throw that down on a track quick?”
“Yeah, no problem,” Nash said. “This is good. We needed this. Maybe we can get this done, recorded, and throw it to Toby to throw to SLECK to release as a surprise to our fans. Take the heat off things.”
Nash looked at me.
Since when did getting arrested become such a bad thing?
“We need a name for the new tune,” Reed said.
I grinned at Nash and nodded.
“What?” he asked.
“Let’s call the new song… Destiny.”
4
Candice
Chateau de Cali.
I snorted to myself as I stepped from the fake, custom wood deck down to the even more custom stone pathway. Not that I was in any place to ever judge anyone on their life, but I wondered why people with money spent a lot of money to sometimes make it look like they had no money.
The stone walkway to and through the rose garden was made up of ugly, uneven stones. The path wasn’t straight. Parts were overgrown - on purpose.
Designed to give it some kind of look.
Dr. Keith did some traveling in Europe before medical school and he decided he wanted this kind of stone pathway and garden when he finally settled down. And by settling down, that meant meeting my sister, falling madly in love with her, and that was that. She pushed him through med school and now Keith was a pretty famous ortho surgeon, often being the guy dealing with pro athletes.
I reaped the benefits of his strange love for the rose garden.
Nobody walked through it.
It was just for show, something to talk about.
I sipped a cup of coffee and quite honestly wished it was a real drink.
Gregor made Betty go to a store to find a frame and then pick up the copy of the picture of him and Dex. He wanted it right on the wall next to the register. I wasn’t a fan of that but it wasn’t my business, right?
&
nbsp; The only thing I could hope for was that seeing Dex on the wall in a frame would maybe keep him away from the cafe.
Watching the way he was around people was more than upsetting.
It was gross.
He was a total douche of the worst kind. Thinking the world revolved around himself with no care for anyone else.
Not to mention the fact that he was at the cafe to meet with his lawyers.
Lawyers…
And if they didn’t think I wasn’t listening, oh well.
I may have hated the whole famous thing but if they were going to sit there in the cafe I worked at and talk about legal stuff, I wanted to hear.
I refused to even think about looking Dex up online either. No way I was going to dive head first into the nonsense of gossip.
So I sipped my coffee and walked toward the rose garden.
I felt snooty calling it the rose garden, but Keith had a sign made that said so.
And that wasn’t a lie either.
A fucking wood plank hanging crooked off a pole that said rose garden. Along with the date he and Cali met, got married, and the day Carter was born.
My little nephew, who was the spitting image of me as a kid, which was kind of weird. Well, it wasn’t weird, not until one night when Cali had too much wine and tried to make a joke that came off as too true and crude about me and Keith sleeping together behind her back.
Everyone laughed it off, but is sure as hell made it so much more uncomfortable living in the basement of their massive house, always wondering if my sister actually thought that was real for a second.
I looked at the sign to the rose garden and started to laugh.
This wasn’t me.
This wasn’t where I was supposed to be living.
At all.
I missed my old place.
My little apartment on the third floor that smelled like chicken broth and burning garlic. All the little quirks that made it home and made it mine…
“Didn’t know you were home.”
I turned my head and chased away anything that felt like tears and plastered a smile on my face.
Cali had a good heart, but if you cried near her, she would find a way to explain why it was your fault. It was done out of love and most of the time she was right, but what about someone just being there in silence while you felt like shit for a second?
A FILTHY Engagement: a filthy line novel Page 3
