“He sounds like a smart man.”
“He is,” I agree. “But at the time, I was young and determined to make it big. I kept my job at the store and took some business classes on the side. My boss, his friend, convinced him to let me see where the music could take me as long as I got a degree. The store is now technically mine, but per our contract, he makes the major business decisions and leaves me in a management role. He signed it over the day I got my diploma in business. That was good enough for my dad, because he knew I’d have a stable job if the music industry chewed me up and spit me out like it did to him. But so far, I feel like I’ve been pretty lucky when it comes to my music. And even though the store is mine, I’m still just the manager until Rick retires or my music takes off. It allows me to focus on the music instead of being completely tied up in the day-to-day logistics of running and owning a business.”
“I have a feeling you’ll be taking off real soon,” he says, pressing a kiss to my shoulder and making me giggle from the softness.
“If it takes off, great. If not, it’s still something I’m going to do and love. Like I said, you don’t choose music—or any art form, for that matter. It chooses you. You’re just not fulfilled unless you’re creating. Everything else seems boring and mind-numbing.”
“I think I know the feeling,” he says, rolling on top of me.
“You do?” I ask, running my fingers through his dark hair.
He nods. “It’s like a craving you can’t get out of your system no matter how hard you try.”
“Exactly.”
“That’s how I’ve felt since I met you.” He leans forward and presses his lips to mine. They’re soft but strong and full of certainty. The butterflies in my stomach take flight and I wonder how he’s managed to wrap me around his finger so tightly in just a couple of days. I guess this is the stuff love songs are made of. No drink—no drug—is this powerful. This chemical pumping through my body overwhelms it all. It engulfs me and I’m powerless to stop it even though I know I should’ve never allowed it.
Four
Daniel
“I’m telling you, man, you need to get some space,” Calvin says as we’re eating lunch at my desk. “This is happening too fast. Someone is going to get hurt,” he warns.
I roll my neck to stretch my tense muscles. “I know, but I don’t want to stop it. I want to spend every free minute I have wrapped up in her.”
He nods. “I get it. I do. When Piper and I first started hooking up, I was preparing myself for the worst. I told you how she’s my brother’s best friend, but what I didn’t tell you was how she had always been desperately in love with him.”
I feel my eyes stretch wide. “You married your brother’s best friend who was in love with him?” I ask to make sure I heard him correctly.
He nods. “Yep, so as you can imagine, I thought she was just settling with me—that since she couldn’t have him in the way she wanted, she was taking what she could get. It fucked with my head for a while. But even though I knew all of this, I still couldn’t deny her. There was just something about her that drew me in.”
“Why are you telling me this? It obviously worked out well for you. You married the woman, had a child with her, and are about to leave the big city to open a smaller practice in your hometown. You got everything you wanted. You don’t think I could end up the same?”
“I’m not saying you wouldn’t. I’m just saying the odds are against you, just like they were against me. It worked out for me somehow. Only time will tell if it will work in your favor or not. And there is a chance it won’t. You just need to be prepared for it.”
I nod. “I know. I know how bad this could be. I mean, she could get signed and tour the world. I’d get left behind and stuck watching her amazing life from the sidelines. But what if it did work out?”
“How do you see it working out? I mean, if she gets signed, will you go on tour with her?”
I frown because I haven’t really thought about it. “I can’t do that. I have responsibilities here.”
“Exactly.” He points out. “Even if you end up together, you still won’t be together. I just want you to consider every angle of how this could play out before you get blinded by the ending. The end is a long way off. You still have the middle of the story to overcome.”
Fuck. I guess he’s right. Luna and I are more doomed to fail than I thought. And you’d think I’d keep this in the back of my head, however, when I walk into the bar and see her up on stage, it all flies out the window. The next thing I know, her set is over and she’s pulling me off to the side of the stage, where she jumps in my arms and presses her mouth to mine. She kisses me hard and fast. It’s rushed and hurried and completely raw. She knows how badly this could end just as much as I do, but when we’re together, none of that matters. Only the here and now.
“Come on. I only have 10 minutes,” she says, pulling me into a small restroom just off the stage.
I lock the door as I free myself with one hand. When I turn to face her, she’s already got her skirt pulled up, panties dropped, and she’s bending over the sink. I push inside her and everything else is gone. Her bandmates, her fans on the dance floor, our possible bad ending—all of those things couldn’t be further from my mind as I’m burying myself in her and making her scream my name.
When the band goes back out on stage, I take a seat in a booth and watch as everyone’s in awe of her. I can’t help but smile and feel proud of her and all her hard work. I don’t think she even knows how special she is.
“Hey, man. Can I sit with you?” someone asks, stealing my attention away from my girl on the stage.
I look up to find Wesley, her ex. I shrug. “Sure, I guess.”
He sits across from me and looks at her on the stage before glancing back to me. “She’s great, isn’t she?”
I nod in agreement. “She is.”
“How are the two of you holding up?”
“Good—really good,” I say around a smile as I think of the things we just did in that dirty restroom.
He laughs. “Yeah, I remember that phase too.”
For some reason I don’t quite understand, that really pisses me off. “You know things are over between you two, right? There’s no getting back together. Not while I’m in the picture anyway.”
He nods “I know. And I’m cool. She’s a great girl—she really is. But I meant what I said. We didn’t work together and I’m not trying to force myself between you or break you up. I’m simply here because it’s my job. That, and I really do like the band. I’m hoping they can pull off this meeting on Monday. They deserve to get signed.”
“There’s a meeting on Monday?” The band’s talked about getting signed someday, but I didn’t realize it was actually about to happen.
He nods. “Yeah, they have a meeting with Hot Vinyl Records. They’re going to play them some of their live stuff and hopefully seal the deal. If they get signed, their lives are going to take off. They’ll be busy making their first album, doing smaller shows to promote it, opening for big, famous bands, and then they’ll hit the road for their first tour. It’ll be amazing and fast-paced. I hope you’re in it for the long haul.”