“You’re living on a bus with four hot as sin rock stars. Stop complaining,” my sister quips, lovingly.
I stick my tongue out at her and she cackles. Technically, I'm living out of hotel rooms and I haven’t told anyone that I’m no longer on the hot rock star bus.
Penn apparently told Liv and she was more distraught than I was when it happened. She sent me a string of snarky text messages that she really wanted to send to Travis, but couldn’t because she’s too sweet.
All the guys have asked me to come back, but I’m not ready to tuck my tail just yet.
“Ok, I must go now. Love you all!” I blow my family a kiss before ending the call
“Now what the shit is this?”I mumble to myself, staring at the outdated yellow machines, the musty smell making my nose twitch.
This is not how it looked online. Whoever is in charge of their marketing is a freaking liar. I scope out the walls, searching for directions on how to work this thing. I know how to do laundry, but I do not know what the hell this machine is. It doesn’t look like any washer I’ve ever seen. I hold out my debit card, but there’s no place for the chip. Not even a place to swipe. I slide it back into the pocket of my leggings and huff.
The door chimes, sending my attention that way. An unsuspecting man walks in with a small backpack. He heads to one of the machines and pulls a baggie of quarters from his book bag. I sneak closer, watching. He adds the quarters into the slot and starts hitting buttons before dumping his clothes in. Quarters? Who uses those anymore? I haven’t carried change on me…ever.
Once he’s done, he takes a seat by the window and starts scrolling on his phone. I wander around, scanning the place for an atm, but there isn’t one. What the hell?
“Need some help?” the man asks.
“Huh? Oh, I was just looking for an ATM.”
He chuckles. “Sorry, they don’t have one of those here. It’s pretty old-fashioned,” he says with an easy smile. He’s cute. Dark hair, trimmed beard, and light brown eyes.
“Right.” My hands go to my hips as I debate my nextmove. Seems like I need to find an ATM and get some quarters, or go another day without underwear.
“Here.” He digs into his bag again, producing a hefty number of coins.
My hands fly up, almost in defense. “Oh, no. I can’t take that.”
He shakes his head, holding out a fistful of quarters. “It’s no problem. Take them.”
I don’t like owing anyone favors, especially a man, a strange man. As if he knows where my thoughts are going, he stands, moving to the machine closest to where my bag is resting on the floor. Tossing the quarters wordlessly, he gets the machine going and opens the lid for me. “There. Don’t let it go to waste. It’s bad for the environment.”
I smile. “Thank you. That’s very nice of you.” I dump all my clothes in at once. Typically, I’d separate everything, but I’m not going to take any more of his money. This will do.
He takes his seat, going back to his phone. I sit a few chairs away and pull out my own to check the band’s socials. I haven’t told them yet, but it’s projected that tonight's show will be sold out. 80 percent of tickets were sold during presale, another 10 percent after, leaving only a select few to be sold at the door. Damn, I’m proud of them.
As I open the Instagram draft I was working on last night, my volume is up, and blares loudly through the quiet space. “Oops,” I say, sending the guy an apologetic smile.
“Is that Loose Threads?”
“Yes!” I reply a little too enthusiastically, then lower my voice. “It is. You like them?”
“Hell yeah. They’re playing in town tonight. My buddy and I have tickets.”
“Really?!” I ask, then an idea pops into my head. “Would you like an upgrade?”
His forehead wrinkles in confusion. “What do you mean?”
“I work for them. I could get you guys a quick meet andgreet after the show. You know, for the free quarters.” I normally don’t throw my weight around with the guys, but he did a nice thing for me. Good karma and all.
“Are you for real?” he asks, eyes going wide.
“I am.” I type a quick message to Calvin with my demand. He’s going to love this. I snicker to myself, pissing him off brings me joy.
“Hell yeah! Wow. Thank you.”
“What’s your name?”
