“No offense,” I look back out to the empty arena. “But I’ve been waiting ten years for to see you guys live. I’d really like to experience it from out here.” When I finally look back at Eric, he’s smiling. “Not that I don’t appreciate everything you’ve done for me already today. Because I do. I just…”
“It’s alright,” Eric says, pulling a laminate out of his back pocket and jumping down from the stage to stand in front of me. Placing it over my head, he pulls my hair free of the lanyard and lets it fall down my back. “Claim whatever spot you want before they open the doors.” I can’t help the smile that grows across my face. “Hey, Steve!” he shouts, and one of the security guards turns to face us. “This is Ty. She goes anywhere she wants, yeah?” The security guard nods.
“Thank you,” I say. “For everything.”
“It was a pleasure to meet you, Ty,” he bends at the waist, takes my hand, and lifts it to his mouth. “Thank you for an…unforgettable evening.” He places a soft kiss to my knuckles before standing back to his full height and letting my hand fall back to my side.
I watch until he disappears from view—my knight in supple leather—before walking the length of the stage twice and settling on a spot slightly off-center to the left, telling myself it’s not so I can see Eric better as the sold-out crowd begins to flood the floor around me.
An hour later, the lights go out, sending the entire arena into darkness, and my heart rate skyrockets in anticipation as the crowd screams and cheers around me. People on the floor press closer to the rail, and I can see movement on stage as Kevin and Max take their spots stage left and stage right, respectively, and Eric climbs onto his platform and settles in behind his kit.
The opening three beats of his kick drum hit in time with the beat of my heart, and the stage lights come up as Max hammers out the opening riff to “Black,” and the crowd goes absolutely batshit.
Right before he comes in with the vocals, Josh is launched into the air from below the stage, landing in a crouch with catlike reflexes as he flawlessly hits the opening notes, and goosebumps cover every inch of my skin.
It's finally here. The moment I have been waiting for for over ten years, and it is absolutelyeverythingI dreamed it would be. I close my eyes and swallow the sting of tears that burns the back of my throat as the sound pumping through the speakers moves through every cell of my body.
When I open my eyes again, I realize that while I should be tracking Josh across the stage as he turns the crowd to putty in his hands, my eyes are fixed on Eric. Studying the way his body moves effortlessly as he pounds out note after note. The way his face is always relaxed, no matter how complicated the patterns get. The way he loses himself in the music and starts singing along, then catches himself and smiles and shakes his head as if to remind himself to focus. The little tricks he does with the sticks when he doesn’t think anyone is looking. The way the muscles in his upper body flex under the cutoff black t-shirt he’s wearing with each flick of his wrist or crossing of his arms.
He is so beautiful it hurts.
As if he knows exactly where I am, his eyes find mine as he plays the last few notes of the opening song, and I swear every single person in attendance disappears around me. He smiles and I look away first, pretending to focus on Josh as he addresses the crowd for the first time, throwing my hands upto cup my mouth and shouting louder in response to whatever he just asked.
I can feel Eric’s eyes on me the entire time, even when the lights dim once more, and they begin the next song. I look back up at him, and he pops a stick into the air, catching it again without breaking eye contact. He shoots a cocky grin and a wink in my direction, and I bite back a smile and roll my eyes, focusing my attention back to Josh and singing the lyrics to my favorite song at the top of my lungs.
The next seventy minutes pass by in a blur, and when they all exit the stage signaling the encore, I’m devastated. My feet hurt from standing, my ribs are sore from being pressed into the rail by the thousand people behind me, and my vocal cords are fried from screaming every single one of the lyrics, but I’m not ready for it to end.
The band re-emerges to play the last five songs of the set faster than I would have liked. The lights come back up as they take their final bows and Kevin and Max start tossing guitar picks into the crowd. Eric waves, tossing a few sticks into the crowd before bending on one knee at the edge of the stage in front of me. He pulls two sticks out of his back pocket—the ones he’d used and tucked there before stalking toward the crowd—and holds them out toward me. I reach for them but stop before I can pull them from his hand, because there, on his wrist, is the bracelet he took from me in his dressing room before sound check.
I look up at him and he winks before smiling and releasing the sticks from his grip. I pull them away and he nods toward the side of the stage. A silent invitation. I nod once and his smile widens. He stands, raises his hands once more to theadoring crowd, disappears below the stage, and the only thing I can think is,what the hell am I doing?
FOUR
Ty
? Creep - Radiohead ?
My body is still humming with leftover energy from the concert, the last vestiges of adrenaline still clinging to me. It’s almost one in the morning, and I should be tired, but I’m not. Not when I just attended the best show I’ve ever been to. Not when Eric Ambrose is sitting across from me.
I shouldn’t be here with him. I shouldn’t be anywhere near him. Someone who exists in a world far removed from mine. He’s a rock god, and I’m a fan. A face in the crowd. One of thousands.
And yet, here we are.
I’m sitting across from him in a diner a few blocks from Madison Square Garden, where I’m sipping on the largest milkshake I’ve ever seen in my life because I’m too fucking nervous to eat real food.
Eric, on the other hand, is completely unbothered, shoveling scrambled eggs into his mouth like he hasn’t eaten in months. Watching it makes him seem so…normal. So human. Like he isn’t the same mysterious, untouchable, and electric man who was just on stage a few hours ago.
The conversation flows easier than I expect, the tension in my shoulders slowly unwinding as the minutes pass. I try not to get caught up in the way he laughs, the way his eyes crinkle at the corners when he teases me. I’ve been trying to play it cool, and had so far been successful, until my clumsy ass manages to knock over the glass of water the waitress brought with my shake, the ice-cold liquid splashing down my front. I gasp, jerking back, but it’s too late. My shirt and jacket cling to my skin, wet and freezing. I shimmy out of my jacket and set it on the bench beside me.
Eric, of course, looks way too entertained. “Damn, Ty. That’s twice in one day.”
I blink at him. “Twice?”
His grin is nothing short of wicked. “That I’ve had the pleasure of getting you out of your clothes.”
My jaw drops, heat rushing to my face before I see the mischief in his eyes. He’s messing with me, and for the first time tonight, I actually laugh. A real, genuine laugh. It bubbles up before I can stop it, and when I look at him again, something shifts between us.
“That was the worst attempt at flirting I’ve ever heard,” I say, wiping at my shirt with a few napkins.
