Yeah, I want to ‘talk’ to him too, my drunk, dirty mind says to me. Guess I found my way into the gutter after all.
“I won’t desert you, though. But for god’s sake, stop talking until you get a hold of yourself.” Becca is talking to me but looking over at the band the entire time. Not that I blame her, they’re all pretty attractive.
While I’m sitting, watching the band interact with their fans, I realize Connor looks so much more confident than he ever did when we were kids. He talks to everyone, takes the time to take selfies with them, signs whatever they want, and genuinely seems interested in their conversations. All the while, he continues to look over at me with a curious smile on his face. Every time he looks at me, my heart speeds up and the butterflies in my stomach do a little dance.
Chapter 15
Connor - Unfortunate Stories and More Running Away
When the meet and greet is over, I invite Alex and her friend to come with us to the bar for the after party. I should have just skipped it and taken Alex somewhere that it could be just the two of us, but I don’t think she would have agreed to that. Not sure what I was doing back there when I nearly kissed her, but I want to do it again, and I’d probably take it a lot farther if we were alone. I know that ripping off my shirt and giving it to her was probably a dirty trick, but I also know that she liked what she saw so I’m considering it to be one of those ‘all’s fair in love and war’ kind of things.
“So we finally get to meet the famous Alex. You guys dated when you were what? 15? 16?” Travis seems to be fascinated by my history with Alex. They all know that she is the girl behind most of my songs, the only one who’s ever gotten close to me. It’s kind of embarrassing to be 35 and have had only one serious girlfriend. And for that to have been when we were only kids. “Did you fuck?”
“None of your fucking business,” I snap. We didn’t, but that’s none of his concern. There’s a reason I’ve never told them that, and that’s because I could never break her trust that way. Even when I didn’t think I’d ever see her again, I knew that I couldn’t betray her. “Now, can we move on to more important things? Like this umbrella thing Devon was talking about earlier? I need to know why he’s concerned for the well-being of his delicate heinie?” I change the subject just as the server drops off the drinks we ordered. We’re here often enough that she knows to put them on my tab.
The after party is being hosted at Rough Mix, the bar we used to play in when we were just starting out with Sleeping Dogs. We always like to come here when we’re in town, and tonight’s no exception. We owe a lot to Bill, the owner, and we do whatever we can to help him when we’re here. Not that he wants to accept our help, we usually have to force it on him.
“Ha! I can tell you all about that.” Alex’s photographer friend Becca jumps up from her spot beside Johnny. Becca reminds me a little of Johnny, actually. They have a similar vibe, with all the tattoos. What I’d thought was a design on her shirt earlier is actually a full chest piece. Johnny’s upper body is completely covered in tattoos, although he doesn’t normally show it.
“Becca, no!” Alex looks a little embarrassed.
“It’s ok Alex, I’ll be nice,” Becca continues with the story. “So Alex’s boyfriend—”
“Wait,” I interrupt. “You have a boyfriend?” I look at Alex, but she’s avoiding my gaze. She is clearly attracted to me. Does she feel guilty about that because of a boyfriend? I’d like to say I’ll be an honourable guy and step back, but fuck that dude. Alex walked into my life again tonight, and I know I won’t be able to watch her walk away again. She’s mine now, whether she has a boyfriend or not.
Becca shushes me. “Quiet dude, it’s story time.” She goes on, “Alex’s boyfriend Derek was balls deep in some chick when Alex came home from work today. Of course Alex didn’t know this when she got there. She thought someone had broken in because the door wasn’t locked, so she called me for backup and grabbed the umbrella to use as a weapon before investigating the apartment. While she was looking for the burglar, she realized what was actually happening.”
I’m only half listening to the story because I’m too busy looking at Alex. She has the same dark blonde hair that I remember, and I bet if she let it down it would go all the way down her back in soft waves. She’s not overly made up at all. If I had to guess, I’d say she wasn’t wearing make-up, but I saw her put something that smelled like vanilla on her lips. I’m playing with the loose little curls on the back of her neck and thinking about how I’d like to taste those vanilla lips when I feel her tense up suddenly. I think I’m the one making her uncomfortable until I turn my attention back to what Becca is saying and realize that’s what has her freezing up.
“So Derek is doing this girl doggy style, just pumping away, totally oblivious to anything around him.” she’s humping the air now to demonstrate the guy’s erratic rhythm.
No wonder Alex is tense. This is probably a really uncomfortable story to listen to, especially after having lived through it just today. And if Becca’s reenactment is at all accurate, it’s likely been a long time since Alex had any good sex. I find my mind wandering to how I plan to fix that as soon as possible. My dick loves my plans so much that I have to rearrange myself in my pants. Good thing Alex’s attention is on Becca.
“I get there just as Alex sneaks in and busts an umbrella, a cute little ladybug umbrella by the way, right off of Derek’s ass, as he’s coming in this strange chick!” Becca actually has tears in her eyes because she’s laughing so hard. “Derek’s all ‘ugh oh yeah baby’ just pumping away, and suddenly he’s squealing on the floor.” Strangely enough, Alex is also laughing now. Why would she laugh at finding her boyfriend cheating on her, let alone finding out just this afternoon?
“So I start cheering, ‘ahhhhhhh, ahhhhhh, ahhhhhhh,’” she puts her hands up to her mouth as a makeshift megaphone and starts making crowd noises. “And then I’m like, ‘it’s a home run!’ and start faking like I’m running bases, picking up the chick’s clothes as I go.” She finally sits down again; I guess she’s done with the show and tell portion of the story. “The chick is trying to cover herself up while screaming at Derek, because I guess she didn’t know he had a girlfriend. Derek’s on the floor crying. He’s babbling about how he’s sorry and all that stuff. And get this, the chick actually stopped and apologized to Alex on her way out.”
“But did she mean it?” Ryder is speaking up now. “She probably didn’t want any of the slugger’s wrath turned on her.” He gestures to Alex and gives her a smile. Good, at least I know the guys understand this situation was all that tool’s fault, and not Alex’s. They seem pretty impressed she reacted immediately like that. Fuck, I’m turned on just thinking about her showing that asshole Derek that she won’t take shit from anyone.
“See, that’s what I thought at first too, but then I watched her kick him in the balls and then knee him in the face when I went out to grab the boxes I brought to pack up Alex’s stuff.”
Becca throws her head back against her seat, she’s rocking back and forth holding her stomach, her laughter reaching uncontrollable heights. Alex is next to me in the booth and when I look to my left, I see her head is down and her shoulders are shaking a little. Suddenly, a huge peal of laughter bursts out of her mouth, followed immediately by a huge gulp of air. As soon as she has enough air, she starts hysterically laughing, matching Becca’s laughter for intensity and volume, if not physical movement. She’s trapped in the booth by Aiden, but if she were on the end, I wouldn’t be surprised if she fell onto the floor with how hard she’s laughing.
Both girls laugh until they’re clutching their stomachs, muttering complaints of not being able to breathe. The insanity lasts several minutes, during which the guys and I all look at each other, trying not to laugh too hard ourselves. It seems like Alex is really ok, but I don’t want to seem insensitive by laughing too hard. She tensed up at the start of the story, after all. I’m sure it hurts more than she’s letting on.
“So Alex.” I turn and look only at her while speaking into her ear. “You seem pretty ok for finding out about this just today. Are you? Ok, that is.” Reaching out, I take her hand and lace her fingers with mine. Now that she’s beside me, I can’t stand not touching her. I don’t even know if I’m going to be able to let her go ever again. I suppose I better try to find out where her head is at, though. She’s clearly attracted to me, but I want to know if it could be more for her. She turns and opens her mouth to speak, but Becca starts talking loudly, getting everyone’s attention again.
“Oh, she’s totally used to this,” Becca says, and I feel Alex freeze up again beside me. “This has happened to her before.” Shit, Alex is nearly vibrating now. Something instantly replaced her good humour with what looks like rage. I can see the death glare she’s shooting in Becca’s direction. I don’t blame her; it sounds pretty personal and we’re all virtual strangers.
“I think that’s probably enough of story time Becca,” Alex doesn’t exactly sound angry, but her voice is just a little too calm. “These guys don’t need to hear this, you know?” Called it. Not for the new friends’ ears.
“Wait. This isn’t the first time?” Johnny says this directly to Becca, obviously not picking up on how Alex is feeling about her personal life being discussed like this. I try to catch their eyes to tell them to shut up, but they’ve turned toward each other now, oblivious to the rest of us at the table. I wonder what that’s all about.
“Not at all.” Becca really needs to shut her mouth. I can feel Alex growing tenser by the second. She’s practically frozen in her seat. “She’s nearly into the double digits with cheating boyfriends.” Becca waves her hand dismissively while taking a sip of her drink.
What the fuck? How is that even possible? I can’t even hide the shock on my face. I can’t believe one guy would ever cheat on Alex, let alone that many.
Alex springs into action, shoving Aiden out of the booth. “Ok cool, yeah. Thanks for the drink, Connor. It was really nice seeing you again. Nice to meet all of you.” She gives the guys a brief wave as she slides over and gets up out of the booth. “I need to get going, though. I have work tomorrow. Maybe we can do it again sometime.” And with that, she’s disappearing into the crowd and moving toward the exit. I immediately get up to follow her, throwing a look of disbelief at Becca and Johnny.
