Chapter 22
Alex - Missed Opportunities and Misunderstandings
Becca and I meet up at the door to the building, even after deciding to wait for my 2nd Lexi Girl pizza. I’ve been told I have a very expressive face. You know how some people wear their heart on their sleeve? Well, I wear mine on my face. That’s how Becca knows something is up before I even have a chance to say it.
“Hey Girl, I got this new-,” She stops right in her tracks. “What happened?” She asks. “You look like someone kicked your puppy.”
“I don’t have a puppy,” I say, knowing full well that she doesn’t mean literally. “I ran into that security guy Devon at the pizza place.”
“Alex, that’s awesome! Are you going to call Connor as soon as we get upstairs?” She is so excited for me she’s already giving me a side hug with the arm that isn’t holding our beer.
“Not exactly.” I open the door to the building and hold it for her to go through first before following behind her. “I didn’t get his number from Devon. Or give Devon mine.”
“What? Why not? He wouldn’t give it to you? That dick!” Becca is always quick to jump to my defence. Too bad in this case it’s totally unwarranted.
“Because I didn’t ask him for it. I didn’t want to seem like a stalker. I sort of hinted around, asking about the guys, hoping Devon would say that Connor has been looking for me too.” We’re up the stairs and at our apartment door. This time Becca opens it and holds it for me. “It clearly didn’t work, though. I even gave him my pizza and told him to tell the guys hello. As he was driving away, he said they’d let me know what they thought about the pizza, which I found a little weird. I didn’t give any of them my phone number, so how would they do that?”
“That seems a little weird then.” She drops the beers on the counter before opening one and handing it to me. “Did he seem friendly? Like, he wasn’t just brushing you off or anything, was he?”
“I don’t think he was.” I go over the entire encounter in my head. “He seemed genuinely happy to see me. We joked a little about whiskey. I told him about my new job. It was like talking to a friend. Didn’t seem like he was trying to brush me off at all.”
We both grab plates and a couple of slices of pizza and sit down on the couch to eat. She looks like she’s really trying to figure this out. From what she saw, and why I’ve told her about how Connor interacted with me, she is sure that he is interested.
“Did you see Devon at the after party at all?” she asks before taking a big sip of her beer. It’s some sort of craft brew from a local brewery. Becca is a bit of a beer snob. That’s why she never lets me go get the beer. I just grab whatever looks good at the time. It all tastes the same to me, anyhow.
“No, the last time I saw him that night was at the meet and greet. I think he helped escort all the fans out, and then I didn’t see him after that. Why?” I’m not sure where she’s going with this.
“Well. The last Devon saw, you and Connor were making eyes at each other at the meet and greet, right?” She continues before I can answer. “Maybe he doesn’t know that you guys don’t have each other’s information? If I only saw you guys at the meet and greet, I would have said for sure you’d get each other’s numbers afterward.”
“You think?” That would explain things if I had read Connor’s interest properly. “That would make sense if Connor was actually interested. What if he was just doing the flirty rock star thing?”
“He was only flirting with you, though. There were attractive female fans at the meet and greet. Plus, I overheard Devon telling the band’s manager that he had to get rid of a groupie who’d snuck into a bathroom and surprised Connor before the meet and greet. He made it sound like Connor was sick of groupies getting past security. If he wanted to just play the flirty rock star, you’d think he’d want more groupies around, not less.”
Becca was making sense. Well, she was saying the things I wanted to hear. I want to believe that Connor was actually interested in me. The only problem is that I can never find out.
“That is fine Becca.” I try to talk some sense into her, but mostly into myself. “But there’s no way for me to find out for sure. I don’t have a way to contact him, remember?”
“That’s true, for now,” she says. “Just give me some time to get in touch with some people at the radio station. We might be able to get in contact with a PR person or something like that. There has to be a way for you to track him down. And maybe he’s even looking for you.”
I want to believe that is true too, but what are the odds that a famous rock star is looking for me? I’m the girl that constantly gets cheated on by mediocre boyfriends, not the girl that super hot, successful, rock stars track down after talking for just a few minutes one night. Even if we had a connection before, he cut off all contact when I left. He might not have cheated, but it was a betrayal. We’d planned on trying the long distance thing and instead of that he changed his phone number and I never heard from him again. Maybe I don’t really want to find him as much as I thought? I should just stay away from all men like I planned.
My heart just can’t take any more breaking.
Chapter 23
Connor - Unsuccessful Searching and Sleeping On It
“OK, Devon, so Alex told you she lived next door? That doesn’t make sense. There’s just a pawn shop next door, and it doesn’t even have an apartment over it.” I’m looking at the buildings as Devon drives us all in the Escalade that we use when we need to fit the whole band in one vehicle. The other guys are in the back seats, looking out their respective windows. Other than Ryder, of course, who is looking down at his phone, texting.
“She said shepracticallylived next door. As far I could tell she was on foot too, so she can’t live too far.” Devon is driving as slow as he can without being too suspicious. This isn’t the worst neighbourhood, but it’s not the best either. We don’t want anyone getting the wrong idea.
“Well, there is only one apartment building on this block, but it’s right next door to my gym. I’m sure I would have seen her at some point if she lived that close. When we’re not touring, I come and work out pretty much every day.” Could she really have been that close all this time? I didn’t even ask her where she’s been living all these years. It would be so crazy if she’s been here since her parents died. Maybe she’s lived here with her grandfather all these years. Older people don’t normally move around a lot.
“But remember, she just broke up with a boyfriend. What if they were living together, and she just moved here? Maybe she’s just crashing with a friend until she moves?” Fucking Ryder, always butting in with the bad news.
“Fuck off, Ryder,” I say, without turning to look at him. “You’re not helping right now.” Plus, I don’t even want to think about her living with someone else. I can feel the jealousy bubbling up in my gut. That, and the hate I feel for this Derek dude for hurting Alex the way he did, makes me want to cause him some serious pain.
“What if someone around here knows her?” Travis asks from the very back of the SUV. “Do you think anyone at the gym would know who she is? What about the old guy who owns the place? He has to have been around for a long time. He’s probably familiar with the people in this area.”
