“In that case, I’m certainly open to it.”
Andi’s shocked demeanor quickly turned to terror as she realized the implications of my reply.
“Are you serious?” she whispered.
“Completely.”
The smile that split her face in two rivaled an angel’s beauty. The complete joy that shone in her eyes melted me from the inside out. The pure excitement that overtook her was contagious.
“I can’t wait to tell Luke!” she squealed. She then further clarified. “He’s my boyfriend.”
And the explosion I immediately felt inside my chest was my heart shattering into a million pieces.
“Travis, come on, man. You know she’s taken,” Kale tries to talk sense into me for the millionth time since meeting Andi.
“I know she has a boyfriend, asshole. They’re not married yet,” I counter.
“They’re engaged, dickhead. He proposed. She said yes. End of,” Kale argues.
“It’ll be ‘end of’ when she says ‘I do.’ Until then, she’s not married and can change her mind,” I argue.
We’ve had this argument a million times as well. Kale has the same argument and I have the same counterargument every single time. I’ve never been inappropriate with Andi, to my credit. I’ve dropped numerous hints along the way, but she doesn’t seem to pick up on them. Sometimes I just want to shout out my feelings for her and see how she reacts.
For now, I’m pouring them into the new songs that’ll be introduced on the tour. The very tour that Andi’s joining us on as our opening act. I’ll have six months on the road with her to try to win her over for myself. If she gets married before we leave, I’ll back off and never look back. If she’s not married by the time we leave, I have to wonder if fate had a hand in it.
“Travis, we all love Andi, but I don’t see her leaving Luke. Even for a big rock star like you,” Drew chimes in.
“Not you, too,” I groan as I lean over to adjust the studio recording equipment.
“Hear me out, prick. Would you really want her if she just plays the guy and puts him away? If she’d cheat on him, she’d cheat on you,” Drew says, like he’s the expert on relationships.
Straightening, I level my gaze on him and speak slowly. “Don’t dis her, Drew,” I spit out his name instead of using a friendly insult. “I’d never ask her to cheat. But, if she breaks it off with him to be with me, that’s a different story.”
“Whoa, man, I’m just saying,” Drew says defensively.
“Well don’t ‘just say’ anything else about it. If it happens, it happens. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t.”
If only I could convince myself that was true.
“You could have any woman you want, Trav,” Mike adds with his infinite wisdom. “And you’ve had a lot of them already.”
His shit-eating grin irks me. “Do you have a point to this pointless story? Because I’m not hearing one.”
“Why chase after some chick who only sees you as a friend? You have plenty of hot girls on your heels all the time. Take your pick, man! Don’t waste your time on the one you can’t have.” Mike laughs as he gets set up for today’s session.
“Yes, all of you fuckers have the best relationship advice in the world. I’m going to listen to every one of you and do exactly as you say,” I reply to the room, sarcasm lacing my every word.
“Good. Now that we have that settled, let’s practice,” Kale replies, as clueless as ever.
“If it makes you idiots shut up, we’ll practice all damn night,” I mutter under my breath.
“Heard that, dickhead,” Mike calls out from behind the drum set.
“Meant for you to, shithead,” I reply.
We run through the entire set twice, even down to the playful banter I’ll engage the audience with between songs. When Andi finishes her practice, she usually comes in and listens to us from the sound booth. Glancing at my watch, I notice how late it is and wonder why she hasn’t made it in here yet.
“She knows she has to practice those songs with you. She’ll be here,” Drew says as he pretends to adjust his guitar.
