Page 31 of Strum Me

“Let’s go! Let the guys pack up. We should get a head start on some shots anyway.”

We file out into the parking lot and the girls loop their arms with mine. They sing a popular song we just heard playing on the radio and it’s not long before I’m joining in. Their perkiness is infectious, and for the first time since accepting this assignment, I feel relaxed.

“Last one there pays for first round!” I scream and make a run for it, the girls hot on my heels.

***

“And then, I open the door and she’s just standing there, buck naked! Waiting...for my fiancé!” Cadence says, emphasizing the words, enjoying our reactions.

“OH MY GOD! So, what did you do?” I ask her, my drink hovering near my mouth, forgotten in the process of hearing the story.

“Well, I felt bad for her, I mean...she’d gotten a spray tan and everything. So I just said, ‘I’m sorry dear, but I’m pretty sure Sebastian only likes real redheads,’ and handed her a Rock Chamber Boys T-shirt and walked off.”

“Tell her how you sent Seb back into the room,” Hailey prompts.

“YOU DID NOT!” I shriek, almost jumping out of my seat.

“What? I knew he wasn’t going to do anything. I was standing right there. I just thought he might like a little peek. I mean, she had abs.” Cadence pats her own stomach then grins. “He’s not going to see any of those on me,” she says matter-of-factly, before downing her drink and slamming it on the table with a victorious look on her face.

The three of us fall against the table laughing again. I feel completely at home with them, like we’ve been friends for decades.

“So, Emily, do you have any groupie stories you want to tell us about? I mean you’ve been a music journalist for what, almost five years now,” Hailey asks, waving to the waiter for another round of shots.

“Well, I don’t kiss and tell.”

The girls instantly look disappointed, their smiles fading, and their shoulders droop. So I continue.

“But I might walk into a public bathroom and see the four members of a certain male Irish band, um, doing some ‘crafts’ and tell.”

The question on Hailey’s face tells me I’m going to have to be more detailed.

Cadence, on the other hand, asks right out, “What? What were they making?”

I feel my eyes lighting up even before I answer. “They were making… a DAISY CHAIN!”

Cadence’s eyes bulge out so far, I feel like I might have to hold out my hands to catch them. “NO. WAY.”

“Wait! What? What’s a daisy chain?” Hailey demands, still confused.

“Just think about it for a moment, honey,” Cadence prompts her, her eyebrows doing a samba on top of her bright eyes.

The moment it finally dawns on Hailey is clear. “HOLY CRAP!!” She laughs so hard, she falls off her seat, her legs flying into the air, boots kicking back and forth in absolute uninhibited laughter.

The boys walk in right at that moment and Hailey struggles to recover from her impersonation of a bug on its back.

“What’s so funny?” Brad asks, smiling at me, and I try not to look away too abruptly.

“Oh, nothing, just some girl talk,” I reply.

“Well, more like boy on boy on boy on boy talk,” Cadence says, raising her eyebrows at Hailey again, who bursts into laughter even louder than before.

“What??” Jez asks, raising his voice to be heard over his boss’s daughter’s cackling.

“It’s nothing, Emily was just telling us of some of her more sordid experiences on the job,” Cadence manages to say before succumbing to the giggles again herself.

I think I catch a look between Jez and Marius, but it’s gone before I can figure out what it was.

“So, what are you guys drinking?” Sebastian asks, pulling Cadence to her feet, before sitting down on her chair and pulling her onto his lap.