“You want my opinion?” Julian said. He had tried to avoid getting entangled in Asher’s relationship woes before, but this was too much.
“Yeah.” Asher groaned. “Yeah.”
“Dump her,” Julian said.
“You think so?”
“Dude, she cheated on you. You’ve never cheated on her. How is that fair?”
“It isn’t. I know, I know it isn’t fair.”
“And look, yeah she’s hot, but there are, like, a million hot girls who would love to get with you.”
“I don’t know,” Asher said. “I don’t know. Am I being stupid? I think I’m being stupid.”
“Well, I do know,” Julian said. “I know you don’t need to put up with that shit.”
“Yeah, maybe you’re right.” Asher spun one drumstick in his fingers slowly. “I just know she’s going to say it’s because I want to get with another girl.”
“So? You should want to get with another girl. One who isn’t a paranoid jealous lying cheating bitch.”
“Oh god,” Asher said, closing his eyes. “I feel sick.”
“Dump her and we’ll find you a new girl on the next tour stop.” Julian shook Asher by the shoulder. “Hey. Hey. I know it’s hard.”
“Okay, okay,” Asher said. “You’re right.”
“So you’re going to dump her?”
Asher swallowed hard.
“Yeah. I’ll call her this afternoon. God, I feel sick.”
Julian held out his flask, but Asher shook his head.
“Nah, it’s okay. Thanks, though.”
“No problem.” Julian took another swig and put the flask back in his pocket.
“So what about that one girl in LA?” Asher said.
“What girl?”
“The girl you took back to the hotel room. What’s up with that? You haven’t done that all tour.”
Julian felt a lump rise in his throat. A wave of guilt swept over him.
Shannon. He hadn’t called her since that night, even though she had given him her cell number and her address, and her email. Jesus, what a fuckup he was.
“Yeah, I’m not sure,” Julian said.
“Are you gonna see her again? We’re going to be driving by that tour stop again, if she lives nearby.”
Julian smiled wanly.
“Why are you trying to get me to hook up with the same girl? Doesn’t Pat want us to date around?”
“Yeah, f**k Pat,” Asher said. “I’m not going to hook up with random groupies all the time just for our image. Alex seems to do that just fine anyway without us having to.”
“Yeah.”
“I’ve never seen you get all worked up about someone like that,” Asher said, poking Julian with the tip of his drumstick. “You were like, walking on cloud nine the day after.”
“Shut up,” Julian said, smiling despite himself. It had been a wonderful night, at least for him. Shannon was smart and funny, and god she was sexy as hell, with her curves and red hair hanging down her back.
“So? Maybe ask her to come on tour with us. I’m sure she’d jump at the chance.”
“She’s in college,” Julian said, protesting. “I don’t want to make her, you know, f**k up school for me.”
Asher looked at him skeptically.
“Look at you,” he said. “You can’t even think about her without getting that dreamy look on your face.
“Shut up.”
Asher drummed on Julian’s arm, his voice a teasing singsong.
“Julian has a crush, Julian has a crush.”
“It’s nothing,” Julian said. “She probably only wanted to come home with me because I was famous.”
There it was. He couldn’t forget the words she had said as they drifted off to sleep that night. Goodnight, sexy rock star. What if she only wanted him because he was in a popular rock band? What if…
“So? You like her, man. And I’m sure she had a great time, too.” Asher winked.
“I f**ked it up,” Julian said. At the thought of it, he cringed in his seat. He had been drinking too much that night, and he couldn’t even get it up when they went back to the hotel room. The sexiest girl he had ever met, and he couldn’t get it up. It was f**king embarrassing. He had done his best to please her, but he didn’t know what she thought about him, whether she thought he was a loser because he didn’t f**k her. Whether he had been a total disappointment.
“I’m sure you didn’t f**k up that bad,” Asher said. “She gave you her number, didn’t she? You’ve been off in dreamland thinking about her since LA.”
“I f**ked up,” Julian said.
“Okay, so call her and say sorry. Then you show up on her doorstep with a rose or something. Girls love that shit.”
“I don’t know,” Julian said.
“Now you’re the one being stupid,” Asher said. “What’s the worst that could happen?”
Julian slumped in his chair. Asher was right, of course. But it had been a week and he hadn’t even called. He was an a**hole, a total a**hole.
“She probably doesn’t even want to see me again,” Julian said.
“You don’t know that,” Asher said. “That’s like, sabotaging your relationship before it even starts, dude.” He raised his eyebrows meaningfully and Julian cracked a smile.
“Okay, Dr. Phil. I’ll call her. This afternoon. When you call Donna.”
Asher’s face dropped, but then he picked himself back up in his seat.
“Okay. Deal.”
“Hey, did you hear about our gig in San Diego?” Julian said, changing the subject. “Cheap Trix is opening for us.”
“No way!” Asher bounced his feet on his skateboard. “That’s cool.”
“Cool? Really?”
“Yeah, I like them,” he said. “Catchy stuff.”
“I can’t believe you listen to girl rock.”
“The production value is off the hook,” Asher insisted. “So it’s girly pop rock. So what? Doesn’t mean it’s not good.”
“You’re crazy,” Julian said. He reached for his flask and then stopped himself. They would be passing by Los Angeles soon, and he thought he might just go and see if Shannon was at her place. No, he was going to see if Shannon was at her place. And he would bring a rose. If Asher knew anything, it was how to be a good boyfriend. No more drinking, he decided. He didn’t want a repeat of last time.
“No, you’re crazy,” Asher pushed himself off of the seat and balanced on his skateboard, wobbling only slightly as the bus changed lanes. He raised his hands over his head and shook his h*ps back and forth in a ridiculous dance move as he sang in a high-pitched voice.
“Run run run til there’s nowhere to go!”
Julian doubled over laughing.
“You wish you could have this kind of talent,” Asher joked, spinning the skateboard around in a tight circle in the middle of the tour bus. “Shake that fine ass, ooh baby!”
“As long as you don’t drop out of the band to join Cheap Trix,” Julian said.
“Don’t worry,” Asher said, flipping his board up into his hand and stowing it away overhead. “I don’t think they need another drummer.”
“Well, you’d make a decent backup dancer,” Julian said.
Asher’s eyes went wide.
“That is a great idea. I’ll keep that in mind if Wilder Side breaks up.”
“Let’s hope that never happens,” Julian said. “Where would I find a new relationship therapist?”
“You’d be lost without me,” Asher agreed.
“You know it.” Julian took the flask out of his pocket and put it in the side of his travel bag, zipping it up securely. He was excited to see Shannon. Damn, he was excited. He hoped she would be there. For the first time in a long time, he felt like he could make it through the day without another drink. He leaned forward and yelled up to the front of the bus.
“How many miles until we reach LA?”
CHAPTER THREE
Shannon stared across the doorway at Julian, a thousand thoughts running through her mind. It was him. It really was him. She didn’t know what to say.
Julian stepped forward, shyly offering her the rose. She took it, and his fingers brushed against hers. The single touch made her body flinch with a desire that she had been trying unsuccessfully to stifle for the past few days.
“I’m sorry I didn’t call,” Julian said.
“It’s…it’s okay. I understand. You’ve been busy with tour stuff.”
“That’s no excuse.”
“You’re in a famous band. That’s enough of an excuse, I guess.”
Julian winced, and Shannon thought she might have said the wrong thing. God, this wasn’t starting out how she wanted it to.
“I just mean you’ve got a lot on your plate.”
“It’s not that at all.” Julian’s voice was rough, as though he was stammering through the words, trying to figure out how to move his tongue to get the right letters out.
“What is it?” If it wasn’t his band, then Shannon didn’t know what it could be. A flame of anger began to rise up inside of her. If he hadn’t called just because…
“I was nervous. I thought maybe I messed up. With you.”
“Messed up?”
“I thought maybe you wanted to be able to tell people you were with, you know, a famous rock star. That it wasn’t really me you wanted. That I was just a good story to tell to your friends.”
Shannon’s mouth dropped open. That was what he was afraid of? A mixture of rage and relief swept through her.
“That’s… I don’t know what to say, Julian.”
“Just tell me what you’re thinking.”
“What I’m thinking?” Shannon threw one hand up in the air, gesturing wildly with the rose. “I’m thinking that it’s ridiculous you made up this whole motivation about why I wanted to be with you out of thin air. I’m thinking you shouldn’t have waited a whole week before asking me about it.”
“I’m sorry-”
Shannon stamped her bare foot on the floor. Now that he had made her talk, all of her anxieties were rushing out, and she didn’t want to stop. Ridiculous - this whole situation was ridiculous.
“I’m thinking that you are an idiot and jerk for keeping me in suspense this whole time.”
Julian’s eyebrows knitted together in the middle of his forehead. It was obvious no girl had ever spoken to him like this before. But Shannon couldn’t stop herself. He had to know what she had done to him.
“I’m thinking that you’re possibly the dumbest man I’ve ever met, because who on earth would meet you and not fall immediately in love with you? It doesn’t matter whether you were playing guitar on stage in a packed concert or on a cardboard box in an alleyway!”
Shannon didn’t notice Julian’s fierce look of desire, or the way that he was slowly inching over the doorstep towards her. Her eyes were welling with tears of anger mixed with joy.