“What? How did…”
The night tried to flash images at me.
“I got Wren on the phone,” Lola yelled. “She’s still drunk. Or really hungover. She doesn’t know where she is.”
“Go Wren!” Audrey yelled.
“No, no, no,” I said. “Stop that. I have to get out of here. I’ll be back to the suite soon. Just let me find…”
“Your clothes?” Lola asked.
“No!” I yelled. “I’m dressed. I never got undressed. At least I don’t think I did.”
“You were wearing a dress,” Lola said. “You don’t need to take that off to have sex.”
“Goodbye,” I said.
I hung up the call.
I kept my phone clutched tight in my hand.
I didn’t know what to do next…
How about leave the room? Get out of whatever hotel this is? Get a bottle of water and then call Lola back to come pick me up…
That all seemed completely logical.
But I just sat there in the bed.
Waiting for more of the night to come back to my memory.
My eyes moved left to right.
I acted as though someone was in the room with me, even though I was alone.
This was a good thing.
Whatever happened the night before was done.
I came here, I did whatever, and now it was time to go.
Of course I wanted to know exactly what happened. So I could have the entire story.
“I have to go,” I whispered.
This was absolutely crazy.
I spread my hands across the bed and leaned forward and took a few deep breaths.
I needed to make sure I was going to be able to function without getting sick.
I turned to my right and looked at the other spot in the bed.
There was a pillow… with a note on it.
“Oh, no,” I whispered.
I reached for the note and my teeth started to chatter as I opened it.
My eyes looked at the bottom of the letter and I saw the name.
Jay.
I shut my eyes.
“Oh. No.”
That’s who I was with last night. That’s whose hotel room this was.
This was Jay’s room.
And the night started to come back to me.
I had been hanging out with Jay.
The guitarist from FILTHY LINE.
Now that was a story to take home with me.
That was something I could brag to Lola, Audrey, and Nia about.
While they were hunkered down as married women, I was able to spend the night with a rock star.
I looked at the note again and actually read what he had written to me.
Thanks for the night, Wren.
Hope to talk again soon.
Didn’t want to wake you.
Figured my wife needed to catch up on some sleep.
Love,
Jay
I shook my head and read the note again.
Then again.
Wife?
“No,” I said.
I looked at my left hand.
I slowly turned it.
There was a ring on my finger.
I married a rock star last night.
I jumped out of the bed like it was on fire.
I left the note somewhere in the sheets.
I ran through the entire hotel room, opening every door, looking for Jay.
There was no sign of him.
Just another note.
In the kitchen.
Letting me know that I had until two to get out of the room. And that any food or drink I wanted was taken care of by the band. Once again, he called me his wife in the letter.
My wife.
I kept looking to my left hand, waiting to see the ring not there anymore. I had to have been imagining it. I was still drunk… or hungover… or something that was making me see this.
“I’m dreaming,” I said.
But I wasn’t dreaming.
This was all real.
Very real.
My mind opened the book titled What the Fuck Happened Last Night? very slowly, offering me a page here and there to read.
And it was all there.
I had married Jay last night.
We had been talking about my life, my friends, and we had been drinking.
We didn’t want to go back into the club where the band was.
So we went to… the same chapel where Nia had gotten married…
I stood in the middle of the hotel room.
This was really happening.
Or it already happened.
The ring was on my finger.
I was now a married woman.
My knees slowly started to bend.
I reached out and there was nothing to grab onto.
So down I went.
Falling to my knees.
Taking deep breaths.
I looked at my phone.
There was only one thing to do now.
I needed to call my husband.
9
JAY
I woke up earlier than I was used to and smiled at the sight of Wren curled up in the covers, sleeping peacefully. I knew that was the only sense of peace she was going to have because the reality of the night before was going to hit her hard.
Part of me thought about staying and seeing her reaction in person, but I wanted to give her some space. And some time.
She was going to need it.
After getting married - which was all her idea, by the way - I got us an expensive hotel room, thinking we were going to celebrate the life changing decision we had made.
To my surprise, Wren saw the bed and dove into it.
She rolled around, laughing, looking at her wedding ring, and then fell asleep.
That left me in a big hotel room without any chance of having sex with my new bride.
When I left the hotel room, I got a ride to the hotel where the band was staying.
I crawled my ass up to my room and hit the bed hard.
Except I didn’t sleep.
I wasn’t wide awake, I just couldn’t sleep.
My mind toyed with me over Wren.
In all reality, I couldn’t wait to get her call.
I did manage to close my eyes, but it felt like more of a cat nap when ice cold water hit the middle of my back.
I pushed up from the bed with a groaning yell and kicked out of the covers.
For a second, I thought the ceiling had sprung a leak and someone’s bathroom was going to end up on my head.
But it was just Sab being a prick.
Dumping ice water on me to wake me up.
“Good morning, Jay,” Sab said.
I flexed my back and hurried to take the wet shirt off. Then I dropped my jeans.
Meaning I was now naked in front of Sab.
“What was that for?” I asked.
“Where did you end up last night?” Sab asked. “I thought we were in it together.”
“In what?” I asked. “You need me to whisper in your ear what to do to a woman?”
“Who’s whispering in… whoa…” Reed stopped when he saw me naked. “Am I interrupting something here?”
“No,” I said.
“I poured ice water on him,” Sab said.
“Nice,” Reed said. “Was he drunk?”
“I’m fine,” I said.
“Hey, are we…” Nash appeared. “Why is Jay naked?”
“You don’t want to know,” Reed said.
“Jay’s naked?” Dex called out. “Tell me when he covers up the monster.”
“You’re just jealous of it,” I yelled.
I grabbed my stuff with my left hand.
“He’s got it covered,” Reed said.
That’s when Dex showed himself.
Now I had the entire band standing in front of me.
“How was your night?” Nash asked.
“What the fuck do you care?”
I asked. “Don’t worry about what Sab and I do together. You’re just pissed because you’re locked down to Liv and nobody else.”
“What the hell are you and Sab doing together?” Dex asked.
“He didn’t mean it like that,” Sab said. “I had my own night. A good time. Great time. I still have someone in the bed. I left her a note to enjoy the room. I’m out.”
“I did the same thing,” I said.
“Your bed is empty,” Nash said.
“He wrote a note on his hand,” Sab said.
“Very funny,” I said. “A different hotel. I had my fun and left her there.”
“Had your fun…,” Nash said. “Wait a second…”
Nash pointed to my hand covering my cock.
“I’m not looking at that thing,” Dex said.
“I second that,” Reed said.
“No,” Nash said. “Look at his hand. His finger…”
“Holy shit,” Sab said. “Jay…”
“Okay, fine,” I said. I lifted my left hand, letting my cock swing free. “Yeah… that’s right… look at my hand…”
“What did you do?” Reed asked.
“I got married last night.”
It was a collective silence.
For a few seconds.
They all looked at each other, waiting for someone to say something.
“Do I say congrats?” Dex asked.
“You could,” I said.
“Who is she?” Reed asked.
“That woman I was talking to,” I said. “When you all showed up and we were making fun of Toby.”
“Nice,” Sab said. “I mean… why though? Did she put it to you that you needed to be married to have sex or what?”
I didn’t even have sex with her.
“Not exactly,” I said. “Don’t worry about it. It’s my business. I had a little fun.”
“That’s more than fun,” Nash said. “That’s a goddamn commitment. How the hell did it happen?”
“I need something to drink,” I said. “Walk and talk with me.”
I started to walk and they all jumped back.
“Listen, Jay,” Dex said, “you need to find something to wear. I’m not going to go anywhere near you with that thing slapping around.”
“Blame Sab,” I said. “He poured ice water on me.”
“Sorry,” Sab said to the band. “My bad.”
“Just get other jeans,” Reed said.
“Fine,” I said.
I walked around the bed and got another pair of jeans out of my bag.
And a t-shirt.
Once dressed, we ended up in the kitchen.
I found a bottle of whiskey and got some shot glasses out.
“Have a drink,” I said.
“This early?” Nash asked.
“Man, you are such a pussy,” Sab said.
“What did you just say to me?” Nash growled.
I laughed. “He’s right, Nash. We need to have a drink. To celebrate the show. Vegas. The night.”
“Your marriage,” Dex said.
“That’s right,” I said.
“How the hell is this going to work?” Reed asked. “Who is she? Where does she live? How…”
“You know me,” I said. “I just go for things. I’ll deal with everything else later.”
I poured the shots.
We all grabbed a glass.
“Someone say something,” I said.
“I’ll do it,” Nash said. He cleared this throat. “Cheers to the music, the band, the fans, and the sounds. Cheers to our guy here… Jay… for always keeping shit crazy.”
We clanked the shot glasses together and the first drink of the day was the same as the last drink of the night.
Whiskey.
We flipped the shot glasses upside down.
“So…,” Sab said. “Tell us the story…”
I laughed.
I heard my phone ringing from the other side of the hotel room.
“I’ll tell you everything on the plane. We’re going back home today, right?”
“We leave in two hours,” Nash said. “That’s why we were coming here. To round everyone up.”
“Wait until Toby gets this one…,” Reed said.
I walked out of the kitchen and when I saw the name on the screen, I smiled.
I answered the call.
“Hello to my wife…”
“What the fuck did you do to me last night, Jay?”
“Wow. That’s not what I was expecting.”
“Yes it was. That’s why you left. Because if you were here, I would be pounding you.”
“I like the sound of that,” I said. “I do wonder how you ride a cock. I thought last night I was going to find out for sure, but I guess not.”
“Don’t play this game with me. This isn’t real.”
“Oh, it’s very real, Wren.”
“No… I’m a lawyer, Jay. I can end this in a heartbeat.”
“But you won’t. You have too many questions.”
“Don’t fuck with me, Jay,” she said. “This is insane. I did not want this.”
I laughed. “It was your idea.”
“No, it wasn’t.”
“How did we end up at the chapel where your friend got married?” I asked. “You were the one rambling on about it. So jealous that your friends were married and you weren’t. Then you went on to say how everyone kept telling you to have a good night. To have some fun. You looked me dead in the eyes and said, ‘How cool would it be if I got married tonight?’.”
“No…”
“Yes,” I said. “I asked who you wanted to marry. You pointed to me. I told you don’t tempt me because I was feeling a little crazy. And then we went for it. You picked everything out. The wedding package. Flowers. Pictures. Everything.”
“I was drunk. It doesn’t count.”
“Sure,” I said. “Whatever you say, Wren.”
“Wait, wait, wait,” she said. “You’re okay with this? You’re okay that we’re married?”
“Why not?”
“I’m flying out today.”
“Me too.”
“I’m flying home. Back to LA.”
“Me too, sweetheart,” I said.
“Of course.”
“Of course,” I said. “We can meet up. I’d love to see you again.”
“Why?” Wren asked with anger.
“You’re my wife,” I said.
“No…”
“And we haven’t finished the thing yet.”
“What thing?”
I smiled. “We haven’t solidified the marriage.”
“So we’re not married? I knew it…”
“No, no, Wren,” I said. “We’re married. We just haven’t had sex yet.”
“Fuck you, Jay,” she said.
And the call went dead.
I smiled.
We were having our first fight as a married couple.
I stepped out of the SUV limo and grabbed my bag and guitar.
As I walked the steps to the private jet, I felt a little guilty.
I should have had Wren with me.
The other guys had their wives, so why didn’t I have mine?
We didn’t exactly have enough room for all her friends, but I was sure we could have kicked Toby off the jet. We could have worked something out.
That’s what I should have done.
To show Wren and her friends that I wasn’t afraid to spoil my wife a little.
Better yet, it would have made Wren’s friends jealous. Which was what Wren wanted all along, right? She wanted to show up her friend who got married. That woman met some guy a month ago and married him in Vegas. Wren topped that by knowing me for a few hours before getting married.
I took my seat at the back of the jet and instantly shut my eyes.
It wasn’t a long flight at all.
So, again, I’d be getting nothing more than a cat nap.
The band got settled and just after takeoff, I felt
myself dozing off.
That’s when I felt someone staring at me.
I slowly opened my eyes and turned my head.
Toby looked down at me.
Then he sat next to me.
“Ut-oh,” I said.
“Are you kidding me right now?” he asked.
“What?”
“This is online now.”
“What is?”
“You’re fucking married, Jay,” Toby said through gritted teeth.
“What do you want me to say? I fell in love and made a move. Should I have run that by you?”
“You’re being serious right now?” Toby asked.
“Yeah, I am. What’s the big deal?”
“This is nothing but a distraction,” Toby said. “This is a mess. Look at this…”
Toby showed me his phone.
There was a picture of Wren and I walking out of the wedding chapel together.
She was laughing. Smiling. Happy. Her arm locked onto my arm.
She wore a veil that was flipped back and I wore a cheap bowtie.
“See?” I said to Toby. “We’re happy together.”
“Who is she?”
“Wren.”
“Wren… who?”
“Wren… my wife.”
“You don’t even know her last name,” Toby said. “You just met last night, didn’t you?”
“Your point?”
“Jesus Christ, Jay. What is she… a stripper? Hooker?”
“Whoa, whoa,” I said. “How dare you say things about my wife like that.”
“Like what?”
“That tone. As though being a stripper is wrong? Same for an escort. They have careers, Toby. They perfect what they’re good at, just like we did in the band. Just like you do as our manager. Same as the pilot flying this jet. Who the fuck are you to judge someone for what they do for a living?”
Toby sank back. “Okay. My apologies then. I didn’t mean to insult her. I’m sure she’s good at her job.”
“I’m sure she is,” I said. “I’m not sure what kind of lawyer she is, but she’s probably good at it.”
“What?” Toby asked. “She’s a lawyer?”
“Yeah.”
“Then why did you get so offended when I said something about strippers?”
“Because I love strippers,” I said. “And escorts. And I’ll be damned if I’m going to sit here and let you talk down about them.”
“He’s got a point,” Nash called out.
“I don’t need anyone else chiming in here,” Toby said. “You know, a little heads up would have been nice.”
A FILTHY Marriage (Filthy Line Book 4) Page 8