“Oh my goodness! Why? Tristan?”
“Yeah, because they found out about Tristan and me seeing each other.”
“Shit,” she said.
“Yeah, my sentiments exactly.”
“So who told them?”
“I guess I did. Did you see the show the other night?”
“No, I have it on DVR. I haven’t had a chance to watch it yet. Why?”
I hung my head. “He needed a duet partner….”
Susie slapped the arm of the couch. “Oh shit! You didn’t? You sang with him on live television?”
“Afraid so,” I admitted. “And when the song ended, he kissed me.”
“You got it bad girl!”
“Shut up, I do not. He just didn’t have anyone else and he was doing rehab and trying and I felt bad…”
“Yeah, okay,” she laughed a little and then she said, “You knew what would happen; you were just willing to give it up for him. I’m sorry though, about the job…internship. If you need any help…”
“I’ll be fine,” I told her. “It’s really not a big deal.” I needed to keep repeating that until I finally believed it. “I’m worried about Tristan, though.”
She smiled again and said, “More worried about the boyfriend than you are yourself…yeah, you got it bad.”
“He’s not my boyfriend.”
Before Susie could say anything else, there was a knock on the door. She was still looking like she had plenty to say, so I was grateful.
“I’ll get it,” I told her.
I got up and pulled open the door. I was shocked to see Tristan there…holding a duffel bag.
“Hey, why aren’t you at rehab? More importantly, why are you standing on my doorstep with a suitcase? Oh shit! Did you get kicked off the show?”
He laughed and said, “Um, wouldn’t you like to invite me in first. Then, I will answer your questions.”
“Oh yeah, sorry. Come in.”
I stepped back and he stepped in. Nodding at Susie he said, “Hi, I’m Tristan.”
She grinned and said, “Yeah, I figured,” she gave me the raised eyebrow look and I knew I’d hear it later. “I’m Susie.”
“Let’s go in my room,” I told him. “Susie was trying to watch her program.”
We started out of the room and Susie called over her shoulder, “No loud fucking. If I hear you, I’m coming in there.”
“Shut the hell up,” I told her. Tristan busted up laughing. “You shut up, too,” I told him. “There’s not going to be any of that going on.” He continued to grin as he followed me into my room.
When we got their he said, “I’ve been dying to get out of rehab so I can fuck you on this bed.”
“Tristan, focus. Why aren’t you in rehab? Did you get thrown out?”
“Oh ye of little faith,” he said. “No, I didn’t get kicked out. I got discharged into the outpatient program. He didn’t say it out loud, but I’m sure the doctor thinks of me as one of his finest students.”
“Oh, well that’s great. Congratulations. What about the show? Did you get kicked off?”
He looked at me strangely and said, “No, why?”
“Because I did,” I told him. “They let me go and Clint said he would be talking to you…”
He shrugged and said, “They haven’t called. Shit, Elly, I’m sorry.”
I kept a neutral expression as I said, “It’s no big deal, I’ll get another job.”
“Mother fuckers!” he said. At least it was nice to know he cared…a little.
“Okay, next question, what’s the giant duffel bag about?”
“Oh, that,” he said with another devilish grin.
“Yeah, that.”
“My doctor wouldn’t discharge me unless I had someone to stay with that could be a part of my outpatient treatment; you know go to groups and appointments and generally keep me out of trouble.”
“Sounds like a huge job.”
Still grinning he said, “Yeah, I thought you’d be the perfect candidate.”
“You want to stay here?”
“Please?” he said.
Shit! This is not a good idea.
“I don’t think that’s such a good idea,” I told him.
“I don’t have anyone else, Elly.”
I didn’t know he had me. Every time he needs something, suddenly I’m all he has. I thought we were friends…kind of…with benefits. More benefits than friends, actually. I thought that was all that we both wanted. Then suddenly we’re roommates too, and I was part of his recovery program? Maybe somewhere along the way we became more and I missed it. It wasn’t my intention when it started for it to go beyond that. Most especially because I firmly believed that was all Tristan wanted too.
Chapter Three
Tristan
I woke up to banging pots and pans and opening and closing drawers and cabinets. Damn! A guy can’t get any fucking sleep. I rolled over and almost fell off Elly’s couch. She really made me sleep there. I thought for sure she’d be as happy as I was that we could sleep together and fuck every night if we wanted to—and for the record, I wanted to. I think she was just trying to prove a point or some stupid female shit though, so I didn’t argue with her.
I opened one eye and looked at the clock. It was almost noon. I couldn’t really complain about the noise. I had to be at the studio in a couple of hours, anyways. I got up and stretched just in time to see Susie, the roommate walk out of the kitchen. Her eyes got really wide and she was looking right at my crotch as she said,
“Damn! You should buy some pajama’s dude.”
I looked down at my boxers to see if I was hanging out. I wasn’t, but I did have some wood going on.
“It’s just a dick,” I told her with a laugh. I wasn’t shy about it. “I’m sure you’ve seen plenty of them.”
“What’s going on?” Elly asked, sticking her head out of her room. “Is there a problem?”
“Yeah, there’s a problem. Your boyfriend’s dick is the problem,” Susie told her. Chick still hadn’t taken her eyes off of it. If it offended her so badly, you think she’d turn her head.
Elly looked at my tent and laughed. That shrunk it a little. Then she said, “He’s not my boyfriend.”
“Okay, fuck buddy or whatever you kids are calling it these days. Just take him in the bedroom and fix it! Quietly though, I don’t want to hear any grunting or moaning.”
Okay, now it had started to get a little awkward. I was shrinking more by the second. “Um, if we’re finished talking about my dick, is it okay if I use the shower?”
“Take a cold one,” Susie said.
Elly shushed her, but still laughing and said, “Of course you can use the shower. There are clean towels in the cabinet under the sink.”
“Thanks,” I told her. Susie started to say something else and Elly shushed her again, this time with a look. I laughed it off and went to take my shower. I wasn’t going to take a cold one either. If Elly wasn’t interested, I’d do just fine taking care of it myself in her shower. I tried giving her a come-hither look on my way by, but she just rolled her eyes. It looked like it would just be my hand and me.
After my shower and my relief, I headed down to the studio. It felt so good to just leave and not have to sign out and check in with ten people first. I also wouldn’t have to pee in a plastic cup when I got back. Freedom was sweet. I parked my bike and grabbed my guitar and slung it over my shoulder. I was on my way down the hall to the band room when that little shit producer Tony stuck his head out of an office and said, “Hey Tristan, I need to talk to you.”
Fuck! “Yeah, sure.” I followed the little prick into his office and we sat down. “What’s up?”
“We had to let our intern go…Elly, the one that sang with you.”
Asshole acted like maybe I didn’t know her name. I sang with her and then I fucking kissed her. They fired her for having a “relationship” with me. All that and I was too shallow or stupid to even know her name. Thi
s guy really needed a beat down.
“Why?” I asked, more to see what he would say than anything else.
“Because the staff is warned when they get hired against having personal relationships with contestants. We can’t have that. It looks bad. She knew the rules and she blatantly defied them.”
Pompous ass. “So are you letting me go too?” I was trying to stay calm, just in case they weren’t. If he said yes, I was going to punch the mother fucker in his pinched up little face. Not so much for me as for Elly.
“No, we’re not going to let you go.” Relief washed over me as he said, “The competition is too close to being over. It would be a huge scandal. Elly was an intern, no one is going to miss her. If we kicked you off, we’d have to answer a lot of uncomfortable questions.” The only drawback was that I didn’t get to feel the squishy flesh of his fat little face against my fist.
He looked like he thought I should hug him or something. Fuck him. Fuck them all for what they did to Elly. I would have loved nothing more than to tell them all what I thought. No, that’s not true. I’d have loved nothing more than to kick that guy’s ass and then tell them all what I thought. But I also wanted their million dollars…I needed it. So I took a deep breath and held it in. I learned a thing or two from that boring anger management class the doctor made me go to three days a week.
“Okay,” I finally said. “That it?”
“Yes, just make sure that it doesn’t happen again.”
He thought I was a serial staff fucker, I guess. “Yeah, right,” I said. I walked out of their shaking my head, wondering how you got to be such an uptight little fuck.
Chapter Four
Elly
I was lying in bed, studying—or trying at least. I had a test coming up in my English class. Actually, I was more just trying to keep my mind on my studies to keep it off of other things. It wasn’t working. All I could think about was what they were doing at work. It was nine a.m. and if I was there, we’d be setting things up. I missed Molly. Even knowing that she wouldn’t judge me, I still hadn’t called her. I needed to do that, and move past it. I needed to find another job before the next semester started. I really didn’t want to have to ask my parents for money. They would give it to me without question, but I was twenty-two years old. It was past time for me to take care of myself. Sighing, I tried to return my focus to my book. Just about the time I did, my phone started ringing. Grateful for the distraction, I grabbed it off the nightstand and looked at it. I didn’t recognize the number.
“Hello?”
“Hello, is this Elly?”
“Yes.”
“Hi Elly, it’s Jake.”
I sat straight up. What is Jake calling me for? Was it not enough humiliation to be fired? Was he calling to rub it in? Did he want to tell me how badly I’d disappointed him?
“Hi Jake…”
“I know it’s last minute, but I was wondering if you had time to meet with me this morning?”
“Um…” What the hell does he want? Of course I have the time. I don’t have a job to get in the way any longer. “Sure, okay. What time?”
“Within the hour?”
Damn! I just couldn’t imagine what he wanted. Why didn’t he just say all he had to say the other day?
“Okay, sure. I’ll be there.” I hung up with a knot in my stomach. I’d done good not wallowing. I hadn’t cried and I wasn’t freaking out about money…okay, I was obsessing a little, but still not too bad. Why did he want to do this to me? Why couldn’t he just talk to me on the phone? Maybe he was going to offer my job back. No way…maybe? Maybe they were going to let Tristan go after all and he wanted to tell me it was all my fault.
Shit! I needed to just go find out before I drove myself nuts wondering about it. I bounced out of bed and quickly dressed in one of my best business suits. Just in case he wanted to ask me back, I wanted to look professional. I pulled my hair back and did my make-up. By the time I was ready, I had convinced myself that since they didn’t kick Tristan off, maybe they decided it wasn’t fair to let me go. I knew I might be disappointed when I got there, but for the time being, it was a nice fantasy.
I passed Tony in the hall when I got to the studio. He gave me a weird look like he was wondering what I was doing there. It was, in the immortal words of Tristan, none of his fucking business. He looked like he was going to say something to me but I stepped into Jake’s outer office before he could. I thought Tristan was right; Tony was kind of a little prick.
“Hi, Jenny,” I said to the assistant who was sitting behind her desk, “Jake wanted to see me.”
“Yes, he’s expecting you, Elly. Go on in.” Jenny smiled at me, genuinely. I guess they’re not all pricks.
I knocked first and he called for me to come in. When I opened the door he stood up from behind his desk and smiled. It wasn’t the same look he’d given me the last time we met, he seemed sincerely happy to see me. That was a good sign. Surely he wouldn’t be so happy about the prospect of lecturing me.
“Hello, Elly. Thank you for coming in.”
“You’re welcome,” I said. Please just tell me what you want so I can stop worrying about it.
“Go ahead and have a seat.” We both sat down and he said, “First of all, I have to say congratulations on your performance the other night. I couldn’t really say that in front of Clint and Tony, but I thought you were incredible.”
I was flabbergasted, “Thank you,” was all I could say. He was the executive producer. I had to wonder why he cared what Clint or Tony thought. I laughed inwardly at myself. I was starting to think a lot like Tristan.
“I was wondering if you’re still interested in working the tour?”
Now I was beyond flabbergasted. I almost fell off my chair.
“You still want me to?” I said. He’d just fired me—hadn’t he?
“Yes, I still want you to. I think you’re extremely talented and if there had been more than a couple of shows left, I would have fought for you. I was disappointed, I’ll admit, but you’re young and things happen. I just didn’t see the point in all that drama for a couple of weeks more.”
“Oh, wow! Thank you so much, Jake.” It meant a lot to me to know he respected my work ethic. I thought that had gotten lost in the shuffle. “I’d love to do the tour! I’m so excited.” I had already set up my online classes for next semester after the last time we talked about this. After they fired me though, I thought that the tour was part of the show and I was kicked off that, too. I hadn’t even questioned it. Jake was smiling as I gushed. He slid a pile of papers over to me and said,
“This is the contract. Read it over and sign on the yellow lines for me and it’s official.”
I couldn’t stop smiling. I probably looked like an idiot, but I had the job, so I didn’t care. I signed it all, skimming through it. The salary was at the top of the first page and it was more than generous. Yay me!
Jake looked them over after I handed them back and then said, “Welcome aboard…again.”
“Thank you, Jake, sincerely. I won’t mess this up.”
“I know you won’t,” he said. He walked me out and Tony was still lurking in the hall. I knew that he was dying to know what was going on. I smiled broadly at him, just to make him wonder more.
I was walking on air when I got outside. My phone started ringing and I hoped it was Susie or Tristan so I could tell them what just happened. I pulled it out of my purse and saw that it was my mother. The last time I talked to her was the night I sang with Tristan. Her and my dad both were gushing over my performance.
“Hi, Mom,”
“Hi, baby. How are you? Am I interrupting you at work?”
I didn’t tell her about getting kicked off the show. She and my dad were so excited for me, especially after they saw me sing with Tristan, I didn’t want them to be disappointed in me.
“No, you’re not interrupting me. I’m good, Mom, what’s up?”
“Dad and I will be there tomorrow.”
/>
“Tomorrow? I thought you weren’t coming until Thursday.”
“We got an earlier flight. Is that okay?”
“Of course,” I said. “I can’t wait to see you guys!”
“We can’t wait to see you either. I’ll let you get back to work. I love you.”
“Love you, too.”
I hung up and thought about Tristan. When I thought they weren’t coming until Thursday I thought it would be easy to hide him for a couple of days. There was no way I could hide him for three and a half. They were staying at a hotel but they were going to want to come over. I was going to have to let them meet him. Shit! My mother would talk to him like he was my boyfriend and god only knows what Tristan would say. He was such a wild card. Damn it! They’d know he was staying with Susie and me and they’d want to know why he was there if he’s not my boyfriend—not that they’d be okay with it if he was. If I told them he’s in recovery, they’d think about my late boyfriend and my mother would have a coronary. Shit! I couldn’t very well introduce him as what he really was—my fuck buddy.
Chapter Five
Tristan
I woke up on Tuesday morning to Elly and Susie cleaning like crazy people. Susie was dusting and I could see Elly’s fine ass bent over the mop in the kitchen. She wondered why I woke up with wood in my pants.
I sat up, in my female apartment appropriate pajama pants that were approved by Susie herself and said, “Is there an inspection going on today?”
“Kind of,” Susie said, “It’s meet the parents day.” She looked pleased, probably because she knew I’d be annoyed. Fuck!
“Your parents?” I asked her, hopefully. At least Susie’s parents wouldn’t wonder why I was staying with their daughter she could blame that on Elly.
“No, mine.” Elly said. Double fuck!
I wiped the sleep out of my eyes and said, “Are they staying here?”
“No, they got a hotel room. But, they’ll be here soon; I’d appreciate it if you’re dressed and you go along with what I’m going to tell them about you.”
“Which is?”
“That you’re my friend and you needed a place to stay while you’re a contestant on the show. They don’t need to know you’re from L.A. As far as they know, you’re from out of town.”
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