“Oh yeah?”
“We’ll figure it out. There are weekends, phone calls, emails. When we know about the details of your record deal, we’ll adjust.”
“This will be hard,” she sighed sadly.
“The best things in life normally are.”
“Seriously, what are you doing to me?” she exclaimed quietly against his chest.
“Mia, I meant it when I said I wanted all of you.”
“Faints,” she said in disbelief.
They could totally do this! He wasn’t doing all too much in the coming months besides visiting his family this week and a few sporadic engagements. He was pretty flexible until July.
The wild card in this was how her record deal would unfold. Ethan had no clue on what to expect. If he did, he could make a plan.
Soon, he told himself.
He watched her as she lifted her left arm and checked her watch. She cursed colorfully. Curious, he turned her arm so he could see the time. It was past four. Less than an hour and she’d be gone.
“My bed isn’t going to be the same until you’re back in it,” he said, kissing her forehead.
“I was kind of thinking the same thing, but more like ‘I don’t want to go back to my empty bed.’”
He had to laugh. She always found humor in every situation. “Mia Devereux, I am very glad you came into my life.”
She kissed his chest and her lips moved against his skin as she talked. “You don’t know how happy that makes me because I definitely didn’t want to be alone with how I felt.”
“You’re not,” he spoke softly, squeezing her tight. The thought of letting her go was making him ill. Despite that, he forced himself to release his hold on her and gave her a little push. She grumbled as she rose from the bed to locate all her clothes that she had thrown in her haste to get them naked.
Ethan stared at her, needing to memorize her body, the swell of her breasts, her long, lean legs, and that ass that begged to be held in his hands. He was glad that Luke had sent him a picture of her before the party because now he could look at her beautiful, smiling face whenever he needed a fix, which would probably be quite often.
“You have all my contact info, including my agent?” he asked as Mia buckled her belt. She nodded as she slipped on her shoes. “We’ll see each other soon.”
She looked up from what she was doing, hope filling her eyes. “You mean that?”
“Yes, it might be a little difficult, but we’ll talk to each other as much as we can. Don’t worry, Mia, I haven’t had enough of you—not even close.”
Mia
Mia sat down at her boring gray desk at her boring ass job. She didn’t miss being here one bit. With a loud sigh, she turned on her computer and glanced at the time. Just a little before eight. Her co-worker, Marc Kerr, should be there shortly and she hoped he hurried his ass up. She was craving a large cup of coffee.
While she waited, Mia decided to check her email. She shook her head at all the nonsense in her inbox. She couldn’t wait to quit this place. The work bored her. The only bright spot these days was Marc. He got her through each and every day and had basically done so since the day she started six years ago. When she’d first started, the task of keeping her sane at work had been divided between Luke and Marc, and when Luke left, Marc helped her pick up the pieces.
“Knock, knock,” Marc’s silky voice interrupted her thoughts. She turned and frowned when she saw his blood-shot eyes.
Shit! He’d been using again. She was supposed to go to a party with him last night, but had been too tired when she had arrived home.
“How was the party?”
“Good,” he smiled, leaving her cube and heading towards the elevators. Mia hurried after him.
“What was there? What did you take?” she asked in a hushed whisper.
“Lots of fun stuff. You should’ve come. It would have been fun with you.”
Marc had reintroduced her to drugs. She had stopped while in college. But one day he asked her to a party. The very same party where she met her bandmates, Marty, Todd, and Clark. After that point whenever she went to a party, she ended up smoking a joint or sharing a bong along with drinking way too much.
“Why did you get high?”
“I needed you this weekend,” he said sadly.
“I’m sorry,” Mia said as she pushed the elevator button. “I had my show …”
The elevator doors opened and he held them for her, letting her go in first. “How’d that go?”
She smiled widely and felt the heat of the blush start at her chest and up and over her face.
“Holy shit! You had sex!” he guessed correctly. “Spill!”
“You won’t believe with whom.”
“Luke?” he guessed. Normally that would have been the correct answer.
“Not this time.”
“Really? Then who?”
“Ethan Christopher,” she said proudly.
“What?” he exclaimed. “No fucking way!”
“Lots of times, actually.”
“How did this happen?”
Mia told him the story while they sat and drank their coffees. She then sprang the news about the record exec showing up and wanting to meet with them. At that, he drew her into his arms and hugged her.
“So glad you didn’t show up this weekend!”
She smiled. So was she.
“Any idea of when you should hear from them?”
“All he said was next week which is now this week. I’m going to go nuts waiting,” she informed him as they headed back to their floor.
Throughout the day, Mia obsessively checked her email. Still nothing from the record company. After work, she rushed home, started her simple dinner of frozen chicken noodle soup she had made a few weeks back. While that heated up, she sorted her laundry. Pulling out the black maxi dress she’d worn on her first date with Ethan, she smiled, remembering the trip that brought her so much good fortune.
She crossed the cramped space that she called home, dodging her luggage and piles of laundry, and sat down at her small café table, turning on her laptop to check her email yet again.
Nothing.
Might as well get started with her laundry, Mia thought, gathering her laundry bags, money and soap. She then trekked down the three flights of stairs to the basement. She commandeered a few machines and set about doing her wash.
Once that was done, she labored up those same three flights of stairs, groaning when she realized she’d have to lug her laundry back up to her apartment. No wonder she bought so many clothes. Less trips to the laundry room.
As she opened the heavy dark wooden door to her apartment, Mia heard her phone beep. She hurried in and flipped open her phone and saw a text from Ethan.
Hi, suga. You may have left my house, but you haven’t left my mind. Just thought you should know.
Her smile wide, her heart happy, she responded to his text.
Hi :) I wish I was there in person, rather than in your mind.
She was just about to put down her phone when he responded.
You’d like to be here in person doing the things in my mind.
Mia laughed loudly at his words. She could only imagine what he was thinking. If it was half of what she was thinking, she’d be in heaven.
I don’t know … what’s going on in your mind?
:) Why don’t you go look in a mirror and then take off your clothes? That’s what I see on my bed.
Damn! She really wanted to drive back to Indy right now and crawl into his bed and sleep in his arms.
“Yeah, sleep,” she said with a chuckle.
You’re right. I would like that … a lot. Now I’m sad that I’m here and you’re there. :(
Aww, suga. I don’t want you sad. :(
Totally pouting on the floor.
Can I call you tomorrow?
You can call me whenever you want. No need for an appointment.
Okay :) I have to get on a plane right now. Visitin
g my family this week. I should be more excited but I just have other things I want to do right now. (looks at you)
Safe travels, Ethan. You can do me later LOL :)
LOL Count on it! Bye, suga.
Mia closed her phone and placed it back on the table. The texts from Ethan totally improved her mood, now not as on edge as she’d been all day waiting for TBD to contact her. It was nice to know she was missed. She wondered when she would get to see him next. She’d ask him tomorrow. Until then, she would hang onto the weekends like he said.
After she ate her dinner, Mia ran back down to the laundry room to put her clothes in the dryer. When she returned, she heard her phone ringing from the hallway. She really needed to remember to bring it with her when she left her place.
Hurrying into her room, she scrambled to answer it. “Hello?” she said, out of breath.
“Hello. Is Mia there? This is Tommy Dirickson calling.”
She about fainted when she heard his name. She swallowed hard and answered. “This is Mia.”
“Hi, Mia! Sorry I didn’t call earlier. I didn’t forget about you guys. This was my first chance to call you. I wanted to let you know that I’d like to get you four out to Los Angeles next week. Would that be possible?”
In her head, she imagined herself screaming “Oh my God” at the top of her lungs and doing flips she couldn’t do in real life. She shocked herself at how cool and collected she sounded when she answered him. “I’m sure it will be.”
“Great!” He sounded relieved. “My assistant will give you a call tomorrow to set everything up. I can’t wait to see you next week.”
“Same here. Thank you, Tommy.”
Mia hung up her phone and finally screamed her joy.
Finally! After all these years of playing and hoping to land a break, it was actually here. The dreams she had since she was a young girl, being in a band like INXS or U2 were coming true. Not just her dreams but Marty’s, Todd’s, and Clark’s.
Speaking of them, better call and let them know what’s happening.
“Another day of work,” Mia muttered to herself. She wondered how she had stayed with this job for so long. This morning she was late and her micro-managing boss probably noticed, as he always did. But today, she didn’t care. Tommy’s assistant called early, wanting information about the band so she could set up flights and accommodations for them. The itinerary had them leaving on Saturday and they’d meet with Tommy and his staff on Monday.
Five more days. She could make it.
She left her desk to find Marc so they could get a coffee together, but he was nowhere to be found. She sighed as she made the trek upstairs by herself for her daily caffeine fix.
When Mia returned, hot coffee in hand, her boss was waiting for her. She cursed under her breath as she walked to her desk. Might as well get the yelling over with.
She sipped her coffee, straight-faced as her boss … maybe he will be known as her ex-boss by the end of the day, admonished her about being late and how it affected the team, blah, blah, blah.
“It won’t happen again,” Mia told him, laughing on the inside at her little joke.
He left and she sat down and decided she didn’t feel like working at that moment, so she called Marty at his law office instead.
“Hey, brat! What’s up?” he said with affection. Her bandmates were the older brothers she never had. Marty and Todd were four years older than her and Clark. Todd, Marty, and Marc all went to school together and Clark was Marc’s younger brother. All four of them had anointed her their little sister and in return, she had four of the best protectors in the world.
“Tommy’s assistant called me this morning. She’s setting up flights for us as we speak. We will leave on Saturday and meet with the label on Monday. You ready to be all lawyery and get us a good deal?”
He chuckled. “Lawyery? I don’t think that is even a word.”
“Whatever.”
“And, yeah, I’ve been doing a lot of research the past few days. I know what to expect and what shouldn’t be in the contract.”
“Good. What about songwriting and all that?”
“My next research topic. I’ll make sure we are protected and well-compensated,” he said confidently.
“Are you sad to leave your job?”
“No. You?”
“Hell no! I think I’m going to quit today. Tonight we need to celebrate!”
“Sounds good!” Marty said.
“Can you or Todd set that up?” she asked, knowing what a great job they did with parties.
“With pleasure! Next Saturday we will be in Los Angeles, finally starting the next step in this journey. Can’t tell you how excited I am about this!”
“It’s our time, Marty. Let me know the details of the party as soon as it’s settled.”
“Okay. Talk to you later, brat.”
After hanging up the phone, she stared at her desk. She still didn’t feel like working so she went on the Internet and updated their website and MySpace pages.
She finally did a few work things but mostly spent the rest of the day researching Los Angeles. The weather was supposed to be in the sixties. She wanted to lay out poolside and this forecast did not make her happy. She was in desperate need of warm weather and insane amounts of sunshine.
As she packed her personal items into a couple of bags, Mia received a call from Tommy’s assistant.
“Hi, Mia! Just sent you an email with all the info on the flights. I’ll be meeting Clark on Friday and I’ll see you, Todd, and Marty at the airport on Saturday. From there, I’ll take you to the apartment complex. I only got two apartments, but I could get you a separate one if you don’t want to room with one of the guys.”
“Don’t worry about that. It’ll be fine. Thank you for setting it all up. I guess we’ll see you on Saturday.”
“See you then, Mia.”
Mia hung up the phone and quickly finished packing her belongings. Then she did what she’d waited years to do. With a confident stride, she walked into her boss’s office and told the ass that she quit. He sat in his chair, speechless. She smiled, walked out of the office, got her things, and left.
Damn! That felt fan-freaking-tastic!
While she drove home, Todd Hendricks, her drummer, called with details for the party and she filled him in about the details of the trip.
“So, uh, Todd, if you had to pick one of us to room with while in L.A., who would you pick: Clark, Marty, or me?”
“That’s easy! You! You know how to cook.”
She let out an amused puff and shook her head. “I get the bigger bedroom.”
“That’s fine! I get food! Oh, before I forget … Clark said he’s leaving around noon tomorrow. So, you need to get your gear to him by then.”
“Your drums take up all the space.”
“As does your keyboard.”
“Do you think he’ll have some room for a couple of suitcases?”
“Let’s do the math. Nine guitars, drums, keyboards, amps, his suitcases. Maybe. How about you don’t bring so much?”
Crap, she thought. She couldn’t fit all the stuff she needed in two point five suitcases. She needed clothes specifically for the shows as well as her everyday clothing.
“Think about who you are talking to.”
“We will make it work. Don’t worry.”
“Okay. I’m home now,” she said, pulling into her parking spot and shutting off her car. “See you in a few hours.”
Grabbing her stuff, Mia rushed upstairs so she could start packing. She pulled out her luggage and set aside two large suitcases, her small carry-on and her backpack. That was what she could bring on the plane. She stared at those pieces of luggage for a few moments and knew there was absolutely no way that she could fit everything in those four pieces. She prayed that Clark would be able to take two suitcases for her.
She got to work fitting all she wanted to bring in those five suitcases. Not knowing how long they’d be out there mad
e packing difficult. She wished she could take more. She had so many shoes she would have loved to bring. She then packed up her guitars and keyboard and put them with the bags she hoped Clark could take.
Before getting herself ready for the party, Mia texted Ethan. She needed to let him know what had been happening.
It’s been a crazy 24 hours. Lots happening. I quit my job. Plans have been made to go to L.A. Tonight we celebrate. I know you said you’d call tonight so I just want you to know in advance that if I don’t answer it’s because I didn’t hear it. My phone will be in my pocket all night. Please call. I’d like to hear your voice.
She re-read her text and sent it. Then she put her phone on the table and went about getting dressed.
Staring at her red suede, platform pumps she found in the back of her closet, Mia thought about what to wear. Black skinny jeans would be nice if she could find them. She knew she had a few pair and finally found them in her laundry bag from yesterday. She changed into a red bra to match the red tank she wanted to wear. Over that she wore a vintage black cropped biker jacket.
Mia grabbed her phone to slip in her back pocket but decided to call Marc first to see if he was going to be at the party.
“Yeah. Of course I’m going to be there,” he said.
“Do you want me to pick you up or …”
“I’ll meet you there. I’m still at the office. I saw your empty desk this evening.”
“Yeah. I quit today. Felt so damn awesome!”
“So it appears there are quite a few reasons to party tonight.”
“You’ve got that right! I’m out the door. See you there!” she said, ending the call.
Slipping her phone in her pocket, Mia began the many trips to bring her things down to her SUV. Five damn trips later and a half-hour late, she finally hopped in her Pathfinder and drove off.
When she arrived, she spotted Clark’s van and pulled up beside it. Clark Lindon was not just their bassist, he was also Marc’s half-brother. He stood, staring at a pile of luggage and instruments, beginning to figure out the van-packing puzzle. She hopped out of her car and approached him. In her heels, she stood about even with him. Where Todd and Marty were tall and blond, Clark and Mia were short and brunettes. His dark brown hair was cropped close to his head and she was pretty sure she had never seen him clean shaven. He always wore glasses which covered his electric blue eyes. She always wondered if he was Superman in disguise.
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