One More Night (Backstage Pass Book 1)

by Ali Parker

  “You know I don’t care about the fact that he’s loaded. And if you knew him, you would know that turning him down wouldn’t be crazy. In fact, it would probably be best for my sanity if I did.” I took a sip of my water and reached for a cookie, hoping that it would settle my nerves.

  “If I knew him, I’d still think turning him down was crazy,” she countered. “I mean, have you looked at the guy?”

  “Unfortunately, I have. He’s beyond handsome, yes. And there’s just something about him that makes me feel like there’s electricity sparking over my skin when I’m near him. I’m the first to admit that I’m attracted to him, but he’s just so freaking pompous. His attitude drives me crazy sometimes.”

  “So? Going on a date with him doesn’t have to mean anything. Just see it as a night out with a hot guy. What do you have to lose?”

  “I already told you, my sanity.”

  “Sanity is overrated. I’d give mine up in a second for a chance with a guy who looked like that.” She giggled, lifting a finger, leveling it, and making circles in the air beside her temple. “Being coo-coo over a guy like that would be so worth it.”

  “You know that there’s more to him than just the way he looks, right?”

  Kelly seemed taken aback by my tone. A frown settled onto her features as she unfolded her legs from underneath her and spread them out on the couch instead.

  “Okay, so there is more to him than his looks, and you don’t care about his money, but you also don’t seem to like the guy very much. So, if it’s not his looks, his money, or his personality, then I’m confused. Why did you even agree to go out with him?”

  I pulled the elastic band out of my hair to loosen my ponytail, only to gather the strands back and redo it to give my hands something to do. I didn’t understand why I was feeling so conflicted over Jared, either. But I had to be honest with myself, and by extension, with Kelly.

  “Because it’s not that I don’t like him. I do. I just don’t like the way he acts sometimes. Okay, most of the time. But get this, the other day, he and his brother got into a fight. When he initially called to tell me about it, he refused to offer any excuses, but eventually, I found out that he’d gotten into the fight to defend Caleb. His willingness to defend his brother and his refusal to make excuses for it impressed me.”

  The line between Kelly’s eyebrows deepened. “Yeah, I heard about the fight. Didn’t know that it was about Caleb, though. Forgetting that fun fact for a minute, although I’m dying to know the actual story, am I getting it right that you’re telling me that you both like him and don’t like him at the same time? Cause that’s confusing as balls.”

  I nodded enthusiastically. “Tell me about it. That’s the problem. Sometimes, it’s like there’s this real, decent person right beneath the surface. And you’ve heard his songs. There’s a raw honesty there. Someone who feels so deeply and who genuinely understands what people go through, but then you meet him, and he’s all arrogant player and generally just a bit of a dick.”

  “He wouldn’t be the first, or the only, person who doesn’t share all of himself with the whole world, you know? He probably figures that he gives the world so much of himself in his songs that he has to keep whatever he has left to himself.”

  She had a point. “I guess. Maybe. When did you get smart?”

  Kelly smiled and downed the rest of her water. “I research and write about these people for a living, remember? I know that you don’t think they’re special, but even you can’t deny that their minds work differently than ours. They have to. I’m sure ours would have worked the same way if we were under constant public scrutiny. From what I gather, it changes a person, and while there is the age-old argument that they chose to live their lives in the public eye, that doesn’t mean that they should be stripped of their privacy altogether.”

  I agreed with her, of course. A part of my job was to ensure that certain things about them remained private. What I didn’t know was whether Jared being a jackass was his way of protecting himself, or if that was just who he was. I could deal with it as a persona or a defense mechanism. I could even understand it. But if that was all it was, the guy was a pro at never letting a shred of his humanity shine through. And that was the problem. I wasn’t entirely convinced that there was still a likable human being behind that shell.

  “I can understand that, but what if it has changed him so much from whoever it was that he used to be, that all that’s left is the public persona? I’ve been behind closed doors with him on a number of occasions. Alone or with the band and their manager only, and he’s like that all the time.”

  Kelly gave me a long look and shook her head like I still didn’t get it. “And on all of these occasions that you were lucky enough to be alone with him, did you tell him all of your deepest darkest secrets? Did you let him in completely?”

  “No,” I said. “But I wasn’t rude to him, either, and I don’t try to justify my bad actions by referring to myself as the Emperor of anything.”

  Kelly stifled a giggle. “He really does that? I thought that was an act that he put on for interviews.”

  “And there, you’ve uncovered what’s at the heart of my problem. It’s not an act for the cameras. That’s how he talks and acts all the time. Well, almost all the time, anyway.”

  My sister nodded like she’d had some kind of revelation, staring off into the middle distance before meeting my eyes again. “If that’s true, then I see what you mean. But let’s face it, you also think that there might be more to him, so why not give him a chance? It’s one date, presumably a local one. If he’s really horrible and it sucks, you come back home. He’s probably not going to whisk you off somewhere that would make that impossible. At the worst, it’s a few hours with a jerk, but at least, he’s a jerk who can afford a delicious meal and a semi-decent bottle of wine.”

  She wasn’t wrong. With a deep sigh and a firm nod, I decided to keep my date with him in a few days. If push came to shove, I could always climb out the bathroom window or just walk out the restaurant and come home.

  “Speaking of wine, I think I have a bottle in the fridge. Let’s go grab a glass and move this party to my room. Since you were key in convincing me to do this, you’re helping me choose an outfit for the mistake I’m probably about to make.”

  Kelly laughed and stood up from the couch at the same time as I did, following me into the kitchen and grabbing two glasses while I rummaged around for the wine. It was a bottle of dry rose that I loved, and I poured us each a healthy glass that we took to my bedroom for what was sure to be a Great Outfit Debate.

  Settling on my purple comforter, Kelly sipped her wine while I started pulling out my options and laying them on the bed. Watching what I was doing, Kelly quickly objected. “Oh no. No, no, no. We’re not choosing like that. You’re putting it all on, and we’ll narrow it down from there. Some of these, I’ve never seen on you, and others, I don’t even remember what you look like in. The man might be arrogant, but he’s still a star, and we’re going to make sure that you look like you belong on his arm, even if you only end up staying on it for an hour or less.”

  I raised both my eyebrows and held up a simple white dress in front of me. “Are you really going to make me change into each one of these? Can’t I just told them like this?”

  Kelly shook her head, eyes wide, but insistent. “No way. How am I supposed to see if that dress, for example, makes your ass look fat or your boobs look flat, if you’re not wearing it. We’ve got the rest of the night and the next few if we can’t settle this tonight. You’re not getting out of this. The movies can wait. This is way more important.”

  “I don’t remember you being like this the last time you helped me decide what to wear for a date,” I told her. “In fact, you weren’t even here. I sent you a picture of what I was thinking about wearing, and you texted back a thumbs-up emoji.”

  Kelly smiled at the memory. “True. But Greg was just a normal asshole, not a famous one.”
>
  I yanked one of the decorative pillows from the settee next to me and threw it at her with a wide grin. “That shouldn’t make any difference.”

  She let out another peal of giggles and rolled her eyes up like she didn’t know what she was going to do with me and was asking for patience. “Let’s not go there. Whether or not you agree with me is irrelevant anyway, since I’m not letting you out of this room until you’ve tried on every last one of your options.”

  “Fine,” I said, shedding my black pajamas with the little Batman logos on them. “But from now on, whenever either of us go on a date with anyone, we’re doing it this way.”

  Kelly nodded with a resigned smile on her lips and saluted me with her glass of wine. “You got it, although I’m pretty sure this is the most exciting date either of us is ever going to go on.”

  She was incorrigible, really. But I had to give it to her for sticking to her guns. “We’ll see about that.”

  Slipping into the white dress I’d been holding up earlier, Kelly shook her head almost immediately. “No, that’s way too casual for a night date.”

  She proceeded to veto at least nine more outfits, though it was starting to feel more like a hundred. Sometimes because I looked too sexy, sometimes because I didn’t look sexy enough. Other times because the outfit was flirty or conservative, and once because she said my skirt was just plain ugly. If anyone else had tried telling me that, I would have been offended or ignored them, but this was Kelly, and her opinion mattered to me, so I didn’t argue.

  Eventually, we settled on a just-sexy-enough black dress. It hit just below mid-thigh, clung to my hips, and revealed a little bit more of my cleavage than anything I could remember wearing around Jared before. After pairing the dress with a pair of red heels, slinky silver jewelry, and even choosing out lacy underwear that matched the heels, Kelly smiled and put both her thumbs up.

  “I officially declare our mission a success,” she said.

  I didn’t quite know why I’d let her talk me into going so far as choosing the underwear. Even if the date went well, it was still only the first date. I knew that a guy like Jared probably got laid on every date, but I wasn’t sure what I would do if he tried to sleep with me.

  Thinking about it was making me nervous, but it also made certain parts of my anatomy excited. I shoved the thought away after I reminded that part of my anatomy of how annoying Jared was. She didn’t seem to care much, but I reined it in and focused my attention on Kelly instead.

  “Can we go watch that movie now?” I asked. It was finally time to just relax. No more Jared or Destitute. Just me, my sister, and our date with my couches.

  CHAPTER 15

  JARED

  Fuck me sideways. She actually showed up. I was wondering if she was going to, or if she was going to cancel on me at the last minute. I hadn’t been stood up in years, but as Alicia constantly proved, she was different and not incapable of surprising me.

  I was also half expecting that if she did show up, it would be in her work clothes to prove that she wasn’t trying to impress me or something. But that dress was definitely not something I’d seen her in at work.

  My tongue darted out between my lips when I spotted her. If I thought she was hot at work, she was fucking mesmerizing after hours. She hadn’t seen me yet, and she was paused in the doorway of the restaurant, giving me a great opportunity to check her out without the drawback of her getting annoyed with me about it.

  The restaurant that I’d chosen for our date was a fancy, but understated place that hardly ever had any of the members of the paparazzi hanging around. I thought I should get points for having chosen a place like this since I doubted that she wanted to be photographed with me.

  The lighting was dim, with low-hanging crystal chandeliers and candles on the tables. Alicia was momentarily silhouetted by the street lamp outside before the door of the restaurant swung closed behind her, making her seem like an absolute vision. Her black dress hugged her curves in a way that made me jealous of fabric for the first time in my life, and her honey blonde hair cascaded over her shoulders and was shiny and smooth.

  And those heels.

  Fuck.

  Me.

  The hostess was escorting Alicia toward me by the time that I managed to stop staring at her. Both women were smiling on their approach, but Alicia’s smile seemed a bit fake. I wondered why.

  I found myself wondering what was going on in her pretty little head—way more often than I was used to—but I decided not to overthink it and rose from my seat when they drew near.

  Alicia’s brow furrowed as if she were confused, then smoothed, and the smile became more genuine. What the hell was that about?

  “Hey,” I said when they were close enough. “You came. Wasn’t sure you were going to.”

  “Me either,” she mumbled, flushed the most appealing shade of pink, and tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. “But now that I am, how are you?”

  When I went to pull out a chair for her, she looked puzzled again, and this time, I was too curious to let it go. “What?”

  “Nothing,” she said quickly, then turned to face the hostess who was still standing there, apparently staring at me. I’d been too busy doing the same with Alicia to notice that she was still there.

  Turning my attention to the hostess, I flashed her a grin and asked her to send over our server. Understanding my dismissal, she nodded and scurried away, finally leaving me alone with my ravishing date.

  “I know enough about women to know that even if they say it’s nothing, it’s never really nothing. So, what’s up?”

  Alicia smiled shyly, averting her eyes from mine as she stared down at the starched white tablecloth that covered our table. “It’s really nothing interesting. I was just surprised by you acting all gentlemanly.”

  “What do you think I am, a caveman? I wasn’t born under a rock, you know? My mama raised her boys with manners. We just forget to use them sometimes.” I had no idea where the sudden bout of honesty had come from, or why I’d mentioned my mother for that matter. I never talked about her with anyone.

  As if Alicia knew not to ask, she didn’t and smirked at me instead. “Don’t insult cavemen. You’re way worse than them most of the time.”

  With her quip, quick smile, and slightly teasing expression, Alicia pulled the string on the knot of unease and consequent confusion about why I said what I had. I relaxed almost instantly and took my seat across from her. “I’m worse than cavemen? Is that really what you think?”

  Her eyes softened as she took me in, and in that moment, it was like she could see straight through all the bullshit I spewed and was really looking at me. I didn’t know how I felt about that. “No, that’s not what I really think. Not most of the time, anyway.”

  “I see.” We were interrupted by the server approaching our table and taking our drink order. White wine for Alicia and another tumbler of Scotch for me.

  “Where were we?” I asked her once the penguin-suited man left.

  “Nowhere too interesting. The record will reflect that you are, in fact, not worse than a caveman. Speaking of the record, how did it go in the studio today?”

  It wasn’t often that I got asked that with genuine interest. Mostly people just asked because they wanted inside information, wanted to know if they could lay down a track with us, or as a formality. It didn’t feel like that with Alicia, but that might also only have been because it was part of her job to care.

  “It’s going really well, actually. We had a tough couple of days for a while back there, but we’re really gaining momentum now. I think this just might be the best record that we’ve ever done. I can’t wait to see what the fans think.”

  “I’m sure they’re going to love it. The hype campaign is going fantastically well so far. People seem really eager for you to drop this one. There’s a general consensus that your stuff has only been getting better, so the fans are stoked to see what you’ve come up with. The campaign is going so mu
ch better than I expected.”

  “Yeah? That’s great. You’ve been doing a really good job.” The server delivered our drinks and took our food order, then disappeared again.

  “Thanks,” she said, a bright smile lighting up her features. “Same to you. I know how hard you guys are working.”

  “We are, although most people think that we do nothing but sleep all day, party all night, and then maybe sing some songs somewhere in between.”

  Alicia laughed and sipped her wine, drawing my attention to her lips, and I wondered if they tasted as good as they looked. She had a pale pink gloss on them that made me think inexplicably that they tasted like some kind of berry.

  “I know there’s a lot more to it than that,” she said, interrupting my fantasy of leaning across the table and finding out the answers to my questions.

  “It’s kind of cool that I know that you really do.” What was it with this honesty thing tonight? I finished my drink and promptly ordered another. I needed to stop thinking so much. “So, you already know a lot of the first date kind of stuff about me, but I don’t know much about you, other than what you do for a living. Tell me more.”

  “You want the basics?”

  I nodded and motioned for her with my hand that the floor was hers. It was alluring to see that she actually put some thought into her answer and wasn’t just trying to deny that she knew the basics about me. Or trying to get more from me without offering anything about herself.

  “Okay. Basics. Here goes. I have one sister, Kelly. She’s an entertainment reporter and blogger, and before you ask, no, I don’t tell her anything about my clients. Yes, she knows that we’re on a date tonight, but she won’t write about it.”

  A low chuckle rumbled from my chest. “I don’t care if she writes about it, honestly. You’re hot, and I definitely don’t mind being seen with you. But I kind of figured that you wouldn’t like being seen out with me, so I’m guessing that’s why she’s not writing about this. It’s also why I chose this restaurant.”