Dirty Roomie

by Alycia Taylor

  “I don’t want you to let me go,” I said. “I really do want this. And maybe I will want to become more than what I am now and continue with touring. But with Riley being away, and with the whole kidnapping mess, my heart just hasn’t been in it.”

  He smiled. “Go and get her. Anyway, it will make for some great coverage. Everyone loves a love story.”

  “Speaking of, I have a plan,” I said and outlined my idea for a new song. Once he heard it, he fell in love with it and told me that I had to sing it to Riley for the first time. I knew he wanted to use it all as some sort of big marketing scheme, but I didn’t mind. I was happy for him to do whatever he had to do, and I would do the same. And that was how I ended up back at Riley’s pub, ready to sing my song to her for the first time. I had managed to get Paisley in on the whole thing, who then spoke to her boss. He was delighted to have me play, and they both promised not to tell Riley.

  I was used to big arenas now, so standing on stage in such a small space again was unusual for me. It made me feel so much more connected to the audience. The big concerts took so much of that away. I spotted Riley almost immediately, but I tried not to look at her. I was just glad that she was there. I had taken a big breath and sang the song that I had written just for her. Afterwards, I saw that she was crying, and I rushed off stage to kiss her.

  Now the two of us were back home, and everything felt right with the world again. I looked at her and grinned.

  “Want to go for a ride?”

  She smiled. “I would love that.”

  She opened the garage, and I saw my bike sitting there, shiny and new looking. I looked at her in surprise.

  “I’ve been keeping it clean. I stopped for a while, but I carried on lately. It . . . well, this is going to sound silly . . . but it made me feel closer to you.”

  I pictured her in the garage, cleaning it even though I wasn’t there. The image brought a smile to my face.

  “You’re the sweetest person in the world; you know that?”

  She blushed. “It’s your pride and joy. I wanted to take care of it. Anyway, I’m still hoping you teach me how to ride one day.”

  I smiled. “Oh, trust me, I’m going to teach you. We have all the time in the world for that.” She looked at me questioningly when I said that, and I realized that she had no idea what my plans were. She probably thought I was going to leave again. But before she had a chance to answer me, I climbed onto the bike and told her to hop on with me.

  We rode to the field. I wished I had thought ahead and brought with a few drinks, and snacks. Or even just a blanket. But I hadn’t intended on going out for a bike ride. It hadn’t been planned at all. We got off the bike and looked around.

  “It’s strange being here at night,” she said. “It’s even more peaceful than during the day.”

  “Yeah,” I said. “I don’t have a blanket, but do you want to lie on the grass anyway?”

  “Oh, we better lie on the grass,” she said. “We can’t come all the way here and not. Anyway, at least this time you don’t have to fix the bike.”

  “That was a disaster,” I said as we lay down. “I was so embarrassed.”

  “You were? Why?” she asked.

  “Because I was trying to impress you and instead I made a fool of myself.”

  She giggled. “Oh, I didn’t mind one bit. I watched you work. It was incredibly sexy.”

  I turned to look at her. It was dark, but I could see that she was smiling.

  “Really?” I still remembered feeling so awkward with her watching me. I had been trying so hard to show off in front of her with the bike, and having it die on me was mortifying. I had no idea that she had been looking at me like that.

  “Oh yeah. Trust me; I didn’t stop looking at you. I almost asked you to take off your shirt. I was disappointed when you fixed the bike so quickly.”

  I laughed. “Well, that’s good to know. Oh, Riley, it’s so good to be here with you. I feel like I can be me again. I like all the guys on my team, but it’s not the same.”

  “Yeah, I feel the same way. Nobody really gets me in the way you do. I keep thinking that I’m dreaming. Am I going to wake up soon and realize that this whole thing has been a dream? I hope not. I don’t want it to be a dream. Did you really just surprise me with the most beautiful song in the world? Did my boss really tell me that I didn’t have to work? Or am I at home still, lying in bed and about to wake up?”

  “It’s real. I’m just so glad I managed to pull it off without you figuring anything out. Also, I’m sorry for not calling lately. I really am. I didn’t want to blow my cover and ruin the surprise.”

  “I was so upset,” she admitted. “I honestly thought you had finally forgotten about me.”

  “Are you kidding me? I would never forget you. I could never. Did you really think that?” I asked.

  She turned to face me now. “Yeah, I did. I know that’s not a nice thing to say, but you’re this big star, Silas. I know you didn’t kiss that girl, I believe you when you say that. But I just didn’t think you’d be interested in someone like me once you became famous. I thought I would be too dull for you.”

  I laughed. That was the most ridiculous thing I had ever heard. “You’re the most interesting girl in the world. I could never forget you. Hell, I could barely concentrate on my songs because of you. Nothing felt right without you. I sometimes feel like I have known you my whole life.”

  “I feel the same way. It’s weird to think that a year ago we had never even met. So, what happens now, Silas? I have been trying to muster up the courage to ask you about our future for a while now. But I’ve been too scared. But you’re here now. I have to ask. I need to know. Must I wait for you? Or do you want to go separate ways?”

  “I don’t want either of those things,” I said.

  “What do you mean?”

  “I’m staying.”

  “Staying?” she asked. I could hear the surprise in her voice. “Seriously?”

  “Yeah. I want to stay. I’m going to take a bit of a break from singing for a while. I want to make things right with you. I’ve spent too long away from you and I’ve missed you too much.”

  “But, Silas, this is your dream. You can’t give up on it. Not for me. Please.”

  “I’m not. I’m definitely not. I’m going to keep going, but I’m not leaving you. I’ll do it from here. I’ve already spoken to my manager, and we have worked everything out. He’s happy with me staying here. I just have to go see him twice a year to record an album. We are still ironing out all the details, but for now, I’m here with you. I have about a week or two off before I start things up again.”

  “You’re actually staying.”

  “I love you, Riley. I’m definitely staying. I mean . . . if you’ll have me, of course.”

  She chuckled. “The house isn’t the same without you. I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

  I leaned in and kissed her.

  “God, I’ve missed kissing you so much. Come on, let’s go home. I think we have a lot of catching up to do.”

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Riley

  My heart was full. A bike ride with Silas, long conversations under the night sky, looking up at the stars, and a promise of a future together. I didn’t need anything else. We rode home with my arms wrapped tightly around him, my face pressed into his back. All I could think about was how much I had missed him, and how much better I felt with him back in my life again. I hadn’t been myself for the past few months, but now I felt whole again.

  We got home and walked into the house in silence, both of us aware of the fact that we were finally together again. Finally alone. He took my hand, and we walked silently to my bedroom. Once inside, he pulled me to the bed and kissed me.

  “It’s so good to be with you again,” he said.

  I climbed on top of him and smiled. “I’m not going to let you go again,” I said and reached down to kiss him. I pinned his arms above his head.

&
nbsp; “You don’t have to try very hard,” he said between kisses, “Because I’m not planning on going anywhere.”

  I climbed off him and stood up, taking my clothes off. I remembered back to the day I had done the same thing in his bedroom. I had been so confident then despite not knowing Silas at all. I felt the same way now. I wanted him to see me. To see all of me. He was still fully clothed by the time I was done. I looked at him and arched my eyebrows.

  “Aren’t you taking off yours?”

  He smiled. “I wanted to watch you. God, you’re so beautiful, Riley. I can’t get enough of you.”

  I wasn’t perfect. I knew I had my faults, and that my body was far from where I would want it to be. But I felt perfect when he looked at me. I liked the way his eyes trailed over my body, taking every part in. He made me feel beautiful, inside and out.

  “I’ve missed that tattoo,” he said and pulled me in toward him. He was sitting on the bed and wrapped my legs around him. He trailed his fingers over the tattoo, smiling at it. His fingers moved to my breasts, tracing their way down my stomach, his mouth reaching down toward my neck. Suddenly he picked me up and swung me slowly onto the bed. He made me feel as light as a feather, and as I lay there, I watched as he took off his clothes and pulled out a condom from his wallet.

  He joined me on the bed, and it was his turn to pin me down as he kissed me, gently at first and then more fervently as we succumbed to our mutual longing. I could feel his excitement growing as our naked bodies finally touched again. I had been trying so hard not to think about sex with Silas, but it hadn’t been easy. I’d thought about it late at night when there was nothing to distract me from my thoughts. The fantasies had built up inside me without me knowing, and now that he was here with me again, I felt the effects of that buildup finally take hold. I wasn’t sure how much longer I would be able to hold out, and as he entered me, I felt my body on the verge of letting go. Sex with Silas was even better than I remembered it to be. He looked down at me, smiling at me, and I knew that he was thinking the same thing as I was. I held onto him as he rocked over me, pushing himself deeper and deeper inside me. I felt him grow inside me, and that feeling of him inside me seemed to go far beyond just the physical, stretching well beyond simple sexual chemistry. There was something else this time. Knowing that he was staying behind for me. Knowing that he wanted to be with me as much as I wanted to be with him. Knowing that he had chosen me out of all the girls in the world that probably wanted him. That was what changed it for me. This wasn’t just sex. We were making love. It was clichéd and beautiful all at the same time. And this time, as he came inside me and my body shuddered against his, he looked at me and whispered, “I love you, Riley.”

  “I love you too,” I said and then moaned as I finally let myself go.

  It was nice to know that sex with Silas wasn’t going to leave me with a feeling of uncertainty like it normally did. It was nice to know that I finally knew where I stood with him and that he wasn’t about to leave the next day. I turned around to look at him and kissed him gently on the mouth.

  “You’re staying here tonight,” I said. It wasn’t a question. “I mean, your room is empty. You might as well stay in bed with me.”

  He laughed. “I’m not complaining. And how about coffee and breakfast in the back yard tomorrow?”

  I smiled. “I’d like that. I have the whole day free. I have to work tomorrow night, though. But I have the day free.”

  He shook his head. “Riley, you can’t go back there.”

  “To work? What do you mean? Why not?”

  “I appreciate everything your boss did for me, but you’re not happy there. I still have that check for you. I want you to take it now. I want you to start up something of your own. You will be amazing at it.”

  “I can’t take your money, Silas.”

  “Yes, you can. Remember what I said to you before: you were meant for greatness. This house was given to you for a reason. I met you for a reason. Your grandmother will be so proud of you. I know you don’t like taking money from people, but just think of all the troubled teens you would be saving. Imagine if you had a place like this to go to when you were a teenager.”

  I smiled. He was right. I had to swallow my pride. An opportunity like this didn’t come around all that often. I kissed him. “Thank you, Silas.”

  “You’ll do it?”

  I nodded. “I’ll do it.”

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Silas

  One Year Later

  I had been unsure of many decisions in my life, but the one thing that I had been sure of was that I wanted to be with Riley. I knew that would always be the thing that took priority for me. I would make everything work around that one fact: Riley came first.

  It was a good decision, and one that I had stuck to over the past year. At first, things had been sort of shaky with Garren. He’d been very understanding, but he’d asked me to reconsider my idea of staying behind instead of touring. He wanted to take me to great heights and believed I had the potential to become a big star. I appreciated his unwavering faith in me, but I knew that it was not something that I wanted to pursue. Once he knew that I wasn’t going to change my mind, he set up a meeting with me at home. We sat for hours, going over what other options I had. In the end, we decided to turn one of the spare rooms in the house into a studio. From there, we were able to continue producing songs and creating albums. He came by to see me once a month, and we made plans for me to sing at concerts at various times over the year. He didn’t want me to lose that connection with the public, and we both agreed that I would do it as long as it didn’t involve me touring for long periods of time.

  The latest show had been in London, and I’d sold out at five different venues all in the space of three weeks. It had been fun, but I had also missed Riley. I had wanted her to come with me, but she had work commitments that she couldn’t leave now.

  Riley had finally started her dream of working with troubled teens. Once I came back and gave her back the check, she spent six months working on turning it into a reality. The house was big, so we cordoned a section off and dedicated it toward her work. She set up art workshops, counseling sessions, and writing camps, and spent those six months putting the ideas together. I had never seen Riley look more alive than she had that year. The more she worked toward her goal, the more excited she became, and I knew without a doubt that she had done the right thing. Her first batch of teens came in only a few months ago. Riley had been so nervous, worried that she wasn’t good enough to help them. But, of course, I knew that she would be brilliant at it. I was right. It didn’t take long for her to feel comfortable and for her to realize that she had done the right thing. The teens took an immediate liking to her. They could sense that she had been through some hardships herself.

  I was on my way back home now. I couldn’t wait to see her again after the tour. I had arrived earlier than expected, and as I made my way home, I realized she would probably be in the middle of work. I always tried to keep out of her way when she worked with the teens, mostly because I had become better known in the last year and I didn’t want the teenagers to feel suddenly awkward knowing that I was around. When I arrived, I snuck into my own office, which had its own entrance, and sent her a message.

  I’m home. In the office. Let me know when you’re done. I love you.

  She arrived moments later, rushing toward me to envelop me in a massive hug.

  I grinned. “You finished?”

  “No. But there’s no way I could work knowing you were here and I hadn’t seen you. So, uh, word sort of got out that you were my boyfriend.”

  I laughed. “Uh-oh. How did they find out?”

  “One of the girls saw a photo of us and came running out with it. Then she showed everyone, and they made me tell them. So . . . any chance you want to come and say hello? The cat’s out of the bag now. And let’s be honest, they’re not going to rest until they meet you.”

  I chuckled. “
I’d love to meet them. But I want a kiss first.”

  She giggled and kissed me. I noticed that her hands were streaked with paint. I liked it when she was like this. This was when she was at her happiest. She was in her element. I took her hand, and the two of us walked back to her workspace. A group of girls and boys all clapped when I walked in. I had never met any of them, but she’d told me about them before. Riley loved talking about them with me, and I already knew who was who. It was nice to see how comfortable and happy they were around her.

  “It’s great to finally meet you all.”

  “Riley has been holding out on us,” a girl with pink hair said. I knew her to be Angela, one of the girls that Riley had battled the most with. She seemed to have come a long way and was looking at Riley with a great deal of respect.

  I smiled at her. “Riley tells me that you’re a musician.”

  She shrugged. “I’m not a musician. But . . . I mean, I’d like to be.”

  “I’m going to spend some time in the recording studio this week. You’re welcome to join me.”

  Her eyes widened. “You’re shitting me!” she said. Then she looked at Riley and back at me and chuckled. “Sorry. I mean, you’re kidding me! I’m trying to clean up my language.”

  I laughed. “That’s okay. And no, I’m not kidding. I’d love to show you the ropes.”

  Riley shot me a smile, and I knew I had done the right thing. I spent the next hour with the kids, listening to their stories. They wanted to know about me and my own journey, and it was actually nice to sit and talk to them. They were the sort of kids that appreciated honesty above all, so I made sure to answer all their questions to the best of my ability. When they left, I turned to Riley.

  “They’re wonderful.”

  She beamed. “Aren’t they? I’m so glad you finally got to meet them. And thanks for doing what you did with Angela. She’s a good kid. Music is her thing though, so spending some time with you might be just what she needs. I appreciate it.”