Later that afternoon, he started getting concerned about Valerie. He considered calling her, but he wasn’t ready to start freaking out. The guys finally awakened one at a time, and Brad let them know that they had more things to work through, but he wanted to make Valerie comfortable and pampered when she got back. Ethan bristled a little (and all Brad could figure was it was because it hadn’t been his idea), but he said nothing. “I’m gonna start dinner. Who wants to help?”
Nick said, “I can. I had to cook a meal or two at home.”
Brad hoped his look at Zane and Ethan was pointed. “That means it’s your turn next.” Ethan rolled his eyes but said nothing. Brad was expecting him to start pushing back, but he hadn’t. Not a word. He had to give Ethan credit—in spite of the huge chip on his friend’s shoulder, the guy was keeping it together. He was taking Brad’s direction too, even when it pissed him off. Brad had to give him huge kudos for that.
And he made a promise to himself so he’d quit worrying—if Val wasn’t back by the time they were ready to eat, he’d call her cell. Until then, he was going to chill.
* * *
It turned out to be a good thing that he hadn’t called her, because she showed up a few minutes before the food was finished. She said a quick hi and then went to her room. She looked exhausted and her face was flushed. When she returned, she was wearing a t-shirt and her shoes were off. She poured herself a glass of water and asked, “Do you guys know where the nearest laundromat is?”
Nick couldn’t resist the opening and turned from where he stood at the stove. “You need one already? Damn…you’re worse than any of the other girls I know.”
Brad, used to his witty retorts, told Valerie, “We’ll have to look it up. Maybe we could pick a day for laundry.”
“Another thing I didn’t think of.”
“You look tired. Sit down and relax. We’ll be eating in a little bit.”
She nodded, sitting at the table, propping her chin in her hand. “It smells good. What are you making?”
Nick, completely deadpan, answered her. “Something exquisite that will make you feel like you’re home again…an exotic taste with just a hint of delicate cheese that will transport you to another world.”
Brad couldn’t help but smile. “Hamburger Helper.”
Val laughed. “Well, I’m not complaining. It sounds lovely, Nick.”
Nick bowed. “Anything for the lady.”
“And we’re having a salad and baked potatoes with it. These guys eat like there’s no tomorrow, so I figured we needed to make a lot.”
Nick started waving around the large spoon in his hand. “Don’t expect this every night. Brad’s a slave driver. I can’t work with him anymore.”
While Brad started getting out the bottles of salad dressing out of the fridge, Ethan walked in the kitchen from the big bedroom where he and Zane had been working on a song. “Val. You look beat. What the hell were you out doing all day?”
“I was looking for work.”
“Doing what? Singing not enough for you?”
“Oh, it’s plenty, but I want to make sure we can pay our bills.” He nodded and then started rubbing her shoulders. Brad busied himself with dinner tasks, because Ethan’s actions were pissing him off. Why couldn’t the guy go on the prowl for his usual make and model?
Who was he kidding? It was inevitable. He knew it in his gut.
In spite of his fear that there was a budding relationship between the two people who were likely his best friends on the planet, the meal that night was exactly what they needed. After their disheartening first day and night in their tiny, dingy apartment, the second had given them hope. They talked about what each did for the day and then focused on what would be happening at the end of the week and then beyond—the hopes and dreams that had brought them here in the first place. Brad looked around the table and, for the first time in a long time, felt like he was surrounded by family.
Chapter Twenty-nine
AFTER DINNER, VAL bowed out, but not after offering to clean up the kitchen, enlisting Zane and Ethan’s help. She’d had a long day and just wanted a shower and to go to bed. They’d been having such a good time that Brad was disappointed, but he understood. She’d been hiking around the neighborhood looking for work all day, a process that could be both physically and mentally tiring.
Much as he hated missing her company, Brad knew this was the perfect opportunity to discuss other arrangements he and the males of the house needed to make. Whether or not they wanted to have women over, they would all enjoy an occasional night sleeping in the double bed, and it wouldn’t be fair to be haphazard about it. He wanted to stop any potential arguments before they would start.
As they settled in the living room, Nick asked, “What movie we gonna watch?”
“We’ll figure that out soon enough, but first…something we need to get out of the way.” Brad held out a small pocket calendar, one the size of a checkbook with a picture of a dog on the front. It was a two-year calendar, and they were more than halfway through the first year of the calendar, but that was why Brad had found it so cheap at the dollar store. He held it up for the guys to see and said, “We need to create a schedule for the other bedroom.”
Ethan said, “What do you mean exactly?”
“I mean we’ll rotate. Every fourth day will be your turn in there. I don’t give a shit what you do in there, but on your night, it’s yours, no one else’s. That means, too, that we’ll be rotating what night we get the couch.”
Zane said, “Maybe to make it easy we could have the couch the night after we have the bedroom.”
“Good idea.”
Nick’s eyes lit up. “So…we can bring chicks over on the night we have the room?”
Brad nodded. “That’s the idea. I think you can go three days without, right?”
“Fuck that. I just won’t do it here on my off nights.” He put a serious look on his face, one of the ones that usually indicated he was half joking. “I just have to start lining up some dates.” Nick whipped out his phone, pulling up his contacts list.
Zane asked, “You trying to find Angelica?”
Brad shook his head. He’d often wondered if Angelica really existed. She was a mysterious girl who happened to take care of Nick at more than one of their concerts, but she was nowhere to be found when it was time to party. But he knew Nick and knew the guy had incredible luck when it came to the ladies. He figured he must have had some great pick-up lines. The guy was never hurting for a girl.
Nick didn’t miss a beat. “Hell, yeah. She gives good head.”
Ethan laughed. “What makes you think she’ll wanna fuck your scrawny ass again?”
“They all want Nick again once they’ve tasted him the first time.”
Back to business, Brad said, “Okay. You’re fourth.” It was probably only fair, considering Nick had had the bedroom the night before anyway, but he wasn’t going to say anything. It had just worked out that way.
Ethan asked, “So who’s tonight?”
“Me, I guess.”
Nick said, “That’s cool, though, right?”
“What?”
“Guests.”
Zane piped in. “Fuck, yeah. I thought that was the whole point. If we can’t invite our girlfriends, why bother setting up a schedule or even having the room to ourselves?”
Nick said, “You don’t need a girl to take care of your needs.”
“Maybe you don’t.”
Nick confirmed that he was okay with Brad’s schedule. “Yeah, I’ll go last. That’ll give me time to put it to good use.”
They all heard a cabinet door close in the kitchen and looked toward the sound. Val was getting a glass out, wearing a robe with a towel wrapped around her head. Brad had no way of knowing how much she’d heard, but he knew for a girl that none of it could have been savory. She moved to the sink and started pouring water into the glass, not looking at the guys.
Brad knew she’d overheard them, tho
ugh. There was no way she couldn’t have. “Sorry you had to hear that, Val.”
She walked into the living room. “Please, don’t be. We’re gonna have to get used to living together, and just ‘cause I’m a prude doesn’t mean the rest of you have to be.”
Nick rolled his eyes but half laughed. Zane said, “Hey…what’s fair is fair. You can have guys over too if you want.”
Well, in a fair world, Zane was right, and Brad wouldn’t say a word, but he’d die if Val started traipsing guys into her room whenever she felt like it. And, if she did it frequently, he knew it wouldn’t be long before the guys started complaining that it wasn’t fair that she had her own room. He suspected, though, that Val wouldn’t even dream of it. To the best of his knowledge, she was still a virgin. But the other guys didn’t necessarily know that, and he wasn’t going to be the one to tell them.
She smiled and blew him off. “I’m gonna go do a little writing and then hit the hay. I’m tired.”
Ethan asked, “Sure you don’t wanna hang? Bradley here was gonna put a DVD in his laptop. Movie night.”
“Thanks, but you guys can resume your conversation.”
“We’re done. Don’t go.”
“Thanks, really. I’m just tired.”
After she left, Brad said, “Okay, so how’s this sound? Me, then Zane, Ethan, and Nick. And we’ll rotate that way from now on. And I like Zane’s idea, that you have the couch the night after you have the bedroom.” The guys nodded. “And I know you guys are gonna accuse me of being a hard ass, but it needs saying—cots and bedding in the closet after you get up. This place is way too small to leave that shit out all day.”
“Bradley, why the fuck you feel the need to be a dictator all the time?” Ethan put the emphasis on the first syllable, indicating in no uncertain terms that he thought Brad was a dick.
“Man, don’t give me grief. We gotta have ground rules. Otherwise, we’ll wind up wanting to kill each other.”
He looked at Brad through half-lowered lids. “Too late.”
Brad had just about had it. Zane said, “Come on, guys. Ethan, Brad’s right. This is the democratic way of doing things. It’s only fair.”
Ethan rolled his eyes. “Yeah, I guess so.”
He didn’t apologize, but at least he chilled out. Brad would settle for that. “Anything else we need to cover?”
Zane said, “I think we’re good.”
Nick said, “Movie time!” Brad got out his laptop and slid it over to Nick. Nick had a movie collection online and had a compilation of bad horror movies he liked to share. Brad got the last six-pack of beer out of the fridge and settled on the floor.
They started watching the movie—dumb by any standard, but Nick made it funny. The guy had so many zingers, it was hard not to enjoy the movie.
And that was why it didn’t escape Brad’s notice that Ethan left for a while. He realized Ethan might have just been using the restroom, but he had a feeling it was something else, something involving Valerie. And he bit his tongue and tried to shut off the part of his brain that still wanted her…because she wasn’t his and never would be, and the sooner he admitted that to himself, the sooner he could let her go.
* * *
By the end of their first week, Brad was feeling better about his whole life. He managed to get an interview, followed up with a job. He fucking hated changing oil and lubing cars, but it would help pay the bills until they could make serious bank with the band. If they could get a good following, they could record a quality EP instead of the shitty one they’d done during a practice session—but that was a far-off dream. For now, he lived for the shows.
And the two shows they played that weekend were incredible. They got better and better as a band, every time they played together. Brad knew it was just a matter of time before they broke big. He had to be ready—and have them all prepared—for that moment.
They were all chilling out Sunday afternoon. It had been a long week, but he could tell by the general mood that they all felt good about it.
They ate hamburgers and fries around the kitchen table, celebrating their first week. They were settling into a routine, getting used to working and living with each other, and they weren’t killing each other.
He had an idea for a song, and he needed a strong bass line to go with it, so he asked Zane to help him work it out. They went to the big bedroom and started working out a cool chorus. Nick asked to borrow the laptop to pick out some movies for later.
After a while, he and Zane got tired, wanting to return to it the next day, and Nick said he’d picked out three great movies for the afternoon. One was actually a comedy on purpose. So the three of them sat around the silly little laptop, and, after a while, Brad dozed off in the chair. His belly was full and he knew, starting the next day, he was going to have to start playing responsible adult again. For now, though, he wanted to chill.
He woke up sometime during the second movie, and as the day grew later, he, Nick, and Zane started talking about dinner. “Where’s Ethan and Val?” Zane asked.
Even though Brad had been sleeping, he was under the impression that they were gone. At a couple of points during the afternoon, the front door had opened and closed more than once. He shrugged and considered texting his friend, but somehow he knew. He got up, trying to look nonchalant, but he wanted to beat the shit out of something. Instead, he wandered to the bathroom under the guise of using the facilities, but he glanced down the hall and confirmed what he already knew—Val’s bedroom door was open. She wasn’t there.
The other bedroom door was open. Ethan was nowhere to be found.
They were together. He didn’t know what they were doing or when they’d be back, but he knew they were together.
That called for a bottle of liquor. They had one or two somewhere. As long as he didn’t get drunk, he’d be okay, but he needed something to drown it out. And, as he took a swig, only pretending to watch the movie, he wondered when the wounds would start to scab over so he could get on with his life.
Chapter Thirty
BRAD’S PHONE ALARM woke him up bright and early Monday morning. He rolled off the couch and made some coffee. Then he headed to the bathroom. Sure as shit, Val’s bedroom door was ajar. Of course, there was only one cot being used in the living room too, but seeing that Val wasn’t there simply confirmed his deepest fear. Not only were she and Ethan together, but there was only one reason why they’d spend the night somewhere else.
Unless…
He knew how Ethan was. There was a chance that Ethan had overdone it on something illegal, and Val was keeping him safe.
He had his doubts, though. They hadn’t been living in their new city long enough for Ethan to establish new connections—or had they? Ethan was resourceful and, if he were desperate, he could have tracked down whatever it was he needed. He had a hard time believing Valerie would handle an OD on her own, though.
Brad was torn. As much as he wanted to believe Val and Ethan were friends only, he hated the idea of Ethan hurting himself with drugs…and yet, in the darkest part of his heart, he halfway hoped that was what had happened. It was better than the alternative, the option the rational part of his mind suspected was the truth.
But he wouldn’t know and had to pretend like he didn’t care or even know, because he had to go to work.
He was glad to have the distraction of a new job. Yes, he’d worked in a similar place before, but every business had its own way of doing things. That, and he had to get to know new people. Fortunately, the guys he worked with seemed down to earth and simple, guys he could relate to. For the most part, he was able to keep his mind off his problem.
The one drawback of the job was no girls. He could have used a distraction. Sure, plenty of girls and women got their cars serviced, but they didn’t have any females working with them. It’s not that women couldn’t do the work, but obviously none had applied or been hired at this particular job. He’d always thought the right woman in this kind of job c
ould be downright sexy, but most women wouldn’t even consider getting themselves greasy and gritty, and he really didn’t blame them.
The job wasn’t bad. He hadn’t told his employer about his main goal in Denver, because he didn’t think it would ever interfere. The business closed at six. Most of the earliest shows he’d ever played started at seven, and the rest of the band could always set up without him if they had to. If he ever had to do a day show on a weekend, he’d ask for time off, but he wanted to settle into the job first. He needed to prove himself first before making requests or demands. And if this job was anything like his old one, turnover would be high. If Brad stuck it out, he’d be a veteran on the job before he knew it, and oftentimes employers would treat employees with loyalty better. Whether he liked the work itself or not didn’t matter. If he could get along with his fellow employees and keep his boss happy, he could make sure the rent was paid and continue pursuing his dream.
Another plus was this job paid better than the one back home, and he had to guess it was because of the local cost of living. Groceries didn’t seem to cost more and gas was cheaper, but rent was higher, and he wouldn’t know about utilities until their first bills started trickling in. He wanted to be prepared.
When the day was over and he started driving home, it washed over him again. He was grateful he was in his little piece of shit car. He had few associations of it with Valerie and his mind was there anyway, but there was nothing tangible in the car to slap him in the face. He’d had Zane drive it behind him in the van when they came to Denver, and now he was glad. The car got better gas mileage and was easier to navigate. That kept the van reserved for shows only.
He managed to stay calm until he started walking up the stairs to their apartment. He had no idea what to expect. He stood in the hall for a few moments, focusing on his breathing. He had to put on a happy face. No, a neutral face would do, but he couldn’t let anyone know that whatever was going on between Valerie and Ethan bothered him. If he hadn’t been so fucking stupid—playing a chivalrous gentleman, both with Val and her dad—all bets would be off, but he’d pretty much told her he was cooling things off between them. He supposed then that it was only natural for Val to cozy up to Ethan. He was pretty sure, though, that Ethan had made a move, because neither of them had seemed interested in each other over the summer. Yeah, Val had bitched about the drugs (and, he supposed, that was a sign she cared), but nothing else had happened.
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