Chapter 2: Bad Girls Text For Booty Calls

Back at the Hotel, After the Fox Show

Mac

Me, to Adam:

Hey.

I'm in Suite 52-A.

A little...help?

Adam:

No reply.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Why did I send Adam that text?

Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god.

I'm on my third mini-bar bottle, since I sent him that text twenty-five minutes ago.

I'm not sure if I'm drinking because I sent it, or because he hasn't answered.

I don't have to check my phone again to know he hasn't responded. I have it clutched in my hand. I would feel the alert.

I bet he's not answering because he's not alone. I'm sure he's with that girl he was flirting with after Trace got sucker-punched and sent back to the hotel.

This is all Trace's fault. He had to bring his high school sweetheart to this show. I haven't seen her in four years—not since she came down to a couple of practices in Athens the fall before we got signed. But seeing her made me think of our sophomore year in college.

Made me think of me and Adam back then.

The first "season" of me and Adam was the best. It lasted a long time--a year and a half. We were never really an official couple, but we were always together, constantly practicing and playing gigs around Athens, and there was no pressure back then to define anything. Back then he sometimes stayed over in my dorm room, and it wasn't awkward, like it became later. We were good friends and easy lovers, back then. Nobody has every made me laugh as much as Adam, back in the day.

He was so cute and sweet. And a little weird. He would say the most random things.The best part was...the better I got to know him, I realized they weren't random at all. They were just the tail end of his thoughts that he didn't speak out loud. And I got to know him so well that I could fill in the blanks with what he really meant. And I loved that—piecing together the puzzle that was Adam.

Then everything went to shit when we got to LA. Marcy got hold of him and schooled him to filter the things he said. I couldn't read him anymore. He got cool. And I...well...I got hot. Or hotter than I had been. Sex sells and every Soundcrush dude is sexy as hell, so I had to be sexy squared, to keep up with them. So Adam went sketch and I went slutty and we both got lots of attention. We started sleeping with other people.

Then one night, after we'd been in LA about four months, Adam had some kind of...come-to-Jesus moment or something. He showed up at my apartment, drunk off his ass.

He said he thought we should move in together because sleeping around in LA was going to tear us apart. I laughed at him. I honestly thought he was kidding. When I realized he was serious...I was speechless. I told him that could never happen. That we could never be more than casual, because it could jeopardize the band, and the band was bigger than us. He left, hurt and angry.

Just even thinking about that, I need another tiny bottle of tequila.

Shit. There is no more tequila. Well, there's a full bottle of champagne.

I've  just uncorked the champagne when I hear the knock at my door.

I stick my eye to the peep hole.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Why did I send Adam that text?

Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god.

It's Adam.

Of course it's Adam, I asked him to come over, didn't I?

I open the doorswiftly. The first thing I notice is his smell.

Adam freshly showered is the best scent on earth. Clean, but with a tiny undertone of musk. Like the world's nicest wolf. Then I notice he's still wearing his rock star jeans, a tight t-shirt, bracelets. Wow, after-hours Adams still goes big.

He's staring past me, unfocused, like he's trying not to notice me. Suddenly I realize I'm standing there like an idiot in a hotel bathrobe and my hair wrapped in a towel. No makeup.

Shit—what was I thinking?

If you're going to text for a re-booty call from one the world's most desirable bachelors, your bandmate no less-- that almost always sees you in full stage make-up and sexy clothes—you should probably bring your A-game to the reconciliation.

Goddammit! I should have put on lingerie. And mascara. And dried my hair.

"Uhhhm," I mumble, suddenly aware that I'm still holding the champagne bottle. I grasp it in both hands, awkwardly. I must look...weird. Weird is usually his thing.

Adam's still looking past me, into my suite. "Bird or bat?" he says.

I feel instantly better. That's more like it, Preacher. It seems like one of those random things he says, but really it's an inside joke. I like to leave windows and balcony doors open. Adam has  shooed both a bird and a bat out of my dwelling. The bat out of my dorm room years ago, and a sparrow out of a suite...I can't remember where.

His eyes lock on mine. They are merry, just like earlier at soundcheck. He reaches beside my door and pulls a large net into view. "I came prepared."

I laugh. "Where did you get the net?" I ask.

"Took it from the pool. Why do you think it took me so long?"

"I thought...you probably had company."

He reaches out and adjust my towel, that's falling sideways. "Wouldn't have mattered. Whatever you need, Shortcake. I'm your guy."

My laughter quiets quickly. "You know what I need."

He's so cute when he grins sheepishly. "Yeah, I figured. But I didn't want to presume," he shakes the net.

"Get in here."

I expect him to back me into the wall and cage me there as he goes down on me. That's normally how we start. Instead, he puts his hand over mine on the champagne bottle. "Shame to let it go flat, while we fuck," he says mildly. "Let's drink it first."

He loosens the bottle from my grasp, goes to the bar, pours two glasses. He offers me one.

"Here's to me—" he says, with a lop-sided grin

"To you!??!" I laugh. "Damn Adam. You've gotten as cocky as Trace."

He tsks at me. "You didn't let me finish. Here's to me, not fucking it up this time." He clinks my glass and downs his, pouring another.

I swallow my own glass down and hold it out for another. He pours. "Here's to me," I say, "Not being a skittish, psycho bitch this time."

He smiles, and starts to say something, but I put a finger to his lips.

"I don't want to talk too much. I just want to say...I...I missed you. Really missed you. And I want to...try. Really try." Despite the cynical things I said to Leed and Tamara, Leed is right.

I crave connection.

With Adam.

I don't really think it's love, because I don't believe in that.

But I believe we...had something pretty good. And maybe we could be good to each other, again. At least for a little awhile.

Adam swallows down the second glass. He does something weird. He walks away from me. He crosses into the bedroom and holds out his hand for me.

I realize right away why he's doing that. When ever we have sex, no matter how turned on I am, no matter how much I want him on me, even when I initiate it, I always instinctively back away from his advances. He always has to get me against the wall or down onto the bed. He has to sweetly coax my passion. It doesn't take long, and it's not a game...it's just...I have trouble surrendering.

It's not like that with any other guy. Just him.

He's the only guy that has ever made me nervous.

He's changing the play tonight. He doesn't want to corner me, no matter how gently. He's asking me to come to him willingly. He's wanting me to prove I mean what I say—that I'm willing to try.

I'm a lot of things. Talented musician. Sensitive artist. Loyal sister. Dedicated professional. Sometimes psycho-bitch.

I'm not a coward.

I meant what I said, goddammit.  I want to be good to Adam this time.

I can do this.

I pull the towel off my hair. I slide my robe off. I'm naked underneath.

From across the room, I hear the sharp intake of Adam's breath.

I walk right up to him. He's pressing his lips together, almost like he's in pain. Probably to keep some stupid words I don't want to hear from popping out.

Yeah, I don't want him to say a damn thing that freaks me out. I'm pretty sure I know how to render him utterly speechless.

I drop to my knees before him and go for his belt.

If you've read EPIC you know what happens next---the urgent night of maybe-baby sex!!!!But I think before I write Madam an explicit scene...it's time for me to switch gears and finish the final chapter of EPIC....bwahahahahaha!