“Is this seat taken?” A sweet voice with a
Southern-American accent pulled Andy from his contemplative state. He hid
behind dark sunglasses as he glanced up and found an angel hovering in the late
afternoon haze.
“Depends on who’s asking,” Andy said. He wasn’t
disguising his identity per se, but wasn’t flaunting himself in public either.
He had stepped off the radar for four months and was curious how his visit to
London would unfold. The girl’s friends were waiting for her to pull up the extra
chair. “I’m just teasing. You’re welcome to borrow the chair… as long as you
bring it back in a little while.”
“Will you be needing it any time soon?” She
glanced around the little outdoor café, which was nearly empty this late in
the afternoon. Her sparkling brown eyes hosted a hint of flirting as she smiled
down at him. She looked to be about college-age so she was plenty old enough
for him. He had to be careful now that he was twenty-two. Flirting with
teenagers was flirting with disaster. Her southern drawl pulled him back to the
present. “Are you waiting for anyone?”
“Just an old friend,” Andy said. He leaned a
little closer to her.
The scraping of metal on concrete caused Andy to
dig his nails into his palms and dragged his attention away, breaking the
connection with the flirtatious young lady from America.
“Speak of the devil.” Andy reached across the
table and gripped his band mate’s hand. “Gary, good to see you, pal.”
“Am I interrupting something?” Gary raised his
eyebrows and glanced up at the girl, who still had one hand on the back of the
extra chair.
“I don’t know…” Andy smirked and drew his gaze
back up at the pretty, southern belle. “I was just about to gather the courage
to ask her name when I was so rudely interrupted.”
“Oh… my… gosh!” …and, here it comes. One
of the other girls at the table made the connection. That didn’t take long.
“Can’t go anywhere with you, mate.” Andy leaned
across the table, teasing his best friend in a theater whisper.
“It’s your own fault,” Gary said, shaking his
head and leaning back in his chair. “You’re the one who invited me.”
“Might as well just push the two tables together
and buy them lunch,” Andy teased.
“You’re payin’ right?” Gary asked.
“Would someone please explain to me what’s going
on?” The angel looked back and forth between her friend and the guys.
“Ask your girlfriend,” Andy said, nodding his
head in that direction. “She seems to have figured it out.”
“These are two of the guys from Buxton Peak!”
The friend got animated and shifted her chair closer, scraping across the
concrete. Andy gritted his teeth.
“Did we visit Buxton?” another girl asked. She
cocked her head to the side. “That wasn’t the day I was plastered, was it?”
“Gee, that narrows it down to pretty much half
our vacation,” the angel interjected.
“Not Buxton the town, you silly girl,”
the first friend piped back in. “These guys are from that smokin’ hot boy band
called Buxton Peak.”
“We are not a boy band,” Gary and Andy
said at the same time.
“We’re a rock band,” Andy said, removing
his sunglasses and finally looking at the angel straight in the face. He stood
up, scraping the chair on concrete again and cringing at the sound. He reached
out his hand. “Andy Smith, pleasure to make your acquaintance.”
“Oh my goodness, he even talks adorable.”
The friend gushed on, but Andy didn’t release the brunette’s hand, nor pull his
eyes from hers.
“I’m Vanessa,” she finally whispered, tilting
her head to the side with a tiny swish of her hips that was almost a curtsey.
Andy could picture her on the veranda of a plantation in a sundress and floppy
hat. “The pleasure is all mine.”
“Is it?” He raised his eyebrows. Andy reached
over and touched the top of her chair without releasing her gaze. “I believe
this chair is available… would you care to join us?”
“We would love to join you,” the friend
said. She dragged her chair across the concrete toward Gary’s side of the
table. “I’m Sue Ellen… and you… are Gary Owens.”
“Guilty as charged,” Gary said. He wrapped his
arm across the back of her chair.
“Your drum solos are… oh my gosh… I’m gettin’
all fluttery inside.” Sue Ellen waved her hand in front of her face like she
was hiding behind a coy, accordion fan. Andy wasn’t sure if he should laugh at
her or be incredibly turned on. He chose to give his attention back to Vanessa
and allow Sue Ellen to ensnare Gary into her southern charms.
“What about you… Vanessa,” Andy asked. “Are you
a Buxton Peak fan?”
“I suddenly have a strong desire to stream a few
of your songs just to help me decide.” She swept her long curls over her
shoulder.
“Aren’t you the guys who brought that geeky
chick up onstage?” the drunk friend asked, scraping her metal chair across the
concrete. “Your lead singer wrote a song for his wife, right? I saw the YouTube
video.” Her rhetorical question hung in the air.
“Gary, help me out.” Andy walked around to the
other side of their little table, afraid if he didn’t move the table himself
one of the girls would scrape it across the concrete like the chairs. He didn’t
think his nerves could handle any more.
Everyone moved back and Gary helped Andy pick up
the little table, connecting the two so they were now one group of five. Andy
sat back down next to Vanessa and pinched the bridge of his nose.
“Please no more scraping metal against concrete.
Whoever designed this outdoor café apparently didn’t have a problem with nails
on chalkboards.”
“Gee Andy, how’s sobriety treating you?” Gary
chuckled and raised his eyebrows.
“It sucks! How ‘bout you?”
“Worst three days of my life,” Gary said, a teasing
glint in his eyes.
“Please tell me you’re joking.” Andy got
serious. He creased his eyebrows and leaned closer. “You promised.”
“Of course I’m joking,” Gary said. His eyes
pierced daggers at Andy. “I stayed in for the whole retched thirty days…
twice.”
“Seriously?” Andy could see right through Gary’s
typical sullen expression that his eyes were clear. He appeared more sober than
Andy had seen him in years.
“Quitin’ straight up ain’t as easy as they make
it sound, pal.” Gary shoved sunglasses on his face, sat back in his chair and
crossed his ankles. “Sorry I asked.”
“Gosh…” the drunk friend cocked her head to the
side. “Who’s up for a round of shots?”
“Not funny, Melanie,” Vanessa said, glaring at
her friend.
“How about if I buy us a round of sweet ice
tea,” Andy faked a girly accent. “Just like y’all have ‘em in the south.”
“That sounds delightful,” Vanessa drawled.
“Thank you.”
“The pleasure’s all mine,” Andy copied her
earlier sentiment, then leaned closer to Vanessa. He switched back to his
regular British accent. “Believe me… the pleasure is all mine.”
The waitress noticed the change in seating
arrangement and arrived with a little pad of paper.
“Ladies, order anything you want,” Gary
announced. “Andy’s picking up the tab. What else is he going to spend his money
on besides pretty American girls.”
“I can’t think of anything.” Andy shook his head
in mock seriousness. He looked up at the waitress and winked “I could tip our
waitress a little extra, I suppose.”
“You just add your autograph to the bill and
we’ll call it good,” the waitress teased.
“How about if I pay with my new credit card and
then we’ll kill two birds with one stone?”
“You got a credit card?” Gary asked. “How’d you
get so lucky?”
“Jeremy gave it to me,” Andy said. “He didn’t
give you one? What kind of a manager is he?”
“Probably afraid of what I might buy. He’s still
mad at me about the Bentley.”
“You bought a Bentley?” Andy pushed himself back
from the table. “How much did that set you back?”
“I dunno… like, one-seventy, I think.” Gary
shrugged. “I don’t know what he was so upset about. It wasn’t even vintage. It
was like a 2011 or something.”
“That was a nice year,” Andy acknowledged.
“Convertible?”
“Uh huh.” Gary nodded, a smirk playing at the corners
of his mouth.
“What color?”
“Metallic silver.” Gary’s smirk was a full-on
grin.
“Can I drive it?”
“It’s at my mum’s.” Gary wrinkled his nose and
fiddled with the napkin holder. “They took it away from me when I got my DUI.”
“Dork!”
“Why do you think I went back in rehab? They
won’t let me have the keys until I can prove I’m clean.” Gary held up
his fingers, making quotation marks in the air. “Whatever.”
“I take it you guys haven’t seen each other in
awhile,” Vanessa guessed. Andy realized they were ignoring their new
girlfriends. He leaned closer to her and wrapped an arm around the back of her
chair.
“I’m curious,” Suellen said. “Why is it such a
novelty for y’all to have credit cards? Everybody in the States has a credit
card or two, or three.”
“Or in Suellen’s case, one for every department
store,” Melanie piped in.
“Hey, a girl’s gotta shop.” Suellen blinked her
eyelashes.
“I guess we’ve never needed credit cards
before…” Andy looked over at Gary and they both shrugged.
“Our management team pays for everything,” Gary
said. “I don’t even know how much stuff costs anymore.”
“I don’t know how much money we have, either,”
Andy said.
“Isn’t that kinda irresponsible?” Vanessa asked.
“Suellen,” Andy asked Vanessa’s friend. “How
often do you hear our songs on the radio?”
“All the time,” Suellen said. “I think your most
recent hit, Passing through Eternity is still in the top 100.”
“I’m pretty sure I’m still a millionaire, then.”
Andy turned his attention back to Vanessa with a smile.
“Did your band break up?” Melanie asked. She
raised her eyebrows. “I mean, I saw the interview on that talk show with Kai
and Ian, and their broads.” All attention shifted toward Melanie.
“What interview?” Andy asked.
“What talk show?” Gary creased his brow.
“That comedian, Eileen, asked if you two were in
rehab,” Melanie pointed back and forth between Andy and Gary. “Ian said he had
no idea because he was too distracted by that college geek he married.”
“That’s what happens when you wait your whole
life for a chick,” Gary said. “When he finally got married, he didn’t want to
climb back out of the sack.”
“Poor kid,” Andy said, shaking his head.
“Preacher boy drove us all crazy with his commitment to purity.”
“Did he have a purity ring… like mine?” Vanessa
held up her left hand and let the little diamond sparkle. She smirked at Andy
and batted her eyelashes.
Andy looked up at the sky in mock prayer. “Why
are you punishing me? I’ve been a good boy all my life.”
Gary started laughing and slapped his knee.
“Most of my life?” Andy lowered his gaze to
Gary, begging with his eyes. “Some of my life? Oh, never mind… how do I get
that thing off your hand?” He turned back to Vanessa with what he hoped was a
pained puppy-dog expression.
“My daddy said whoever takes this off my finger
better replace it with a diamond much bigger and prettier.” Vanessa held out
her hand to admire the ring, but peered at Andy out from under her lashes.
“Waitress?” Andy held up his hand. “Are there
any jewelry stores in the near vicinity?”
“Yes, there are…” She pointed toward the other side of the maill and
Andy followed with his eyes to where she was indicating. Everyone at the table
laughed. She lowered her hand and grinned down at them. “I thought you were
serious.”
“I was completely serious.” Andy creased
his brow and batted his puppy dog eyes at her. “Could we get our check please?”
“I haven’t even brought you your food, yet.”
“I guess we can wait until after dinner,” Andy
said, turning to Vanessa. “If that’s alright with you, darlin’?”
“I suppose we could eat first.” Vanessa
pouted. “I have gotten rather good at… waiting.”
The group at the table erupted in laughter
again.
See where it all began:
Other Books by Julie L. Spencer
