Arizona Skies: The Muse (3 page)

“Bailey, I know we just met, but I would love to spend more time with you and get to know you better. I feel this unbelievable connection with you, I just can’t explain it. Would you have dinner with me tonight?”

“Umm…sure, I’d like that,” I said, excited that he wanted to spend more time with me. He appeared to be relieved, blowing out his breath and running his hand thru his hair.

“Well all right then,” he chuckled. How about meeting a six in the main dining hall, do you know where that is?” he asked.

“Yes, Shelly and I found it when we were exploring earlier,” I said.

“Listen, I have to go. I haven’t settled in my room yet, and I’ve got a few things I need to do. I was too busy looking for you,” he chuckled. He turned and gave a signal to the other three guys.

“OK Jesse, see you later,” I said looking over at Shelly.

“I’ll see you in a few hours, Bailey.” He turned toward his friends and walked away, looking just as gorgeous from the back as he did from the front. I stood there in shock, watching the most handsome guy I’d ever laid eyes on turn and wink at me with this big smile on his face. He’d actually found me, before I could find him! I wanted to see where this attraction would lead me.

“Well, well, well,” Shelly said, standing next to me.

“He asked me to dinner,” I said in shock.

“I know I heard him. He’s hot, Bails, seriously hot! And those friends of his are just as sexy as he is! I heard him tell you he was looking for you, where did you two meet?” She asked looking curious.

I couldn’t keep it a secret any longer and confessed. “I saw him when we were standing on the dock. He and his friends were up at the top of the stairs; he turned around and looked right at me. Shelly it was weird, our eyes connected and I felt this intense heat throughout my body. I guess you’d say we had a moment. I’d never felt like that before. Then he turned around and disappeared onto the ship. I didn’t want to tell you that I’d been secretly looking for him too.”

“You had a moment with a guy and you never said a word to me. Bailey I’m your best friend for God’s sake, don’t you think a reaction to a guy like Jesse would have been worth mentioning?” She chastised me.

“I’m sorry; I just didn’t think anything would come of it, so I kept my mouth shut. Oh my God you’re going with me to dinner tonight, aren’t you?” I asked, panicky.

“Yes, don’t get your knickers in a knot. Scott and Keith both heard Jesse ask you and invited me to join them for dinner.” She pointed at their backs as they walked away. “Bailey, we haven’t even been on this ship four hours yet, and we already have dates,” she said, hugging me.

“I know, this is just surreal,” I said.

“I have the feeling that this is going to be a great trip!” She grabbed my hand and practically skipped toward the door that led down to our rooms.

“I hope so; I feel this strong connection to Jesse,” I said, smiling at her.

“Well, according to Scott, Jesse was hot to find you. He described you in that red dress and practically begged the guys to look for you.”

“Really, he told you that?” I was shocked. “I thought that was just a pickup line Jesse said to get my attention.”

“No, Scott said he was like a crazed man stalking the deck, looking for his dream girl. Then when Keith spotted you, Jesse took off, practically running people down to catch up to you,” she chuckled. “He said they followed behind us for a while until Jesse could get up the courage to speak to you.

“I can’t believe it, I never figured that a hunk like Jesse would ever have any trouble talking to girls, he seems so self-assured. Shelly I’ve never been anyone’s dream girl before. This can’t be happening,” I said, shaking my head.

“Oh no you don’t. Stop that self-doubting crap right now. That gorgeous hunk of man wants you, girlfriend. Damn you and your low self-esteem. I’m going to pinch you so that you’ll know that this is real and stop with the self-loathing shit,” she said, pinching my arm.

“Ouch! Damn it, Shelly, that hurt,” I said, jumping back from her.

“You are going to have a good time,” she said, swirling her fingers around in front of my face like she was hypnotizing me.

“Oh my God, Shelly, stop that,” I yelled, embarrassed by her theatrics as I looked around to make sure nobody was watching her. “Don’t ever pinch me again,” I said as I rubbed my arm. She loved to put on a show and didn’t care who was watching.

“I have you to thank for meeting the cutest guys ever, and now we both have dates for dinner,” she said, hugging me.

“Me? I didn’t do anything,” I said.

“Don’t screw this up!” she warned, pointing her finger in my face.

“Thanks for the vote of confidence!” I said, exasperated with her threat.

“OK, enough of this bullshit; let’s go get gorgeous,” she said. She hooked my arm with hers, and just like that, the conversation was over. I think I was in a state of shock—nothing like this had ever happened to me before, and I wasn’t handling it very well. I don’t even remember walking down the stairs to our rooms.

Jesse

W
e stood on the loading dock waiting for our equipment to be loaded onto the ship. Scott was being his usual goofball self, cracking jokes and trying to convince me how much fun we were going to have. John was also doing his best to try to pump me up about performing on this ship, something about getting my mojo back. I wasn’t buying it.

John had booked us on this cruise hoping my creative juices would kick in. He wanted to get me away from the bars and nightclubs for a week so I could relax and maybe get over my dry spell. I haven’t written any new songs in quite a long time, he hoped a change of scenery and beautiful girls in bikinis would be just what I needed. Yeah right, fuck that!

I wasn’t very happy about his idea and gave him shit every chance I got. He was trying to make his point when I turned my back on him to block him out. I didn’t need to listen to his psychobabble. I looked down at the dock and something in red caught my eye, I blocked out the sun and took a closer look. Standing there was this girl in a little red sundress staring up at me. Her long, brown hair was blowing in the breeze as our eyes connected, and I froze. I felt dizzy and grabbed the railing for support as my heart started pounding in my chest.

“
Oh my God, that’s her
,” I thought to myself. My body was frozen in time, taking in every inch of her long legs and bronze skin in
that short red dress. She smiled at me; I couldn’t believe it. I looked around to see if it was someone else she was smiling at, but nobody was looking at her. I stuck my hand up in a lame attempt at a wave. To my surprise she smiled and waved back at me. I hadn’t smiled in a long time, but I had this silly grin on my face. She was young and beautiful, truly stunning. The sun was shining behind her, making her appear to be glowing like an angel. I could see all the way up her long thighs as the wind swirled her dress while she tried to hold it down. She was exquisite. This tingle went up my spine like an electric current lighting my body on fire. Not once had I ever had that kind of reaction to a girl before, and believe me, I’d had a lot of women in my life.

I hoped that she was on this cruise, because I was determined to find her. I had seven days to meet this vision that sent my body into overdrive. Suddenly all these verses were floating around in my head; my creative side was humming with ideas, until John slapped me on my back to snap me out of my trance.

“Hey, man, are you listening to me?” he asked as I turned back around. I realized that he had been talking to me the whole time, but I never heard a word he said. I wanted to turn back around to see her one more time, but I was afraid I’d imagined her! John pushed me forward to step onto the deck of the ship; he was still trying to pump me up about this cruise.

“Yeah, you’re right, man; I can’t wait for this cruise to begin,” I said, shaking hands with some of the ship’s personnel. I had this smile on my face that I couldn’t wipe off; John was looking at me like I was possessed.

The crew pointed us in the right direction, and we headed for our rooms. I dropped my suitcase and sat down at the desk, taking out my Notebook to write down some of the lyrics before I forgot them. I started writing about this beautiful girl in a red dress and was writing like a madman when Scott knocked on my door and stepped in.

“Jess, come on, the guys want to watch the ship leave port. Let’s go up on deck,” he said, watching me writing furiously.

“Just a minute I need to get all these thoughts down while there fresh in my mind,” I said. This immediate connection with her took me by surprise; my head was swimming with unfamiliar feelings that I had to explore further. Somehow this girl had tapped into my creative side, causing me to overflow with emotions I really didn’t completely understand. I just jotted down what I was feeling, hoping to make sense of it later. Scott stood there watching me, leaning against my door. I knew he was excited to explore the ship, but he’d have to wait.

“OK,” I said closing my notebook. “Listen do me a favor, I saw this girl, she’s tall and slim in a red dress, with long, brown hair. She was with a short, blond girl. I need to find her,” I said, following him out my door.

“Welcome back, man; I can’t believe you’ve already spotted someone that strikes your fancy,” Scott said, slapping my back. “Way to go, Jess!” We met John and Keith in the hallway. I took the stairs two at a time, anxious to get walking around the deck. Scott told the guys about the girl I was looking for. Naturally, the ribbing started, but I ignored them, more focused on finding this girl than listening to their shit.

“Listen, if we find her, don’t tell her about the band. We’re just four friends on vacation, all right?” I asked.

“Hey, whatever floats your boat—get it?” Scott said. Everyone laughed at his lame joke. I shook my head as I started walking, ignoring their crude remarks. We’d gone all the way around the large ship once, and I hadn’t seen her. There were a lot of attractive girls onboard this ship, but I was focused on one in particular. Scott and Keith were eyeing all the pretty girls. Scott was whistling and making remarks as we walked. John just laughed at them; he had his girl back home. This trip was more about getting my head back in the game, than a true vacation.

“One more time, guys,” I pleaded, not wanting to give up the search. So we started making the trip around the ship again. There were a lot of pretty girls on the ship, but none of them did anything for me. My main goal was finding her.

Keith yelled and pointed ahead. “Hey, is that her?”

My heart jumped in my chest. “Maybe I’m not sure, I need to get a closer look. Hurry, let’s catch up to them,” I said, picking up the pace, practically pushing people out of my way to get closer to her. The dress looked the same; those long legs and that long brown hair, this had to be her. I put my finger to my mouth to keep the guys quiet, even though we sounded like a herd of elephants as we ran to catch up to them. We walked behind them for quite a while so I could watch her as she listened to her blond friend babble on. Her slim body and long hair swayed from side to side while she walked. The view from back was pretty spectacular; I couldn’t wait to see the front up close. My hands were shaking as I watched her, this wave of nervousness washed over me. I found myself contemplating what I was going to say to her as I tried to find the courage to approach her. The guys kept looking at me and nodding in her direction, I put my hands up to try to keep them from saying something before I was ready. I was anxious to see if that intense attraction was still there.
It’s now or never
, I thought as I took a deep breath and leaned over to whisper in her ear.

“Looking for me, beautiful?” I asked. She jumped and immediately turned around. I felt bad for scaring her, but when she turned around I was face-to-face with the most beautiful girl I’d ever seen. Holy shit she was stunning. She had big, brown eyes and a gorgeous smile as her long fingers brushed her hair out of her face and she looked up at me. I was a goner!

“
You’re real,”
I thought to myself as I reached out for her hand. The sparks immediately started flying. I think I made her feel uncomfortable because she pulled her hand away.
Cool it Greene
, I thought, trying to restrain myself from my sudden impulse to touch
her. I remembered my manners and introduced myself. She blushed, pulling her shaking hand away; obviously I’d made her nervous. Of course my friends were eager to meet my new inspiration, all three smiling at her like she was the meal of the day.
Geeze guys could you be any more conspicuous
, I thought as I introduced her to them, hoping they didn’t say anything to embarrass me..

Bailey introduced us to her blond girl friend Shelly. Her friend was cute, but Bailey was gorgeous, and I was desperate to get to know her. My whole body was on fire as I stood there looking at her. I asked permission, actually asked permission to walk and talk to her. I’d never asked permission before—if I wanted a woman, I turned on the charm and claimed her. Something about her was different making me feel different, so I let the gentleman side of my personality take over. I actually wanted to get to know her. I’d never cared to get to know any woman I was with before.