Everything She Needs (The Everything Trilogy) (33 page)

My heart was pounding in my chest when I took the steps up to her apartment.  Inside I could hear the radio playing and a small child chatting about watching ‘Strawberry Shortcake’ on TV.

I knocked on the door and everything inside fell silent. It occurred to me that she would be frightened. I called out, “Alfie sent me round.”  She still didn’t come to the door.

I called again
. “It really is okay, Alfie sent me to see you.”  I saw the shutter move slightly and smiled at the window, even though I couldn’t see anything.

Kara
came to the door with her cell in her hand. She opened the door, but there was a thick security chain holding it. “If I’d wanted to harm you I’d have done that when you were crossing the lawn on the way here,” I told her genuinely.

Her eyes darted left and right, then she unchained the door and pulled me inside. “What are you doing here? Who are you?” I smiled again, thinking this would be the best way of reassuring her.

“I’m Lily.” She looked at me blankly.

“Sorry, should I know you?” She didn’t know who I was? “Yeah, I was with Alfie.” Again, she looked puzzled, “You were with him? So where is he now?” I
realized she had absolutely no idea who I was. “Who is Alfie to you?” She looked perturbed by the question.

“He’s my husband, who are you and what are you doing here?” My heart stopped briefly in that moment, Alfie had been lying to me all along. This really was his wife
, and I was standing in his home in front of her.

I felt sick and tried not to cry. I had to get myself out of there fast. “Sorry, I should start again. My name is Lily, Alfie is my voice mentor. I was looking for him to finish my assignment.” She smiled and visibly relaxed.

“Alfie isn’t here, he’s gone to West Palm Beach today, but he’s not available when he comes back. He’s traveling up to Orlando this evening.”

I forced a smile and thanked her and wished to fuck I hadn’t given her my real name, because I had a feeling I had just opened a hornet’s nest
, and I was going to get stung.

I said my goodbyes as politely as I could and ran down the steps. I didn’t stop until I was back on the open lawn of the college. I couldn’t breathe.

The nausea I felt was overwhelming. I ran to the corner of a building and threw up. I had to get out of here. I texted Will, I was supposed to be meeting him, and I should have been there by now.

Lily: Please come and find me I don’t feel well, I’m near the Ascot Building.

I took deep breaths, but felt that I was going to pass out at any minute. I thought I had experienced shock before but I knew that I hadn’t until then.  Alfie was married, and I’d been played.

I lay down on the grass, scared that I was going to faint before
Will arrived. My breathing was staccato, and I felt like a ten ton truck had parked on my chest. I couldn’t seem to expand my lungs.

“Jesus, Lily, what the hell happened to you?” Will was kneeling beside me, a concerned look on his face. He stroked my hair and scooped my head up onto his knees, sitting back on his heels.

Tears rolled down my face. “Damn Lily, are you sick. Don’t cry, honey. I can’t stand it when you cry.”

Will stroked my hair
, and I didn’t have the strength to tell him what was wrong with me. “I have my saxophone practical in twenty minutes, honey. You’re done for the day now, right?”  I nodded. “Okay, I’m going to get a cab and send you home. Is Holly home?”

I nodded again
. “Late duties.” I couldn’t even formulate sentences.

Will smiled
. “Okay, I’m going to get you home and come to your place as soon as I’m done here. I can be there before Holly leaves for work.” He reached into his cargo pants and pulled out his cell to call me a cab.

Jas, the cab driver
, knew me.  I was now one of his regulars, and he really looked out for us girls when we went out for the night. He often stayed on shift to make sure we were taken home by someone we knew. In his mind, we could never be too careful.

Today, he took me home, rang the apartment phone to let Holly know I was downstairs and waited until she came down to help me to the apartment. Not many cab drivers look after their customers like he did.

Holly hugged me and through my sobs I just about managed to convey what had happened with Kara on campus. “What? He’s married?”  I nodded.

“She had absolutely no idea who I was. Come to think about it, she never even asked how I knew her name.”

I relayed exactly how the conversation in her apartment went down, and when I was finishing my cell bleeped. I thought it must be Will and swiped it to unlock and read the message. Mandy’s ID flashed.

Mandy: Alfie has asked for your phone number, you changed it
, and he has been trying to contact you.

I stared at the cell, like it was going to combust or something and Holly took it out of my hand. I sent a text back.

Lily: No. Please read this to him. Just leave me alone. I was stupid. I don’t want to know anything about you anymore. You are in my past. No notes, no asking my friends, just leave me alone.

Will came over to see me and dragged me out to dinner. He made me forget al
l the shit for a while. He told me about his band and their antics, and I promised to go and see him when they were playing in town next week. He was coming to see me perform tomorrow night at Blazers.

It was
the same night as Mandy was playing with Alfie in Orlando. I was secretly happy for the distraction of Will, and that he’d get to see me play with XrAid.

I went to college the next
morning, apprehensive about Kara, but relieved because I knew that Alfie wouldn’t be in town. Mandy had text me to let me know that she was off to Orlando last night.

I was pleased for her, but a little down that I couldn’t offer her the support she had shown me here in Miami
when I performed with XrAid for the first time. 

Will was very complimentary about the gig. Lennon was a bit off with Will, even after I explained that we used to collaborate together. “Is he going to be an issue for you, Lily?”

I stared Lennon down. His eyes were narrow, defensive. “What do you mean?”

Lennon bunched his brows.
“Is he someone who’s going to complicate the working relationship of us band members?”

I wanted to be completely honest with Lennon, they had invested in me, and I wanted to offer him reassurance. I was a single girl and owning my mistakes. “Will? Nah,
been there done that, not going backwards,” I said flatly, shaking my head. “He’s a good friend though.”

Lennon grinned and looked relieved. “Good, glad to hear it.” He turned and walked into the dressing room and muttered under his breath, “Lucky bastard.”

The gig went well, and I was now entrenched in the band. Will couldn’t get over the change in me. “I was holding you back, Lily. I can see that now. I knew you were a great guitar player, but you have found your musical identity. These guys are terrific, and you are going to have a fabulous career with them.”

I grinned that he approved of my choices. “Thanks Will, I have you to thank for some things. You took me under your wing when I got here
, and I won’t ever forget that.” I smiled affectionately at him.

Will looked at me with regret in his eyes. “Sorry honey, I truly am, I should never have crossed the line
. We had a great friendship, and I ruined it.”

I rubbed his arm
. “Water under the bridge and all that shit.” I grinned, wanting the whole topic to go away as quickly as he’d brought it up.

I plucked up the courage to ring Mandy
. I wanted to support her, although it might hurt me to hear about Alfie and Crakt Soundzz. I didn’t want Mandy to feel that I didn’t care about her big moment.

She told me she was happy with how she performed, and from her description of it, she had the exact same feelings I had when she went out there for the first time.

Her audience was a lot bigger than mine though. She felt how we performed at the club was harder than playing in a stadium, because the performance was more intimate.

She didn’t mention Alfie by name to me
. It must have been hard for her to talk to me, because her tone was muted, and given how wired I was after my first gig with the band, I felt sad that she didn’t just go with her feelings with me.

Shawn and Digs came with me to see
Will perform with his band the following week.  They thought that Will’s sax playing was incredible. Will’s band was also a rock band, but their music sounded way different when Will played with them. It was more contemporary rock than classic, and it made a change to listen to something associated with the music we play, but with a different vibe. 

Summer break arrived at last
, and my schedule was much more laidback. I spent Holly’s days off with her at the beach or at Brett’s place.

He had a pool, and when he was working, I finally got to concentrate on my all over tan. The rest of the time
either Cody and Digs took me out on their boat, or I spent time with Mandy and Neil.

Digs invited me to his family’s home for a
cookout, and I felt guilty about my first impression of him. He was a caring, warm human being, and his sister and parents were fabulous.

I also spent a fair amount of time at the clubs, coming into contact with some pretty influential people in the music business.

Louie introduced me to a couple of producers, and they invited me to their studios to record some solo demos, just for the experience. It was awesome, and I learned so much from them that I would be able to use next year at college.

I was feeling good, now that I was finally settled and relaxed. Life here was more than I imagined it could be. I had even been on a couple of dates. It was nothing heavy, just a nice guy
named Zack.

Life around Zack seemed so normal in comparison to my musician friends. He worked in an advertising agency. He was uncomplicated
, and our relationship was very easygoing. He had a passion for jet-skiing and water sports, and his body reflected his sporting ability.

I wasn’t rushing into anything though. Zack knew about Alfie, and was happy to develop our relationship at my pace. I felt great that he respected me enough to lay off putting any pressure on me. We seemed okay with just taking things easy and limit
ing our intimate contact to making out for now.

I had fun with Zack. He took me to the beach and tried to teach me to surf. Let’s
just say my timing and control was much better when playing music than on a surfboard.

I had been
seeing Zack for about a month when he invited Cody, Lennon, and Shawn to the beach with us one afternoon, and we all sat around talking. It was one of those days like the one I’d had with other friends in my apartment, sharing details about our lives that brought us closer.

Cody confessed that he had always wanted to sing in a musical
. I stifled a giggle, and Shawn’s eyes bulged. His attraction to Elle made sense now. She danced in a West End Musical, so they had more in common than I originally thought.

Lennon had wanted to work at the Kennedy Space
Center since he was a little boy and had been majoring in physics before the band bug got to him. They asked me what I wanted to do as a child. All I ever wanted was to play music. How boring was I?

I left the guys to go and answer the call of nature at the restrooms past the boardwalk. I picked my way through the hot, white sand and scrambled to get to the wooden steps.

The sand was burning my feet and the more I ran, the deeper they seemed to sink into it. I bent to wipe the sand off and put my flip flops on. Then I began to walk towards the red brick restroom building.

I had gone about halfway along the boardwalk when I stopped dead. Alfie was walking towards me carrying a cooler with a group of people. I had nowhere to go. I was halfway to the restrooms and halfway to the beach, and had the wooden railings of the boardwalk
on either side of me.

Alfie was looking down, so I crossed to the other side of the boardwalk from where he was walking and turned away, leaning over the railing as if I was lo
oking at something beneath me. I was hoping the crowd he was with would shelter me, and he wouldn’t know I was there.

My heart was beating so strongly, I could feel it in my mouth. I stood leaning over the boardwalk railings, staring down at the sand dune in front of me, praying that he would pass
, and I could get just keep getting on with my life.

I couldn’t go back to the beach, but the rest of my things were with the boys. I did have my cell with me though, in its usual place
of my bikini top, along with the twenty dollars I kept for emergencies. I had just been about to call Holly to join us as her shift at the hospital was finished.

I turned my head in the direction of the beach after the
group passed and dared to look at them beginning to go down the stairs.  As they disappeared, I turned my head back and was about to stand straight when somebody slid alongside me. A forearm brushed against mine igniting feelings that I hadn’t felt since we last touched. My heart rate accelerated so much my heart ached from the exertion, and I was covered in goose bumps.