How to Catch a (Rock) Star (The Dead Hour #1) (5 page)

CHAPTER SIX

Jed had said goodbye to Lillie outside the hotel in front of the band and Steve. It was a fairly brief parting, but not so quick that he hadn’t noticed Lillie’s eyes tear up. He was glad the band had been there because he didn’t know how nonchalant he would have been otherwise.

He didn’t want to leave her. But he couldn’t let the guys know that. The way Johnny was looking at him, he didn’t think he had fooled him. Turning to the window he plugged himself into his phone. The last thing he needed right now was a lecture.

Instead, he let himself think about Lillie for a while. The way she laughed with her whole body, no holding back. He really liked that. She was beautiful and smart and funny, but there was a vulnerability to her. She hadn’t said much about her family – maybe there was something there. There was an older brother and a younger sister, he knew that much, who she seemed to be in touch with quite a bit. But she didn’t talk about her parents much. He couldn’t imagine not being close to his parents or his sister. His mom and dad had been there through all his highs and his most spectacular lows, while his sister had been amazing through all the shit of last year. Putting him up in her tiny one-bed house in LA for a while. Stopping him from drinking himself out of the band. He owed Kristen a lot.

‘Yo, dude!’ Jed woke up with a start, Lillie imprinted on his brain. ‘Pit stop. You getting off for a leak?’ Johnny was standing over him, the bus empty.

‘Yeah. There any food here?’

Johnny nodded and mumbled something about it probably being pricey before stumbling out of the minibus. Jed followed, texting Lillie as he went. Nothing too stalkerish. Just that he’d had a sleep and they were half way there. An ‘x’ and an ‘o’. Not too full on with the kisses and hugs. He didn’t want to come across as overly emotional.

The service station was busy and Jed found Chris in the line for Burger King and shoved some money at him.

‘Get me a whopper meal, will ya?’ he said before heading to the bathroom.

When he came back out, Chris was still waiting and Eddie and Steve were sitting in a corner, demolishing burgers. He looked around and saw Johnny talking to a pretty blonde girl at a table over by the baked potato counter. He shook his head, partly in admiration and partly in disapproval as he headed over to Steve and Eddie.

‘Hey, how much further have we got to go?’ he said, sitting down next to Eddie.

‘Couple hours. You’re driving,’ said Eddie, finishing off his drink with a loud slurp. ‘Can you believe this is supposed to be a large soda?’ he added, holding up his cup and shaking his head.

‘Wait, hold up. I drove to Brighton. How can it be my turn already?’ Jed exclaimed, swiveling in his seat to search out Chris. Damn, he was hungry. Eddie shrugged and finished the last of his fries.

‘We drew straws and you got the short one. That’s what happens when you sleep on the bus, dude.’

‘You mean you all decided I should drive because you’re all douchebags who haven’t gotten laid in months.’

‘I don’t know about these losers but I got me some just yesterday,’ Johnny said, joining them as he pocketed a piece of paper and waved to the blonde girl. Jed shook his head and reached for his burger after Chris had finally arrived with a tray of greasy goodness.

‘Me too’ Eddie mumbled through a mouthful of Jed’s fries. The others stared at him in disbelief and he shrugged before walking off to get another soda.

‘So, it’s just Chris that’s a sex-free zone then!’ Johnny laughed, slapping Chris on the back.

‘And disease-free,’ Chris muttered as he took Eddie’s seat.

‘So,’ Johnny said to Jed, sliding into the booth next to Steve, who was busy with his phone, probably pretending to be doing band-related work. ‘What’s up with you and this chick Lillie?’ Johnny winked at him, laughing, but Jed said nothing, taking a big bite of his burger.

‘Dude! What the fuck? Aren’t you gonna spill? You know the rules, man. What happens on tour, gets shared between four.’

Johnny held his hand up for a high five from Chris who ignored him, but Steve leant forward to smack his hand with a wide smirk on his face.

‘That’s your rule, Johnny. Nobody wants to hear your stories, you just inflict them on us.’ Jed took another bite of his burger. ‘What I really wanna know is why Chris didn’t ask Lillie’s friend out.’ Jed turned curious eyes on Chris.

‘What was the point? I’m never gonna see her again so I don’t wanna start something up that can’t go anywhere.’

Johnny stared at him in confusion. ‘The point is that you could have gotten lai - ‘

‘What do you mean?’ Jed interrupted. ‘It would have made a nice change from this,’ he waved his arm about. ‘Female company, different conversation, someone pretty to look at.’

Johnny looked offended.

‘Right,’ Chris said, unconvinced. ‘And then what? You decide you like her but you’re going on tour around Europe and then come back home, and she lives in England! It’s not worth it.’

Jed finished his fries off, leaning back in the uncomfortable plastic chair.

‘But you could see her again. You know, when we come back down this way.’

‘Oh, yeah. And get to like her even more and then piss off and see her when I next come to England on tour in a few years. Great.’ He bit savagely into an onion ring as Johnny raised an eyebrow.

‘Dude, you have got to chill the fuck out. We’re just talking about a bit of sex, right? Jesus. We’re in a goddamn rock band.’

Jed felt Johnny’s eyes on him but he was too busy thinking about whether or not Chris was right. Was he just setting himself up for a fall?

‘I feel like I’m on tour with a group of freakin’ mormons or something,’ Johnny kept on.

‘Jed!’ Johnny flicked Jed’s ear, painfully pulling him away from thoughts of Lillie.

‘What?’

‘Forget it,’ Johnny snapped. ‘I’ll see you on the bus.’ He strode off, muttering something about hanging out with a bunch of born-again virgin losers.

Jed, Chris and Steve sat in silence for a few minutes, the only sound coming from Steve’s phone. Jed thought it sounded a lot like Angry Birds, but Steve broke the silence to tell them that the Nottingham venue was still having backstage issues and there were currently no restroom facilities.

‘I’ll sort it by the time we get there,’ he said, looking at his watch, ‘speaking of which - ‘ he stood up pointedly and placed the paper napkin that he’d used to cover his seat with on the table.

Jed dragged himself up and dumped all the wrappers and cartons on the tray, carrying it over to the trash. He frigging hated driving in England. On the wrong side. With a bunch of guys who he had spent way too much time in confined spaces with. He loved his band as if they were his brothers, but being stuck in a minibus with them, crammed in amongst drums and guitars was enough to test the strongest of relationships.

He tried not to think about how this was only the third week of a six-month tour and followed the others out to the parking lot.

CHAPTER SEVEN

Lillie struggled into work on Tuesday feeling tired and confused but elated at the same time. Yesterday had been such an odd day. The morning had been amazing. Jed had been funny and affectionate, and then, when they had got back to the hotel and the band were all there, he had almost seemed to not care at all that he wasn’t going to see her for a while. Possibly never again. And then he’d sent her a text, starting a whole text conversation that had gone on for hours, pretty much until the band had gone onstage. Later that night, he’d phoned her and she’d stayed up past midnight talking to him.

She stifled a yawn as her boss came towards her, a huge stack of paper in her arms. Despite working in a fairly relaxed IT company, Felicity only dressed in skirt suits in sensible colours with a variety of white or pastel coloured shirts. Today, she was wearing a navy blue skirt suit with a cream shirt and matching navy blue leather court shoes. By contrast, Lillie was wearing black skinny cigarette trousers, her favourite leopard print pumps with a big diamante jewelled embellishment on the front and a breton striped jumper.

‘I need you to finish this report for me by two pm. I have a meeting with the top bosses and I need to be prepared.’

Lillie resisted looking at her watch as Felicity carried on.

‘It needs tidying up and the graphics sorted out. I’ve emailed you the PDF.’ She dumped the report on Lillie’s desk and rushed off to brown nose the managing director who had just gone into the kitchen.

Lillie stared at the paperwork thinking that she would never get it all done in three hours. Felicity was notorious for expecting the impossible. It was why her team had had a succession of temps in Lillie’s role for the last two years. None of them had ever stayed more than two months.

Lillie was approaching three months and figured that either she was better at the job than her predecessors, or she was lazier about finding a new assignment. The way Felicity spoke to her, she thought it was definitely the latter.

Two minutes later, the managing director rushed out of the kitchen, apparently having changed his mind about the cup of tea he must have gone in there to make. Felicity followed, shouting after him that she would see him at the big meeting later on and making sure everyone heard her calling him Martin. Lillie rolled her eyes and opened her emails, getting to work on the report that needed a lot more than just tidying up. Not for the first time, she wondered how on earth Felicity had managed to get where she was when she didn’t even seem to know the difference between ‘their’ and ‘they’re’.

At eleven, she took a peek at her phone, hoping for a text from Jed and being rewarded with the sight of the tiny envelope icon. She slipped her phone into her pocket and headed off to the loo, aware of Felicity’s eyes on her back. When Lillie had first started, Felicity had tried to give her a verbal warning about the number of loo breaks she took. Apparently, all she needed was one in the morning and one in the afternoon, although during her lunch break, she could have as many as she wanted as she wasn’t technically on company time. Lillie had understood then why her recruitment consultant had been so vague about the company culture and the people.

Safe in a cubicle, Lillie read the message from Jed and knew she was smiling manically. She sent a text back telling him work was busy and debating whether to say she missed him. Deciding that it was a bit too early for that, she settled for ‘xxx instead.

Feeling productive, she replied to a message her sister Tess had sent her, saying she would call her later to tell her about her date with Jed. Tess had been thrilled that she was getting back into dating and even more pleased that her date was with a hot American singer.

Ever since Lillie had spilled out the whole sordid story with Married Matt, Tess had been plotting revenge on him and had been telling Lillie for months that the ‘best way to get over someone, is to get under somebody else.’ Lillie wasn’t sure how she felt about advice like that from her nineteen-year-old sister but she had to admit that Tess had been right. She felt a million times better now that she had had mind-blowing sex with someone super hot and kind and generous in bed. Oh God, she had to stop this right now. Not only was she thinking far too much about Jed, but Felicity was going to be on the warpath if she didn’t get back to her desk soon.

While she was washing her hands after her allotted morning wee, her phone beeped through another text. She did a little jig when she read that he missed her and quickly sent a reply text:

‘I miss you too. Going dark until lunchtime as my harpy of a boss doesn’t allow mobiles at the desk. L x’

Trying not to smile too much, she stuck her phone back in her pocket and crossed back to her desk.

The tingly warm feeling she had didn’t last long. On her desk was a note telling her the meeting had been brought forward so Felicity wanted the report in half an hour. Lillie spent the next thirty minutes frantically creating bar charts and graphs and running a last minute spell and grammar check that she knew wouldn’t pick up the majority of Felicity’s mistakes. Oh well, she thought as she sent it to Felicity, it will have to do. If it had been that important, she would have given it to someone else yesterday.

‘As you know, I’m going to be out of the office this afternoon,’ Felicity said, making Lillie jump. She hated it when she did that, just snuck up behind her. Probably trying to catch Lillie checking her personal emails or something. Not that Lillie ever had any time for that with the amount of Felicity’s work she always had to do.

‘Big meeting with the top tier.’

Lillie concentrated on not making a face other than one that screamed passive obedience.

‘I’ve sent you some things I need doing. If you manage to get it all done, you could get on with researching the best office chair for lower back problems. Mine is completely useless.’

She left as suddenly as she had appeared, and Lillie was finally free to pull a face at her back. God, she hated this job. Not for the first time she thought about handing in her resignation. Leaning back in her chair, she considered doing it right now. She could just email her agency and that would be that. Free as a bird. No more Felicity. No more scheduled loo breaks.

Technically, she could live for a while without working, given her free housing situation. Kate’s parents had bought an apartment in Brighton eons ago and the mortgage was paid off. They lived in a beautiful house in Worthing and preferred that Kate lived in the apartment rent free rather than have paying tenants they didn’t know. As it was two bedrooms, Kate had asked Lillie to move in. They paid the utilities between them, which didn’t amount to much, so Lillie had managed to save quite a lot in the last two years, and she was beginning to think that it was time to move on. Maybe she could go to London. She had loads of old uni friends there.

Before long, she was daydreaming about living in a cool loft apartment, going to gigs every night, tubing it to work at a recording studio where she could be around musicians and perhaps become a famous producer. Seeing as she was never going to make it as a singer, she thought producing records would at least be in the same field as her ultimate dream job. Plus, it didn’t involve being onstage so that was a good start.

‘What are you doing?’ Felicity squawked at her.

Lillie flushed bright red, annoyed to have been caught not working.

‘I was, er, just thinking how best to collate all this research,’ Lillie blagged, moving her mouse so that the surveys she was supposed to be analysing popped up on the screen. Felicity squinted her eyes, making it clear she didn’t believe her.

‘I’m off to the management meeting now. You better have all the tasks I’ve emailed you done by tomorrow morning’ she barked. ‘See you at eight thirty sharp,’ she said pointedly. Lillie had been two minutes late this morning. As soon as Felicity was out of sight, Lillie took her phone out of her pocket. Yes. Four text messages.

Excitedly, she opened the ones from Jed first. One saying she should tell her harpy boss to piss off and do her own work and the other to say that he couldn’t stop thinking about Sunday night. Lillie’s stomach flipped as she thought about it too, and the memory of Jed’s mouth on her skin, his fingers inside her bringing her to the most incredible climax, brought a flush to her cheeks.

Her thumbs hovered over the screen as she thought about what to write back. She decided against sending anything too risqué, instead texting that Felicity was out of the office this afternoon so she was mercifully harpy-free for a few hours. She added that she was thinking about quitting and moving to London and pressed send. The more she thought about it, the better it sounded. There was nothing holding her to Brighton. Okay, so her parents lived here, but she really didn’t see them that much. She’d probably see them more if she lived in London.

She raced through the tasks Felicity had sent her, farming out a couple of them to one of the Project Managers saying that she didn’t know all of the details and could he please help her out. Then she got down to the serious business of checking out the job vacancy pages of London recruitment agencies and sending her CV to them.

Quickly, she typed out a short email to her recruitment consultant to let her know Friday would be her last day. As she pressed send, her stomach fluttered with nervous excitement. She was doing this. She was really doing this.

Elated, she sent a text to Kate asking if she wanted to meet her after work at the small tea room they sometimes went to. She was bursting to tell someone about her plans.

After a couple of incredibly long minutes waiting for Kate to text back, she decided she couldn’t wait any longer, and was calling Jed before she could think about it more carefully. When he picked up, she felt her heart jump and knew she was getting way too involved.

Well, at least with Jed she knew what she was dealing with – a singer on tour who lived in America. There could be no future mapping with Jed. Unlike with Married Matt, where she had had a whole future planned including marriage and kids. This was just a fling. She had to keep reminding herself of that. Just a fling.