Undone: A New Adult College Bad Boy Romance (Mature Young Adult Fun Contemporary Romance) (48 page)

Chapter

And that was how I got a date with a rock star. I don’t even remember making my way home or going to sleep that night. I knew I shouldn’t have done it. I should have just left him there and not bothered. After what he did to me he deserved a lot worse- but I needed answers still. So I tried to remind myself it was a long time ago and that we could still be friends. I do remember the next day was hell. Sarah was eager to try and get me to come to the show on the weekend- she’d taken my single question as a sign that I was going to delve into the world of obsessing over him. “Oh come on, I can buy you all his CDs and you can come over and we can listen to them.” She honestly sounded so excited.

“Thank you but I can’t.” I had a date after all.

Sarah’s eyes narrowed. “Why? Do you have a boyfriend you’re not telling me about?”

“No.” I said a little too quickly.

Sarah’s eyes widened. “You do.” She hissed. “You have a boyfriend and you haven’t told me about him!”

“I don’t!” I protested. “We’re...” we were friends, but I wouldn’t be able to tell her the truth. “We’re just feeling things out right now. I don’t want to go into it yet.”

“Is he married?”

“What?! No! Don’t be crazy, you know I’d never date a married man.”

“Oh, good.” And with that our conversation was over.

I took an early day, promising Sarah I would make it up to her on the weekend, and rushed home to get ready for my dinner with Hayden.

***

I had no clue what to wear, or how to do my makeup. So I went with a little black dress that showed just enough cleavage, but not too much, and a pair of black pumps. I figured as long as he wasn’t taking me to McDonald’s I wasn’t going to be too overdressed.  

He picked me up at 6:20, I’d just finished putting my red lipstick on and making sure my lashes weren’t clumped when he knocked on the door and I rushed to answer it.

He promised me he had a surprise, but I’d never expected this.

“Wow,” I stared around the empty restaurant; small candles flickered on a table at the back of the room. “Wow…” I looked around as he led me towards the table. The silk tablecloths, the candles on the table, the breadsticks waiting for us. I just couldn’t believe any of it.

He’d unlocked the place like he owned it. “How did you get a key?” I asked as we slid into our seat. I didn’t see anyone around, though that didn’t mean they weren’t.

“I asked a friend for it.” I raised my eyebrow waiting for him to explain further. “He owns the place. He… we didn’t know each other in high school, he’s actually from Texas, but when I was talking to my mom one night she mentioned this place was up for sale, it’s a lot cheaper to own a restaurant here than it is in California, which was where I met him. I mentioned it to him because I knew he’d been looking to get away from the area, and he’s always let me dine here for free since then.”

“Though he normally doesn’t ask me to shut the place down.” A man said behind me.

My head snapped towards him. He was young, with a thick red beard and wearing a white shirt and black slacks. He gave me a wide smile. “I’m Ken.”

We shook hands. “Alex.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you.” He held out a menu to me and then handed one to Hayden. “I’ll grab you two a glass of wine, red or white?”

Hayden looked at me. I shrugged letting him know he could do whatever he wanted.

“Red please.”

With that Ken nodded and left us to it.

“So, you don’t normally shut the place down when you eat?”

“No.” He smirked. “That’s just when I want to impress a girl.”

I almost choked on air, thank god I didn’t and I managed to recover myself before he seemed to notice. “And how many times has that been?” I asked cocking my head to the left.

“Including you?”

“Yes.”

My thumb rubbed against the menu nervously as I waited for his answer. My heart rate picked up a little as I suddenly realized I didn’t really want to know the answer to that.

“One.” He said after what felt like ages.

I stared at him dumb struck. Did he expect me to believe that?

He was famous; he must have loads of girls trying to go out with him.

“Sure, sure.” I let my disbelief seep thread as I spoke.

“I mean it. Just look at the tabloids. I’m sure they would have figured it out if I’d taken anyone else out.”

“Does that mean they are going to find out about me?”

“Maybe, but as far as I know they still think I’m in Cuba.” He looked down at the menu without saying another word.

I stared at mine, not really reading the words in front of me as I processed what he’d just told me. Was I risking being seen with him by the public?

And if so, was that really a bad thing?

A few minutes later Ken brought the wine back and offered to take our orders. Hayden asked for a stake. I just smiled and asked Ken to make whatever he thought would be the best. He seemed pleased with my answer as he walked away.  And once again Hayden and I were left alone.

I stared at him, trying to think of a nice way to ask all the questions I wanted to ask.

“Were you mad at me?” He asked before I could get to any of my questions. “When I left, I mean.”

“I wasn’t mad when you left. I was hurt when you never wrote, and when you didn’t say goodbye.” I admitted. “But I shouldn’t have been expecting anything else. I mean, it’s not like we’d been very close when you left.” Even after that night. “I was sure you had dozens of other people to write to.” I didn’t admit that I’d been jealous of it.

“What did you do? After I left I mean, and what do you do now?”

An expression passed across his face that I couldn’t quite pinpoint. I tried but it was no use.

“I went to college, and now I work in an office.”

“Oh you make it sound so boring, there must be more to it than that.”

“Well, I did go to Europe once for a week.” I wracked my brain trying to find something less boring to say, but the truth was I hadn’t done anything major. “I’m really not that interesting.” I admitted, after all he was going to figure it out sooner or later. “I worked hard, didn’t get any debt, bought a house and now… now I just work hard and I haven’t figured out why yet.” Maybe I’d do more traveling, maybe I’d just save it all.

“And a boyfriend?”

I shrugged. “I’ve had a couple, but nothing stuck. The guys I met either weren’t where I was in life, and didn’t want to be; or they wanted to be but tried too hard… or we just really didn’t have anything in common.” I swallowed dryly hoping it wasn’t obvious how much that hurt me. “What about you? A famous rock star like you must have women throwing themselves at him left right and center.”

“I do.” His honesty caused a snort of laughter as I stared at him. “But those aren’t the kinds of girls I want. I don’t want someone to be with me because of where I am now in life. I want someone to want to be with me because of where I am, where I’ve been and because they want to go onto the next stage with me. Not because of my money or the fact that they will be in magazines and on TV.”

His voice had turned bitter.

I couldn’t help but remember Sarah’s comment on his recent drama. What had it been? I opened my mouth to ask, but remembered how wrong that would be of me.

Thankfully before I could put any more thought into it Ken came out with two plates. He placed one down in front of me and the other down in front of Hayden.

I stared down at the meal, saliva pooling in my mouth. It looks like I’d been given pesto pasta with crab. “It looks amazing.” I gave Ken a smile before he thanked me and turned away- again leaving us alone.

“So, you’re going to be home for a while.” It was a statement, he’d already told me he would be. “Are you going to try to do anything while you’re here?”

“Well… there is a friendship I’d like to rekindle, but it will depend on if she wants to try being friends again.”

His eyes locked on mine before I could look away. I felt my heart skip a beat as I stared at him. I swallowed dryly, my pulse racing. His wonderful blue eyes sparkled as his lips curved into a grin. A shiver ran down my spine, though not a bad one. Finally he looked away from me and turned his attention to his steak.

***

“I have to admit, that was an amazing meal.” I said as his car came to a stop in front of my house.

“I’m glad you enjoyed it.” I unbuckled myself and turned to face him. It was only 9:00 but we hadn’t wanted to make Ken stay too late.

“So…” I paused as I stared at him. Even in the dark he was gorgeous. I bit my lip. “Do you want to come in for some coffee?”

“I’d love to, but I’d better not.”

“Oh.” I was sure I hadn’t been able to hide my disappointment. “Okay.”

“Next time though.”

“Sure. Next time.” Wait. There was going to be a next time? My heart jumped into my throat as he grinned. He leaned towards me, reaching out.

I sat there not moving. Not sure if I should run away now or if I should stay there- not that it did me any good to wonder, I was sure I wouldn’t be able to move even if I tried. His fingers brushed my cheek gently.

“I’ve missed you a lot Alex.” Thankfully he didn’t give me time to speak. “May I kiss you before I leave?”

I couldn’t trust my voice so I gave him a single nod. He leaned in closer and closer.

I watched as he stopped for a fraction of a second an inch away from my lips. Then all of a sudden we were kissing.

It hit me. I’d been the one to move. My lips crashed against his, not so gently either. I reached out and tangled my fingers into his long black hair. A soft sound of pleasure passed through his lips as he grazed my lower lip, nibbling gently.

I moaned, my free hand slipping lower and lower.

His fingers curled around my wrist. “No.” He whispered pulling away from me. He sounded so pained as he said it.

No?!

My brow furrowed as everything came rushing back to me.

I pulled away from him. He was right. This wasn’t good.
Remember what happened last time?
I asked myself. I froze as I stared at him.

He wasn’t the boy I’d known growing up, but maybe there was a lot more to him and that wasn’t always a good thing. He was a rock star- he was used to this kind of thing.

“Alex, are you okay?”

“I should go.”

I unbuckled myself quickly.

“Wait,” His warm fingers curled around my wrist. I tried to pull away but he held me. “Alex, please.”

My eyes locked on his. I felt the corners of them sting. Tears? No, that was stupid.

I cried enough over him, I’m not going to do it again.

“We need to talk.”

I stared down at his hand. But it wasn’t his fingers my eyes locked on- it was his wrist.

I pulled away from him. “I need to go.” I said again, my heart racing. Would he try to stop me again? What had he done to himself? My eyes flicked to his wrist again.

“Alright,” He let out a deep breath. “I… I understand… I hoped we would be able to forget the past. Call me when you’re ready to talk- I’ll come no matter what time it is.”