Chapter 1 #2
The owners, Charlie and May, had become a comfortable part of his life, which meant he’d sat at their dinner table a few times.
On the days either of them worked, no matter how much he attempted to cover his bill, his food was always on the house.
He returned the favor with free promotion whenever he could and a few private performances from time to time that had the tiny space busting at the seams.
The restaurant was small and narrow with a bar and tables on one side and booths on the other.
In the front corner was a tiny stage where poetry readings, weekly karaoke, and local artists performed.
Asao had long since outgrown that part of his come up, but for Charlie and May, he hit the stage from time to time.
Because of what little notoriety he had in the city, Carver's maintained a steady flow of traffic with hopefuls and those who were loyal to his journey, which kept their business open long past its expiration date.
Stepping inside, a few heads turned from the chime of the door but none moved an inch.
Considering the late hour, there were only a few people in the place and their agendas were more important than latching onto his.
His original goal had been to place an order to-go, but since it was quiet and there was only a little over an hour to closing, he found a table in the corner instead, making sure the spot allowed a visual of the entire building.
Asao would eat while he cleaned up a few of the lyrics he’d typed into his phone then lay rough versions once he made it back to his apartment. His spare room was a makeshift studio where he spent countless hours crafting music the world would never hear.
"Welcome to Carver's, I'll take your drink order if you're ready." The soft voice was new. He was well-versed in every employee who worked here because of his familiarity with the place and this voice didn't belong to any of them.
When he lifted his eyes to the face that spoke to him, he couldn't see much.
She wore a baseball cap pulled down so low on her head that all he could see was a chin and a pair of plump lips.
The bushy auburn ringlets that pushed out the back of her hat and swept her shoulders created even more of a shadow around her face.
"Bottled water and I'm ready to order."
She waited but didn't speak so he rattled off what he wanted.
The usual.
"Turkey sub, lettuce, no tomato, mustard, no mayo, extra fries." With a quick nod she walked away and he went back to his phone. By the time his food arrived, he had one wireless earbud in, running through the beats Dom had sent him, crafting lyrics.
Prospectively the third set of lyrics since he’d received the beats from Dom.
That was one of Asao’s flaws. Each time he heard a beat, he imagined different words flowing.
He would do this for hours, sometimes days, until the right combination hit.
It had to feel right. His skill set was unheard of.
Often he was referred to as an anomaly, which meant he could flow over anything and make it great, but for him it transcended far deeper than just making something great.
He had to personally be connected to it.
The combination of the beat and the lyrics had to be felt as an extension of him.
Tucking his lip between his teeth while his head motioned slightly to the rhythm sounding in his ear, Asao knew he was there.
It was time to record. Shortly after, he was on his feet, back stiff from having spent the last hour in a poorly built wooden chair.
The cash he removed from his pocket landed on the table before he was on his way out of the door while a small body was on its way through.
She collided with him in a way that was chaos and sanity at the same time. It was unexplained but caused him to look down into her face. She had to be at least a foot shorter than his six foot height, which placed her just under average height for a woman.
"Sorry," rumbled from her pouty lips before her eyes left Asao’s and darted past him. They were both stalled in the doorway from their collision, and from what he could tell, she wanted him to move so she could enter.
"You're good, pretty." Pretty? He called women that all the time and it generally had not a damn thing to do with their looks.
Just habit on his part because ma, shorty ,or any other moniker used to reference the opposite sex didn't play well on his tongue.
But saying it in that moment felt different. It applied.
She's so fucking pretty.
Her face didn't change, no flash of a smile in her eyes, no signs of warming in her cheeks, not even admiration for a man acknowledging her. Asao chuckled and stepped out of the way while she maneuvered around him, pushing the door wider to fit her slim body through.
Asao’s eyes caught sight of the music clef inked on her hand.
It lined the back of her thumb and traveled down to her wrist, disappearing beneath.
In seconds it’d captured his attention like all things musical, but just as quickly as he admired it, the thought pushed through as a reminder that he had work to do.
The short walk to his building was time spent running through the cadence of the lyrics dancing around in his head. He also paid close attention to his surroundings even as he entered his building, took the elevator to the fifth floor, and stepped off to take the short hallway to his unit.
When he noticed her hand midair, his jaw flexed. She felt his presence and turned with a slow, seductive smile just before he offered one word to kill whatever she was thinking.
"No."
Her full, wine-colored lips pushed forward into a pout while her hand brushed across the front of his jeans. Lightly at first but with a little more aggression when she located her target. As her small hand caressed, he caught her wrist.
"I have work to do." His eyes never left hers nor did they express anything other than what he was feeling internally, annoyance, even as his dick inflated in his jeans.
"You're always working. You've been in and out of the city for the past three months. Don't I deserve one night?"
Asao inhaled and pushed it out slowly. Her smile was an expression of the ability to chip away at his resolve.
He hadn't been with anyone in a minute. His thoughts flashed through the memory of three weeks ago after his show in Miami. A wild night in a hotel suite where Dom and Niles had surprised him with several very eager women. Very eager. They did their rounds but he hand selected one to share his bed. She sufficed but wasn’t anything special.
"Please." Those damn lips again. This time they pushed out a little further while her hazel eyes lowered and the pressure of her fingers moving across his jeans increased.
"You can't stay all night. I have to lay some tracks."
Satisfied, she smiled. When his fingers released the hold on her wrist, Tori was against his chest, pressing soft kisses to the corner of his jaw.
She knew better than to actually touch his lips, but like always, she pushed the limit to get as close as she could.
Maybe it made her feel more relevant in his life, who knows.
It only gave him reason to stand firm on her staying in her current position.
"I missed you, Sao."
Inside his place she kicked off her shoes and wiggled out of her coat. Next to go were her jeans, gaining him a full view of the red lace panties covering her ass. It wasn't the biggest but it was still nice and got the job done when he had her on all fours.
"Do you have anything to drink? I know you haven't been in town long," she sang as she padded into his kitchen. He hated how comfortable she was in his space. Another component of Tori feeling more relevant than she really was. They’d dated for a little over a year then things got complicated.
She was too obsessed with the man the world thought they knew and that turned him off.
The two hooked up and fell in sync not long after his voice began streaming through speakers in clubs and arenas.
Tori latched on at the inception of his career, so he’d believed her to be solid. In the beginning, she was.
Tori was cool and he fucked with her more consistently than any of the others but he hadn’t been ready to let go of the woman who’d changed the trajectory of his life.
The woman who had demons and darkness lurking in the recesses of his mind.
Asao dealt with Tori and accepted her role in his life as hope that his heart could be revived.
That changed when she got consumed with the wrong things.
When she flipped, he flipped. She didn’t own his heart, so it was easy to pull away.
Asao found himself grateful that her true colors surfaced, giving him an out.
Tori began pushing buttons that forced his demons to the forefront of his mind, making him act without thinking, which was never a good thing.
Asao might not have been the best man but he valued the life he’d built for not just himself but for his boys.
To keep their heads level and above the bullshit, he couldn’t dance with the devil. So he’d cut Tori loose.
When he ended things, she was in denial for a while.
She would still show up at his performances, playing the role as his girl, trying to throw her weight around to get into his dressing rooms or VIP sections.
She had quite a little reputation for attacking women she assumed had his attention but it didn't take long for her to get the message.
When she began showing up and her name was clearly printed on the “no entry under any uncertain terms” list, she blew up not only his phone but Dom and Niles’s as well. She took to social media, playing the scorned lover trying to embrace him, but it had a countereffect.