Chapter Four
Michelle…
“Finally. Fuck. Michelle, do you know how worried I’ve been?”
“Sorry. It wasn’t intentional. I turned it off last night and forgot about it.”
“Did you get my messages?”
“Yup, just now. I’m not mad.”
“You sound mad.”
“I’m not. But I can be if you keep it up.”
“No, no. Everything okay?”
“Mostly. Nothing I want to talk about over the phone.” I wasn’t mad anymore. The creep in the park knocked it right out of my head. I guess there was a silver lining after all. “Nothing to do with us. Stuff at school. I’d rather talk about it when you’re here.”
I heard his sigh of relief, and smiled. My Flame, the jokester, keyboardist, and love of my life. Hearing his voice made my heart sing, he’s my “Wild Thing” and I hoped we’d be together for the rest of our lives. But did he feel the same way?
“Gotcha. We’ll be back late tonight. We’re at the airport now.”
“Yay. What time are you landing?”
“I think Joe said it was around eleven your time. He reserved a limo to meet us and the bus. We have so much fuckin’ equipment with us.”
“Oh yeah, I keep forgetting you guys don’t travel light.”
Laughing he lowered his voice. “I really miss you babe. I can’t wait to see you later.” Then raising it back to normal he continued, “Do you want to meet me at the Waldorf tonight?”
“What? The Waldorf? Why? Don’t you want to come here?”
“I thought it would be cool to spend a little ‘us’ time. We’re always around the others. We’d be all alone. I’ve really missed you, baby, please.”
My cheeks heated, and Teresa had to be wondering what we were talking about. “Umm, alright, but just for tonight, right?”
“How about tonight and tomorrow?”
I couldn’t say no to him. My heart raced thinking about his kisses and hands on me. Damn. “Okay. Do I need to get a room?”
“Nope already taken care of.”
“You’re pretty sure of me, huh?”
“No not really, but I hoped.”
“Fair enough. Since you’re not landing until late, I’ll spend the day with Teresa and go over after check in at some point.”
“Sounds good. Baby, I can’t wait to see you.”
My face was going to hurt later I was smiling so wide. “Me too, babe. Safe travels.”
“Always.”
Flame…
“Thank God she’s not mad anymore.”
“We told you, asshole.”
“Shut the fuck up. You’d be worried too if the same thing happened.”
“No, I wouldn’t, I wouldn’t let it happen,” Wrath said as he stretched his legs and crossed them at the ankles. They were waiting for their flight in one of the private airline clubs. It was better than being in the main terminal, it had gotten to the point they were mobbed wherever they went now.
“Did you ask Blue about the hotel?”
“Yeah, I’m sure the two of them will be talking about it all afternoon.”
“Talking about what,” Fury said as he sat down with a beer.
“The Waldorf. It’s been so long since we’ve seen the women we thought we’d surprise them with a couple of nights at the Waldorf.”
“Well look at you two suckers.”
“Shut the fuck up, bitch. You’re jealous cuz you don’t have your own.”
“If I wanted a girl I’d have one. As you can see, I don’t want one.”
Chaos and Cyn sat down. She had a bottle of water and he had a scotch. None of us had gotten the hang of flying and preferred a few drinks to take the edge off.
“You’re full of shit and you know it,” Chaos said to Fury. “You’re too much of an asshole to get a woman.”
“You’re wrong, you’re all fuckin’ wrong.”
“Fine, then,” Rage said, he’d been standing behind Fury. “Let’s make a bet.”
“What kind of a bet?”
“You have to get the first female you see in New York to go on a date with you.”
“The first, what if it’s the flight attendant?”
“Fine, asshole, the first woman outside of the airport.”
“You’re all crazy, you know that? What about the poor girl?” Cynda said, obviously trying not to laugh. She knew us all pretty well by now. Any woman dating Fury would need a lot of help.
“Fuck you all. I’ll take that bet.”
“What bet,” Joe said as pulled out a chair and sat down with a bottle of water.
“Rage bet Fury he couldn’t get a date with the first woman he sees in New York outside of the airport.”
“What? Aren’t you guys a little old for these games?”
“Hell no. Besides he asked for it,” Chaos said, with a wink.
Somehow this was going to be my fault, it always was.
Fury and I arrived at Jack and Sally’s at the same time, so we’d always been close, almost like real brothers.
He might be saying he could get a date but inside he was cringing.
No one realized how shy he really was. Most of them knew he avoided crowds but not why.
I only knew by accident. We were sharing a room and he woke up one night crying.
I heard the whole fucking story and I didn’t feel so bad about life BJS—Before Jack and Sally—after that.
“Be careful okay, we don’t need any more trouble like last night,” Joe said as he looked straight at me.
“I didn’t do anything.”
“Right.”
“Whatthefuckever.” I wasn’t going to live last night down for a while, but they’d better lay off when Michelle’s around. I didn’t want to deal with it in front of her. I was lucky she was talking to me at all.
“Where are Candy and Sweets?” Joe looked at me like it was my turn to watch them.
“Hell I don’t know, probably shopping. Duty free shit or something.”
“Haven’t they done enough of that already? There’s a carry-on limit,” Joe said with a groan. “I’m going to have to have their bags gate checked again.”
“And that surprises you why?”
Everyone laughed. The girls had turned into freakin’ shopaholics. Everywhere we went they bought shit. It was fuckin’ insane. Where the hell were they gonna put it all when we got back home?
“Thank God you aren’t like that, Cyn,” Chaos said with a laugh as he hugged his wife close.
“Well you know it could change…”
“I fuckin’ hope not.”
Joe shook his head as he left to round up the girls, so they wouldn’t miss the flight. The thought of the two of them alone in Heathrow Airport was just fuckin’ scary.
“Speaking of stuff, have you thought about where you’ll all going to live?” Cyn said as she looked around the table.
For a second it didn’t hit me what she meant. Then the freakin’ lightbulb went off. “I know I didn’t, I figured I’d stay with Michelle in the apartment, but I didn’t think about where you and Chaos would be.”
Wrath nodded. “Me either. I guess we’ll need to look for a place.”
“If you’re going to look in New York it’s not going to be like grocery shopping you know.” Cyn giggled. What was so funny? “You have no idea how hard it is to find a good place that doesn’t cost a fortune.”
“We have shopped with Sally but not a lot,” Chaos said. “But we do know how to cook, she made sure we all learned. And you’re right we know nothing about apartment hunting.”
“Do you even know what part of the city you want to look at?”
Wrath and I exchanged looks. Maybe we could just stay in a hotel? This seemed way too complicated already. I was freakin’ happy to get back and see Michelle, the rest of this shit didn’t cross my mind.
“Not really. Maybe we can move back in to Michelle’s old apartment.”
Cyn shook her head. “Nope she let the lease go when she moved in to my place. What about you two?”
Rage shrugged and shook his head no. Fury looked like a deer caught in the headlights.
“Figures. So where are you all going to sleep tonight?”
“Fuck me running,” Fury said, slamming his beer bottled on the table. “Where are you staying?” he asked looking at me.
“The Waldorf, Wrath and I booked rooms to have some alone time with the girls. We’re staying for the weekend.”
“Good, give me the number. Rage and I will get rooms there too. Problem fucking solved.”
I sent him a text with the number, it seemed easier than listening while he argued with the Waldorf about rooms. Apparently they were booked up because of some convention in town.
Cyn and I exchanged glances and Chaos laughed. Finally Fury hung up, but he didn’t look too happy.
“What?”
“They were freakin’ booked solid. Only one room left.”
“So what the fuck is the problem?”
He rolled his eyes at me before answering. “We have to share a suite.”
“Yeah so again what’s the fuckin problem? Not like you have to share a bed with Rage.”
“It’s the fuckin’ bridal suite.”
At first I thought I heard him wrong, and then Rage spewed scotch all over the table. Nope I was right. Holy shit. No way would we let them live that down.
“No fuckin’ way, I’m not sharing the fuckin’ bridal suite with you. Are you fuckin’ out of your God damn mind?” Rage said loud enough to get the attention of everyone in the lounge.
“Don’t fuckin’ stay then. Go find your own room. I don’t give a shit,” Fury said as he went to the bar.
I laughed so hard my sides hurt. The Bridal Suite. Wait ‘til I tell Michelle. She would laugh her ass off too.
Joe appeared, and dragged the girls with him. They looked like bag ladies, only thing missing was the shopping carts. Fuck. Where are they going to stay? Why didn’t any of us think about this before now?
“What’s so funny?” Joe asked.
“Fury and Rage get to share the Bridal Suite at the Waldorf tonight. It was the only room still available.”
Joe looked between the two of them and saw their sorry ass faces and laughed too. How could you not? It was freakin’ hysterical—well it might not be if it were me, but for once I’d planned ahead. None of us were good at that.
“You know, I booked you all rooms there already—even Cyn and Chaos. When I found out Wrath and Flame were going to be there I figured why not,” Joe said.
‘I don’t have to share the Bridal Suite with Fury?”
“Not unless you want to,” Joe said with a laugh. “I mean I don’t want to deny you…”
“Shut up. Don’t freakin’ go there,” Rage said. I never saw him look so happy about anything, Fury too.
“Fury, you’d better call back and cancel the room.”
“Yeah, good idea.”
“How come you didn’t tell us, Joe?”
“I was going to last night, but then umm we had the little issue…” Joe raised his eyebrows at me. “So it slipped my mind. I figured you didn’t want to drop in on Jack and Sally so late.”
“Thanks, we appreciate it,” Chaos said. “You didn’t have to get us a room though.”
“Why not? Michelle and Teresa have been staying at Cynda’s, so it’s a full house right?”
Cyn nodded her head. It was obvious she was wondering how we were all going to stay there.
It was three bedrooms but we’d been spending so much time together a little space would be a good thing.
I couldn’t blame her for wanting to be alone with Chaos.
It’s not like they even had a honeymoon, unless you call the European Tour a honeymoon, and even I wouldn’t call it that.
Cyn kissed Joe on his bald head. “Thanks, I appreciate it. I guess we’re going to have to figure out the logistics.”
“Flight number 5326 for New York’s J.F.K. Airport is boarding at Gate 27.”
“Is that our flight?”
“Yes. C’mon guys. Let’s get going. I don’t want to miss the flight.”
Lucky for us the gate was three down from the Private Club Room and being in First Class we got right on. There are definitely advantages to having money and being well known.
We filled up half of the first class section and I’m sure the Flight Attendants expected grief. I think Rage scared the woman when he asked for a blanket, but then he scares almost everyone. I didn’t know about the rest of them but I was beat. I wanted a bed and Michelle then I’d be fucking happy.
I took the window and Wrath sat on the aisle. With one last look out the window at England, I closed my eyes, pulled the blanket around me, and fell asleep.