Chapter Nine
Flame…
Fuckin’ A. So much for staying in the room for a little privacy.
No one to blame but me, if I’d answered the damn phone I could have told them we were gonna skip breakfast—at least in the restaurant.
Oh well. The only one missing was Joe, then I remembered he was going to see Teresa’s mom, Sunshine, today.
“Getting a late start?” Chaos asked and for one second I thought he was going to rip my towel off.
“Don’t even think about it.”
“What?” He was trying to look innocent but I wasn’t buying it.
“I figured I’d relax. Nothing wrong with that is there?”
“Not if you’d have let someone know.”
“Whatthefuckever. Drop it already. Did you all have to check on us?”
“No but we figured you’d enjoy it so much more if we did.”
Cyn giggled and then Michelle. Then all the women were laughing. I couldn’t figure out what was so fuckin’ funny and by the looks on Wrath and Chaos’ face they couldn’t either.
“What’s so damn funny?”
“Nothing…it’s just…oh never mind. You won’t get it anyway.”
“Try me.”
Sweets was laughing so hard she was holding her side. It was way too early for this. I wanted coffee and Michelle—alone—was it too much to ask?
“You guys always make fun of us for going to the bathroom in groups, right?”
“Yeah, so? It’s stupid.”
“Well you do the same thing, just not to the bathroom,” Sweets said between giggles.
Looking at Michelle I rolled my eyes and she only laughed harder. Figuring there was no making them go away, I got another cup of coffee.
“Nice roses,” Cyn said.
“Yeah aren’t they? I thought Flame sent them but he said he didn’t.”
“Did you guys get flowers in your rooms?”
“Nope,” Cyn said.
Teresa, Sweets and Candy shook their heads no.
“Maybe it was a mistake.”
“No, I don’t think so,” Michelle said. “He said it was a delivery for me, and he knew my name since he was the bellman who brought Teresa and me to our rooms.”
“That’s fucked up,” Chaos said.
“Yeah. Was there a card?”
“No. I looked. But no one but us knew we were going to be staying here. Maybe you did it and don’t remember.”
“I don’t think I’d forget getting flowers, babe.”
“I guess not.”
By then everyone was either sitting on the couch, chairs, or the floor gathered around the coffee table. It looked like we were going to have guests for a while.
“Hey where you going?” Fury asked.
“To put on some clothes since it doesn’t look like you’re leaving anytime soon.”
Rage laughed. “You got that right, bro. You’ve got food.”
I shook my head as I closed the bedroom door. He’d gotten a lot more social since he started hanging around the kids in the hospital. He wasn’t the same Rage we all knew anymore, not that I was complaining. This Rage was a lot easier to live with.
Digging out a clean pair of jeans and t-shirt I hurried back, not wanting to leave Michelle at their mercy. I shouldn’t have worried, she had Cyn on one side and Teresa on the other and their three heads were close together and whispering about something.
Figuring payback is a bitch, I snuck up behind her and slid my finger over her ear, pushing her long brown hair away so I could bite her earlobe. She either heard me or the girls tipped her off because she didn’t jump, but she did shiver. I’ll take shiver any day.
“Gotcha,” I whispered against her ear.
“Yes you did.”
“There’s more where that came from if we’re ever alone again.”
“Awww,” she said as she laughed. “We’re just talking about that actually.”
The girls moved so I could sit next to Michelle. “Huh?”
“Apartments.”
“Gotcha.”
“We have to decide where we want to live. Teresa and I like it in the city, and with our jobs here it makes it easier.”
I nodded. It made sense, at least as long as she continued to work.
Wrath and I talked about it a lot while we were on tour.
Neither of us liked being away from our women but we also knew they wouldn’t give up their jobs easily.
Was it even fair to ask them to? Probably not, but there had to be some kind of a solution.
“But we have to decide where it’s practical for us as a band to be. Is it better in New York or LA? Do we want to do our recording here or there? Or in New Jersey. There are some good studios there too, and we can be closer to Jack and Sally,” Chaos said.
The guys nodded, except for Wrath, who looked pissed off.
“I want to stay closer to Jack and Sally. I’d be happy living in the city though,” Sweets said.
Candy nodded. “Or we could buy a house and we could all stay together. Build a recording studio in the house or near the house.”
Actually it wasn’t such a bad idea, except for privacy. But if we bought a big enough piece of property we could build our own places in one area. Having our own recording studio was really a good idea.
“Good idea, Candy. I like it. Then we’re all together still,” Fury said.
“I don’t want to spend the rest of my life sharing a house with you. We can grow up now you know,” Wrath said. He was pissed, I don’t know if I missed something while I was getting dressed but I was going to stay out of his fuckin’ way ‘til he calmed down.
“Okay, what if we got a huge property and built on it. Each of us builds our own house. We could have a main house for guests to visit, instead of having guest houses. It would be cool to have our own recording studio, a lot easier too.”
Chaos was thinking about it, I could almost see the wheels turning. “Let me run it by Joe and see what he thinks. It would make some things easier at least.”
Everyone looked happy about it except for Wrath, Teresa and Michelle. I was wondering if they’d already had an argument about her working. After last night I wasn’t going to go there with Michelle yet.”
“Even if you decide to do that, you have to find the property and build. So we all need to figure out where to live in the meantime. I’m not moving back in with Jack and Sally I can tell you that,” Wrath said. “We need some privacy and so do they.”
“There are three bedrooms in my loft. So you and Teresa and Michelle and Flame could still stay there with Chaos and I. But it will be crowded.”
“Maybe we should look at getting a couple of apartments in the City? There’s got to be short term rentals. Right?” I said looking at Michelle. She shrugged.
“I guess. I don’t know. I gave up my apartment when I moved in to Cyn’s to cat sit. I guess I should have just sub-let it so I’d still have it. I didn’t think long term.”
“We can always move back in with my mom. She’s got the room and I know she’d love having us there. I’ll just have a long commute every day,” Teresa said. She was trying to sooth the savage beast and he wasn’t going along with it.
“We have these rooms for a week. Why don’t we just relax today? Chill out and worry about this tomorrow,” I suggested. I seriously wanted alone time with Michelle and this was getting us nowhere.
“Sounds like a plan,” Chaos agreed. Everyone else seemed willing to go along with the plan.
“We can meet for dinner or whatever later? I for one don’t feel like doing jack shit today, I’m fuckin’ exhausted.”
Wrath laughed. “You just want to drag Michelle back to bed. You’re not fooling any of us.”
Asshole. Mother fucker. “Oh yeah? Like you weren’t ready to drag ‘Blue by her hair into a corner and screw her brains out’, I think were your exact words?”
“Fuck. You. Asshole.”
“You started it.”
Fury and Rage laughed but Chaos looked pissed. “All right, I think maybe we all need some space. I agree with Wrath. Let’s go do whatever we want and meet up for dinner. You okay with that baby?”
Chaos nodded. I was glad he didn’t blow, it took a lot but when he did look out. I’ve seen him put his hand through a wall. We’re all tired and jet lagged and I really didn’t want to do anything but be with Michelle. Fuck ‘em if they didn’t like it.
“Flame make sure you have your phone on. I don’t want to have to track you down.”
“Got it right here. It’s on.”
“Okay, so dinner at six. We’ll meet downstairs in the lobby to figure out where. Unless any of you have ideas?”
I knew Cyn and Chaos were trying to keep us together like family but none of us really cared if we ate together or not.
After being up each other’s asses for the past eight months between the bus tour and then Europe we were pretty fuckin’ sick of each other.
Separate spaces were definitely the way to go.
Finally we were going to be alone. I grabbed Michelle’s hand and squeezed.
She smiled. Thank God she was over whatever the fuck was up her ass last night.
I know I fucked up but she never acted like that before.
I wondered how rude it would be to just tell them to get the fuck out.
Focusing on her hand I kept my mouth shut, hoping they’d get out sooner than later.
“Did you tell Flame yet?” Teresa asked.
“Tell me what?” I looked at Michelle and watched the freakin’ color leave her cheeks, then come rushing back and leaving bright red spots one each side. What the fuck was going on now?
“Oops. I guess not,” Teresa said. “Sorry.”
“It’s okay. I didn’t have a chance yet. It’s really no biggie.”
I didn’t believe her. Not from the look on her face or the look she shot Teresa when she brought it up. The only good thing about it was everyone must have sensed a storm brewing in our room and they finally got the fuck out.