Chapter 11
CHAPTER 11
GEMMA
Y ummy holiday drinks, sales that were too good to be true, and lots of crazy crowds awaited us on Black Friday. It was time for our yearly shopping trip, a much anticipated tradition for the girls and me.
Deb joined us, and together, we prepared for the battles we would have to face to get the deals we wanted. Early on Friday morning, we had congregated at her house, consuming copious amounts of caffeine while browsing through leaflets and catalogs one last time to make sure we knew what we wanted and where to find it.
After staying up almost all night talking to Noah, exhaustion clung to my bones despite the coffee, but there were also strange bubbles of elation drifting through my veins and a weird energy coursing through my blood. My insides were a mishmash of emotions and feelings, some of which clashed—like the exhaustion and the energy—but it was an intoxicating mix that made me feel drunk on the connection I was building with him.
The only other people I’d ever stayed up all night talking to were Mariam and Laurel. I’d never done it with a man—not even Dave—and the weirdest part of it was that I would have been able to keep talking to him. If he had still been at my place when I’d woken up this morning, I easily would have been able to pick up right where we’d left off.
Despite the hours we’d spent together, I still hadn’t run out of things to say to him. In fact, there was so much more I would have liked to talk to him about. For starters, I was intrigued by his life before the band.
How he’d grown into the man he was with an alcoholic mother and a nonexistent father, I didn’t know. He had to possess an incredible strength of character to have essentially raised himself into such a funny, kind, polite, assertive guy.
And to have gotten as far as he had at his age? That spoke to a determination and resilience I hadn’t come across in many men, let alone guys so young.
My heart raced and tripped over itself as I thought of him, my Superman. Laurel glanced at me and giggled.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you so starry-eyed over a guy before,” she said as we browsed through a boutique Deb loved. We had lined up for over an hour to get in here, but as much as I adored this place myself, I was finding it hard to focus on the clothes. Laurel gave me a knowing look. “You must really like him.”
“I do,” I admitted. “ Smitten is the word that comes to mind.”
She laughed. “I knew it! I don’t blame you, though. The guy is hotter than the summer sun. Anyone would fall head over his heels for him. Like I told you earlier, even Leif might have a budding bromance going with him.”
I sighed dreamily. “I won’t argue about how hot he is, but there’s so much more to him. Would you believe me if I told you that he’s the most emotionally available boy I’ve ever been involved with? And he’s a real gentleman even though he looks like a movie star.”
Mariam laughed at my other side. “If the singing thing doesn’t work out for him, he sure could be an actor, but that set aside, he really does seem like a nice guy. Just an insanely hot one.”
“So we’re in agreement that he is, in fact, insanely hot,” Laurel concluded, pumping her eyebrows at me. “He’s also just really young. Have you asked how old he is yet?”
“Nope. I do know that he’s young, obviously, but I’m not quite sure just how young yet and I’m not convinced that I want to find out.”
It might just pop this blissful little bubble we were in, and I wasn’t quite ready for that to happen. The age gap had been at the back of my mind since the moment I’d seen the youthfulness of his features on that plane, but I was trying not to let it color my feelings for him.
“You know we could just Google it, right?” Mariam giggled. “He is kind of a big deal. I’m pretty sure his birthday is all over the internet.”
“Don’t,” I said immediately, looking her right in the eyes and giving her a firm, meaningful look. “I don’t need to know, Mimi. Age isn’t that important. He’s old enough.”
She and Laurel exchanged a look and laughed. Laurel patted my arm. “Okay, if you say so.”
“I do say so,” I insisted. “Who he is as a person is so much more important to me than when he was born. Am I aware of the fact that he’s younger? Of course, but I’m really trying not to let it get to me.”
Mariam nodded along before she widened her eyes at me. “What if he wasn’t legally allowed to have alcohol last night with Thanksgiving dinner?”
“That’s a really good point,” Laurel agreed jokingly. “Do you think we can take him to a bar?”
I rolled my eyes, chuckling before I shushed them. “Stop it! You’re awful. Both of you. He was served alcohol on the plane and at the charity gala without any issues. I’m sure he’s legally allowed to drink.”
I freaking hoped so. I’d given him wine last night myself. It would suck if I’d broken the law in doing so.
A frisson of unease trickled through me, but I shut it down. I absolutely refused to let something silly like age prevent me from getting to know him better.
It would always be there at the back of my mind. Obviously. I wasn’t blind and I was no fool, but ultimately, the choice I had to make was simple. Either I let the difference in our ages bother me so much that it drove us apart, or I accepted that I was older and that he didn’t care, and we saw where this thing went.
After last night, I was choosing to see where it went.
I shook my head at my friends and picked up a vibrant violet dress, wondering if the color was a bit too much. As I held it against me, I turned to catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror through the crowd in the store. It was definitely too much.
But it was also perfect. It made my eyes practically glow and it was the right size. My mind immediately flashed on what Noah might think if he saw me in it.
I had a feeling he’d really like it, but I decided it all came down to price. With bated breath, I checked the tag and I grinned. An eighty percent discount? Now we’re talking.
I hung it over my arm and turned back to my friends. “Are you two going to stand there obsessing about Noah’s age all day long, or do you actually want to find something to buy? There are people out there waiting for us to finish so they can come in. Use your time in here or lose it, ladies.”
Mariam blinked hard but immediately turned to the rack where I’d found the violet dress and started browsing through it. “I wish I had the guts to wear that color. It’s going to look amazing on you.”
“Oh, alright. I’ll forgive you for being an ageist,” I joked. “Let me help you find something that will look just as amazing on you, but for the record, you could totally pull off this color.”
Laurel came to stand beside me. Nodding at Mariam, she pulled a beautiful, flowing indigo shirt off the rail. “Try that. It’s not quite as bright, but I think it’ll work wonders for your eyes.”
As soon as Mariam took it, I knew that Laurel had been right. Our friend had these incredible, cornflower blues, wide and innocent, but she didn’t often dress in colors that accentuated them.
“Yes,” I said immediately. “You’re getting it.”
Mariam arched an eyebrow at me but then nodded, keeping the shirt with her as we moved on to the next aisle. Laurel also picked out a few new shirts and dresses as we made our way through the boutique. We hit up an electronics store next.
We also bought some toys to donate to various charity drives at Christmas, loads of accessories, more clothes, and finally, we ended up in a cosmetics store, buying makeup, perfumes, and skin-care products to last us at least the first half of next year.
It was a productive day, with Deb’s car overflowing by the time we left the mall, but we’d gotten most of what we’d gone for and a few other things to boot. Laurel groaned as she sank back into the passenger seat of her mom’s car, lifting her leg over her knee to rub her calf.
“Flipping hell. I shouldn’t have worn these boots.”
“I’m sure Leif will happily give you a foot massage later,” I teased. “Maybe you can also convince him to massage your?—”
“Let me stop you right there,” Deb said, shooting me a wide grin in the rearview mirror. “I love being a friend to you girls, but I’m still not sure I want to hear how you were going to finish that sentence.”
I shrugged, innocently batting my lashes at her. “I was going to say legs. Jeez, Deb. Get your mind out of the gutter.”
She laughed, navigating us back to her place. Once there, she helped Mariam and me to put all our purchases into our cars before we helped her and Laurel carry all theirs inside. Once we’d said our goodbyes, I headed home, even more exhausted but knowing that I needed to get some work done.
All that talking to Noah last night had made me realize that I knew precious little about City Lights and the individual members of the band. What I did know now, however, was that Noah at least had come much further in his life than I’d realized.
It stood to reason that the same was true for the others. While I gave my absolute best to all my clients, it suddenly seemed even more important that the City Lights events went off without a hitch.
As I got home, I took my purchases to the kitchen, sorting through them to wash the clothes, charge the electronics, and pack everything else away. Once that was done, I grabbed my laptop and carried it to the TV room, putting on an interior design show in the background before I logged into my computer. Deciding to start with Noah’s Production Team, Band, and Management Christmas party, I clicked into Pinterest to create a vision board.
The boards helped me to get ideas flowing for the pitch deck I would make to Noah and his team that would contain the elements I wanted to include at the event. All I knew so far was that I wanted it to be out of this world, and their only requests had been a buffet and live music.
As a result, I had lots of room to get creative, which I loved. A thrill shot through me as I scrolled through page after page of inspiration for high-end Christmas parties, a world of possibilities suddenly opening up in my mind.
I smiled as I started adding things to my board, bits and pieces of a plan already beginning to come together. I couldn’t wait to show Noah my ideas—and not only because it gave me a super handy excuse to contact him again really, really soon.