CHAPTER TWO
ROYCE
Ava is fucking unbelievable. If I thought there was a chance in hell, I’d ever be able to make it back to this coffee shop on my own, or otherwise, I would pay for my coffee and then run back outside to face the paparazzi rather than deal with the humiliation she’s bound to inflict on both myself and the innocent, albeit beautiful, man standing behind the counter.
“Here, see if you start crushing on my coffee as well.” He hands me a large teal and brown cup. I nod. Unable to say anything else. For a moment I thought he meant me crushing on the coffee, as well as on him. Then I remembered using that term in reference to Ava’s feelings for her Nutella latte and it all made more sense.
Nevertheless, I wind up holding my breath for a good forty seconds or so, wondering if she’ll call me out on that one as well.
“Isn’t it, like, the best thing you’ve ever tasted?” She’s back to gushing over her beverage. I sip mine several times and still don't get a taste for it. I’m too busy thinking about tasting other things. Namely the guy behind the counter.
“Yeah. It’s great.”
She frowns. “I don’t think you’re fully appreciating what’s happening in that cup. I mean, I’ve added Nutella to coffee before, but this, this is some sort of coffee Nutella magic. It’s creamy and sweet, and there’s no little brown specs of un-melted Nutella floating around. It’s perfectly blended.”
“It’s coffee, Ava.”
“Bite your tongue, Royce! We never use that tone with coffee.” She takes her ‘precious’ and stalks off.
“Sounds like your friend is really serious about her caffeine,” Cute Coffee Guy jokes.
“You have no idea.”
And, enter awkward silence.
Then, bring back Ava.
“Hudson - that’s the name of this store, right?” I can hear her, but I can’t see her.
“It’s Hudson House. Why?” Cute Coffee Guy comes out from behind the counter to find her.
“That mean the owner did these? Because they’re phenomenal!” I follow Cute Coffee Guy until we're both standing in front of her. She's pointing up at some photographs hanging all along the side wall of the shop.
“Actually, no. She’s an artist too, but mostly sculpting. Maxine Hudson. Her work is over there in the corner. She’s on a big vase kick right now.”
Ava looks disappointed. “Bummer. I don’t suppose you know how I could get in touch with this Hudson, do you? I’d love to schedule a shoot with the boys. I bet it would be incredible.”
Cute Coffee Guy seems surprised. “Are you serious?” He turns to me. “Is she serious?”
“Probably. I mean, it’s part of her job, so....”
“Wow. I would love to shoot the band!” And just like that, multiple statements are streamlining my brain. One, Ava and I clearly haven’t been nearly as incognito as we made ourselves believe, considering the paparazzi and Cute Coffee Guy recognized us pretty much instantly. And two, Cute Coffee Guy is actually Cute Photographer Guy.
“Wait. You’re K. Hudson? Shit, that was easy.” Ava laughs.
“It’s Kieran, but you can call me Hudson. Most people do.” He holds out his hand to her.
“Avalon Jennison. But only use that when you’re pissed at me. Otherwise, it’s Ava.” She turns back to include me. “This is Royce Lemmi. But you probably already knew that.”
Hudson goes to shake my hand and I take it, holding it just a fraction of a second longer than I should.
“Nice to meet you, Hudson. So, you make amazing coffee, and you take pictures like these? You may want to go hide somewhere. Ava might try to kidnap you if you’re not careful.”
Hudson chuckles.
“I don’t know why you’re laughing. I totally might.” And she's dead serious, too.
“Well, let me know and I’ll go pack a bag. My place is right upstairs.” He points toward the ceiling.
“Hold on, there’s an apartment up there? Is it connected to the store or do you have to go outside to get there?” I’m temporarily distracted by the prospect of being able to trick the photogs outside into leaving us alone. Plus, on some sneaky level I'm already wondering what Hudson’s place looks like and I want to get inside to see for myself.
“Stairs are right behind that door over there. Why?” Hudson curiously peers back and forth between Ava and me .
“We got followed in here. Any chance you’d let us go hide up there, then invite the blood hounds in to see for themselves that we’re gone, in hopes that they will move on?”
He grins. “Hm. I don’t know. Then you’d be able to leave. Not sure I like that idea.”
“Oh my,” Ava chirps. “Do you two boys need a minute? I can go pretend to check out those lanterns over there and then awkwardly act like I can’t hear you while you do your little flirty things.”
“Are you fucking kidding me with this? A second time? What, my game isn’t weak enough, I need you to blast canyons into it?” There's no point in trying to avoid being embarrassed now. Besides, Ava decided the moment she tasted Hudson’s coffee that she’d find a reason to keep him around, so he might as well get used to dealing with our craziness. Or, if he can’t, now is as good a time as any to weed him out, toss him in the dirt pile before I become too attached and believe there's some sort of a real possibility where there's really just another Garrett waiting to move on to fucking old dudes.
“Would you relax? Your game was fine until you started shrieking like a pre-pubescent boy.” She shakes her head and shifts to Hudson. “So, you gonna take us upstairs or what?”
He nods. Not looking nearly scared enough considering the amount of psycho we just unleashed in front of him. Shit, maybe he's accustomed to stuff like this. Maybe he has friends like Ava, too. Now that's a terrifying thought.
What if we do get together? What if we have to deal with twice the loudmouth best friends? We’ll never be able to have them over at the same time. It will have to be a rule. One neither of them can ever know about, of course. Which probably means I'll have to move, since living next door to Ava kind of gives her the freedom to just drop by anytime. Maybe I'm getting a little ahead of myself.
“So, Hudson, you’re kind of taking this whole thing in stride. This sort of thing happen to you often?” I walk right behind him as we go up the stairs. It's impossible not to look at his ass. It's the kind of ass that makes you wanna say, Garrett who?
“Do I frequently hide sexy rock stars and their quirky managers in my apartment to help them escape the paparazzi? I wish!” He turns back and winks at me. Holy shit. He's definitely flirting.
“Well, now that I know this is an option, I’ll have to keep it in mind next time I’m being chased down the street.”
Hudson swings the door open to his place and instantly daylight washes over all three of us. The place is bigger than I expected, with tall windows lining the main wall. There isn’t much in the way of furniture, but that seems to be intentional.
“Feel free to make yourselves at home. There’s stuff in the kitchen if you guys are hungry. There’s Netflix on the TV, but no cable, and you’re welcome to the computer over on the desk. Bathroom is right down this hall and, yeah...I think that’s about it. In the meantime, I’ll go see what I can do to shake your tail. Wait, that didn’t sound right.” He's actually blushing. “You know what I meant. Okay. I’m going back down. Shit.” I hear Ava suck in air like she's desperately trying to hold back laughter.
As soon as the door closes, and Hudson is out of sight, she starts giggling like a psychopath .
“Oh my GOD! How cute is he?! You have to ask him out. I’m serious, Royce. If you don’t, I will.” She's already busy examining his shelves for things she can use to make herself believe she knows Hudson better than she does.
“I’m pretty sure you’re not his type, Ava.” I come up beside her to check out the picture frame she’s holding.
“You never know, he could go both ways. Look, he’s with a chick right here.” She holds out the frame for me to get a better look.
“That’s his mom, dumbass.”
“Really? You think? Well, she looks fantastic. Just think, he’s got her genes! You should totally make babies with him. I’m just saying. Your kids would be ageless and beautiful.” She sets down the picture and moves on. “I’d even volunteer my uterus.”
“Yeah, okay. Got an egg to spare as well?”
She just shrugs and continues to sift through the pictures.
“What’s with all the baby talk anyway? You pregnant or something?” I’m joking, but when she doesn’t answer, things suddenly aren’t so funny. “Ava?”
She glances up at me with scared eyes. She and Blaise are solid these days, but that doesn’t mean either of them is ready to throw a baby into the mix.
“Does Blaise know?”
“That you’re the most gullible person in the entire world. Yeah, he knows. We all know.” She laughs. “You seriously think I wouldn’t have told you, like two seconds after the possibility first crossed my mind?”
Now that she mentions it. “You’ve got a point there. Shit, when the day comes, you’ll probably make me stay in the stall with you and hold the stick while you pee. I don’t know what I was thinking.”
Ava’s nose crinkles. “You ever wonder if we might be a little bit too involved in each other’s lives?”
“Why? Because you want to ask out the men I find attractive and I wouldn’t give a second thought to holding my hand near your urine?” It sounds even worse when I say it out loud. We're both cracking up before I even finish.
“Fuck around, my friend. You and I have issues.”
This is not news. Not to her. Not to me. Certainly not to anyone who knows us. Hudson...he’s another story.
HUDSON
I’m halfway down the stairs, when I remember that it probably wouldn’t hurt to pull out some of my portfolios for Ava to flip through while she’s locked in my apartment with nothing to do. I mean, if there is any chance at all of getting a gig shooting Finding Nolan, I don’t want to blow it.
Just as I place my hand on the doorknob, I hear Ava squealing inside, talking about how Royce should ask me out. Royce fucking Lemmi – is considering asking me out! I can show Ava my work later. There's no way I'm interrupting that conversation.
Elated, I skip down the steps a second time and then head straight for the door. I only have to peek my head outside before the flash of cameras sets off red spots in my vision .
“Yo. You got the wrong person.” Automatically, my hand goes up to block my face from having fifty-thousand pictures taken of me squinting.
The grumble of the crowd takes over as the flash of cameras subsides and everyone realizes I'm not Royce or Ava. Well, I’m not going to lie, I'm kind of hoping they knew all along I'm not Ava.
“If you’re looking for that musician and his friend, they took off a while ago. Asked me to let them out the back door.”
There's a wave of loud muttering and some speculations ensues, suggesting I’m basically full of shit. Which I take offense to. Not because I'm not, but because my acting skills rock and I was one hundred percent believable. Or at least, that’s what my high school drama teacher always told me, and I am set on going with that.
“Come in and see for yourself if you don’t believe me.” They all start coming at me at once. “Whoa, ey...maybe like one or two of you, not the whole damn group. Shit. Just pick a representative. I got breakables in here.”
More murmuring and then, finally, two guys that look like they live in their cars step forward and follow me in. I head straight for the emergency exit assuming they will follow. I assume wrong. They tour the whole freaking shop for over five minutes while I wait by the backdoor. By the time they show up, the smell from the deli’s dumpster next door has churned up my stomach pretty good. Lunchmeat doesn’t fare well exposed to the heat. And we're having an unusually warm September this year, so it reeks.
“You’re telling me, Royce Lemmi and Avalon Jennison came through here?” The photog eyes me skeptically. He has every reason to. Aside from a row of dumpsters and a chain-link fence, there isn’t much happening back here. Plus, the only walkway out of the alley would have led them right past the paparazzi again.
“Not like you left them a whole lot of options. Mr. Lemmi had to help Miss Jennison jump the fence. Pretty sure she took a stumble when she got to the other side, so don’t be surprised if she looks a little beat-up next time you see her.” My improv skills are running wild already.
The guy grunts something I don’t understand but have to assume is something agreeable since both guys turn and head back toward the front door. A second later the wind chimes play and there's a loud bang of wood-on-wood colliding.
I inch my way over to the front window to sneak a look outside. The crowd has already dispersed, and everyone is traipsing off back to where they came from. Come to think of it, there's that fancy hotel just up the street. Makes sense they're headed that way. Finding Nolan is likely staying there while they're in town.
Once I'm completely sure that no sleazy picture chasers remain lingering outside, I go back up the stairs. I have twenty-seven steps to figure out how to keep Royce Lemmi from walking out of my apartment, out of this store and out of my life forever.