A Beautiful Melody (12 page)

Standing up from my seat, I get ready to exit the plane. I can’t wait to get out and stretch my legs. I’m not big on sitting still for long periods of time. Although, I forget my haste when I look up the plane and spot Theo and Naomi.

She’s smiling, and her cheeks are flushed as he leans down and says something in her ear. Her hand reaches up to touch her hair as they share in the humour of whatever the hell it is he said to her.

I’ve been around enough women to not like what I’m seeing right now. I knew I should have insisted I sit with her. I knew Theo couldn’t be trusted. He’s fucking flirting with her.

And she’s loving it.

I refuse to move from my seat until Theo and Naomi reach our row of seats. She smiles at me and asks how my flight was pausing so she can let me out.

“Yeah, it was fine,” I say, as I slide in between her and Theo. I then stand back and let Lachlan and Jack out ahead of me to make a bit of a gap between us.

“Don’t think I don’t know what you’re doing,” I state over my shoulder to him when I’m sure she won’t be able to hear me. I’m still assaulted by the mental image of him practically putting his tongue in her ear. I hang back a little more, so I block his progression for a moment, letting out another couple of passengers on the other side of the row. It gives us a better gap between where Naomi is now moving with Lachlan and Jack.

“What is it you think I’m doing Marcus?” he asks calmly, smiling like he’s being watched and has to pretend he’s happy.

“Going after her,” I state, playing the smiling game too.

“I can’t help it if we get along
,” he tells me, all matter of fact.

“Just don’t get along too well. I’m watching you,” I warn him.
As we exit the plane, the other three are waiting for us so I change the subject to the surprising lack of turbulence on the flight so no one knows what we’ve been talking about.

“Hey guys,
” I call out, quickly making my way towards them, placing my hand on the curve of Naomi’s lower back and guiding her towards the luggage bay. “Bet you’re glad to get out of those cramped seats to stretch your legs.”

I can hear my voice
, it’s coming out a little overly enthusiastic and I have to stop myself from visibly wincing when I’m met with odd looks.

“Yeah, I guess,”
Naomi replies, shrugging. “I’m tiny though, I fit alright.”

“
Lucky you,” I smile. Turning my attention to the others. “How about you go and get some trolleys and we’ll meet you at the baggage carousel?” I suggest. Not really waiting for their answer as I pick up our pace and separate from them. “Thanks,” I call back to them, raising my hand to wave over my shoulder, completely ignoring the stormy look on my brother’s face.

I make small talk about how good
it is to be standing again as we get a good position in front of the carousel to spot our luggage.

“So what did you and Theo chat about for the whole flight?” I ask, trying to appear as though I’m
uninterested, but just making polite conversation. But to be honest, I have this great need to know, and the smile that plays on her lips as she thinks for a moment causes my gut to twist.

“Oh, this and that – you know? The band, the tour. Then I was reading a bit. It was all good. It’s nice to be getting along with him now,” she explains as she reaches up and pulls her hair a
way from her face, securing it in a messy bun with her hair elastic.

“Yeah
, I’ll bet,” I say, kind of wishing that they never sorted it out. I so didn’t want to tell him the truth. But I couldn’t say no to her. I like her too much to be that much of a jerk.

S
ince we sorted out the misunderstanding between me, her and Theo, things have been a lot more cohesive between all of the band members. I feel like we’re all friends again, kind of like how we were back in high school before I was a dick and ruined things.

Although it doesn’t help that I still think she’s gorgeous. I still
want her as more than a friend. I know it’s a bad idea to go after her. The band needs to come first, and it’s obvious that Theo is interested in her too. I know I should just back off and focus on the tour – there are plenty of girls out there. Ones that I won’t have to fight my brother for.

Problem is – none of them are Naomi.

***

After loading up the trolleys with all of our bags and gear, we make our way over to the hire car counter. We’ve got a van for transporting our gear and a sedan for the rest of us.
We transfer all of the gear and baggage into both vehicles. Theo is the one that organised all of this, so he gives me a print out of our hotel booking and tells me to take Jack and Naomi with me to the hotel, while he takes Lachlan to the venue to drop off all of our gear.

“Can I drive?” asks Jack. “My car’s a shitbox. This one is all schmick and crap. I wanna press all the buttons.”

Laughing, I toss him the keys. Watching as he jumps into the driver’s seat and starts pressing buttons and playing with the electric windows and mirrors like an excited kid.

“I get the back,” Naomi calls
, jumping into the back seat and stretching her legs across it, laying against the door with her arms folded behind her head. “Ah, this is the life. Take me to the hotel Jeeves,” she jokes.

“Certainly ma’am,”
Jack agrees, reaching forward to start the engine, before pausing and lowering his head to look at me through the open passenger door. “Are you getting in? What are you doing?”

“Grabbing these,” I say, lifting two guitar cases into the passenger seat
. “Theo and I want them in the room,” I explain, as I shut the door and move to the back to get in next to Naomi.

“
Now where am I supposed to put my feet?” she complains jokingly, as she smiles and lifts her legs.

“You can
still stretch out if you like,” I tell her, grabbing a hold of her feet and resting them across my lap.

“You excited about singing to a whole stadium of people on Thursday?” she asks me.

“Yeah actually. I’m really looking forward to it. Did you see how well our album’s doing on iTunes?”

“Yeah, I did.
I can’t believe it.”

“Amazing what a little exposure can do
for a self-produced garage band, right?”

“Hmmm,” she says,
resting her head back against the window as we drive. “I hope we don’t get laughed off the stage.”

Frowning, I place my hand on her calf nonchalantly
. Quietly enjoying the smoothness of her skin beneath my palm. “What makes you say that?”

“It’s just my worst nightmare.”

“Mine too. Although I don’t think we’re going to get laughed off the stage. Especially not with you up there.”

I start moving my hand up and down her shin in a soothing motion as I hum along to the current song
playing over the radio. It’s bloody Aiden Price again. Ever since Naomi mentioned him a while ago, I find that I’m hearing his songs everywhere. This song is called
Weighted
the radio version isn’t as good as the album version, but I still hum along all the same. When I glance at Naomi again, she’s fallen asleep. I still my hand, and just look at her for a while, admiring her features, softened by sleep.

“Don’t be stupid man,” Jack says from the driver’s seat
, his eyes glaring at me through the rear vision mirror.

I look away, staring out the window again, my hand still resting on her leg
like it’s glued there. Stupid kind of feels unavoidable right now.

“Naomi,” a gentle voice calls to me, as I slowly stir and open my eyes. “We’re here and you’re drooling.”

All of a sudden, we’re at the hotel, I didn’t even realise I’d fallen asleep. I think it was a combination of Marcus humming and smoothing his fingers up and down my calf and the gentle vibration of the car as we drove.

Processing his words in my sleep addled mind, I sit bolt upright, pulling my legs from Marcus’s lap as I wipe at my face. He starts laughing a little as he opens his car door, extending one long leg as he begins to climb out. I sneak a look in the review mirror to make sure I’m presentable. I’m so embarrassed that I was drooling. Oh god – kill me now!

“Relax. You’re still gorgeous,” he comments, leaning down to look at me. “Come on. Let’s get this stuff up to our rooms before we have to get on the road again.”

“Why? Aren’t we here for long?” I ask
, as I climb out and head toward the car boot where Jack is unloading the luggage.

“
From what Theo told me, we have an hour to settle in. Then we have our sound check booked in. He wants to make sure everything’s working fine. He worries that something could get damaged in transit. It’s what he does – he’s a bit of a control freak.”

“Yeah, but if he wasn’t, none of this stuff would happen to us and we’d be giving a cut of all our profits to managers
and agents or whatever,” Jack adds in. “Better someone who has the band in mind more than the money.”

“Why does he play drums now?” I ask. When I knew him in high school, he was always on
the piano or keyboards. He was wonderful. I can’t imagine why he would stop playing them on stage.

“He used to play the keyboard when we first started the band, but when we lost our first drummer, he took over and stayed there because it was easier to
find someone for keyboards than it was to find a drummer that would actually show up and could keep the right beat.”

“That’s when I joined,
” Jack informs me. 

“And who was the bassist before Lachlan?” I ask them both.

“Just a girl,” Marcus says quietly, as he pulls a folded up piece of paper from his pocket. “Why don’t you two finish up here and I’ll get our room keys,” he offers, obviously trying to avoid the conversation. He jogs into the hotel entrance, leaving Jack and I on our own.

“It was t
his chick called Andrea,” Jack volunteers.

“
Andrea? Do I know her?”

“Nah, I don’t think so. She was a bit of a ran
dom. I’m not actually sure how he met her.”

“Why did she leave?”

“Because she was shit. She fucked up left, right, and centre. Nearly destroyed the whole band. I’m pretty sure she was only in the band in the first place because she was screwing Marcus.” Jack explains, shutting the boot as he sets the last bag on the ground.

“Shut the fuck up man,” Marcus says from behind us. He’s holding an envelope that I’m assuming has the key cards for our rooms inside. We did
n’t even hear him coming up. “You only overlapped with her for a couple of months and came in at the tail end of it. Quit talking about shit you know nothing about.” Marcus glares at Jack, who just rolls his eyes, ignoring the outburst and continuing on regardless.

“She totall
y fucked up this gig, because she was too off her face to play properly so Theo cracked it, kicked her out, then brought Lachlan in – end of story. But Theo has threatened us all that if we do drugs we’re out, and we’re not allowed to involve our girlfriends in band business.”

“
That’s fair enough. Theo’s always been anti-drugs. Besides, I don’t think I’d want to be in a band mixed up in that shit. And I do appreciate that there’s no hangers on at rehearsals. I think it’s made you guys really professional,” I say, loading up my arms with as many bags as I can carry and following them both to the elevator bay.

“Don’t tell Theo any of that. He’ll get a big head,” Marcus comments, bumping against the up button with his elbow.

It doesn’t take long for the lifts to arrive and we all pile inside and ride up without saying much more than what floor we’re on and what our room numbers are.

“I’ll bet Radio Silence doesn’t have to lug
their own bags around,” Jack complains, straining against the weight of three large duffle bags.

“Well, we’re not Radio Silence,” Marcus points out as we make it to our rooms. We’re all situated eith
er across or next to each other. So we make a pile of luggage in the middle of the hall and open up all the doors, depositing the correct bags in the correct rooms.

Marcus is sharing with Theo, and
Jack will be with Lachlan. I, of course, am on my own. Each room has one or two double beds, and a low line cupboard spanning the longest wall. On that are the TV, a water jug and supplies for making tea or coffee. Built into it is a mini bar, and at the very end is a narrow wardrobe. There’s also a bathroom, and a small sitting area with a couch and coffee table.

I unzip my suitcase and start to pull out some of my things, hanging them in the cupboard provided
.

A
few minutes later, a light tapping sound comes from my door, just before it opens. Marcus walks in, holding my key card in front of him.

“You might want this,” he says, waiving it at me before placing it in my hand
.

“Thank you,” I say
, noticing that his hair is damp and he’s changed his clothes from the ones he was wearing on the flight here. I inhale, smelling the scent of soap as it drifts off his warm skin. I can’t help but let out a little hum.

“What do you think of
the room? It’s ok right?” he comments, taking a quick look around then flopping down on my bed, next to my open suit case.

“Yeah, it’s nice enough,” I say
, as I continue to unpack my things. When I turn around, Marcus is holding my purple silk and black lace bra off the tip of his finger.

“You got a thing for purple huh?”

I reach out and snatch it from his hand, giving him my best unimpressed look.

“Hey, it’s nice. Who’s the lucky guy?”

I grab the remainder of my undergarments and stuff them into a drawer, so they’re out of his reach and sight.

“There is no lucky guy. You should know that. I don’t do what you do. I have this thing called standards.
And self-respect.”

“And what is it that I do?”

“Fuck every girl on two legs who batts her eyes at you.” I fold my arms over my chest and wait for some sort of smart arse reaction.

Instead, he says
, “Maybe I’m just trying to keep busy until I can have the girl I really want. Have you ever thought that?”

He gets up off the bed and moves over to where I’m standing
, stopping directly in front of me, only inches away from my face.

My heart starts to thud loudly in my chest, and I wonder if he can hear it. Over the last few months, we’ve been so busy with the band and our own respective jobs, that
this is the first time we’ve actually been one hundred percent on our own. Keeping busy helped me focus on building working relationships with my band mates and kept my mind off the fact that Marcus was and probably still is my crush – well, that’s what I tell myself anyway. That it’s just a crush, and something that can be ignored.

Although, who can ignore a man who is head and shoulders above you, with long lean muscle
s, almost zero body fat, and a face that looks like it could have been chiselled in stone. Girls have, and always will, fall all over him, and I know from experience that I would happily be one of them. It’s just the fact that this is Marcus – the guy who has never had a relationship last with a girl for more than a night. While I admit that I’m attracted to him, being any more than friends will just ruin everything. I get that he’s just playing with me. He loves getting a rise out of me, and I don’t mind. The attention is fun. Just as long as we both get that playing is as far as it goes.

Nevertheless, h
is closeness makes me heady, makes my fingertips itch to reach out and touch him. I don’t want to give him the wrong idea. Even still, I lift my hands slightly, feeling momentarily brave or foolish – I’m not sure which one. But instead of reaching for him, I reach back and grip the edge of the bench top, turning my head to break eye contact.

“You missed a pair,” he whispers.

I turn back to him and lift a slightly shaky hand to take the pair of black lace panties out of his hand as he offers them to me. His eyes are sparkling amusedly, it’s as if he really loves having this effect on me. I think he knows exactly what he’s doing, and I’m glad that he does – because I have no idea what’s going on. I’m starting to feel like I’m stuck in a revolving door of emotions.

He leans in even closer, his golden
brown hair tickling my face as it brushes past me, and he inhales. I feel his warm breath caressing my neck as he releases it, his mouth right beside my ear.

“You might want to take a shower,” he murmurs. “You kind of stink.”

My eyes, which had fluttered closed, suddenly fly open, my mouth along with it, as I let out a shocked gasp. “Well don’t sniff me!” I yelp, shoving him away from me as he starts to chuckle, seemingly delighted with my reaction. “Get out!” I throw the only thing I have in my hand at him in a huff as he moves toward the door.

Laughing loudly now, he catches the underwear. “I’m keeping these by the way. You’re the first girl to throw her panties at me.”

“No! Give them back!” I yell, charging toward him.

“Never,” he laughs, quickly opening the door and exiting
. By the time I get to it and throw it open, he’s already across the hall with his door open.

“I wouldn’t let that door shut if I were you. You’
re key is still on the table inside,” he points out, causing me to freeze with my foot jammed against the door.

“Shit,”
I hiss, balling my hands at my side, feeling defeated as Marcus laughs at me again and spins my panties around his finger looking mightily impressed with himself.

With a win
k, he shuts the door, knowing that he’s won. “Jerk!” I call after him. Although when I close my door, I’m smiling.

Every day
that I spend around him reminds me why I’ve always liked him so much, why I’ve always loved being in his presence. He’s fun, he’s spontaneous, and never afraid to say or do something.

Shaking my head
, I make my way to the bathroom to shower before rehearsal.