Miles Apart (The Not So Bad Boys of Rock Book 2) (3 page)

“So,
Brooke Caldwell, I want to know all about you,” he said, leaning in to make
conversation easier.

“Gee,
where do I start?” I laughed.

“How
‘bout telling me where you’re from?”

“I’m
originally from Michigan.” He didn’t hide his grimace at the mention of his
state’s college rival. “But, I moved here from California.”

“Nice.
How long were you in California?” His interest suddenly peaked, and he inched
closer, making me slightly uncomfortable.

“Not
very long, actually. I had just moved there to work at Lardon’s when the owner
asked me to transfer here and turn things around at this site.” I answered,
shifting ever so slightly to the right.

“Where’d
you stay in California? Aren’t they located in L.A.?”

“Yes,
but I lived in Santa Monica.” I sighed, suddenly longing to be there again.

He
let out a low whistle, and his eyes grew larger. “That’s a pretty pricey area,
they must be paying you well.” He guffawed, shaking his head at the same time.
“I think I may have picked the wrong restaurant owner.”

“I’m
afraid not. The pay is pretty average. I was living with someone, my boyfriend,
actually.” Reid seemed like a really nice guy, but he also appeared to be
interested in me, and I wasn’t looking to reciprocate.

“Oh,”
he pulled back slightly, his face showing proof of his disappointment. “Is he
still in the picture? You two are pretty far apart if he’s back in L.A.”

“He's
very much in the picture, thankfully. I wouldn’t be able to get by without him."

“Sounds
like he’s the one.” He nudged me gently. “Isn’t that always the case? The best
ones are always taken. I guess we’ll just have to settle for being friends.
Unless you get lonely and need companionship.” He winked playfully, and I gasped
in shock. “I’m just kidding!” He threw his hands up in defense as I slugged him
lightly in the arm.

“Friends.”
I declared, with a quick nod of my head.

“So,
who’s the lucky guy? Is he a chef as well?”

“No.
He’s creative, but not with food.” I chuckled, remembering the last time I’d
tried to teach him how to cook, it had been a disaster. “He’s a musician.”

“Of
course, all the babes go for musicians. Why is that? Is it the hair and
tattoos?” His eyebrows wrinkled together, as if confused.

“More
like the lips and piercings,” I muttered. Immediately, my mind drifted back to
the first time I'd met Sebastian. I hadn't been able to take my eyes off the
piercing on his lower lip. The way he always tugged at it with his teeth when
he was nervous or concentrating really hard on something. I smiled to myself,
recalling the night he'd kissed me for the first time. He was so nervous, and he
kept pulling on the metal. I thought he was going to bite a hole in his lip
before he finally worked up the nerve to kiss me.

That
had been an amazing kiss. The best first kiss I'd ever had.

“Piercings?
No kidding. The lips, now that I can understand, but tell me more about this
piercing attraction. Maybe I need to consider it.” His voice pulled me out of
the memory playing out in my head. I glanced up and tried to picture him with a
viper bite, knowing instantly that it wouldn’t work.

“You
could probably pull off a piercing, but only in the ear,” I nudged, playfully.
“I don’t know. When I first saw him, in person I mean, the lip piercing did
something to me. I found myself wanting to bite it.” I laughed, blushing at the
memory.

“There
you go again…” He sighed, leaning back against the wall. “You said when you first
saw him in person, how had you seen him before?”

“Oh,
on posters, cd cases, magazines. Lots of places I guess. He’s pretty famous.” Reid’s
eyebrow shot up a notch in response. “He’s Sebastian Miles, you know, from--” I
pointed to my shirt.

“Paradox.”
He finished my sentence. “It figures.”

“Why
do you say that?” I squinted, turning to face him. “Because he’s gorgeous?
Talented? Has an amazing voice? Sexy lip piercing? Which is it?” I teased.

“All
of the above, and then some. I don’t know, the guy just seems to lead a charmed
life. He must have done something right.” His eyes locked with mine, and his gaze
penetrated right through me. It was unnerving.

“Listen,
I think I better call it a night. I have an early start in the morning.” I
moved to stand and his hand reached forward to help me. “Thanks, for
everything. It will be nice to have a friend around.”

“Yeah,
friends are good. I’ll see you around, friend.” He walked me to the door,
leaning casually against the frame as I passed through. “Have a good night
Brooke Caldwell.” He winked, before watching me walk away.

“Wow,
I’m not sure I can handle too many friends like that.” I mumbled to myself.

CHAPTER
TWO

Sebastian~

The crowd was on their feet, as they had been
for the past two hours. It was always the same when we performed in Russia, the
fans were hardcore. We were spent, it had been a long week, and this was our
second night of performing. From here we were headed to Berlin for another week
of rehearsals, interviews, and performing, same as every other city we were
scheduled to appear, only this stop would be different, Brooke was coming.

After
finishing up the final song, we made our way to the dressing room, where
another party awaited us. We had just enough time to grab a quick shower before
heading into our next round of ‘meet and greet the fans’. We were only two
weeks into a five month tour, and I had already grown weary, my mind wasn’t
where it should have been.

“Sebastian,”
called Davis, our road manager. “Kick ass show, man. Listen, I’ve got someone
who wants to meet you.” He turned and put an arm around a tall brunette with
the whitest teeth I had ever seen. Seriously, like these were blindingly white.
“Say hello to Nadia, she’s a really big fan of yours. I’ll just let you two get
acquainted.” He gave Nadia a gentle shove and she crashed into my chest. I
grabbed her by the arms to steady her. The sickeningly sweet fragrance of her
perfume nearly gave me an instant headache. She was far too close, invading my
personal space.

“Whoa,
sorry about Davis, he’s still a little rough around the edges,” I laughed,
nervously.

“Oh,
I don’t mind. I’ve been waiting all night to get close to you. I just never
dreamed it would be this close.” She gushed, looking up at me with big brown
eyes. Her fingertip traced the crook of my elbow, making its way up to my
shoulder. I detected a waft of alcohol on her breath as she spoke. I made a
move to back away, but she had other plans, and her arms were suddenly around
my neck and her lips were pressed against mine, catching me completely off
guard. I caught the flash of a camera and jerked my head in that direction,
trying to catch who may have snapped the picture. I had to make sure it never
got leaked to the press.

“What
the hell, Nadia! That’s not cool.” I peeled her arms away from my neck and
turned to leave. “You know, I have a girlfriend, I’m not interested in any
hook-ups.” I left her standing there, pouting, and made my way across the
crowded room, in search of anyone with a camera or cellphone in their hand,
which was practically everyone. Frustrated, I turned to leave, suddenly needing
to get away from the chaos.

“Sebastian,
wait!” I heard Davis calling after me. I turned to give him hell. “How’d you
make out with Nadia?” He slurred, breath reeking of booze.

“Thanks
a lot asshole, she kissed me.” I screamed.

“Lucky!
I wouldn’t mind some of that action. What are you complaining about, you’re not
a married man.”

“Yet.
I’m not a married man
yet
. I have every intention of changing that just
as quickly as I can. I have someone in my life, Davis, don’t ever put me in
that position again. Are we clear?” As far as I was concerned, he was lucky he
still had a job. I was pretty ticked off.

“Okay,
okay. No more chicks for Sebastian. More for me I guess.” I shook my head in
disgust, hating the fact that I used to be that same guy less than a year ago.

“I’m
out of here.” I went in search of Dek, finding him five minutes later, in a
quiet room, talking on the phone with Jade. For the first time in my life I
found myself jealous of his happiness. Brooke and I hadn’t spoken since the
other night, but I remembered what it was like when we used to talk every day.
I missed that kind of connection. I missed the texts and the little gifts.
Hell, I missed her, period.

“Hey
man, sorry to interrupt. Hey Jade!” I yelled into the phone.

“She
says hey back. You taking off?” He furrowed his brow.

“Yeah,
I need some quiet.”

“I’ll
go with you. I can’t take much more of this either.” He wrapped up the call and
clapped an arm on my shoulder. “It was a good show.”

“Yeah,
I think it’s safe to say we know what we’re doing now.” I laughed,
inadvertently referring to our earlier years of touring, and all of the near
catastrophes.

“So,
who was that chick you were kissing?” He teased, quickly dodging my fist.

“Stupid
Davis, I swear that guy is an idiot. He brought that girl over to me knowing
what she intended to do. What an ass.” I kicked at a bucket on the floor, then
watched as it bounced off the wall and rolled out into the hallway.

“Don’t
worry about it, it looked harmless enough.”

“Yeah,
well some jerk snapped a picture, who knows where that will get leaked.
Brooke’s going to think I’m out here messing around.” I groaned.

“I
wouldn’t worry too much about it, she knows that’s not your style, dude.
Besides, I don’t think there’s any chance of it being leaked.” He encouraged.

“Why’s
that?”

“Because
I’m the jerk that took it.” He quipped, giving me a jaunty wink.

“That’s
a good one. You know you’re going to destroy it, right?” I threatened, but he
just laughed. “I’m serious, Dek, delete it,
now
.”

“Okay,
okay, but just look at it before I do. See the look on your face? It’s
priceless.” He turned the phone toward me, and I glanced at the image. He was
right, it was ridiculous, even if it had been leaked it would have been obvious
that I wasn’t a willing participant. “I hope that’s not the look you have on
your face when kissing Brooke.” He shook his head, clicking his tongue in mock
disappointment.

“Shuddup.”
I gave him a shove as we made our way out the door, away from this scene,
hopefully toward somewhere that offered some sense of sanity. “Delete it.” I
snarled.

Later that night, I
was hanging out in my
hotel room, mindlessly flipping through the channels, when she texted me.

Brooke: Hi.

Me: Hey baby.

Brooke: How was the
concert?

Me: Oh, it was good,
pretty much the same as all the
others
before it. To be honest, it’s starting to get old. I’m just ready to be home.
Wow, I sound totally lame don’t I?

Brooke: Maybe a little
lame…

Me: Did you work
tonight?

Brooke: Yeah, it was
another successful service. Things are really turning around. I think Max is
impressed.

Me: He should be, it
sounds like you’re doing an amazing job, not to mention the sacrifices you’ve
made to go there.

Brooke: He’s aware of my
sacrifice, and believe me, it wasn’t easy for him to ask me to do this. He
trusts me Sebastian, and he believes in me.

Me: I’m sorry. I
shouldn’t have said that. I believe in you too babe. If anyone can turn it
around, it’s you.

Brooke: Thank you.

Me: Did you do anything
fun tonight?

Brooke: I went to a
party upstairs, met some neighbors.

Me: That sounds nice.
Any of these neighbors happen to be of the opposite sex?

Brooke: A few of them.

Me: Oh…

Brooke: He was nice, but
a bit of a flirt. Don’t worry, I put him in his place. He knows all about you.

Me: Hmm… Not sure how to
feel about that.

Brooke: You don’t have
to feel anything, it’s not an issue. I barely even know what he looks like.

Me: What’s his name?

Brooke: You really want
to do this?

Me: Humor me.

Brooke: Reid.

Me: Was it his
apartment?

Brooke: No, it was
upstairs. He lives across the hall from me.

Me: I don’t like the
sound of this.

Brooke: Stop. I never
should have told you. I was just trying to be honest about everything, you know,
since my dishonesty tore us apart in the first place.

Me: We were never torn
apart, Brooke. I was just hurt. I’m trying to get past it. Is this Reid guy
anyone I should be concerned about?

Brooke: Not at all. Enough
about my night. Tell me about yours. Were you attacked by any grabby brunettes?

Me: I’m going to kill
him…

Brooke: Aw, don’t hurt
him. I thought it was pretty funny. You should have seen the look on your face…

Me: Believe me, I
already have. So, you’re not upset about it?

Brooke: About what? Some
random girl throwing her arms around you and kissing you? No. I would be more
upset if your arms had been around her.

Me: The only body I want
these arms around is sitting a thousand miles away. Kind of reminds me of when
you were in Michigan and I was in L.A.

Brooke: I kind of miss
those days…

Me: Me too. I really do
love you.

Brooke: If you really
loved me you’d call me so I could hear your sexy voice.

She
picked up on the second ring.

“Hello
beautiful.”

“Hey
handsome.” My heart instantly swelled at the sound of her voice, and at that
moment I knew she had been right, I needed to call her more often. We talked
for another hour, sharing about her work and my tour. She wanted to hear all
about the guys, and how they were holding up.

“So,
I’ll see you later this week, right?” I reminded her, trying not to sound too
desperate.

“Nothing
could keep me away. My flight gets in Wednesday afternoon.”

“I’ll
be there to pick you up. I can’t wait to see you.” So much for not appearing
desperate.

“I’m
dying to see you. I hope you don’t have plans that night.” She moaned,
suggestively.

“Why,
did you have something in mind? I can take you around, show you a few sights.”
I offered, innocently.

“Oh
no, what I have in mind doesn’t require transportation.” She giggled, softly.

“Oh…”
And just that quickly, I knew Wednesday was going to become my new favorite
day. “See you Wednesday. I can hardly wait. Goodnight honey.” I heard her sigh
at the mention of my favorite nickname for her.

“Night
sweetheart.”