Our Song (13 page)

Chapter 19

When I pulled the shower curtain open and started drying off, I realized my mistake.

I had no clothes.

Well, that wasn’t entirely true. My dirty clothes were still scattered all over the bathroom floor, but they were soaked and I didn’t want to put them back on. That defeated the whole purpose of taking a shower.

I was going to have to sneak over to my bedroom to change.

Wrapping the towel around my body and tucking it into the front, I stepped out into the hallway. I tiptoed across the tiled floor, careful not to make any noise as I walked past my office.

When I slid into my bedroom, I grabbed a t-shirt and a pair of yoga pants from my closet and some underwear and a bra with loads of extra padding to make the girls look, um, bigger.

Just as I was about to take the towel off, I heard a voice say from behind me, “Still in a towel, I see.”

I whirled around to find Colton standing in the doorway. “Shut up. And don’t you understand the word ‘privacy’?”

He shrugged. “You left the door open. If you wanted privacy, why didn’t you close it?”

“Because I didn’t think you would follow me in here. You’re supposed to be waiting for me in my office, remember?” I said, glaring at him. Seriously, this could’ve been
bad
if he had walked into the room a second later.

“I
do
recall you saying something like that,” he agreed, nodding. “But I really needed something to quench my thirst. Is it okay if I borrow a bottle of water from you?”

“Borrow?” I raised my eyebrows. “Are you going to return it?”

“If you want me to.” He shrugged his shoulders.

“You can have whatever you want in the fridge. Just get out of my room,” I said, narrowing my eyes at him in frustration.

“Okay, okay.” He took a step back into the hallway and then said, “By the way…” He held his phone up for me to see.

Even from across the room, I could make out the image of my (thankfully towel-covered) butt. “Delete it!”

“Nope!” Colton laughed as took off for the kitchen.

Ugh!

Once I’d changed back into my clothes, I went back into my office. Colton was sitting on the couch, strumming his guitar.

“Give it to me.”

“Wow. You’re not even going to make me buy you dinner first? Somewhere expensive, like Giovanni’s.”

I narrowed my eyes at him. Giovanni’s was like $400 a plate. I wasn’t
that
materialistic. “I was talking about your phone, asshole.”

“Why would you want to have sex with my phone?” he asked, not even looking up from his guitar.

“It would probably be more responsive,” I muttered through gritted teeth. “Seriously, what do I need to do to make you delete that picture?” So that it wouldn’t end up all over the internet.

“Oh, that.” Glancing up, his blue eyes fell on mine. “That’s easy.”

“Well, are you going to tell me?”

“You’re a demanding little thing, aren’t you?” He smirked.

I folded my arms over my chest, annoyed. “I’m waiting for an answer.”

Setting the guitar down, he rose to his feet. He opened his phone and showed me the picture. “I’ll hit ‘delete’ right now if you do either one of two things.”

“What two things would those be?” I rolled my eyes.

“You could either show me your boobs,” he said.

“Ugh, no! I’m not showing you my boobs! You’ll probably take a picture of
them
, too,” I replied, even though showing them to him really wasn’t a huge deal. I mean, I may have been drunk last time, but he’d already
seen
my boobs.

Apparently, that meant he liked them enough to want to see them again. Go me.

“That’s what I thought. The other thing you could do is delete the picture of
my
ass from your phone.”

I grabbed my phone and opened the picture of his butt. Glancing over at him, I said, “How do I know this isn’t some sort of trick? Like even after I delete the picture of your ass, you’ll keep mine?”

Colton shrugged. “I don’t know. You could just take my word for it?”

I scoffed.

“Or we can do it on the count of three, if you want,” he added.

“Okay,” I agreed. “One...two…”

“Three,” we said simultaneously.

I hit the ‘Delete’ button and then glanced over at the screen of his phone to make sure he’d deleted the picture of my butt, too.

He had.

“Now that we’re done playing ass games, do you want to actually get some writing done?” Colton asked, sounded irritated.

“I don’t know if that’s going to be possible.”

“What do you mean it won’t be ‘possible’?” He glanced over at me sharply, his brow furrowing.

“You’re somewhat of a mood killer,” I replied with a shrug.

“That would mean you’d have to be in a good mood in the first place,” he said. “Which you
never
are.”

Well, that wasn’t
entirely
off-base lately. Colton King just had this way of bringing out the best of me.

“So, did you come up with a chorus yet?” I asked him.

“Oh, yeah. Yeah,” he said, grabbing his guitar and strumming it. Clearing his throat, he began to sing, “That girl kept on prancing in her towel—”

I shot him dagger eyes. “Not for
that
song.”

But he just kept on singing. “And she’s glaring at me right now.”

“Seriously,” I said.

“Yeah, I seriously got nothing on the other one. There’s still time to switch to something else,” he suggested.

“Okay. If that’s what you want to do. I mean, if you don’t mind that we wasted all that time coming up with the song.” It was
my
album. Why did he have to have a say in what song we wrote?

He shrugged. “That’s okay with me. It was only a few days.”

“Which means we’ll have to make those days up.” Which meant that I’d need to spend even
more
time with him.

“Or you’ll become so inspired by my song choice that it will come even faster. Can you honestly say you wouldn’t want to spend more time with me?”

“No comment,” I said, refusing to answer his question. “Okay, what is your song choice?”

“I’m don’t have all the kinks worked out yet,” he warned me as he grabbed his guitar.

As he began to strum random chords, he sang, “Viola Pierce…she’s pretty fierce. She’s always in a bad mood. Her comments can be so crude. She never wakes up on the right side of the bed. She’ll talk so much it’ll hurt your head.”

“Ugh. How the hell did you get so popular if you never take anything seriously?” It wasn’t fair. I mean, sure he
probably
earned it, but that didn’t mean I had to feel any less jealous.

“Maybe your problem is you need to loosen up. But don’t go drinking anything,” he warned. “Actually, maybe you
should
. I can think of some song lyrics that involve puking on some hot guy’s shoes.”

“Really? I’ve never puked on a
hot
guy’s shoes,” I said with a smirk.

He stared at me for a moment before saying, “Wow, you must be a bee, because that stung.”

“Oh, please. I don’t think anything could hurt
your
ego.” I scoffed. “Now, can we please focus on the song that needs to be written so we can get this over with?”

“Fine. What should it be about?” Colton asked.

“I have no idea. I came up with our last song and we know how
that
turned out, so I say it’s your turn.” If he really was going to make us start from scratch, the least he could do was come up with the song.

He paused for a moment. “I think we should write something angry.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Why something
angry
? You do realize the whole reason I need you to collaborate with me is because my fans already think I’m too angry.”

“Oh, that’s right. Told you you’re always in a bad mood.”

“I am
not
,” I insisted, rolling my eyes.

“If you weren’t always angry, you’d write happier music.” He paused. “We
could
always do a cover of ‘Baby One More Time’.”

“Why
that
song?” I asked, frowning.

Colton shrugged. “It’s the happiest song I can think of.”

“I don’t think a cover of a ‘90s pop song is why Jimmy wants you to work with me,” I replied with a sigh. “Do you have any other ideas?”

He paused for a long moment and then shook his head. “Nope. Looks like we’re going to stick with the same song.”

“Maybe it will help if we figure out a name for it,” I suggested. “We can work the title into the lyrics.”

“Let’s call it ‘Blowin’ Up My Phone’,” he said. “It’s pretty to the point, kind of catchy, room to work it into the lyrics.”

“Okay,” I agreed.

We fell into a routine where he would come up with a line and then I’d come up with a line. After what felt like forever, we finally came up with the song.

“Let’s practice it,” Colton said.

We both picked up our guitars and, strumming the melodies, we began to sing:

Baby, when I gave you my number

I didn’t know

That you were gonna start

Blowin’ up my phone

My friends said you were crazy

But I didn’t listen

Now you got me wishin’

My battery would die

I think texting me gives you a high

Now it’s four o’clock in the morning

And I just want to sleep

But my phone keeps vibrating

Disturbing my peace

It starts with one text

And it turns into forty

You keep blowin’ up my phone

I just want to be left alone

You’re asking where I am and where I’ll be

You’re probably driving past me

To make sure I’m all alone

Stalking me is what you do best

Why you so annoying shorty?

Why you keep blowin’ up my phone?

I told you I just wanna be left alone

“I think it’s great,” he said once we’d gone through all the verses. “I guess we’re ready to hit the studio.”

“Okay.” I grabbed my cell phone and shot a text message to Nat, asking her to arrange a time for us to record the song. “Do you want to start working on our second song now?”

Colton shook his head. “No, I have somewhere I need to be.” He rose to his feet. “I’ll call you.”

“You don’t have my number,” I pointed out. He’d put
his
number in my phone, but I hadn’t given him
my
number.  

“Yeah, I do. I sent a text to myself from your phone.” He paused and then added, “You might also want to check your official Facebook fan page.”

I stared back at him, horrified. “What did you
do
?”

He smirked as he left the room.

Once I heard the sound of the front door of my apartment click shut, I opened my Facebook fan page with my heart pounding hard against my chest. I was terrified to know what he’d written. I had
millions
of fans. Just writing the wrong thing could send the whole Internet into an uproar.

When the page loaded, I found that he’d posted that picture of his own ass. For the caption, he’d written:

I get to work with this sexy ass today ;-)

Ugh. I could’ve freaking killed him.

Chapter 20

Thanks to Colton’s little stunt, I spent most of my day fielding calls from Mads, Nat,
everyone
about my unusual Facebook update. My fans had gone crazy with their guesses of who the ass belonged to. They’d guessed everyone from Nick Jonas to Channing Tatum, though quite a few had been accurate about who the butt really belonged to.

I made a point of password-protecting my cell phone so he couldn’t get into it again in the future. I wished I’d thought to do it before, but I didn’t usually worry about anyone going through my phone, especially in my own home.

With Skylar working at the smoothie shop, the apartment got boring fast.  I just couldn’t be cooped up anymore, so I headed over to visit Finn at his matchmaking agency.

As I reached for the door to go into the building, it was being pushed open. Tessa DeLong stepped outside, pushing back her auburn hair. Her gray eyes fell on mine. “Hi, Viola.”

“Hi.” I forced a smile, even though all I could seem to do was wonder what the hell she was doing there, when she was clearly involved with Colton. It had to mean one of two things: she’d either connected with him through Finn, which would’ve made me angry on
so
many levels, or she was cheating on Colton. Then again, there was also a chance that she was free to date other people, because they were only hooking up, too.

Well, I guess I couldn’t even consider us “hooking up,” since it had only happened once, technically.

No matter what the case was, a sick feeling had formed in the pit of my stomach.

I was about to brush past her, but she stood there. It was clear that she wanted to chat.

“I heard you’ve been working with Colton King,” Tessa said.

“Yeah, I am. Where did you hear that?” I asked dumbly. It was a stupid question, considering the information had already been announced.

“He told me.” Her eyes lingered on mine for a moment. “I think it’s great. You two seem like you’d make great music together.”

Was there a hidden meaning in her words? Something along the lines of: you’d make great music together, but that better be
all
you do with him, because I will cut you, bitch? I could’ve sworn that was the message that her steel eyes seemed to convey to me.

“Yeah, it’s going great so far. If you’ll excuse me, I have business to attend to.” I continued into the building, exhaling sharply once I’d stepped inside.

On the bright side, at least she hadn’t questioned me about posting that picture of his ass on Facebook earlier. That would’ve been beyond awkward.

Continuing my way down the hallway, I knocked on the door to Finn’s office. He opened it a moment later, his green eyes full of surprise. “Vi, what are
you
doing here?”

“I just figured I’d come hangout. I was sort of bored,” I explained. Pausing, I added, “I just ran into Tessa DeLong. Is she one of your clients? Because I’m pretty sure she’s already dating Colton. Unless Colton’s your client, too, in which case you have some ‘splaining to do.”

I really would’ve been pissed. It seemed like he thought Colton and I should’ve been together, so if he’d set him up with someone that would’ve been a really low blow.

“Vi, you know I can’t tell you if Tessa’s a client or not,” Finn said with a sigh. “But Colton’s not a client.”

I tried to suppress a smile. “That’s all I needed to know.”

At that moment, my phone pinged with an incoming text message. It was from Colton. I opened it.

You have the honor of recording in the studio with me tomorrow at 10 a.m. Do I need to call you in the morning to make sure you won’t be late?

“Asshole,” I murmured out loud.

Finn raised his eyebrows. “Who?”

“Colton. We’re recording our first song in the studio tomorrow morning,” I explained. “And he seems to think I’m not capable of getting up on my own.”

Finn laughed. “He knows you really well already.”

Shooting a glare in his direction, I hit ‘Reply’ to Colton.

I’m a big girl. I think I can handle it.

His response came right away.
Just checking. Handling things isn’t usually your strongest suit. You’re like a spider caught up in your own web.

Rolling my eyes, I texted back:
What a coincidence. You’re as annoying as a fly.

*

“And that’s a wrap,” Jimmy said with a grin after the two hours we spent recording the song in the studio. “I’m proud of you, Viola. This is the best song you’ve recorded in a long time.”

“Well, it’s not just
me
you should be proud of,” I said pointedly.

“Yeah, Colton did good, too.” Jimmy didn’t have to explain himself. I knew what he was really thinking:
Colton
always
does good.

Colton shrugged. “The important thing is it’s done, right? How many more songs do we need to write together? One or two?”

“The more, the merrier.” Jimmy glanced at the time. “I need to be going. I have a meeting in less than an hour. I’m looking to sign a new artist to the label.”

“Oh, who is it?” I asked, unable to hide my curiosity.

“Let’s keep it on the DL until any contracts have been signed, but just between the three of us, it’s Tessa DeLong.”

My stomach sank. I glanced over in Colton’s direction and noticed that his features had hardened. He lowered his eyes to the floor.

What was he, afraid that Jimmy was going to drop hints about his relationship with Tessa? I wasn’t even sure why he would’ve cared… unless they were really just trying to keep their relationship a secret. But he’d been doing a
really
bad job of it, in that case, considering
I
knew.

“I’ll see the two of you soon, I’m sure,” Jimmy said as he hurried out of the studio.

Colton glanced over at me. “Do you have plans?”

I shook my head. When did I ever have plans? Almost never.

“Do you want to go get ice cream?”

What the hell? He’d bounced back from his weirdness really quickly. Deciding that I couldn’t keep it a secret anymore, I blurted, “Sure, I’d love to get ice cream. Are you sure Tessa won’t mind?”

His light blue eyes fell on mine as his eyebrows rose. “Tessa? What does
she
have to do with anything?”

“Well, we’re business partners, right? And as your girlfriend, she has to be okay with that… but is she okay with you hanging out with me in your free time?” Not that she had room to talk, considering she was clearly one of Finn’s clients… but you know.

Colton let out a little laugh. “Is that what you think? That Tessa’s my girlfriend?”

“Well, considering you sort of ditched me at the park that day to hang out with her,” I said with a shrug. I didn’t care if he thought I was a stalker at this point.

“It’s not like that, Viola. Tessa’s an old family friend of mine. Her dad is my manager. He’s the entire reason I ended up where I am.”

I just stared back at him, wondering if he was telling the truth. “So, you don’t have feelings for her?”

“I
used
to,” Colton admitted. “When I was maybe sixteen or seventeen. She and I have gone through a lot together… more than you could ever understand. But there’s nothing going on between us. We’re just friends. That’s all we’ll ever be.”

“Okay.” I took a deep breath and nodded, accepting his answer as the truth. Not that I was sure why it even
mattered
if it was the truth or not. It wasn’t like he owed me an honest answer; nothing was going on between the two of us.

“Do I sense some jealousy?” Colton asked as we headed for the door of the studio.

“Me? Pft, never,” I said with the wave of a hand. I made a point of avoiding his gaze; just one look in his direction would probably reveal the truth to him.

“Uh huh. I bet.” He didn’t sound the least bit convinced, and who could blame him?

“I’m not jealous. Trust me,” I said as we stepped out into the hallway. “I make it a point of finding out who
all
my male business partners are dating.” That was
technically
the truth, since, um, he was the only male business partner I had, unless you counted Jimmy.

He pressed the button to call the elevator to us. “Sure.”

When we stepped into the elevator, I glanced up at him for the first time. His blue eyes locked on mine, making my heart stop.

He moved in closer to me until I was basically trapped in one corner of the elevator. “You’re very readable, Viola Pierce.”

“I think you’re just insane, Colton King.”

“Am I?” He was so close to me that I could feel his warm breath against my neck.

“Certifiably,” I whispered, just as he brought his mouth down on mine.

My heart pounded against my chest as our lips locked.

Gripping my cheeks in his hands, he kissed me hard and deep, moaning into my mouth. It was the sexiest sound I’d ever heard; it made me feel weak in the knees.

When the elevator came to an abrupt stop and the door flew open, our kissing came to a halt with it, but his lips remained pressed against mine for a moment longer. I stared up into his eyes, which sparkled in the dim lighting.

Then Colton stepped out of the elevator. I followed after him, feeling as though I was in some sort of daze. I’d gone into the elevator and had come out in the
Twilight Zone
or something. The whole thing felt unreal, like it was some sort of dream, but it was the realest thing I’d ever felt.

At that moment, Colton’s cell phone rang. He pulled it out of his pocket and glanced down at the caller ID.

“So, about that ice cream…” His eyes flicked up to meet mine. “I’m going to have to cancel. I’m sorry. It’s just that my Mom needs me and—”

“It’s okay. You don’t owe me an explanation,” I replied with a small smile. Seriously, that kiss was enough to keep me content for the unforeseeable future.

He stood there, looking reluctant to leave for the longest time before finally saying, “Raincheck?”

“Yeah, sure. I’m always down for ice cream. Remember, I love my carbs,” I joked.

He laughed as he headed off in the opposite direction.

I pulled my own phone out of my pocket and asked Eddie to pick me up. Then I called Finn.

He answered on the second ring. “Hey, Vi.”

“You wouldn’t believe what just happened.”