Sand and Clay (2 page)

Caroline couldn’t help but laugh at his behavior and his
presumption, there was no way that Logan wanted anything to do with her after
their little hostile encounter today. Although, he did leave tickets for her….

“How do you get that from the
number of tickets he left, George?”

“Isn’t is obvious? He didn’t leave
you one, because then you wouldn’t want to go. He didn’t leave you two because
he doesn’t want you bringing a date and he didn’t leave you more than three
because he doesn’t want you to get lost in some group where he won’t get the
chance to see you. I can pretty much guarantee you that you will get to go
backstage." George told her.

“That’s just ridiculous, George. You
are reading way too much into this.” Caroline laughed as he shrugged his
shoulders and handed her the tickets. She took them and tucked them into her
purse and then waltzed out the shop door and headed down the block to her
office.

Chapter Two

She couldn’t help thinking about
Logan the entire day at work, was George right? Was she really interested in a
guy that seemed so full of himself though? She always thought of herself as a
girl of standards, but here she was feeling butterflies in her stomach for
someone who was known to be a notorious ladies man and womanizer.

He was always all over the tabloids
hanging over some model or floozy woman. She had always pictured herself with
another lawyer, or a doctor, or someone with a job that actually took education
and skill and didn’t involve sweating on a stage while strutting back and
forth.

Her parents had a great marriage,
her father was a doctor and her mother was a nurse and they've been married
happily for 30 years. They enjoy their house on the beach in the Hamptons where
there biggest worry is weeds in the rose garden.

She had just automatically assumed
that she would end up the same way with the same type of life and same type of
practical man as her father. And yet, here was another path that suddenly
opened up to her that she had never thought of before.

Caroline sighed and rifled through
the papers on her desk. Caroline knew she had to get back to work and stop
drifting off into her head, so she decided to push away all thoughts of Logan
for the rest of the day and just concentrate on her projects.

~**~

About six hours later, Caroline trudged
through her front door, dropped her purse on the floor, and tossed her keys on
a nearby table. She collapsed on the couch and just laid there. Work had been
exhausting, lots of running around for the senior partners and busy deadlines
that just seemed impossible to meet.

She glanced over at her phone that
was dangling precariously out of her purse by the front door where she had
dropped it. She scooted to the end of the couch and reached out to try and get
it, nearly falling off the couch.

It would have taken a lot less
energy to just stand up and go get it, but Caroline was stubborn and didn’t
want to get up. Her father had always joked that she was so stubborn that once
her mind was made up, nothing in the world could budge her.

She turned her phone on and flicked
through her list of contacts, finding her friend Aralia’s phone number. She
clicked the number and the phone began to ring.

“Hello?” Aralia’s voice came
through the speakers.

“Hey girl, it’s me.” Caroline
greeted her.

Aralia had been one of her best
friends since moving into the city. She was a bartender at a bar in Chelsea
that was always packed, probably due to Aralia’s charming Italian wit and
banter.

“Hey, Caroline, how was your
weekend?”

“It was great, just went to the
park and relaxed. Nothing super fun, just getting some rest and trying to catch
up on sleep. Hey, listen I got three free concert tickets for Saturday night,
want to go?” Caroline asked her.

“Hell yeah, what concert? Can I
bring Jackie?” Aralia responded.

“Yeah, definitely, I was going to
ask her too.” Caroline said.

Jackie was Aralia’s cousin and
roommate and the three of them had grown to be close friends and often spent
Friday nights at the bar together or Sunday brunches enjoying gossip and girl
talk.

“Cool, I'll check with her to see
if she's free on Saturday night, but I'm pretty sure she is. Which concert?”
Aralia asked again.

Caroline sighed and then told her,
knowing her friend would overreact.

“Front row tickets at Madison
Square Garden for Logan Clay’s concert.” Caroline admitted, closing her eyes
and praying that her friend wouldn’t inquire as to how she got the tickets. She
was confused enough about the situation, so she certainly didn’t think she
could explain it to someone else.

“Aaaaaaaaaack!” Aralia screamed
into the phone excitedly.

Caroline heard a banging sound and
some ruffled noise, assuming Aralia had dropped her phone in her eagerness.

“Why didn’t you start with that, Caroline?!
Holy crap, that's amazing, I've always loved him! I thought that show was all
sold out, oh Jackie is definitely not going to say no to this. Okay what time
are we meeting, I cannot wait. Ugh, I can’t believe that it's Monday and we
still have to wait the rest of the week!” Aralia started rambling into the
phone, not giving Caroline any chance to respond.

“How about 6pm Saturday?” Caroline
said when she finally found a second to squeeze into the conversation.

“Yes, I'll meet you at your place. Holy
shit, what am I going to wear? Gotta go, Caroline, I need to go shopping right
this instant. I wish I had more time to find the best thing to wear! Come
shopping with me!”

“Tomorrow, maybe, I'm tired
tonight. Think I am just going to stay in.” Caroline said.

“Ugh, fine. I'll grab you from your
job tomorrow or later in the week, we need to find something amazing to wear to
this. Oh my god, front row, Logan Clay might see us! I wonder if I have any
sexy underwear to throw on stage.” And with that Aralia hung up.

Caroline rolled her eyes and turned
off her phone. She knew the girls would be excited about this and so was she,
but there was a knot of nervousness in her stomach that she couldn’t seem to
push away either.

Chapter Three

Tuesday through Thursday at work
went by really fast, it seemed that she didn’t even have one moment to stop, and
she was glad to have the distraction. She had too much on her mind and didn’t
want to think about any of it. Her work had kept her so busy she had forgotten
to call Aralia back about shopping.

Now it was Friday morning and
Caroline was finishing her last touches of makeup before leaving for work. Admiring
herself in the mirror, she smiled and then grabbed her bag and keys and took
off for the elevator.

“Hi Jeremy!” she said as she
stepped off the elevator.

“Miss Caroline, you are looking
gorgeous this morning.” the doorman said to her as he opened the front door for
her.

“Thank you, Jer.” she smiled at him
and waved as she hopped into her waiting cab.

She only spent a few minutes at the
Java Jolt this morning, taking her coffee to go. George asked her if she was
excited about the concert and made her promise to tell him every detail on
Monday. She agreed and told him she was pretty excited. She then dipped out of
the store and hurried down the block to work to make sure she got there on
time, Caroline was never late.

Work was sluggish for Caroline
today and she couldn’t help but drag her feet to match. Fridays were always
like this at law offices. All the senior partners took off early for their
vacation homes or weekend country houses and so it was a small crowd of
paralegals and other administrators that were clearly bitter about having to
pick up all the slack for the lawyers.

Luckily for Caroline, the ever bubbly
Aralia came prancing through her office doors around 3pm to take her out. Caroline
looked around to check that none of the senior bosses were around to see her
leave early, then she quickly cleaned up her desk and followed Aralia out and
down to the New York City streets.

“So where are we going?” Caroline
asked her once they were walking down the city block, wallets ready to be used
and abused.

“Let’s hit 5
^th
Avenue,
pick out a few things at different places and then compare them back at your
place. Jackie said she already had something perfect to wear so she is just
going to meet us tomorrow for the concert. You don’t even know how excited she
was when I told her we were going to a Logan Clay concert! And front row? She
nearly peed herself like an overly excitable puppy.” Aralia laughed.

“Hey, you were just as bad when I
told you over the phone.” Caroline quipped back at her, defending Jackie.

“Got me there.” Aralia admitted and
the two girls laughed as they headed out towards 5
^th
Avenue.

~**~

“What about this one?” Caroline was
standing half naked in the large dressing room with a partially clad Aralia and
a giant stack of dresses and outfits. She was holding a gold sequined short
dress up in front of her and holding it around her waist to give an example of
what it would look like on her.

“Are you kidding? With your pale
skin, you might as well just turn into a sparkling ice sculpture.” Aralia
teased her. Caroline pouted and tossed the dress into the reject pile. Aralia
pulled on a blue strapless dress that stopped just below her bottom and then
some thigh high black boots. She stood in front of the mirror and tossed her
hair, admiring herself.

“This is the one. What do you
think, Caroline?” Aralia asked.

“You look awesome, Aralia. My blue
dangling earrings would go so great with that outfit, do you want to borrow
them? I can bring them with me tomorrow.” Caroline offered.

“The ones you wore to 80’s night at
the bar a few weeks ago? Hell yeah, I could rock those in this outfit. Damn, I
look good.” She smiled confidently at herself in the mirror.  

Caroline was jealous of her, she
wished she felt that confident in everything she did and wore. She knew she was
beautiful but she couldn’t help but feel a little bit insecure sometimes when
she was standing next to this Italian bombshell with her insane curves.

“Try these, Caroline.” Aralia
tossed a few garments at her.

Caroline caught them and held them
up, it was a pair of skinny leg leather pants and an oversized, off the
shoulder green top that made her hazel eyes turn green in the mirror. She
pulled on the clothes and looked in the mirror standing on her tip toes, to
pretend she was in heels and looked at herself. She had to admit, she looked
pretty sexy in this outfit. The pants highlighted her long legs and the shirt
was casual and comfortable but also showed hints of skin and her shoulder. Showing
just enough to make you want to see more.

Aralia gave her a thumbs up in the
mirror behind her and then went back to rustling around in the pile of clothes.
Unable to find what she was looking for, she poked her head out of the dressing
room and called the sales lady over.

"Could you please bring an
assortment of strappy black high heels?" She asked the woman politely.

 It only took a few minutes before
the sales woman brought about five or six different kinds for them. Aralia
glanced through them and picked out her favorite two.

“Here, try these two on with that
outfit.” Aralia practically commanded.

Caroline knew not to argue with her
when it came to clothes, Aralia had the best fashion sense of anyone she had
ever known. Caroline tried on the first pair but the back dug into her heel so
she quickly disregarded it. Caroline wanted to look good, but she didn’t want
to suffer all night for it.

She pulled on the second pair and
strapped them up. They were a shiny black strappy sandals that brought her up
about four inches and really accentuated the angle of her legs and her bottom
in the leather pants.

“Hell yeah, Caroline, you have to
get those. That outfit is perfect!” Aralia said.

 Aralia put her clothes back on and
handed the sales lady her dress and boots. Caroline admired herself in the
mirror a few more moments. She couldn’t help but wonder what Logan would think
when he saw her,
if
he saw her that is.

Caroline couldn’t believe herself
but she actually wanted him to find her attractive. It was silly for her to get
her hopes up, Logan Clay was a famous rock star, he wasn’t even going to give
her a second thought.

“Come on, Caroline, give the sales
woman that outfit so she can ring it up.” Aralia said, snapping Caroline out of
her thoughts.

She obliged and got back into her
original outfit and handed the clothes to the sales woman.  A few minutes
later, the two friends were walking out the glass doors of the store, both with
several shopping bags hanging from each arm.

The sun had already set at this
point and the girls decided to part ways and get some rest before the concert
tomorrow. Caroline gave Aralia a hug and then headed home with her new clothes
and an eagerness in the pit of her stomach that she couldn’t seem to keep down.

Chapter Four

The next morning, Caroline slept
in, soaking in the luxury of her plush king sized bed. She lay there for awhile
after she woke up and her mind drifted to the concert tonight. She had to
admit, she was becoming more excited by the minute.

There was no denying it anymore,
she wanted to see Logan again. She knew that it was definitely one-sided and
that these tickets were probably just him being nice, rather than an attempt to
see her again. But she didn’t care, she was determined to enjoy the evening
anyways.

Worst case scenario she would get
to listen to some great music and watch a sexy rocker dance on stage, it was
going to be a fun night. She smiled as she remembered how Aralia had picked out
three pairs of lace underwear from the store yesterday that she planned on
throwing at Logan on stage. Caroline was not that adventuresome but loved
living vicariously through Aralia sometimes.

Aralia was a bartender but she came
from a wealthy family and had the same upper class lifestyle as Caroline. She
was just a wild spirit and enjoyed bartending to socialize, make her famous
drinks which she considered to be an art form, and she loved being the life of
the party.

She dropped out of college, which
her parents never let her hear the end of, but Caroline couldn’t help be a
little jealous of Aralia’s strong will and ability to enjoy every moment until
she had squeezed the very last drop out of it. Aside from throwing her
underwear on stage, Caroline hoped that Aralia didn’t draw too much attention
to them tonight.

Caroline watched the clock tick by
and decided it was about time that she got up to start her day so she began
busying herself with household chores. After an hour or so, she grabbed her
sketchbook and headed out to the park to spend the afternoon drawing and
relaxing her nerves before tonight.

~**~

Aralia knocked on Caroline’s door
at precisely six o’clock which was really saying something because Aralia was
always late. She had her own concept of time and usually just showed up
whenever she felt like it.

“Ta da! How do I look?” Aralia said
spinning in a circle in her blue dress and thigh high boots.

Caroline chuckled. “Just as good as
you did yesterday when I saw it on you.” She stated.

“Yes, but I grow more gorgeous by
the day, darling, didn’t you know?” Aralia pranced into the apartment,
surprisingly agile for someone wearing thigh high boots. Caroline rolled her
eyes at her and then picked up some earrings she had laid out on a side table.

“Here are the blue earrings I was
talking about.” she handed them to Aralia. Aralia quickly scooped them up and
stood in front of the hall mirror, putting them on. She admired herself and
Caroline finished putting on the last touches of makeup and pulling on her
heels.

“All right, I am ready to go. Where
is Jackie?” Caroline said putting her wallet from her purse into a sparkling
silver clutch.

“She is going to meet us at the
South entrance.” Aralia said, heading to the door. The two girls left the condo
and took the elevator down to the lobby. As the doors opened, the doorman waved
at the two of them.

“Oh my goodness, you ladies look
pretty spectacular. Fun night planned?” Jeremy asked them as he held the glass
door open for them.

“Isn’t every night fun?” Aralia
said to him and winked as she flounced out the door.

Caroline smiled at him and waved
and the two girls got into a waiting town car that Aralia had ordered to take
them to Madison Square Garden for the night. The concert didn’t start for
another two hours but the women wanted to get there early in order to enjoy
some time at a nearby bar beforehand. About twenty minutes of New York City
traffic later, the town car pulled up to the curb and the two girls paid and
hopped out. Jackie was waiting there for them and squealed when she saw them,
rushing towards them with arms wide. She was wearing a sparkling silver
sleeveless top with bright pink skinny pants and then clear platform heels that
Caroline couldn’t help but think looked like they had just walked off a strip
club stage.

“Jackie!” Aralia hugged her and
then Caroline moved in between them to hug Jackie too.

“Caroline! I can’t believe that you
got us these tickets, this is going to be AMAZING! How did you ever manage
front row? Logan Clay, oh my goodness, he could have me any day of the week!”
Jackie said, jumping up and down practically like a young school girl fanning
over her favorite celebrity. Caroline laughed at her.

“Just good luck, I guess. Come on let's
get to the bar.” Caroline ushered the girls two doors down to a local pub where
the girls parked themselves at the main bar. The bartender slid some coasters
in front of them and turned on the charm.

“Hi there, ladies, I am Wade. What
can I get you to drink tonight?” he asked, particularly focusing his attention
on Aralia and her enormous assets.

“Gin and tonic for me, handsome.”
Aralia shot back, not missing a beat, as she leaned forward and gave him a
flirty smile.

“I’ll have a beer, whatever is on
draft.” Jackie said to him and he nodded at her, but his eyes never left
Aralia.

“Jack and ginger for me.” Caroline
told him. Jackie turned to look at her with a puzzled look on her face.

“What happened to Misses Light
Weight who always orders a vodka cranberry, hold the vodka?” Jackie teased her.
Aralia looked at Caroline suspiciously. Caroline blushed.

“Just felt like mixing it up a
little.” she said, smiling deviously. The truth was that she really needed a
little liquid courage before seeing Logan tonight. Her stomach was in knots,
like butterflies crashing around into each other. Her cheeks turned even more
red when she was thinking about him and that fact did not escape her
girlfriends. Aralia squinted her eyes at Caroline studying her for a second,
then took a big gulp of her gin and tonic and banged it down on the bar.

“Alright, fess up. What’s going on
here?” Aralia said to Caroline, her hands on her hips. Jackie turned and faced
her as well.

“What are you talking about?”
Caroline innocently tried to dodge the inquiry, but both of the girls had
picked up the scent now and were not going to let it go.

“There is definitely something that
you are not telling us, Caroline, what is going on with this concert tonight?” Jackie
echoed Aralia’s accusation. Caroline sighed, took a few gulps of her drink,
almost finishing it, then turned to the girls.

“Okay, I got the tickets from
Logan.” Caroline said, blushing again. She turned back to her drink and
finished it off and lifted her finger to signal the bartender for a refill.

“What do you mean you got them from
Logan? Logan Clay?” Aralia squeaked.

“Logan Clay, musician, hottie hunk,
cover of every magazine, Logan Clay?” Jackie asked in disbelief.

“Yes, we met on Monday at the Java
Jolt and he gave me the tickets. We didn’t really get along that well. He was
quite full of himself, I wasn’t very impressed.” Caroline explained.

“Oh well, sorry your golden helmet
is too heavy, Miss Priss.” Aralia rolled her eyes and laughed at Caroline. Jackie
didn’t say anything because her jaw had practically hit the bar in shock. Caroline
grinned guiltily and snatched up her second drink that the bartender had just
dropped off, taking another long gulp. The girls continued to tease her for the
next hour but Caroline kept a lid on her true feelings of attraction for Logan.
She didn’t even know how she felt, so she really didn’t want to embarrass
herself by talking about her silly romantic fantasy. The women enjoyed a few
more drinks before deciding it was time to head over to the concert.