Chance: Hope you’re feeling better today, Mate. Thanks to you I didn’t get any sleep…again. Just for that I’m going to order a few hundred more of those posters and leave them on unsuspecting cars. You’re welcome…
7:12 P.M.
Logan: I’m in the usual spot. Where the hell are you?
Apparently, Logan messaged me back eight minutes ago and I missed it, due to the little photoshoot.
I take a second to text Chance back with a middle finger emoji and light my smoke, before I quickly make my way around the corner to see my brother leaning against his SUV, dressed in a slick blue suit.
His blond hair is smoothed back to perfection and his face is freshly shaven just like every time I see him. Brings me back to the old days.
My lips tilt up into a smile when he looks up from his phone and notices me coming at him. “Damn, big brother. Looking slick in those fancy-ass lawyer suits these days. I may need to borrow one to get in with the ladies.”
Logan grins and pushes away from his Audi. “I think that leather jacket and guitar case gets you in with the ladies just fine, little brother. We both know you don’t need a damn suit.”
He meets me halfway, leaning in for a hug, before he looks down at his phone again and begins typing out a message, cussing under his breath.
“Busy day?”
“Yeah.” He nods and rushes to open the hatch. “Sorry, I’m late. Things haven’t slowed down since I crawled out of bed this morning. There’s too many assholes fucking up and expecting me to fix their mistakes, and I do. I never get a break.” He slaps my back and laughs, before shutting my things in. “As if I have to tell my famous little brother what that’s like. Shit. I see your photos all over social media these days. Can’t get online without seeing your face pop up.”
“I suppose Natalie has seen a lot of me too?”
He laughs and waits for me to join him in the vehicle before he responds. “Oh yeah. She’s seen them all. She spends a lot of time on social media when things are slow at the hotel. She thinks you’re a fucking mess. Oh, and a huge manwhore.”
“So, her opinion of me hasn’t changed much then?”
“Oh, hell no. Not at all.” He throws the vehicle into reverse. “We’ll grab some takeout on the way to my place. Natalie won’t be coming over tonight because she’s stuck at the hotel late.”
“Hey, takeout is what I live off of. I’m good with whatever.”
“Good, because that’s all you’re getting.”
This is where it begins.
It’s two days of uninterrupted sleeping at my brother’s and then I’m heading out to the middle of nowhere—no reception or interruption from the outside world—with hopefully a girlfriend at my side.
Sitting here next to Logan over the last hour has me thinking back to Jake’s suggestion of borrowing a girl.
Logan is busy all the time with work and from what I can tell, Natalie has been needing a break from the hotel she manages. To top it off, Natalie is the one person I’d never have to worry about falling for me, or vice versa.
She’s basically my only option of forcing Alana to stop with all the texts and move on already. She needs to see that I’ve moved on from her and that’s exactly what I am going to give her.
A few hours later, I’m sitting on the couch messing around on my acoustic guitar that I keep here, when I decide to just get it over with and ask my brother for his help.
“Alana messaged me again.”
He stops what he’s doing to turn away from his computer. His face falls, and he swallows before speaking. “She’s still at it?”
I nod and set my guitar aside. An ache fills my chest, because talking about Alana is never easy. “She texts me after every single concert talking about how much she misses me and wants me back. She’s going on the trip again this year and said that we need to talk. It’s dragging me down and fucking with my head. I can’t do it anymore, Logan. I can’t.”
“Hell no. Fuck that.” He leans his head back and slowly exhales, before gripping the arms of his chair. “She messed you up in a way that even scared me. I never want to see you go through that again. Not happening.”