One Hit Wonder Page 11

  She rested her head on his chest and she could hear his heart beat. She closed her eyes to take it all in; the warmth of his breath on her hair, the strength of his arms around her, the smell of the ocean in front of them. She didn’t believe in prayers like her mother did, but in that moment, she sent out a thought to the Universe hoping someone, something, will hear it — and answer it.

  Please keep this man, this good man — my love — from suffering.

  • • •

  Despite Bill’s presence hovering over John like a vulture circling around a carcass, the party was not bad. After the sunset, fireworks exploded sporadically in the sky, coloring the sand and waves red, white, and blue. Neither Megan nor Charlie showed up, so she talked to some of the people she knew from Atlantis. She also recognized some of the girls, models she’d seen at Edwards, probably friends of Kevin’s date.

  “Matt, I haven’t talked to you all night.” Audrey met him at the fridge when they both went for another beer.

  “I don’t want to talk to you. You’re taken.” He handed her a beer, twisted his own open, and threw his arm around her shoulders.

  “I see how it is, unless I serve your specific purpose I’m not good even for frivolous conversation.” She shook his arm off of her as they strolled off the kitchen.

  “I’d be glad to chat — but — I’ve spent half of the night chatting with a girl who is as unlikely to sleep with me as you.” He gulped his beer. “I have some catching up to do if I want to get laid tonight.” He clicked his beer bottle on hers.

  “Are you talking about Jennifer? I thought you guys had hit it off.”

  “Nope.” He leaned closer and whispered, “I think her bells ring for someone else,” then, turned his head, and Audrey followed his gaze to the corner of the other room. Jennifer was talking to John and a couple she didn’t recognize. Her blue eyes flickered at John and her body language was all about seduction. She tossed her hair to the side and slid her fingers down her neck to play with a pendant sitting above her breasts. Then, her hand touched John’s arm and she laughed as if he’d said the funniest joke in the world.

  “You’re kidding, right?” Audrey said.

  “Right.” Matt grinned sarcastically and made his way to the porch where Tyler was sitting with Bill and a bunch of other people.

  Chapter 16

  It was great to have a woman friend, especially someone who wasn’t involved in the music business. Megan was hilarious, with a blunt sense of humor accompanied by a surprisingly dirty mouth. Audrey loved it.

  “I love this song,” Megan said when “North Star” started playing on the radio while they were driving to go get a drink after a drawing session. Charlie was on an assignment, so the night was testosterone-free.

  Audrey smiled, but didn’t say anything. She had told Megan she had a boyfriend, but not who he was. So far, L.A. had been about the band and “North Star’s” consequential focus on her love life. Audrey was just getting away from the media’s scrutiny. She didn’t presume she was a celebrity, but she damn sure was not going to attract any attention to who her boyfriend was, and that his success was propelled by a song he wrote for her.

  “How come you didn’t come to the party?” Audrey said, thinking if Megan had made it her comment about “North Star” would be different.

  “My parents came to visit me. They feel guilty because they’ve booked a cruise for Thanksgiving.”

  “So, they came celebrate Thanksgiving in July?”

  “Pretty much.” Megan snorted. “I got totally screwed. Had to hang with mom and dad on the sexiest holiday of the year and I’ll have no family during the most boring holiday of the year.”

  “How about Valentine’s Day? Isn’t that the sexiest holiday of the year?”

  “No way. Too much pressure and freaking winter. Fourth of July is all about drinking, having sex on the warm sand, and watching fireworks while you come.”

  Audrey pictured the image and had to agree with Megan; it was appealing. Unfortunately, due to Bill’s jackass remark to John, she hadn’t felt sexy at all when they walked on the beach, but they had their night of passion after she’d whisked him away from Jennifer as soon as she saw her hanging around him like a cat in heat. She gave silent thanks to Matt for pointing it out, sometimes one needed help seeing the obvious.

  At the bar, Megan seemed extra annoyed by the men constantly subjecting them to lame pick-up lines, and after they dismissed the third pair who’d come to their table, the conversation steered to sexual rights and equality.

  “Men are incorrigible jerks. All they care about is pussy and tits,” Megan said. “My last boyfriend cheated on me every chance he had. How about you?”

  “I’ve never cheated on you.”

  “Shut up,” Megan laughed. “You know what I’m talking about, so spit it out.”

  “My last boyfriend…” Audrey trailed off. It seemed like forever ago, she didn’t really want to talk about it, but looking at Megan’s eager expression, she had no choice. “Thought we were getting married.”

  “Oh, please tell me you ditched him at the altar. It’s so Runaway Bride.”

  “No, of course not. I just let the relationship — and his nuptial plans — go on for quite a long time. I wasn’t in love with him, maybe never was.”

  “How did you know?”

  “Well” — Audrey ducked her head and took a long pull of beer — “I have a formula: tequila and Goo Goo Dolls.”

  “That’s it? Get drunk and dump them?”

  “Sort off. It helps me think, the alcohol takes the edge off reality while the music gives me the emotional groundwork to sort things out.”

  “How did he take it?”

  “Not well. He accused me of taking advantage of his love and throwing him in the dumps without compassion. He called me a traitor in every form of the word.”

  “What a baby.” Megan waved down the waiter and ordered two Mexican boilermakers.

  “We stayed at it for two months, our divorce battle.”

  “You mean two months of hot make-up sex?”

  “Hotter than it had ever been, but not worth it. I felt guilty. Spent of trying to explain I never meant to hurt him. One day he just got up and left. Never came back…” — Audrey sighed — “his heart broken beyond mending.”

  “Good for you, girl. I hate how men think we’re all running against our biological clocks, ready to settle for anybody and procreate. You know what I think?” Megan picked up one of the shot glasses of tequila the waiter had brought over and looked at Audrey, who did the same. “Women should just walk around naked all the time.” They knocked back the tequila, flinching at the burn.

  Audrey squinted at her. “Huh?”

  “It would simplify the entire process, because, at the end of day, men — all of them.” — she waved her hand in a circular motion — “are only interested in how we look naked.”

  Before Audrey felt her brain swaying in tequila like a fishing boat on the open sea, she thought a series of portraits where Megan would be in various unsuspecting places — post office, gas station, grocery store — wearing only sexy underwear, would be a perfect opportunity to take up Megan’s offer to pose for her. The idea seemed feasible if they acted quickly to capture everyone’s reaction, candidly — Cartier-Bresson style.

  • • •

  She had stopped drinking when Megan called her roommates to pick her up. She offered to take Megan home, but was glad when Megan turned her down because waiting for her roommates had given Audrey a chance to drink a Coke and sober up a bit.

  She’d texted John during the night. he’d been home for a while with Matt and Tyler. When she opened the door, they were in the living room.

  “Hey, babe.” John stood up and met her halfway. She’d felt tired on her way home, but the very sight of him activated her senses and made her temperature rise.

  “Hey, you.” She placed her arms on his shoulders and kissed him. A long kiss. His mouth was cool and tang
y from beer. Her fingers stroked and pulled his hair lightly. She kissed his chin, grazed her lips on his five-o’clock shadow, and purred in his ear, “I’ve missed you.”

  “Oh, get a room.” Tyler got up from the carpet.

  “We better get going. Someone is a little drunk.” Matt sing-songed as he walked past them toward the door. Resting her head on John’s chest, she acknowledged Matt and Tyler with a brief smile.

  The door banged behind them not a second too soon. Audrey kissed John so fiercely it was unclear when her mouth left off and his began. His hands traveled down, cupping her bottom and pressing her against him, igniting a fire that made her gasp. His tongue delved inside her ear and trailed down her neck.

  Between pieces of clothing flying in the air and ardent fondling, John pinned her against the wall and reached for the door, turning the key in the lock. His hand slid between her legs and she tightened the hold on his shoulders, barely able to stand. Then, he lifted her up against him. She straddled her legs to accommodate him, clenching them around his hips and, crowded against the wall, moaned when he thrust inside her. Like a blind person whose fingertips brush over the patterns of a book in Braille, she could read his passion building up with her hands on the hard muscles of his back. He groaned only once, lingering inside of her for a moment longer when they’d arrived at the evanescent place of molten bones. If not for his arms around her, she would have oozed onto the floor. After his muscles relaxed, he hugged her tight and took her to bed.

  • • •

  No longer inside the tour bus, John seemed to have made peace that the situation they lived in, at the time they’d fallen in love, could not be prolonged indefinitely. They settled into a somewhat normal routine: leaving for work every morning, meeting for lunch sometimes, and coming back to their house in the evenings. The band performed mostly around the West Coast, but since she’d started to work with Edward, she didn’t accompany them to every gig. It had only been a few months the “North Star” tornado had dissipated and she enjoyed the calmness.

  She hadn’t made any friends in L.A besides Charlie and Megan — the fault of her growing bias toward, basically, anyone who lived in the city. They were the only ones she’d managed to exchange numbers with and talk regularly.

  Hanging out with Megan consisted of lots and lots of locker-room talk, almost as they were guys instead of, as she would say, gals.

  “Oh, man I am so horny!” Megan said one day, so pensively Audrey wondered if that was what she really meant to say.

  “Uh?”

  “It has been months since I’ve exchanged any bodily fluids.”

  “Seriously?”

  “Don’t tell me, when you ravish your boyfriend, what’s-his-name…?”

  “John.”

  “Right, Johnny, you don’t exchange — ”

  “Let’s leave my bodily fluids alone, shall we?

  “Don’t be embarrassed, it’s what normal and healthy people do.” Megan spoke in a solemn tone of voice.

  “You know, I have some single friends, I’m sure they’ll be more than happy to exchange, uh…with you.”

  “They? How many are we talking about?”

  “Well, there are three. Unfortunately, I would rule one out, since I don’t really see him that much anymore.”

  “Are they cute?”

  “Super cute, but I take no responsibility for anything that happens after the introductions. And please, please, spare me the details.”

  “Fair enough.”

  • • •

  Audrey knew she couldn’t keep John and Megan in separate orbits of her life any longer. It had become difficult to keep John’s anonymity since she and Megan became closer, and John had more than once asked to be introduced. So, she invited Charlie, Megan, and a curator from The Getty, along with Matt, Tyler, and Kevin to dinner at their bungalow.

  “It smells good. What is it called again?” John asked, walking into the porch with napkins and silverware.

  “Barbecue?”

  “Isn’t the Brazilian, what is it called … chubaka?”

  “Chubaka? Churrasco, John. Churrasco.”

  Audrey’s mother never liked the American barbecue her dad made — hot dogs and hamburgers. For that reason, Isabel was the one who’d commanded the grill in their household, imparting Audrey with a taste for the Brazilian flavor. But she was not going full fledge on the Brazilian cuisine that night, she was only grilling individual-sized skewers of meat and veggies — a better alternative from John’s suggestion: hamburgers, which she found quite endearing since it reminded her of her parents, but very tailgate-ish for a dinner party. The idea of grilling was to make the dinner less formal, yet she refused to serve anyone hamburgers.

  Matt and Tyler arrived with beer, but Audrey was drinking wine, the same Chianti she and John had on their first date, the night they’d said “I love you” only a few months ago. She’d never stopped to think how fast their relationship was going. It felt right, that’s all it mattered.

  “So have you guys christened this place properly yet?” Tyler smirked.

  “Absolutely.” She tapped John’s bottom as she made her way to the porch with a tray of vegetables.

  “I hope you did it in every room, or it’s bad luck,” Tyler said.

  “Numbskull,” John said, shaking his head.

  Megan arrived, and Charlie, then Rachel. Megan didn’t seem surprised when introduced to John, Matt and Tyler. Audrey had feared this moment would change their friendship, but now she was just relieved Megan hadn’t recognized them.

  After dinner, when Audrey walked into the kitchen to make coffee. Megan followed her, offering to help.

  “Your friends are cute,” Megan said, leaning against the counter.

  “Yeah? I’m glad you think so.” Audrey retrieved the coffee beans from the cabinet.

  “John is super nice and very in love.”

  Audrey chuckled and said, “How do you figure?”

  “For one, he wrote you that song.”

  Audrey faced Megan. “Oh, you’ve recognized them.”

  “No, I’ve recognized you.”

  “How?”

  “I like Ellen DeGeneres.”

  “So, you’ve known all along? Why didn’t you say something?”

  “Why should I? You didn’t seem eager to talk about it.”

  Audrey sighed. “Yeah, since we got to L.A. things have been so crazy, I don’t really — ”

  “Audrey, it’s fine. I can only imagine how awful it must be to have your relationship in the public eye. You’re the new Brangelina.”

  “Except we don’t have a mansion in France to hide out.”

  “Not yet.” Megan snorted.

  Just then, Kevin walked in, stumbling toward them.

  “Hello, darling.” He hugged Audrey.

  “Oh, my gosh Kevin. You stink.” She pushed him away.

  “Uh-oh, mommy is mad.” Kevin turned to Megan. “And who is this?”

  “Hi, I’m Megan,” she said, stretching her arm out.

  “Kevin.” He kissed her hand. “But you can call me Kev,” he said, holding Megan’s hand to his lips.

  “Kev?” Audrey flinched. “I’ll get you some coffee.” She couldn’t remember the last time she’d seen him sober.

  “Coffee? Ugh.” He made a face of disgust and walked away.

  “And that is Kevin.” Audrey watched him wobble off to the porch. “At least the L.A. version of him.”

  “L.A. can be a life-changing city.”

  “No kidding.”

  Chapter 17

  A distant ring steered Audrey back to reality as John reached for the phone on the nightstand. She’d been dozing off, nestled beside him in bed, and nothing in the world felt better than his naked body against hers.

  “Hello?” He sat up suddenly and turned on the lamp. Startled, Audrey pulled up the blankets to cover herself.

  “Are you hurt? Where are you?…I’ll be there as soon as I can.” As he hung up, he
turned to her. “Kevin has been in an accident.”

  “Is he okay?”

  “He is fine, but he was driving under the influence and was taken to the police station in West Hollywood.”

  “I’ll come with you.”

  On their way out of the house, Audrey called Matt and Tyler and they arrived at the police station almost simultaneously. While they waited for Kevin’s release, John talked to a police officer who said Kevin refused to take the sobriety test but was clearly intoxicated.

  “If you’re really his friend, I recommend you have a real good talk to him.” The officer shook John’s hand. “He’s a young kid, shouldn’t be playing with his life like that.” He spoke paternally.

  Audrey watched the officer disappear behind the door and thought he should be in his late fifties — about her father’s age. More than likely with kids and a wife who prayed every night for her husband to return home unharmed.

  Kevin was brought in, scuffed and wrinkled. He looked rough and beautiful. Audrey gave him a hug while Matt and Tyler tapped him on the back.

  “What the fuck were you thinking?” John was the only one who seemed unmoved.

  “John, we’ll talk about it somewhere else. Let’s get out of here.” Audrey touched his arm.

  “I want to go to my apartment.” Kevin muttered as they walked to the door.

  “We’re all going home.” Audrey replied before John, looking furious, could say anything.

  • • •

  The heat coming in when Audrey opened the door for Jennifer the next day was stifling. She didn’t know if it was just July in California or Jennifer’s vibe.

  “Oh, hi.” Audrey was surprised to see her.

  “Hi, Audrey. I came to talk to Kevin.”

  “Come in, he’s still asleep.”

  “How did you know he was here?”

  “I’ve called John.”

  John had run to the grocery store to buy coffee. After they got home from the police station, they drank plenty of it while trying to talk some sense into Kevin’s head. Matt and Tyler left only when the sun came up. Kevin had passed out on the couch before that, but she and John never made it to bed.