Sindy was exhausted. The band took up all of her free time, which was scarce to begin with. She played with Tessa, Lucas, and Mason almost daily. She played at night when she got home from work. Not to mention the one-on-one lessons with Lucas that Sindy began to dread. She was only halfway through her shift at the diner, and she couldn’t stop thinking about Lucas and his pompous, inflated head. She knew she couldn’t compete with his knowledge and education, but did he have to constantly flaunt his IQ?
“Why do you look so pissed off? No tip from table 14?”
Startled back to reality, Sindy realized she still had cash in her hand from one of her tables. She stuffed it into the register and pushed the check down onto the pointed memo holder. “It’s that damn Lucas Blade,” she told Monique, one of the waitresses sharing her shift.
“Lucas Blade?” Karen leaned in as she passed with a tray filled with plates and rolled dreamy eyes up to the ceiling. “He issohot.”
“I guess,” Sindy replied with a scowl. “But he’s so damn smart.”
“Good looking and intelligent?” Monique placed a hand on her hip. “You poor thing.”
“He’s infuriating!”
“Why?”
“Because he’s so damn perfect.”
“That he is,” Karen paused as she made another pass carrying a pot of coffee and a plate of fries. “He came in here once, and we practically wrestled each other to the ground in order to pick who got to wait on him.” She smiled at Monique. “I won.”
Monique laughed. “There was no stopping Karen. And what a sweetheart that guy was, too. Smiling and flashing those piercing blue eyes at everyone.”
“And his hair,” Karen gushed. “I just wanted to touch it.”
“Oh my God.” Sindy couldn’t believe the way these women were swooning over Lucas. And Monique was probably old enough to be his mother. Did women really throw themselves at him like this? No wonder he was so full of himself.
“I didn’t,” Karen clarified. “Have you?”
“What? Touched his hair? Of course not!”
“So what’s he like? Really like?” Monique asked.
Sindy stopped to think about this golden boy who had her so riled up. “He’s smart. And talented. A musical genius, actually. And let’s not forget about his degree in music,” she added with a hint of sarcasm. She could feel her blood pressure rising at the thought of his superior knowledge of intricate music theory. “He has a BA from NYU and talks about music like its calculus. And it’s really fucking annoying. He gets excited about teaching me how to read music and wants me to learn everything he knows.”
“Why is that a bad thing, Sindy? You got a gorgeous guy who wants to mentor you?”
“It’s too much! I just want to play, and he never stops talking. Over and over. How many times to I need to hear him explain diatonic triads before he realizes I’m never going to get it?” She let out a frustrated growl and clenched her fists. “He just drives me fucking crazy. I want to tell him to just shut up already.”
Monique laughed and put her hand over her ample chest. “Girl, you got it bad!”
“Got what?”
“The hots for that pretty boy with the big brain.”
Sindy grunted a laugh. “That’s ridiculous. I can’t stand him!”
When Sindy’s shift ended, she had a quick bite and went straight to Tessa’s house. Not for rehearsal – for once. They’d played every night for the last two weeks and if Sindy had to spend another hour alone with Lucas and his God damn lesson plan, she was going to hit him over the head with her guitar. Tessa’s invitation had been extended out of friendship, reinforcing the bond that had formed between the two.
Her little Toyota Corolla seemed dwarfed in the massive driveway which led to a pair of two-car garages. She parked next to a Hummer that towered over her car. In front of it sat a Mercedes Maybach S560. Parked parallel to the Mercedes and directly in front of Sindy was a Tesla Roadster. A shiver of nerves crept down her back at parking next to these extravagant vehicles. She let out a deep breath and sent Tessa a text to let her friend know that she just pulled into the driveway and headed to the front of the mansion. One of the huge front doors opened as soon as Sindy climbed the steps that led to the front of the house.
“Sindy! Come in.” Tommy Blade, in all of his legendary glory, stood in the doorway. He stepped aside, revealing Angel Garcia standing next to him.
Oh, God. This was too much. Where was Tessa? Sindy stepped into the elegant entry foyer with the mile-high cathedral ceiling, and stared up at the round crystal chandelier that hung above her head like a giant moon. It reflected the sunlight filtering in from the glass wall on the second floor and cast a prismatic display like sparkling diamonds on the floor. “Hi. Um. Tessa invited me.”
“You don’t need an invitation,” Angel said, the corners of his eyes wrinkling from a smile.
Sindy turned toward the sound of high heels echoing on the marble floor. She knew it was Jessi Blade before she spotted the signature hot pink hair. As if she wasn’t nervous enough standing there trying to make small talk with Tommy Blade and Angel Garcia, the addition of Jessi Blade, one of the top fashion designers in the country, credited for dressing some of the hottest rock stars in the world, had Sindy totally dumbfounded. She tried to play it cool and smiled, hoping her teeth wouldn’t chatter and she wouldn’t say something that made her sound like a babbling fool.
“You haven’t met our beautiful wife yet.” Tommy Blade extended his arm invitingly to his wife, never taking his eyes off her. The way he looked at her, as if she was making a grand entrance after getting a head-to-toe makeover, or as if he hadn’t seen her for a month, made Sindy wish someone would look at her like that. Just once.
