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The three of us Goats say hello to the reporter, and she returns the greeting. But I can’t deny it’s the cutie in the purple bikini who’s got my full attention. I like the way her long dark hair glimmers with auburn highlights in the sun. Also, the way she keeps blinking her big blue eyes, like she can’t decide if she’s hallucinating. Not gonna lie, I also like the small, perky breasts peeking out of her bikini top.
When I force my eyes up, off the cutie’s bikini-clad body and back to her face, I’m surprised to catch her peeking at me. When our eyes meet, she quickly looks away, blushing. And that’s how I know I’m not the only one feeling an attraction.
“Do you work for Rock ’n’ Roll, too?” I ask the cutie.
“Oh, excuse me. This is Alessandra,” the reporter says, putting her arm around the cutie. “She’s my sister. My stepsister. Reed kindly said she could be my plus-one for the party tonight.”
We greet Alessandra, and she waves shyly at us in reply, her face turning a deep shade of crimson and those big blue eyes blinking a mile a minute.
“Alessandra just finished her second year at Berklee,” the reporter continues. “The music school in Boston?”
“That’s cool,” Dax says, just as I’m mumbling something similar. We know several musicians who graduated from that school, and they’re all badasses to the extreme. In fact, now that I know this cutie is studying there, I’m feeling kind of intimidated. I’m not classically trained on any of the instruments I play. I’m totally self-taught on all of them. If this girl is studying at a conservatory like that, the kind with auditions to get in, she must be more than damned good at whatever she does. She must be amazing.
“Do you play an instrument?” I ask.
Alessandra’s blue eyes widen. “Uhhh.”
Georgina jumps right in. “Ally plays guitar and piano. Ukulele, too. But, mostly, she writes on her guitar. She sings and writes the most incredible songs!”
I look at Georgina like, I get that you’re proud of your sister, dude. But how about you let her speak for herself.
“Alessandra is really shy,” Georgina explains, reading my mind. And, instantly, I feel like a dick for the scornful look I just flashed Georgina. Obviously, she’s Alessandra’s proverbial emotional support animal. Nothing wrong with that.
“No problem,” I say quickly. I smile at both Georgina and Alessandra. “I know all about being shy. I’m actually pretty shy, too, by nature.”
Alessandra shoots me a lovely smile before gazing down at her polished toenails. And just like that, with that one bright smile from Alessandra, I feel like a hooked Fish. Bound and determined to draw this shy girl out, until she’s showing me whatever personality lies beneath.
The group starts chatting with the extroverted reporter, Georgina, so I move closer to the introverted cutie. “Hey there.”
She looks up at me and smiles shyly. “Hi.”
“Do you love going to Berklee? Everyone says it’s amazing.”
She nods. And as she does, I can practically see her heart thumping in her chest.
“Did you know Davey from Watch Party graduated from there?”
She nods again.
“Yeah. I bet you know all your famous alums.”
She smiles and shrugs, like, Yeah, I do. But that’s it. She doesn’t speak.
“So, Georgina said you write songs?”
“Mm-hmm.”
Okay. Well. It wasn’t much. But she did use her vocal cords. Minimally. So, it’s progress.
“I write songs, too,” I say. “My main instrument these days is bass guitar, but I love pulling out the ol’ acoustic guitar and writing a little song, now and again. Guitar was my first instrument, actually. But we didn’t have anyone to play bass when we formed our band, so I volunteered as tribute and learned it.”
“And now, here you are, a master at it.”
Bam. Under the circumstances, that felt like a veritable TED Talk from her. At least, it was enough words to spur me on to keep fishing for more.
“Thanks so much,” I say. “That means a lot, coming from someone like you. So, you know my band, then?”
She flashes me a snarky look like my question is a ridiculous one. “Yes, I know your band. I love your band.”
There’s so much goodness here, I can’t believe it. First off, her shoulders have softened considerably since we first laid eyes on each other. Her crimson blush has faded. And, hey, we’re having an actual conversation now! That’s pretty cool. But best of all, I’m relieved Alessandra has copped to loving my band, right off the bat. I don’t care if a girl loves 22 Goats or hates us, or anything in between. I just want her to be honest about her opinions, whatever they are. There’s nothing worse than a girl who knows my band but pretends she’s never heard of us because she thinks that’s her best strategy to hook me. And on the flip side, I can’t stand a girl who falsely overstates her opinion of my band, simply because she thinks I’ll be offended if she doesn’t believe we’re the second coming of the Beatles. Bottom line, I guess I just want authenticity from a woman. That’s all I want. And, glory be, I can already tell this cutie doesn’t have an inauthentic bone in her lithe, little body.
