Page 31 of Play Me

“Touché.”

We all laugh and barely hear the knock on the door until Jez yells “Come in, it’s open!”

The door opens and in walks the tall blonde from last night.

SEBASTIAN

I knew she’d be a hit.

From the first note of the Chopin piece, I saw the guys eyeing each other, to the way she led us into the transition of the ballad and instinctively knew how to mold the sounds, the harmonies, something we’d taken years of playing together to learn.

Her music pulls at my heart and her body and mind tugs on my dick. I want her so bad at this moment, I’m glad the other guys are in the room to stop me from doing something stupid and scaring her off.

I watch her blending in with the banter and I wonder what it’d be like for her to join us permanently. She’d bring some class to the place, that’s for sure.

Dennis says something and I barely hear him, just watching her laugh along.

“Come in, it’s open!” Jez yells towards the door and I hadn’t even noticed someone was knocking.

The door open and Hailey walks in, carrying some shopping bags and drops onto the empty spot on the couch next to me.

“Hey, guys, what’s going on? What are we laughing that?” She reaches over me to the snack plate on the coffee table and pushes my legs out of the way.

“Dennis is threatening to out us all as pathetic drunks on TMZ so he can keep affording his designer coffees and pedicures.” Brad explains, and Hailey rolls her eyes and throws a cheese ball at Dennis’ head.

I notice Cadence stand up in the corner of my eyes and head towards the door. I get up and join her just as she reaches for the handle.

“Hey, where are you going?” I ask her.

She doesn’t look at me and presses down on the door handle.

“Hey. You OK?” I touch her gently on her shoulder and she jerks away from, still not answering, a small hiss emitting from her lips.

She turns to the room and clears her throat, “Um, guys, I’ve gotta go now. Give me a call when you’re ready to rehearse. Thanks again for the chance.”

“Ok, see ya, Cadence!” the guys shout out and she gives them a quick wave before pulling the door open and walking out.

I follow her, but she’s fast, pretty much running down the hall to my hotel room.

“Hey! Cadence, wait! What’s going on?” I catch up with her at my hotel room and she stands there staring at it, as if trying to burn a hole through it with her glare.

“Can you please let me in so I can grab my stuff and go home? It’s late and I have an early meeting before class.” Her voice is cold and hard. I haven’t heard it like this before.

“Hey,” I touch her softly on the shoulder again, and she whips around and glares at me.

“Don’t. Touch me. Again.”

“Hey, hey...What happened?” I don’t know what’s happened in the last few minutes that’s caused a complete change in her demeanor.

“Sebastian, just open the door.”

“Not until you tell me what’s going on?”

“Nothing.”

“Cade-...”

“Just, I didn’t expect to see her there. OK? Just drop it?”