Page 43 of Serenade Me

“You guys are no fun. Sebastian?” Brad turns to his fellow engaged bandmate for help.

“Yeah, no. If I even thought about any other women chest pounding, she could hear it from 10 thousand miles away, I’m sure of it,” he cringes.

“Fine.” Brad says, sulking, mumbling into his beer.

I giggle and sneak a peek at Marius over the rim of my beer glass. He’s looking at his phone, absentmindedly scratching his stomach and I can’t help but think, what it would feel like, to be pressed up against him, his chest crushing mine, my hands scratching down his back.

I shake my head, but the images stick.

“Hailey? I’m going to need more beer.”

***

“G’night guys!!” I wave to the others as we stumble down the hotel hallway, stopping off at our respective rooms. “Thanks for the hangover!”

“No problem, babe! All thanks to Brad’s credit card!” Emily giggles drunkenly and blows me a kiss. She had joined us after posting her article to her editor. And made a worthy female ally in terms of keeping the guys in their places.

“Ugh, I was wondering where that went. Come now, me Brad, you naughty drunken woman,” Brad mumbles as he lifts his fiancée over his shoulder and carries her like a caveman back to their room.

“Dum dum dum dum,” I hum slightly out of tune under my breath as I fumble with my key card. “Ooopsidaisy,” I giggle when I drop it, and stare at it on the floor, trying to figure out how to get it back in my hands.

“Geez, here!” Jez comes up, picking it off the ground and sticking it in the slot. “Get in there,” he says, pushing me through the door and sitting me down on the bed. “You okay? You shouldn’t have drunk so much.”

“Ugh, didn’t I already say goodnight to you?” I say, trying to kick my shoes off.

“Yeah, that was before you couldn’t figure out how knees work.”

“Well, thank you for my biology lesson, you can go now. Anca go night-night.”

“No, Anca go tell Jez what happened tonight-night.”

“You talk funny.”

“Anca.”

“Ugh, what?”

“What happened on stage? Did you have another… um, thing.”

“Thing?”

“I don’t know what to call it. You know, panic thing. Because of the…”

I hold my hand up against his face. Don’t say, it Jez. Don’t say his name. Not today, don’t ruin my mood. “I’m fine. Just a little hiccup.” And right on cue, I hiccup.

“Why didn’t you take a sedative, I thought those were working for you?”

“I did and they are or were. I dunno, I think it’s just ‘cos it’s a bigger crowd than I’ve ever been used to. Anyway, Marius is going to help me.”

“Help you with what?”

“My stage fright, he helped me tonight on stage. And he said he’s going to help me get over it. He said he used to have it.”

“Yeah, he did. Oh god, the vomit.”

“Ew, vomit.”

“Yeah, big ew. Did you… does he know everything?”