Chapter Eighteen

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Dominic

 

 

 

After a mostly sleepless night, I faced the third and final day of the festival. Since it ran late, we were staying the night in the hotel and leaving for home early the next morning. The drive out to the fairgrounds was filled with tension I couldn’t seem to break through. The window behind us was closed so we couldn’t hear any conversations between Leah and Audrey, and Davis was silent beside me. He’d been asleep when I went back the room the night before, so nothing more had been said about the Leah situation. But today he was all quiet and stiff and it was obvious just by looking at him: he was done with this shit. This was confirmed when he finally spoke to me as we were stuck in traffic.

“No more of this buddy-buddy shit. That was a bad idea from the start. We’re their bodyguards, nothing more.”

That last part felt like a dig at me, and it probably was, but I merely nodded. “Sounds good to me.”

It seemed like it would be easy enough to carry off. Leah had barely glanced at me this morning, obviously still pissed at whatever the hell she’d gotten pissed about. I mean, yeah, I knew she’d wanted to take things further between us, and I still didn’t know where I’d found the strength to stop it when I had. I never meant for it to go as far as it did, but she’d been talking about her experience – or lack of – like there was something wrong with her when I already knew from firsthand experience that there wasn’t. And I’d wanted to remind her of that fact. Not as a pity thing, which was a pretty asinine idea when you looked at her and then looked at me. I’d just wanted to shut off the ridiculous idea that there was anything wrong with her sexually. At first. That motivation had been forgotten as soon as my hands were on her, and a new need had quickly wiped everything else out: make Leah come. I appreciated her suggestion that I was some selfless martyr, when really it had taken everything I had not to fuck her every which way.

Alright, no. I didn’t appreciate it at all. It pissed me off, actually. And it just highlighted how wrong this whole thing was. People were my specialty and I could usually read them like bold print. Leah was like a page from a book that made sense at first, but then spiraled off into all kinds of hidden meanings and subtext that made my head spin. Keeping things distant and professional, especially after last night, was the best thing for everyone involved.

And it seemed easy enough to do for awhile. Leah and Audrey had their itinerary all planned out, and they made their rounds and watched the bands without giving us any trouble. By late afternoon the crowds had thinned out some, with the out-of-towners probably already on their way back home, and between sets the girls joined a small group on a blanket in the grass to talk and exchange festival stories. Sometime later, Leah checked her phone and then climbed to her feet, holding it up to show me and Davis the screen, through it was too far away for us to read.

“I have to call my dad,” she said. He had alternated texting with her and calling her all weekend. She walked several feet behind the blanket for privacy, holding a finger to one ear and her phone to the other. When she came back, she handed the phone to Davis.

“He wants to talk to you to make sure you’re with me,” she said with flicker of anger in her eyes. I noticed how he paced several feet away similar to what she had done, his back to us. Then I moved my gaze to Leah, who was still standing next to me rather than returning to the group on the blanket. She blinked when my eyes met hers, then said, “I don’t know what he thinks I’m doing out here, but apparently he thinks I’m much more exciting than I really am.”

I didn’t smile, but didn’t look away, curious why she was suddenly acting like everything was normal, and if she was going to bring up last night. She sighed like she was disappointed, but I don’t know if it was at my lack of reaction or just because things were so weird between us in general.

Out of nowhere, she said, “I’m sorry about last night. I overreacted.” Some of her hair blew into her eyes and she brushed it away, fearlessly holding eye contact.

Caught off guard, I said, “Okay. Not really the place.” I glanced up toward Davis, who was already making his way back over. She followed the direction of my eyes, then quickly looked back to me, starting to dig something out the pocket of her shorts.

“I know. I just wanted to give you something.” She thrust a folded up paper into my hands. “I don’t want that anymore.” Then she grabbed her phone from Davis and bolted back to Audrey.

I was dying to unfold the paper, even though I was pretty sure I knew what it was. But I had to wait until Davis took a break and Leah and Audrey were in line for a drink at one of the beer trucks.

As I suspected, it was her list, something I was already getting tired of and I’d only known of its existence for a day. But now there were black Xs over each number list item, even the items she’d already done. The only one without an X was the photo story thing.

I grabbed her as she was coming back with a plastic cup of beer balanced carefully in her hands. “Why’d you give me this?”

Audrey raised her eyebrows and walked away from us without a word.

“I told you, I don’t need it anymore. Basically, you were right. Checking things off a list is the opposite of what I wanted this summer. I wanted to be free and spontaneous, not beholden to a list.”

“So you’re done trying to hook up with someone?”

“Well, if it happens then it happens. But it will be because I want it, not because it’s on a to-do list. I’m done with that.”

“Okay,” I drawled out slowly. “So what am I supposed to do with this?”

She shrugged, smiling. “Throw it away. Keep it to remind yourself how dumb I am. I don’t really care.”

“I don’t think you’re dumb.”

“Then keep it to remind yourself of the craziest, most annoying job you ever had.”

“Craziest?” I couldn’t help but give a bark of laughter at that. “Not even close. Most annoying, possibly.” Here, she rolled her eyes. “I’ll tell you, though, off the record. I definitely won’t need this stupid list to remind me of you. So you can probably just cross number…” I held the list up, searching for the list item. “Number ten. You can cross that one off the list.”

Number ten was, of course, the “make someone never forget me” line. I said it teasingly, as a joke, but there was truth to it, too. And I wanted her to know it.

She gave a little laugh to downplay what I’d just said, but from the way her cheeks flushed I knew she was pleased by it. I held the list back out to her.

“Want it back?”

After a pause, she shook her head, so I folded it back up and slid it in my pocket. “Alright. It’s mine now.”

That was when Davis returned with a burst of energy that I think Leah resented about as much as I did. “Let’s move it along,” he said. “Where’s T?”

Audrey hopped back over, a lollipop wedged against the inside of one cheek. The little white stick bobbed up and down as she spoke. “I got you guys something,” she said, extending her hands to hand me and Davis each a wooden, handcrafted beer mug. “It’s a souvenir, and my way of saying thank you for watching out for us. I know I’ve complained a bit, but I realize you’re just doing your jobs and I do appreciate it.”

Davis had automatically accepted the mug, but he was looking at Audrey like crazy was getting ready to explode from her. I quickly spoke up before he could say anything.

“Thanks. This is awesome.” And it was actually pretty cool in a novelty sort of way, if you wanted to feel like you were a badass Viking or something.

“I can’t take this,” Davis said right on the heel of my words, like he hadn’t even heard them. He extended the mug back to Audrey and her mouth fell open, the lollipop stick drooping to the side. “Go get your money back. I’m not accepting this.”

Awkwardness descended on us, and Audrey slowly took a step back, raising her hands with the palms facing us. “I’m not going to take it back. I got it for you, so just be graceful and take it.”

His eyes popped open dangerously. “Be graceful?” he repeated. “Are you serious? After we had to carry you, passed out, all the way back to the hotel last night, you’re going to talk to me about being graceful?”

Audrey’s mouth drew together in an affronted frown, and Leah said, “Davis. Stop. You’re being a prick.”

He turned to look at her, and something in his expression cooled, just like that. It might have ended there, if Audrey had kept her mouth shut. But she came back at him almost instantly.

“Who do you think you are?” she asked, her face twisting with scorn. “You’ve been giving us attitude since we got here, and why? This is your job. You have no right to judge me for getting a little out of control at a festival. That’s, like, what people do here. And you’re just hired help. If you have a problem with it, I’m sure Leah can have her dad find someone who’s a little more thankful for the opportunity.”

“Audrey,” Leah said quietly, with a warning in her voice. Be quiet, it said. You’re making things worse. But it was a little too late.

Davis stared at Audrey for a few seconds, and then said almost calmly, “You know what? Fuck you, you little twat.” Audrey’s mouth fell open again, and she looked like she didn’t know whether to be offended or laugh. “You are not part of my job. Fake all the injuries you want, pass out in your own puke for all I care. I’m done with it. So take your shitty guilt gift and fuck off.” He then tossed the mug in the muddy grass at her feet, and she watched it fall with every bit of humor dying on her face. She quickly turned and started walking away, but not before I saw the hurt and anger that twisted her expression. Leah, in opened mouth shock, ran after Audrey, but Audrey pushed her away with a sweep of one arm, saying something I couldn’t hear.

I exhaled, looking down at the wooden mug in my hand that I kind of never wanted to see again. Then I glanced at Davis, who looked as calm as if nothing had happened. “You couldn’t have just taken the mug?” I asked dryly.

“Fuck the stupid mug,” he said, and then he gave a short laugh, shaking his head as if writing the whole thing off as ridiculous. “And fuck her. Good riddance.”

I didn’t even have a chance to respond before Leah came flying back in toward Davis in a blur of anger. “You asshole! I can’t believe you said that! She’s my friend.”

“That girl is not your friend, Leah. You barely know her, and she probably won’t even remember you by the time she gets home.”

Leah visibly flinched at that, but didn’t address it. “Audrey’s right, you know. This is your job, and you were way out of line. You think because you’ve been with the company for so long that you have a right to be that familiar with me, but you don’t. I don’t want to work with you again after this. And my father’s going to hear all of it.”

“You won’t say anything.” He said this with total certainty, though his tone wasn’t unkind. “If your dad knew about her and what she’s been up to out here, he’d be patting me on the back and you know it. Oh, and it would also validate his concerns with letting you go in the first place.”

If I thought she was mad before, she was positively seething now. “Fuck you, Davis. You’re crazy if you think he’ll believe your word over mine.”

“Okay, and what about this?” He gestured between Leah and me, and I felt my spine stiffen. “You going to tell him all about you and Dom, too?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she replied evenly, and I was sort of proud of her cool tone. “Dominic has been nothing but professional.”

He snorted his disbelief at that. “You’re so full of shit, Leah.”

“Not that I’m admitting anything, but what I do in my personal life is none of your business. And it’s not his, either. You don’t know what it’s like being watched all the time. I can’t date. I can’t have privacy. I can’t go anywhere or do anything without his approval. That’s why I went to California. I knew it was a bad decision, but I didn’t care, that’s how much I wanted to be free of you people.”

“Yeah, yeah. Your dad’s overprotective. I get it. I’ve heard it all before.”

“Overprotective?” she repeated with a disbelieving laugh.

Tensions were getting high, and I decided it was time to step in. “Let’s take a break from this, alright? Davis, go get some food or something. Let’s just get some space from all this.”

He went right on like I hadn’t said anything. He didn’t look away from her for even a second. “Be thankful your dad gives a shit about you. Be thankful you have money, opportunity, and job prospects that most people don’t have.”

“Oh, here we go. I’m a spoiled, privileged rich girl and I shouldn’t be allowed to complain about anything. Talk about having heard it all before. I should just be thankful my dad micromanages my life. I should be thankful he cut me off from my mom when I was just a kid, you’re so right.”

He gave a short, hard laugh. “Cut you off? He fucking begged her to stay in New York. He offered to buy her an apartment and she turned it down. She wanted to leave. You can hate your dad all you want, but that shit is not on him. That’s all on her.”

Leah’s face had gone pale. “What?”

Davis exhaled, running his fingers through his hair in a rough motion. “She’s a piece of shit, Leah. That’s why he didn’t want you to go see her. He wasn’t trying to control you, he was trying to protect you.”

Tears made her eyes glisten, so thick they looked like they would bubble up and pop at any second. I took a step closer, standing behind her and making it clear whose side I was on. No matter right or wrong, facts or bullshit, I was with her.

“You’re lying,” she said, almost choking on the words. “You don’t know anything about it.”

“I know enough. I know about the apartment because the security team did a check on the building a few years before I was hired. And I know he’s spent all these years letting you hate him for her leaving just so you wouldn’t know that she left you of her own free will.”

She started crying then, and I pulled her back against me. “That’s enough,” I said tightly, glaring at Davis. “Get out of here. And don’t go back to the hotel. Go home.”

“I can’t just leave you,” he snapped, finally looking at me.

“You know your job is fucked anyway after this, so who cares?”

“Yeah, well, so is yours.” He didn’t sound nearly as pissed now, though, and he looked back to Leah with something like conflict in his eyes. “Fuck. Leah, I…”

She leaned in toward me, and said through her tears, “Go away, Davis.”

Just go, I mouthed over her head, my eyes flashing. And after one more look to Leah, he actually did.