*
My heart raced as we made our way towards the door. I bit my lip, and Brandon touched my arm gently as he glanced at me.
I couldn’t believe I’d said yes. But really, how could I turn it down? It was a once in a lifetime chance.
“You were good back at the coffee shop. I would have pegged you for my bodyguard if I didn’t know better.”
I laughed softly, a blush rising to my cheeks as we stopped in front of the security guard for a millisecond before he opened the door and nodded to us.
“Really though, we could use someone like you around here.” His eyes sparkled. My heart skipped a beat as I tried to tell if he was joking or not. “We’ve been in need of a good manager for a while. Our last one … well, things didn’t work out all that well with him.”
I raised an eyebrow. “I’m sorry, did you just offer me a job?” My voice came out a hell of a lot calmer than I felt, but my heart was pounding in my chest.
Brandon shrugged. “I just thought I’d toss it out there. Of course, we normally go through an agency …”
“I don’t have a representative.” I felt stupid the second I said it. My blush darkened as I tried to think of something to say to make myself sound a little less daft.
“Brandony!” Someone saved me from saying something as I glanced towards where the voice had come from. There were three guys standing there. All of them almost as attractive as the man beside me. The one who had spoken stepped forward. “Where have you been all day?”
He had short brown hair that was slicked back and brown eyes. He glanced at me for a fraction of a second before turning back to his band mate.
“I had to get my computer fixed.”
“And I see you picked something up along the way.”
“Actually, she saved me from a hoard of fans. I didn’t think I was going to get out of the coffee shop before she came in.” He grinned. “It was perfect. She rushed me out of the shop going on about how I had to get ready for the show.”
Another one of the band members spoke up. “That was nice of you.”
I looked him up and down. He had brown hair that fell to his chest, which his tattooed arms were crossed over. His hazel eyes locked on me, but it was the guyliner I was paying attention to. It was always cute to see guys who were confident enough to wear makeup.
I shrugged. “He looked pretty sad and pathetic with all those girls trying to paw at him,” I retorted, not quite willing to give up the fact that it would be good for me to have connections when I was ready to go into marketing. I thought about what he’d just said to me. “We’re in need of a good manager.”
I’d be a wonderful manager. If he wasn’t joking, I needed to jump at the chance to prove to them that I could do the job—despite the fact that I wasn’t from an agency. I needed to prove I could do the job better than anyone they could hire, except I also had to find a way to do it that wasn’t obvious.
“Anyways,” Brandon cleared his throat. “She’d never heard us, so I invited her to come see the show. Of course, I won’t be able to keep her company, but that’s alright.” His smile widened.
The one who had stepped forward didn’t look happy.
“Sure, can I just talk to you before you two … go off and have your fun?”
I felt my cheeks burn all the way to the tip of my ear as I opened my mouth to tell him he could go fuck himself, and I was not that kind of girl.
“For sure.” Sadly Brandon got his words out first, and the two men walked off.
I glared after them.
“Don’t mind Jackson,” the one with red hair spoke up. “He’s protective of Brandony, and Brandony has a bad habit of getting taken advantage of by pretty girls.”
“So he thinks I’m just here to take advantage of him.” It wasn’t really a question.
“If you knew how many times it had happened, you wouldn’t blame him for thinking it.” He paused then extended his hand. “I’m Brad by the way.”
“Katie.”
“It’s nice to meet you, Katie.” Brad grinned as we shook hands. To my surprise, his eyes didn’t roam over my body. “So you saved him from a couple fan girls?”
“Yea, like I said he looked kinda sad and pathetic, so I felt like I should step in, plus … I studied it a little. I know how important it is to get … for a musician to get to the venue on time.” Okay, I had been about to call him a client—that would be bad.
“You studied it?”
“Yea … I considered going into the marketing world for a little while. I know, now you’re going to think I staged it all somehow, but I swear I didn’t.”
“What made you decide not to?” He raised an eyebrow.
“I ran out of money,” I admitted. That made him laugh loudly for some reason.
Brandon
“You’ve got to be joking, right? Do you not remember Jasmine?”
“Of course, I remember Jasmine.” She’d been a mistake. “But are you sure this is about me and Jasmine or is it about you and Sam?”
Jackson froze, his mouth wide open. “That was uncalled for,” he finally said.
“Look, it was dicky; I’m sorry, but give her a chance. You didn’t see her in action. She walked right over like she owned the fucking place and wasn’t fazed at all. She’s not starstruck. That’s important, and how many potentials have we talked to who have tried to give one of us a number?”
“That one guy?”
“You mean the one that you gave your number to?” My eyes narrowed as I stared at my best friend. “Look, I know you think I’m some sort of idiot and that this girl is taking advantage of me or something, but can you please have a little faith in me? Please? If I fuck up, then I fuck up. I fix it.”
“Don’t you get it?” You’re going to get into a situation where you can’t fix it eventually.” I bit my lip. If only he knew, he wouldn’t have said it. I felt my gut twist. I knew the end of the month was approaching, which meant I’d be getting that email again. Yup, because everything was done over email these days—even illegal shit.
“Way to be supportive,” I snapped.
“You know I’m not trying to be an asshole.”
“I know you’re not, but just give me a chance with her, okay? I promise, just one interview.”
Jackson sighed loudly. Mostly because he knew I wasn’t going to give up. This was normally how our conversations ended. With me pressing the topic and Jackson letting out one of those dramatic sighs.
“I don’t like her. I don’t trust her.”
“Get to know her, and then tell me what you think, alright?”
“Fine.”
I gave my friend a wide grin. “Thanks, man.” I couldn’t believe it had been that easy to convince him we should give her a shot. I knew it was wrong to mention Sam after everything that happened between them, but I needed to make a point. I looked at her as we made our way back.
“I don’t know what it is about her, but I’ve just got this feeling. If it wasn’t for a feeling, then we wouldn’t even be here now—I just need to follow it.”