hannah
One and a half years earlier
“No. I’m sorry, but you have to come up with a name,” I insisted. “You can’t be Parker Sloan featuring Jasper Jones forever for God’s sake. It’s already been months.”
Parker shot Charlotte a pleading look.
“Uh uh, rock star, I’m with her. How the hell are we supposed to market the two of you if you can’t even choose a damn name?” She sat her hands on her hips.
He threw his head back and groaned.
A shit-eating grin spread across Jasper’s face and I knew he was about to pull out some stupid-as-hell suggestion.
“Don’t start with me,” I warned him, jabbing him in the chest with my finger.
“But it’s so good.” He chuckled.
I rolled my eyes. “I strongly doubt that, but you know what? I’m feeling somewhat patient, so let’s hear it.”
“Alright, you ready?” He got to his feet like he was conducting some type of friggin’ seminar.
Parker grinned and sat up in anticipation.
They were like a couple of little boys when they got like this.
Charlotte tried to cover up a giggle with her hand.
I rolled my eyes for what must have been the one hundredth time this afternoon alone.
“Okay… here it is… ‘Well Hung’,” he announced, uber proud of himself.
Parker erupted with laughter. He held his fist out to Jasper. “It’s funny cos it’s true.”
Jasper bumped his fist against Parker’s.
Charlotte was doing an even more piss-poor attempt at hiding her laughter now than she had been before.
“That’s terrible.” She cackled. “And also, don’t flatter yourselves.”
Parker snagged her around her waist and dragged her onto his lap. “You’re only lying to yourself… you know it’s true, Little Red.”
She blushed and giggled like a school girl.
Gross.
“Ugh!” I tossed a balled-up sheet of paper at the pair of them. “That’s too much information – and there’s no way in hell that name is getting approved.”
“What about ‘Band Name’?” Parker suggested totally unhelpfully in between nipping at Charlotte’s neck playfully.
“Or ‘One plus one equals sexy as fuck’?” Jasper offered with a wink.
I groaned at my boyfriend’s latest suggestion.
“I know! ‘Touch my drumstick’.”
“Or ‘Four balls are better than two.”
The two of them carried on like this, back and forth, each name evolving into something dirtier and more stupid than the last, for a solid five minutes before I couldn’t take it any longer.
“Oh my god! Enough! This is why we can’t leave you two alone for long periods of time!”
Charlotte had been watching them volleying suggestions back and forth with a bewildered expression on her face. “How the hell can you manage to write hit song after hit song, but you can’t come up with a fucking band name?” She smacked Parker lightly on the arm, a teasing smile on her lips.
The boys both shrugged innocently.
Good grief.
“I quit,” I announced, throwing my hands in the air. “Cutting hair is child’s play compared to this.”
“You’re not wrong,” Lotte agreed with me.
“Oh hell, they’re mad now,” Jasper stage whispered to Parker. “Might be time to use that exit strategy we always had down pat.”
Parker laughed loudly, and Jasper joined him, his whole face alight with amusement.
What exit strategy?
“What are you morons talking about now?” Lotte demanded, her thoughts mirroring mine.
Parker winked at her. “All good wingmen have an exit strategy.”
“I’ve seen some crazy birds in my time, Little Red, and a good exit strategy is like a condom, you’re fucked without it,” Jasper explained.
“That’s it!” I interrupted whatever nonsense he was spouting.
“What’s it?” Parker and Jasper both replied.
“The name.” I drummed my hands on the table. “It’s the bloody name!”
“Fucked without it?” Jasper answered, nodding his head as though he was tossing the idea around in his brain. “I mean, it’s no ‘Well hung’, but it’s not awful.”
Oh good grief.
“No, you fool, ‘Exit Strategy’… now that’s a name.”
There was silence for a moment as the three of them thought it through.
“Exit Strategy… I like it.” Charlotte was the first to speak.
“It’s good, Han,” Parker agreed.
“It’s perfect; my woman’s a god damn genius,” Jasper bragged, puffing his chest out like a peacock.
He leapt to his feet, dragging me up with him and spun me around in a circle.
He might have just driven me to the brink of insanity with his ridiculous suggestions, but I loved him like this – playful and carefree. He always seemed to know just how far he could push me before doing something ridiculously cute to remind me why I was so in love with him.
He was never one to shy away from affection and he always looked so proud to be at my side. You couldn’t be in a room with the two of us and walk away without realising we were together.
Eighty-five percent of the time that we were near each other, he would be touching me in some way. At first I’d thought it was a possessive quality, but after watching the love in his eyes and the way he naturally gravitated towards me, I soon realised it was just the way he was when he was in love… and he sure as hell loved me.
It was one of my favourite things about him.
“Exit Strategy it is.” I laughed as the room spun around me.