jasper
Well fuck me.
That was not how I was expecting that to go.
Well, the first hour or so was exactly how I was expecting that to go, but the ten minutes that followed… that could piss right off.
A one-time thing…
I ran my hand through my hair and groaned.
Is she serious?
How on earth I was supposed to do that with her and then go about my life as per usual, I had no idea.
My mind had felt like it was filled with fog ever since I’d driven her home earlier today.
I needed to get my head on straight before Parker came home and caught me looking like someone had kicked my puppy.
I headed for his studio, making sure to set the feature on the alarm system that would let me know when he arrived home. I knew I was pushing the boundaries by singing and playing in his home. It’s not that he would have cared about me using his stuff, but I didn’t want him to know – and doing it right under his nose was probably looking for trouble.
I wasn’t great at singing or playing like Parker was, but I loved it. I always had. Doing what Parker did – being a musician and sharing my music with the world had been something I’d dreamed about when I was younger.
When Park had got signed, I’d let the dream die away. I could have resented him, or turned into a jealous bastard, but that wasn’t my style. I’d rather be happy for a friend and give up a dream rather than chase a dream that might never happen and not have my best mate in my life.
It had been the easiest choice I’d ever made.
So now I just played for myself.
I grabbed an acoustic guitar off the rack and strummed the strings, checking it was tuned.
A few slight tweaks of the tuning pegs and I was ready.
I took up my usual spot and plucked at the strings, the first few chords of Jason Mraz’s ‘I won’t Give Up’ filling the space around me. This room had some seriously good acoustics.
I was feeling this song hard right now, it reflected the way I felt – that Hannah was something that I wasn’t about to give up on.
Keeping my voice low and raspy, I crooned the verse and then belted out the chorus.
“I won't give up on us, even if the skies get rough, I'm giving you all my love, I'm still looking up… And when you're needing your space, to do some navigating, I'll be here patiently waiting, to see what you find. 'Cause even the stars they burn, some even fall to the earth. We've got a lot to learn, God knows we're worth it… no, I won't give up”
I would be here patiently waiting. That was something I could do.
It wouldn’t be easy, but I had seen the deliberation in her eyes and I knew that she wasn’t convincing even herself with what she’d said.
If I had to guess, I would say she wanted me… and that scared her.
“I won't give up on us, even if the skies get rough. I'm giving you all my love, I'm still looking up.”
I was a patient man. I could pass the time.
There was one thing I was one hundred percent certain about, even after only just one night; I already knew she was well worth the wait.
I strummed the final chord and sucked in a deep breath.
I’d totally lost myself in that song, so much so that I’d missed the notification on my cell phone to say that the gate at the front of Park’s property had been opened.
“Shit,” I muttered under my breath.
I hurriedly put the guitar back where I’d found it and jogged out of the studio, heading for the living room. I didn’t have time to delete the recording that would have been made, but I knew that Parker wouldn’t find it anyway. He only ever listened back to his recordings right after he made them.
“You here, J?” he yelled out from the front of the house.
I flicked the TV on and started channel surfing. “In here,” I hollered back.
One look at Parker’s mug and I knew he’d had a good night – well day, at least. I had to hope that he at least had enough self control not to have done anything more than fall asleep with Charlotte last night, given the state she’d been in.
“You’re looking awfully pleased with yourself.”
“That’s because I am.” He smirked.
“Your little lady can’t be feeling so great… I’m surprised she’s not still drunk now,” I drawled.
I flicked through a few more channels as he opened the fridge.
He chuckled. “Nah… excessive vomiting works well like that. She was more than fine this morning.”
I grimaced. “That’s gross, man.”
He laughed again. “I know. How fucked up is it that she literally threw up all over me and I still wouldn’t have wanted to be anywhere else.”
I chuckled and shook my head in mock disgust. “That’s love, bro.”
“Drink?” he asked, holding up a couple of cans of coke.
I lifted my chin in response.
“I took her home earlier… hung out for a bit… Hannah turned up still wearing last night’s clothes.”
“Huh,” I mused, suddenly interested in what was happening on the TV.
“So, what did you get up to last night?” He sank down to the couch and tossed me the can.
I could feel his eyes on me, probing for answers.
“Oh, you know, a bit of this, a bit of that.”
“That all?”
He knew exactly what I’d been up to. It was pretty bloody obvious. Park was no idiot, he knew I’d been keen on Hannah since that first night, and he’d seen for himself the chemistry between us last night. That, and the fact that he’d left me responsible for her when he’d left, coupled with him witnessing her arriving back home today, didn’t leave much to the imagination.
I didn’t answer.
“Sharing is caring, man.” He smirked.
I glanced at him, my eyebrow raised. “You’re not going to let this go, are you?”
“God no,” he deadpanned, snagging the remote from my hand.
For someone who was always moaning about having no privacy in his own life, he sure as hell didn’t seem to have a problem getting all up in my business.
“Hannah came home with me, mind-blowing sex ensued, we talked, more mind-blowing sex and then I drove her home earlier.”
“Home, home?” He tilted his head in the direction of my place.
“Yup.” I popped the p.
“And here you were telling me off for that not so long ago.”
He was right. I never brought women home; it just wasn’t a good idea.
I had plenty of money, thanks to Parker, so it wasn’t like I couldn’t afford a hotel room when one was required.
But Hannah was different.
I’d never expected to have her shut us down before we’d even got started, but even if I’d known in advance I still would have brought her home with me.
Hannah wasn’t the kind of woman you took to a hotel.
I wanted her in my bed.
I wanted the vision of her in my bedroom.
I wanted her scent on my sheets.
“It’s Hannah, Park… I might not know her that well yet, but she’s your girl’s best friend, she’s going to be around either way, and besides, I trust her – I couldn’t take her to some seedy hotel.”
“Sounds like you two had a good night.” He sipped from his can, still eyeballing me carefully.
“We did.”
And then I got tapped and gapped.
“You seeing her again?”
“I’m sure I’ll see her around.”
“Oh burn… was she not into it?”
He was trying to goad me into running my mouth.
I shrugged. “We’re friends, we had a fun night. Not all of us need to fall in love.” I covered my nervous energy with a cocky smirk and stood up.
“I’m out. Later, man.”
“Catch you tomorrow, lover boy,” he called as I walked out the door.
* * *
“Hello?” her sweet voice answered.
“Hey… it’s… ah, Jasper.”
She giggled. “I know who it is.”
“I didn’t know if I was meant to call… or not.” I winced at myself.
I needed to get my shit together and stop freaking out over this chick. Even if she meant what she said, and I never had her again, I was still going to be seeing plenty of her.
Our best friends were together now – possibly forever.
Hannah was going to be in my life whether she wanted to be or not.
“Jasper, we’re friends, you can call anytime you want.”
Friends…
“So, if I call you every night, you won’t think I’m a stalker?”
“Oh no, I’ll definitely think you’re a stalker, but I’ll answer anyway.” She giggled.
Note to self. Call TWICE a day.
“So how was Parker when he got home?” She giggled.
“Like a pig in shit.”
“Sounds about right. They were here when you dropped me off… I’m pretty sure they’d been bumping uglies, if you know what I mean.”
I held back a laugh.
“I resent that. I can’t speak for Charlotte’s hoo-ha, but I’ll have you know that Parker has a very nice penis.”
I was messing with her, I mean, for all I knew, he did have a nice penis, but I hadn’t exactly inspected it myself.
“You did not just say that.”
I grinned. “We both heard it.”
“And hoo-ha? What are you, twelve?”
“I’ve got other options, what do you prefer? V-jay-jay, schniny, pink taco, fan-dango, penis fly trap, meat curtains, cooch… any of these catching your fancy?”
“You’re a bit of a weirdo, you know that, right?”
“I like to think so.”
“Please don’t let me hear you refer to it as ‘meat curtains’ ever again.” She shuddered.
“Noted.”
She laughed, and I took a moment to just listen to the sound.
“He noticed you were doing the walk of shame,” I informed her.
“I’ll have you know there was not one ounce of shame in my walk, thank you very much.”
“I told him we’d spent the night together.”
“I told Lotte too…”
“What else did you tell her?” I probed. I was digging for information as much as anything else. I didn’t actually care what she’d shared with her best friend – that was up to her.
“Just that we’d decided to leave it as one night, and that we’re friends.”
We’d decided….
I almost laughed out loud at that.
She had decided, I’d just gone along with it, taking whatever I could get.
“Then we’re all on the same page.”
“We are.”
“You busy?” I asked, hoping the answer would be no. I wasn’t ready to let her go yet.
“Not even a little bit.”
“You wanna play a game?”
“Strip poker doesn’t really have the same effect over the phone, you know that, right?”
I chuckled. For someone who just wanted to be my friend, she sure wasn’t against flirting.
“I was thinking more along the lines of turn for turn, but hell, there’s always video chat…”
She giggled. “Alright, hit me with it, what’s this turn for turn?”
“You ask me something, I answer, then it’s my turn to ask you something – turn for turn.”
“Oh, I’m so in… I’ve got so many questions.”
I lay down on the couch and swung my feet up to get comfortable. I had a feeling I was going to be here a while.
* * *
“What pisses you off?”
I shrugged even though she couldn’t see me. “Nothing really.”
We’d been asking each other questions for the past hour, and I’d learnt a lot about this woman… I now knew her favourite food, what music she liked, how she preferred her eggs, her favourite sex position…
It was valuable stuff.
“Oh c’mon, there must be something that just gets you wound up,” she insisted.
“I mean… trying to manage Parker’s career isn’t fantastic for my stress levels, but I wouldn’t say it pisses me off.”
“Nah, that’s not what I mean… hang on, I’ll just put you on speaker while I put on my PJ’s.”
My throat turned dry. I had the most perfect vision of her undressing and right now it was front and centre, taunting me.
“J? You still there?”
“Yip, sorry… yeah… I’m here.”
“Good, so like seriously, I need to know.”
“Why do I feel like if there was something, that you’d use it against me one day...”
She laughed. “I’m not willing to promise that wouldn’t happen.”
“Are we talking world peace situations or like leaving the toilet seat up kinda shit?”
“Hmmmm.” She deliberated for a minute. “Toilet seat, I’m talking pet peeves here…”
“Okay then… nothing worth mentioning.”
“Oh for fuck’s sake, Jasper, you can’t be laid back all the time; it’s just ridiculous, there has to be something.”
“You know what? You’re right. You’re actually doing a pretty good job of pissing me off right now.”
I could have sworn I heard her rolling her eyes through the phone. “Oh. Ha. Ha. Ha,” she replied sarcastically. “You’re impossible.”
“Yeah, I totally agree, out of the two of us, I’m the impossible one,” I deadpanned.
She laughed, and I could hear her rustling around.
“You wanna know what pisses me off?”
“I’m gonna take a wild stab in the dark and say… me.”
She giggled. “Well you might be infuriating, Jasper Jones, but at least we know you’re not stupid.”
We talked for hours and hours until the battery on my cell went flat.
I could talk to Hannah about anything, she was so easy to open up to, and everything that came out of her mouth fascinated me, even though it was complete nonsense half the time.
I was in a world of trouble here.
If she didn’t wake up to the fact that we were great together, I was going to have to figure out a way to not think about her every five seconds.
I shook my head at my own stupidity.
There was no way I was forgetting about Hannah Montgomery anytime soon.