Chapter 3

Austin

Euphoria was packed when we took the stage. Taking my place behind my kit, I scanned the room until I saw Piper. I wasn’t looking for her, but it was hard to miss a woman that hot. At least, that’s what I was going to keep telling myself and anyone who asked. I wasn’t about to admit to seeking Piper out in the crowd.

“Welcome to Euphoria!” Xander shouted.

The crowd screamed in response.

“Is everyone having fun?” he asked.

More screams erupted.

“Fuck yeah!” Xander shouted. “That is also what I told my good friend, Mercedes Whitier, when she asked us if we’d play for you tonight. I said fuck yeah!”

The crowd screamed some more.

“Get ready to party your asses off!” Xander yelled.

The crowd cheered, and we began to play. It wasn’t long until I was lost in the music. This was a club opening, so it was a short set, only thirty minutes. I was still sweating by the time we finished. It was a little too hot on the stage. Getting some cool air up there was my only suggestion for Mercy. As soon as we finished playing, I pulled off my shirt and wiped my forehead. There was an exit near the rear of the stage that led to the back of the club.

Bentley rushed toward us and launched herself into Gage’s arms. “You guys were great! Thank you again for doing this. It means a lot to Mercy.”

“I can speak for myself,” Mercy said from behind me.

Any minute, I expected Piper to join us.

“Anything for you, Mercy,” Xander crooned as he slipped an arm around her shoulders.

“Need I remind you that I don’t make waffles?” Mercy asked.

Xander’s arm slipped away. “That’s right. I’m still mad at you for opening a club instead of something useful, like a diner that makes really good waffles. Don’t get me wrong. This is a great club.” A thought occurred to him, and he snapped his fingers. “I don’t know why I didn’t think of this before.”

“Uh oh,” Gage said with a laugh.

“I’m not sure we want to know what you have in mind,” Harley added.

“My ideas are all brilliant,” Xander argued.

“No, they aren’t,” I insisted. “Tell us your idea, anyway.”

“The Breakfast Club!” Xander announced proudly.

We all stared at him, trying to decipher what he meant by his suggestion.

Mercy spoke first. “You want to remake the movie?”

“No,” Xander replied with a shake of his head. “The name of the club will be The Breakfast Club. Dancing and breakfast foods. It’s the perfect combination.”

I bit back a laugh at his suggestion. “You need an intervention.”

While some people are addicted to drugs and alcohol, Xander is addicted to waffles and coffee. Back in Los Angeles, Xander had a favorite diner that fixed waffles the way he liked them and always had fresh-brewed coffee. His biggest complaint about our move to the San Francisco Bay Area was that he hadn’t found a good place to get waffles.

“Why don’t you learn to make your own waffles?” Mercy suggested.

I love Xander like a brother. Xan is a great guy, but he isn’t the best at looking for solutions to problems. We were always amazed when he suggested a solution that didn’t sound crazy.

Xander looked thoughtful as he considered Mercy’s suggestion. “I can cook.” That was a stretch, but I decided to not point out that heating up frozen dinners didn’t count as cooking. “This could work.”

“Cami would probably be willing to teach you how to make them.” It was Bentley who made that offer.

Since Cami, the cute blonde who also happened to be Bentley’s best friend, had just joined us, she was there for the offer. “I can teach you to make waffles, as long as you promise to behave.”

Xander shook his head and grinned. “No deal. How am I supposed to resist the urge to try to talk you into cooking in nothing but a thong?”

“Pervert,” Cami accused. “Mitch isn’t going to be okay with you flirting with me.”

“Ditch Mitch and be my waffle bitch,” Xander crooned.

Cami shook her head. “I can’t work with this. Unless he can behave, there will be no cooking lessons.”

Gage came to his defense. “Xander can’t help it.”

“He could behave, but he doesn’t want to,” Harley argued before punching Xander in the arm.

“Ow!” he shouted. “What was that for?”

“Waffle bitch?” Harley asked. “We need to get you a shock collar so I can press a button every time you say something stupid.”

Cami giggled. “He might like that too much.”

Xander winked at her. “That’s not one of my kinks. Wanna know what they are?”

“No,” Bentley quickly replied for her. “After the waffle fetish conversation I overheard, I have no interest in hearing anything more about your kinks.”

Everyone was having fun until I decided to make things awkward. I wasn’t trying to make them uncomfortable, but I wasn’t stupid enough to believe that wouldn’t be the end result. “Where’s Piper?” My question was met with silence, so I continued. “I’m not going to say anything stupid. I get that this is an important night for you, Mercy.”

“Piper is also my friend,” Mercy pointed out.

“She’s also busy managing the club,” Gage reminded me.

“This is opening night,” Bentley stated before adding, “I should also get back to work.”

“Okay,” Gage replied, leaning in to kiss her. “I’ll see you later.”

Bentley hurried off, possibly to warn Piper I was looking for her.

Mercy waved a finger at me. “Don’t harass Piper tonight.” Rather than waiting for my response, she walked off.

“You gonna teach me to make waffles, Cami?” Xander asked with a wink. “I’ll even buy you a thong to cook in since you only wear boy shorts and bikinis.”

“How do you know what kind of panties I wear?” Cami asked before holding up a hand and shaking her head. “Never mind. I don’t want to know. I’m going back to dance with my boyfriend.” On those words, she headed back to the main part of the club.

“Smooth move,” I told Xander.

“My moves with Cami are better than your moves with Piper,” he argued. “Cami didn’t slap me.”

“You’re both hopeless,” Harley accused.

“Why don’t we grab a drink in the band room?” Xander suggested. Mercy had a nice band room, complete with comfortable sofas, snacks, and water. If we wanted real drinks, we could press a button and a waiter would come back to take our orders. While they didn’t plan to have live music every night, they had bands booked for the next eight Friday nights, and they were working on signing more bands.

“Sounds good to me,” Harley replied. “It will keep Gage from distracting Bentley and Austin from pissing off Mercy by messing with Piper.”

When I nodded, we all headed back to the band room. I wanted to go out to the main area and find Piper, but the others were right. It was best if I stayed away from her tonight. She was busy. Fuck me. I had a serious problem. Ever since she’d smiled at me, I’d been dying to see her smile again.

“Would you like to tell us what’s going on?” Harley asked when we were in the room.

“Could you be a little more specific?” I asked.

“Why are you trying to chase down your hot little redhead?” Xander asked.

“You’ve kept your distance from Piper for months,” Gage added. “Her name hasn’t even come up all that often, despite the fact that she’s been spending time with Harley. Until today, you haven’t even asked about her when we’ve been ironing out details for this show.”

“You said I should try being friends with her,” I reminded them.

“I’m not sure you can be just friends with her,” Xander argued.

“Why’s that?” I asked.

“You haven’t left a show with a groupie in months,” Xander replied.

“I can’t believe I didn’t notice that,” Harley muttered. “You did a good job of flirting and hanging out with women after shows and at bars, but Xander’s right.”

Gage added his own observation. “You’ve been celibate. Just like I was when I was first hung up on Bentley.”

“I was seeing the same woman for nearly two months,” I argued. “You know I don’t sleep around when I’m with a woman.” In general, my rebound guy duties only lasted a night or two, but I’ve been known to stay with the same woman for two or three months.

“Are you talking about Amber, the rebound guy’s latest project?” Harley asked.

“Yeah, I was with Amber,” I confirmed.

“You weren’t sleeping with Amber,” Harley insisted.

“What the actual fuck?” Xander asked. “Is Harley right? Did you really miss the chance to sleep with the amazing Amber?” He didn’t give me a chance to reply before continuing. “That girl looked like a model. This thing with Piper is more serious than I thought.”

Amber was beautiful, with long blonde hair, deep blue eyes, and an athletic build. She was also sweet, funny, and a virgin. She’d picked me as her rebound guy, planning to lose her virginity to me. It would have been too fucked up to take what she’d decided to save for the right guy. I wasn’t the right guy. We’d mostly gone on dates and hung out. It had helped us both. She’d needed the confidence boost, and I’d needed someone to distract my friends from my lack of social life. Apparently, Amber hadn’t been enough of a distraction.

“What makes you think I didn’t sleep with her?” I asked.

“We still talk,” Harley replied.

“Why do you have to become friends with every woman who comes in contact with this band?” I asked.

Harley laughed at my question. “Every woman? That’s a lot of women. I just hang out with the ones who stick around longer than a week.”

“You still talk to Psycho Stella?” Xander asked with a shudder. Xander was good at attracting crazy women.

“She was only a psycho around you,” Harley pointed out. “You made her that way.”

“Uh uh,” Xander argued. “I didn’t make that woman so crazy she cut holes in my underwear. That crazy was always there.”

I was with Xander on this one. Gage had come up with the name Psycho Stella the day we’d met her. Xander had argued that she was just a fun girl.

“Xan’s right,” Gage insisted. “Stella is a fucking nut job.”

This was good. We were talking about Xander’s women instead of talking about Piper.

“I like Piper.” I should have known Harley wasn’t going to be that easily distracted. “You fucked up, Austin.”

“And you believe I need to let her go so I don’t hurt her again,” I finished for her.

“Dumbass,” Harley muttered. “Why would I tell you something like that?”

“Because she’s your friend, and you don’t want me to hurt her again?” I asked.

“You’re my friend,” she pointed out. “I don’t think you should try dating Piper, and I’m not sure you can be friends given how you feel about her, but you need to work this out. There’s too much bad blood between the two of you. We all know you regret it, so make this up to her.”

I wasn’t sure what she was getting at. “You aren’t making any sense. You said I can’t be her friend and I can’t date her. What exactly am I supposed to do?”

“She didn’t tell you that you can’t date her or that you can’t be her friend,” Gage reminded me.

“You need to fix this,” Harley told me. “I don’t know how, but you need to put the past behind you and fix this.”

“That’s all I’m trying to do,” I assured her. “You don’t have to worry about me trying for anything more than friendship with Piper. She’s in a relationship, and I’m not going to fuck that up for her.”

My statement was met with silence. It was the truth. I wasn’t going to mess up Piper’s relationship. When I looked around, my friends were all looking away from me. There was something they weren’t telling me.

“What do you know that I don’t?” I asked the others.

“Piper isn’t romantically involved with Andy,” Harley admitted.

“They broke up?” I asked because sometimes I’m slow that way.

“They’ve never dated,” Gage clarified. “Piper lives with Andy and his girlfriend.”

“Why didn’t anyone tell me this?” I demanded.

“We didn’t want you talking to Piper,” Harley replied.

“I could have sworn I mentioned it to you,” Xander mused before shrugging. “I guess it slipped my mind.”

With my other friends, I’d swear they were being dicks. Xander probably had forgotten to tell me, and since Piper was a taboo subject, he hadn’t been reminded of it in any of the conversations we’d had.

“So, Piper is single,” I said as I considered what that meant for my plans with her.

“And not interested in dating you.” Harley was determined to make sure I didn’t forget that fact.

“That was harsh,” Gage muttered.

“But true,” I said on a sigh.

“What are you going to do to change that?” Xander asked.

I shrugged. “I probably shouldn’t do anything. Piper’s got good reason to avoid getting involved with me. I was a total dick to her all those years ago. I should apologize for hurting her and avoid acting like a dick around her again. Maybe we can be friends again.”

Who was I kidding? I was going after Piper. Dick move or not, I wanted her.

My friends were all looking at me like they knew I was full of shit.

“Going after her makes me an asshole, but I plan to do it, anyway,” I admitted. “She deserves better than someone who hurt her the way I did.”

“You aren’t making a very good case for yourself,” Gage pointed out.

“I don’t have a great case to make for myself,” I told him. “Harley’s going to say it if I don’t, and she’ll be much harsher.

Harley grinned. “Sometimes, you aren’t a total dumbass.”

“Aren’t you going to tell me I shouldn’t go after her?” I asked.

“Would it make any difference if I did?” she asked.

It would be best if I let Piper find someone better.

“No, it wouldn’t matter,” I admitted. “I need her in my life. If all she can give me is friendship, I’ll try to accept that, but I want more.”

“Don’t hurt her again,” Harley warned.

I planned to do my best to avoid hurting her again.