CHAPTER FOUR
The office is much more luxurious than Jewel imaged it to be, which is a pleasant surprise. She notices a giant tinted glass wall opposite of the door. A couple feet before the glass, the floor lowers about six inches. Against the drop is a couple of small couches facing the stage. The rest of the office is adorned with fancy decorations. There are two wooden desks on each side of the room, with large, comfortable-looking chairs behind each. The desks are rather clean.
“Must have prepared to woo women up here,” Jewel whispers to Alyssa with a smirk.
Neither girl takes more than three steps in before they are each pulled over to their respective host’s desks. Jewel leans back on the desk and looks at Dan, who is giving her a charming smile and brushing his hand through his hair. Jewel suppresses the urge to scoff, and realizes this is probably how he wins over most of his women.
“Don’t worry, ladies. We have drinks up here,” he offers. His tone of voice has changed since being at the bar. It is almost as if he feels confident that he’s already won Jewel’s affection and sealed the deal.
“We could get a little frisky,” he adds, his eyes wandering up and down Jewel’s figure before he gives her a wink.
Before Jewel has a chance to respond, voices and music can be heard rumbling from the stage. She can feel it in the office, but the sound is a bit muffled. Jewel darts over to peer at the stage and immediately spots Ash. He is much sexier now, with his shorter hair and a fresh tattoo on his chest. He’s wearing ultra tight jeans and a wide open leather vest with nothing underneath.
She takes a moment to undress him with her eyes as she bites her bottom lip. He really is a handsome man. A few more moments go by before she sighs. She has to pull herself away from daydreaming, so she turns from the glass and smiles at Dan, who has walked up behind her to look, too. His hand slips from the middle of her back to her waist as she turns.
It’s a shame I’m so weak for musicians. Her thoughts turn back to the inked-up rock-star.
“Yeah, it is a great view you have,” Jewel compliments Dan as she peers over to Greg and Alyssa, who are enjoying their conversation.
Dan agrees and offers her a seat on the couch. He stands up and grabs some alcohol from his desk. He brings two glasses over with it.
“There are a few perks to being manager,” he starts as he motions to Jewel, “like hot women, a great view, top-shelf alcohol.”
He adds a single ice cube as he offers her a glass, but she didn’t even notice what he poured. In all honesty, Jewel had to admit to herself that she had forgotten that this wais how some men wooed women, with tons of alcohol and lots of flirty remarks. She’d grown both accustomed to and bored with it a long time ago, which was possibly the main reason she switched to musicians.
Guess it’s better than an optometrist, but things are never boring or routine with musicians. They add an element of the extreme to life. They are intense in everything they do. They don’t have to rely on alcohol to appear desirable to a woman.
Jewel shakes the thoughts from her head before returning to the conversation at hand. If she lets herself be too distracted she wouldn’t get what she wanteds tonight.
“I’m sure that’s true,” she replies as she takes a sip of her drink. It tastes like scotch. In her peripheral vision she sees Ash rip his skimpy shirt off and throw it into the crowd just as he goes into a loud chorus, one that Jewel can hear slightly better than the rest of the music from the office. He is intense, shirtless and sweaty. In the moment Jewel begins to fantasize about him again, much like the swooning girls in the crowd and the ones fighting over his torn shirt.
I would love another night with a man like him.
Her daydream reminds her how musicians make great lovers.
They sweep me off my feet every time.
In an attempt to refocus, she takes another sip and clears her throat. She looks at Dan and tries to imagine if he could make love to her in the same way, but with that thought she’s once again drawn back to Ash. It’s nearly impossible for her to stay focused on the manager in front of her as the musician on stage constantly pulls her gaze toward him.
She excuses her behavior as trying to name the songs he is singing and by saying she’s just a huge fan of Ash. Dan seems unfazed, though. There are probably tons of women who come up here and can hardly take their eyes off the singer. Dan wouldn’t care so long as he gets a woman at the end of the night, Jewel guesses.
In the background she can hear Alyssa and Greg starting their hot and heavy session. In her own desire to get laid tonight, Jewel draws Dan in for a kiss. The taste of whiskey mixes in their mouths. Though Dan is taken by surprise at first, he pulls her in closer, kissing her back with an intensity that makes her want him a little bit more.
The door suddenly slams open and both Dan and Jewel break apart in an instant to look. A rather muscular man haughtily struts in and begins to demand the band’s money.
“OK boys, no more fucking around. We need to get paid… NOW.”
Dan and Greg bolt up from the women and start to scramble around the office. What they think they are accomplishing is unclear, but they look like chickens trying to avoid getting their necks broken.
“Wolfe.. Wolfe—”
Greg attempts to start but is cut off by Wolfe, who is a massive man, intimidating in stature and strength. He has a spider tattoo on his neck, he is wearing black leather clothing and biker gloves, and he is livid.
“Who gave you this job in the first place?!” he demands as he slams his fist into the wooden liquor cabinet. The wood splinters and cracks, bottles bust.
“Who let you run this here club? You best start doin’ a better job of it!” Wolfe stops his demands as he notices the women in the room. Jewel had stood up just moments ago. Wolfe begins to look her over. His eyes speak all the words he isn’t saying. He likes what he sees and obviously wants her. He is practically licking his lips while looking her up and down.
“I apologize ladies. That was rude. These guys and I, well...”
He clicks his tongue at the words. “We have to talk some business. So if you don’t mind, you both can wait in the band’s dressin’ room if you’d like.”
There is no hesitation. In the same moment Wolfe speaks, Alyssa is making her way to the door. She then turns to see if Jewel is following her. Jewel gets up, knowing full well the implications of following Alyssa and what it means for her anti-musician resolve. She stops at the door to glance into the room. Dan and Greg have expressions of pure loss on their face. Their night has been ripped away from them and their excitement has turned to fear. Jewel can’t help but to snicker. She was having a hard time getting into Dan anyway.
“Have fun, boys,” she states before following Alyssa. “Maybe the band will know how to get a lady a beer when she wants one.”