Camden

To say that karaoke was taken seriously in Asia was an understatement. The private KTV lounge that Matt had rented for everyone involved in the Due North tour was infinitely more lavish than the dive bars in the States that karaoke was usually relegated to. This room, aptly named “Dubai Hall,” was a slightly gaudy display. It boasted black marble floors with Middle Eastern-inspired patterns in contrasting white marble, ornate golden furniture, a long, leather banquette of seating against the back wall, and a lavish neon light display that resembled abstract flames aligned the walls and slowly washed the room in a muted glow of different jewel tones every five minutes. The room had just a hint of Vegas, which apparently was Matt Castell’s element.

I had arrived just thirty minutes ago and had already been treated to his rendition of Seal’s “Kiss from a Rose,” and for good measure Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger.” The annoying thing was that he was fucking amazing, and I suspected that he was just getting warmed up.

Matt wrapped up a somewhat shaky duet of “I Got You Babe” with Alexis, for whom singing was apparently not her gift. Just as he secured the mic to the stand, I watched him rush to the door to greet Lizzy, Evander, and of course, Kate, who drew my eye in an electric blue mini dress that seemed to shine a bright spotlight on all of her gorgeous features. That silky chestnut hair that she wore down for the evening brought to mind a visage of it fanned out beneath her as I pushed into her for the first time and that perfectly round ass…God, the things I would do to you. I watched as Matt swept the group over to his table which was just next to mine. Kate gave me a quick wink as she sat down, but she was just far enough away from me that I knew we wouldn’t be able to carry on any sort of a conversation in the loud room. She was, however, close enough that I felt her presence acutely as I snuck mindless glances at her.

Just as James began to sing Kanye’s “Golddigger,” a waitress came around to the table dropping off plates of appetizers from the “fried foods” menu as it read on the English translation on the menu, obviously hoping to appease a Western crowd such as ours. James continued on about “wanting a prenup,” and if I didn’t know better, I’d say he was pointing his gaze in Kate’s direction. Almost instantly, I noticed Amber and Kate exchange a distinctly conspiratorial glance followed by rolls of the eyes and a pair of warm smiles before Amber turned her attention back to the waitress clearing a few things from the table.

“Can we get another bottle?” she asked as she emptied the remaining contents of a bottle of Veuve Clicquot into a fresh glass. “Oh, and would you mind sending this glass of champagne to the girl in the blue dress over there?” She pointed to Kate a few seats away, and the waitress nodded.

“Have I missed something? Are you two besties now?” I asked Amber, a bit perplexed by the sudden niceties.

“Let’s just say, I get it now. Girl’s built of stronger stuff than I gave her credit for.”

I smiled, already knowing all too well what Kate was built of, but gratified to hear Amber now aware, as well.

James was trying to take the high Jamie Foxx lines of the song and failing miserably. Amber and I both grimaced.

“He’s a first-class asshole, isn’t he?” I said, regarding his ridiculous display in the staging area. “How have I never noticed this before?”

Amber laughed distractedly as she eyed James for a moment before catching me steal yet another glimpse of Kate, who was ignoring James and in deep conversation with Lizzy. Amber grinned at me as I acknowledged having been caught in a stare.

“So, listen, I was thinking…when we get to London, I might hop on the Eurostar and head up to Paris for a few days, see some friends, maybe meet you back in Venice for the festival?”

“Really?”

“Yeah, and maybe I take that clown with me?” Amber said, glancing at James and shaking her head.

I regarded her seriously now. “Why do you want to do that all of a sudden?”

“As much as it sucks for me, hon, I’m beginning to suspect you’ve outgrown the novelty of having sidekicks,” she said commanding my attention now. “I don’t know, it kind of seems like you might be ready for something a little better now,” Amber said as she took a sip from her glass and glanced over her shoulder at Kate and then back to me. “She seems like she might be a good one, Cam.”

“Is that, right? You like Kate now, do you?”

She smiled, reconciling herself to that fact. “Hell, I might even want to be her when I grow up.”

I laughed. “And when might that be, Amber?”

“Not anytime soon!” Amber said just before yelling over to Matt, who was scanning through the karaoke machine presumably for yet another reason to take the mic. “Cue up ‘Material Girl’ for me, will you?” Amber yelled, earning a little applause from the crowd as she headed up to the stage.

I watched as James resumed his seat next to me, picking up the fresh bottle of champagne that the waitress had laid on the table and lifting it to his mouth to drink straight from the bottle. I just stared at him.

“What?” he said, looking ridiculously perplexed by my now fully disgusted expression.

---

To say that the rest of the night was liquor soaked was an understatement. The plentiful cocktails and champagne served perfectly to loosen up the room. Everyone took to the mic that night. Megan from the studio, who was drunk off her ass, did a terrible version of Kelly Clarkson’s “Since U Been Gone.” Alexis’s PA did some hideous Taylor Swift song. I did a fairly decent version of “Sexy Back,” which of course amped up the ladies in the room, but it also got Kate out of her seat and cheering, which shamelessly was really all I had been after in the first place. Even good old Tony graced the room with a little Barry White. A good night was being had by all, but I was shocked to find that the showstopper was delivered by none other than my baby sister and her apparent new posse.

Lizzy, Kate, and Evander had taken to the mic for the first time near the end of the night, and by that point, most of the room was drunkenly engaged in their own animated conversations. The karaoke had become background fodder, but the minute Evander opened his mouth and began to wail the Jessie J intro of “Bang Bang,” the entire room fell silent with their full attention on him. He was like the perfect mix of Aretha and Little Richard and would have no trouble turning all of the judge’s chairs on The Voice. Once the initial shock wore off, everyone began crowding in on the group and cheering the threesome on as they added in a little light choreography, and Kate and Lizzy backed him up for the chorus. The room was suddenly very much alive.

After the first verse, Evander shifted out of center stage, and Kate shifted in, blowing everyone’s heads back as she took the Arianna Grande verse. Now, Kate had told me that she could sing “a bit,” I think she’d said, but this was on a whole other level. In a matter of seconds, she had put the rest of the room to shame for hogging the mic all night. The crowd was with her. And me—well, I couldn’t get over how fucking gorgeous she looked as she commanded the room. When she looked straight at me and said that I’d “need a bad girl to blow my mind,” all of the blood rushed to my cock. I wanted her so incredibly bad, I could barely contain myself. All I could do was stare. It had been at least a minute before I realized that I hadn’t taken a breath or blinked. So fucking beautiful.

The only thing that pulled me out of my daze was my sister now taking the center spot, causing a rush of anxiety to wash over me. I knew better than anyone that Lizzy was a hideous singer, which is why I was thrilled to realize that Lizzy was doing the Nicki Minaj verse which was essentially…a rap. I laughed at the realization of how perfect this was. The crowd went crazy. This cute little unsuspecting girl was rapping a mile a minute and being a little badass while she did it. To see that amount of confidence come out of a girl who I knew preferred remaining in the background made me thrilled for her. I saw Kate and Evander high-five each other behind her and knew instantly that they had put her up to this.

As Lizzy wrapped up the song, the room went crazy. Matt rushed over to Lizzy and lifted her off the ground in an elated hug. I had long suspected that Lizzy had a crush on Castell and could only imagine how happy she likely was at that moment. Who am I kidding? I was happy to see Castell not draped all over my girl for once, too.

I glanced over at Kate and had a sudden urge to have her in my arms, as well, and just didn’t really care who was watching. I grabbed her hand and slowly pulled her toward me. Our eyes locked as we began to enter No Man’s Land. She didn’t resist for even a second and simply wrapped her arms around my neck like it was the most natural thing in the world, and instinctively I wrapped my arms around her waist, instantly becoming mesmerized by the closeness of our bodies and the heat growing between us. We didn’t move for a minute as we stared into each other’s eyes, silently acknowledging that this might be our turning point. Something washed over me at that moment. This felt so right. For the first time in a very long time, I knew exactly where I belonged—and I was already there.

I tugged her into a tight hug. “That was amazing,” I whispered in her ear. I didn’t have to look at her; I could just feel her smile against my cheek.

“I’m glad you liked it,” she whispered back.

I pulled back to look at her beautiful face. “I’m assuming you put Lizzy up to that?”

“I might have had a little something to do with it,” she said innocently with a shrug.

I looked her in the eye in all seriousness. “Thank you. It was fucking brilliant. You made her night.”

We smiled at each other, seeming to have a million conversations in our silence. As quick as the moment came, it was over when Matt tugged at Kate’s arm, pulling her attention away from me unexpectedly.

“Katie-cat! Let’s do our song now.”

My brow furrowed. Our song? What the fuck? Kate smiled at a reasonably inebriated Matt and good-naturedly let him pull her away from me and over to the karaoke machine to select a new song. I immediately felt the loss, and it made my blood boil. That was supposed to have been our moment—I could feel it—and Castell had just destroyed it in a matter of seconds. I fumed as an acoustic version of “Teenage Dirtbag” began playing and Matt hammed it up for the audience as he did a perfect solo of the first verse. The part that gutted me, though, was when Kate and Matt harmonized perfectly for the chorus as they looked intently into each other’s eyes. Bloody hell. Everyone in the room was enthralled with the performance, whereas I now merely had the urge to punch Castell in the face.

It was a blessing that the song was short because when Kate got to her solo, revealing that she was ‘just a teenage dirtbag’ like him, I was about ready to vomit. The two were sickeningly sweet together, and the rest of the crowd applauded heartily as I moved in to retrieve Kate, taking what I knew was a possessive grasp of her waist and pulling her toward my table this time.

Our departure was met with resistance, though, as Matt grabbed for Kate’s hand at the last second.

“Let’s do one more, Kate,” he said with a bit of a slur.

“I think that’s enough for one night, mate,” I said barely managing to calm my temper.

“It’s enough when I say it’s enough, bro! We’re in China! This is fucking KTV!” he said, over-excitement dripping from his voice.

“Cam’s right, Matt. I think I’ve had enough for tonight.”

“You’re a fucking killer of joy, man!” Matt said just before he gave me a gentle shove of the shoulder–a shove, mind you, that in any other instance I would have laughed off, but with his hold on Kate’s hand at that moment and his incessant meddling—I could just feel the rage simmering in my gut. Before I knew it, I found myself shoving Castell back almost involuntarily. It was a move that even I had to admit was far more aggressive than he deserved, causing Kate to look up at me with utter shock in her eyes.

“Cam!” she said, giving me that tone that said very clearly, “I’m not angry, I’m just very disappointed,” which everyone knows hurts far worse than pure anger.

“He shoved me, Kate. I was just defending myself!” I said, sounding vaguely like a schoolboy out at recess.

“He’s obviously drunk! I thought you were better than that.”

I sighed, knowing she was right. Fuck! “Kate, I…”

“I’m tired, Cam. I’m just going to go back to the hotel,” she said in an overly exhausted tone.

I watched as Evander gathered Kate’s things at the table and went with her, presumably to catch a cab. Lizzy eyed me, apparently unsure of whose side to take. I nodded to her, telling her it was okay to follow Kate. There was no mistaking it tonight—I had been an ass.