Chapter 10
Bailey
I was close enough to him that I could taste his breath. Even with the whiskey, I wanted to devour his lips. I was craving him. I wanted him to take me back to his house, and I wanted him to make love to me.
“I don’t mind taking you to my place,” Darren said. “But are you sure that’s a good idea?”
“I’m very sure,” I told him.
He escorted me out to his Ford Focus. I was so drunk that I could barely stand up straight. As he drove me home, we didn’t really talk. We weakly sang a few bars of a few songs, but I was too drunk to even do that.
It felt like it only took a minute to get from the bar to Darren’s house. It was a quaint house, but I didn’t truly register it at that moment. All I wanted was his body.
We got through the door, and we were greeted by a gorgeous Labrador that jumped up and licked me repeatedly.
“Oh, my God!” I fawned. “He’s so adorable! I didn’t know you had a dog!”
“His name is Bo,” he told me. “He normally doesn’t come right up to a new person. He must have a good feeling about you.”
“I’m totally going to steal him just so you know,” I told him as Bo kept giving me love. I kept petting him. “You’re such a good boy, Bo!”
“He probably wants to pee,” said Darren. “Want to go out, buddy?”
Bo leaped from me over to Darren, following him out of the house. Bo barely spent any time on the grass doing his business before he was back bounding into the house to return to me.
“I think he’s choosing me over you, mister,” I said to Darren.
Darren laughed. “You can’t have him.”
Time went by in a rapid blur again. I pet Bo for a long time, unsure of where Darren had gone in the house or what he was doing. Before I knew it, I was growing tired. I was leaning against the couch, eyes closing as I rubbed Bo’s thick fur.
Then, I was up in the air. Darren picked me up and began to carry me from my spot toward his bedroom
“Aw, were you getting jealous of all the attention I’m giving Bo?” I asked.
“You need to sleep,” he said.
“I need a lot of things,” I said as I looked him up and down.
“You’re too drunk.”
“You’re drunk, too.”
“You can’t even walk,” he said. “You’re sleeping in my bed.”
“With you?” I giggled.
“I’m taking the couch.”
“You’re not sleeping on the couch in your own house,” I said. “Come on. Sleep with me, Darren.”
“I’d love to, but I really can’t do that,” he said as he lowered me onto his big, comfortable bed.
“Who cares if I’m drunk? I want you under the covers with me. Let me see your tattoos up close.”
“It would be dangerous if we slept in the same bed tonight.”
“That’s the idea.” I winked.
“You’re drunk,” he said. “And, you’ve been through a lot.”
“Exactly! I need a sweet release. I know you’d give it to me.”
He looked frustrated. I could tell he wanted to oblige me and do what we both wanted. His chivalry still dictated his actions.
“I’m not sleeping with you under these conditions, Bailey.”
“Come on!” I whined. “We always used to sleep in the same bed. Who cares?”
“I care,” he stated. “Trust me. This is for the best.”
Before I had a chance to trust him, question him, or even say goodnight to him, I had surrendered to the power of his bed. I passed out as I looked up at his beautiful face.
I woke up the next morning majorly hungover. My memories of the night before were weak, and I didn’t even realize where I was right away.
Once it occurred to me that I was in Darren’s bed in Darren’s house, I flung the covers off of me like they were on fire. I looked at my phone, checked my reflection, and flung the bedroom door open.
I found him in the living room, sleeping on his couch. The blanket he was sleeping with had fallen to the floor sometime during the night. He was breathing heavily, and he still looked gorgeous, even with his mouth hanging open and clothes disheveled.
I wasn’t looking at him for long before he woke up. He smiled.
“Morning,” he said.
“Morning,” I reciprocated. “Last night is kind of blurry right now. I assume since you’re sleeping out here, and I was alone in there, we didn’t?”
“We didn’t sleep together,” he assured me. “Nope. I dropped you on the bed, and you passed out like twenty seconds later.”
“Ah,” I said, trusting him. “Ugh, my head is killing me.”
“Want me to make you coffee?”
“Actually, why don’t I take you out for breakfast?” I offered. “It’s the least I can do after blowing you off the other day.”
“I’ll take you up on that,” he said grinning. He grabbed his keys and started putting on his shoes.
I chuckled. “You’re not going to take a shower or something?”
“I’m hungry,” he replied. “And, my head is killing me, too. I need some air. Let’s go to Floyd’s.”
We were quiet on our car ride. Once we found our seat at Floyd’s, we ordered. I got my “country breakfast” that I used to get all the time, and we mostly just sat there and nursed our woes with our breakfast. I was too exhausted to decide on any topic of conversation, and I was grateful that he wasn’t bringing up any of my humiliating behavior from the night before. He seemed grateful that I wasn’t asking him what we’d talked about. I seemed to recall something about lingering feelings he still had for me.
“So, when are you heading back to Memphis?” he eventually asked me.
“I’m not sure yet,” I answered. “I kind of don’t want to go back just yet. I’ve got a lot of shit waiting for me there that I’m not ready to confront yet.”
“Like what?”
“Recording contracts,” I replied. “Decisions about touring. Work stuff. I don’t want to think about work right now.”
“I don’t blame you.”
“I need some time,” I said. “I don’t want to rush back. There are still some things I want to figure out before I get back to work and get distracted.”
“Such as? What are you going to do?”
“Well, I’ll have to make a decision about my father’s house,” I said with a weight growing heavier in my chest. “And I don’t know. It has been weird being back here. I feel like there has to be some loose ends I have to tie up.”
“Hmm,” he said. “Well, if you need any help, you know how to reach me.”
“Thanks, Darren.”
“You know,” he said. “If you were still in town tomorrow, there’s a pretty cool thing going on downtown I’d like to take you to.”
“Really?” I asked smiling. “What would that be?”
“On Friday nights, they have an event,” he said. “They play live music, have a bunch of food trucks out, and they have beer carts out with different samples of beer. It’s pretty cool.”
“That sounds too cool for Rome,” I said. “I had no idea that was even a possibility. That couldn’t have been going on when I lived here.”
“It wasn’t,” he said. “It started about a year ago or so. See what you miss when you aren’t around?”
“There’s live music and food trucks in Tennessee, too,” I said.
“It’s pretty cool,” he said. “And, it’s actually music. It’s stuff by artists, not drunk locals.”
I laughed, playing with my hair anxiously. “Okay! Sounds like a plan.”
“Don’t blow me off, missy.” He winked. “My heart can’t handle rejection again.”
“If I’m here tomorrow, I promise I’ll be there,” I said. “I’m wondering how you’ll be able to afford food and beer after you get fired.”
“Why would I get fired?”
“Shouldn’t you be at work?”
“My shift doesn’t start till noon,” he said. “I think Garrett starts at noon, too. I need to pick him up for work, actually. That’s where I’m headed after this.”
Darren drove me back to my dad’s house. I expected that he’d be dropping me off, but as we pulled into the driveway, we were both taken aback.
There was a car parked awkwardly in the driveway that I didn’t immediately recognize, but I’d put it together before Darren had even parked.
“That’s Garrett’s car,” Darren muttered.
Fueled by intense curiosity, we leaped out of the Focus and ran into my dad’s house. Clothes were littering the floor in a trail that led to my bedroom.
“Holy fuck,” I whispered. “Do you think?”
“Oh, yeah,” said Darren.
We confirmed our suspicions and looked in the bedroom. Sure enough, there was Garrett and Leah, naked, under the covers. Garrett had his arms wrapped around Leah.
“Aw,” I cooed. “Look at them.”
“Nice,” laughed Darren. He went over to Garrett and violently shook him awake.
“Huh,” stuttered Garrett. “What?”
“We’ve got work in like thirty minutes, dumbass,” Darren said to him.
In the space of only ten minutes, Garrett and Leah woke up, got dressed, got presentable, and were stumbling into the living room together.
“What’s up?” Leah said to us, yawning.
“You tell us,” I said.
“She can tell us later,” said Darren. “Garrett, we have to bounce, dude.”
Although none of us had a proper goodbye, I believed it was an unspoken certainty that we would all meet again soon after that. Leah and I stood in the living room alone, not speaking until we heard their engines revving.
“You need to spill now,” I demanded.
“I’m still drunk from last night,” mumbled Leah. “Besides, I want to know what went on with you and your soul mate.”
I rolled my eyes. “Nothing happened. We went to sleep.”
“Huh. That sucks.”
I shrugged. “What do you want to do today?”
“I figured we were going back home,” said Leah. “We need to get back to Memphis. Get back to work.”
“I know,” I said dismissively. “But there are a few things I need to get straightened out before I can go back.”
“I understand,” said Leah. “But, you know we can’t stay here forever.”
“Oh, Jesus.” I laughed. “I know that. Trust me, I don’t want to stay here forever.”
“You could have fooled me,” said Leah as she brushed her hair. “You looked like you were melting every time you looked at that man.”
I ignored her, deciding to use my time and energy into figuring out what I wanted to do with my dad’s house. It wasn’t going to be an easy feat, but that seemed easier to me than figuring out what was going on with Darren and me.