Katie
I pulled my coat on and headed out of work with a sigh of relief, feeling my shoulders relax as I stepped out of the small computer shop. It wasn’t normally a busy place, but we did make enough to keep myself and my co-workers busy and paid—maybe not well paid, but still paid.
It was just part-time for me, all I cared about was having a way to pay rent when I was busy working on my own business. I wasn’t going to work for someone else my entire life; that wasn’t my thing. I wanted to get into the marketing business.
Of course, that involved going to school for it, and then I’d have to break into the business. It was going to be a lot of work, but I was okay with that. It would be worth it, right? I bit my lip and nodded to myself, glancing towards the coffee shop. I normally didn’t get a coffee when I didn’t have that long of a walk until getting home but was in the mood to treat myself a little, so I headed towards it.
When I reached the door, I paused, my brow furrowing.
I’d recognize those steel blue eyes anywhere, but it was the fact that everyone wanted to talk to him that confused me. I opened the door, my head tilting to the left as I watched him closely. He smiled widely as one girl took a picture with him.
“Thank you so much.” She seemed about to cry.
“No, thank you. I love meeting fans. But I’ve got a show tonight I’d better—” Before he could finish his sentence, another girl came towards him, and he was stuck taking another picture. He caught my eye, and for a split second, I could have sworn he didn’t look happy to see me. Or maybe it was just that he was stuck here.
Biting my lip, I stepped past him towards the counter. The girls behind the counter didn’t notice me. Instead, they were too busy staring at him. My mind processed everything. He looked familiar to me because I had seen him somewhere; the fact he was famous was obvious by the way the girls were acting. I cleared my throat softly, trying to get someone’s attention. After a couple seconds of it not working, I decided to speak up.
“Um, hi.” I waved to one girl, who caught my eye. My tone was anything but nice.
“Oh, I’m sorry … I just … can you believe it?” She giggled.
“I’d like a small hot chocolate.”
Normally, I’d say please, but I hated crappy customer service.
“Oh, sure … that will be $2.34.”
I handed over the bills and waited for my change. She was staring at him again. I cleared my throat loudly, which seemed to get her attention, and she quickly got me my change.
It didn’t take as long as I thought it would to get my hot chocolate.
I spun to see the guy still being crowded by people and chewed my lip. Part of me felt kind of bad for him; the other part saw a once in a lifetime chance. I knew he had a show tonight; if any of his fans had been listening, they’d have known he needed to get ready for it. Then again, people were selfish.
I stepped right into the middle of the crowd and ‘accidently’ pushed a girl out of the way as she tried to get closer to him.
“I’m sorry ladies,” I spoke loudly enough that everyone here could hear me. My eyes roamed over the people in front of me. I stood between them and some guy that it seemed they were all dying to get at. “But we’ve got to get going. He’s got to get ready for the show tonight—I mean, you are going to be there, right?” I didn’t wait for any of them to answer. “You want him well rested. Don’t you? I’m sure we’ll try to make time to see fans before the show, but right now we’ve got to get going.”
Without another word, I grabbed his arm, shoved him in front of me and we headed for the door.
I didn’t hear anyone say anything. My heart raced the entire time.
I couldn’t believe I’d just done that. I’d just gotten up in front of all those people and told them off for some random guy whose name I didn’t even know.
“Thank you,” he said as soon as the door closed behind me.
I shrugged. “I figured you could use the help ...” Pausing, I wondered if I should say what I wanted to say. No harm in it. “Who the fuck are you anyways?”
He looked at me, his eyes narrowing a little, but he didn’t look mad. “You actually don’t know?”
“No.” I shook my head, waiting for him to tell me who he was. “I mean, obviously, you’re someone. Don’t get me wrong, you’re cute, but I’ve never seen girls jumping at the bait to take a picture with a guy just because he’s famous, and you said you have a show so that would suggest you’re an artist of some kind.” Music? Movies?
“I’m in a band.”
Music.
“Ahh.” I nodded as we headed across the parking lot.
“Ever heard of West Living?”
“Name rings a bell. I can’t say I’ve ever heard one of their songs.” It felt stupid admitting to a guy that I’d never heard his music before, but I wasn’t going to lie. Although I was going to go home and Google them, that much was for sure.
“Would you like to?”
I stopped, turning to stare at him. Was he saying what I thought he was saying? Our eyes locked, and for a split second, a shiver ran down my spine. I licked my suddenly dry lips.
“If I didn’t know better, I’d think you just invited me to your concert.”
“I did.”