My Rock #2 (The Rock Star Romance Series - Book #2) (6 page)

I’d just gotten home and started cutting up chicken
for stir-fry when my phone rang. I looked at it and saw that it was my mom. I’d
forgotten it was Saturday and time for her weekly call.

“Hi Mom,” I answered as I turned the heat on
underneath the rice.

“Hi Elly. How are you, sweetie?”

“I’m good, Mom. I’m just tired. It’s been a long
week with the show and all.” I had the phone tucked under my chin as I finished
cutting the chicken into cubes.

“We’ve been watching it. I told your father the
first night that the kind of hippy looking boy…Trent or…Tristan, that’s it, he
looked so familiar to me. It took me until last night to realize where I knew
him from. He was in that band you were so crazy about.”

“Yeah, that’s him,” I told her. “I’m surprised you
recognized him.”

“Well, he was all over everything in the house for a
few years. I would be a terrible mother if I hadn’t recognized him after all
that.”

“You could never be a terrible mother,” I told her,
honestly.

“I bet you were so excited when you saw him there!
Do you get to talk to him? Did you tell him about your crush?”

“I was excited at first,” I said, “But after a while
you just realize that even though we think they’re stars, they’re really just
like everyone else. Yes, I have to talk to him and no, I didn’t tell him about
my crush,” I lied just a little.

I finished cutting up the chicken and put it in the
pan to brown while I mixed up the glaze for it. I put the soy sauce, brown
sugar and corn-starch in a bowl and whisked it up.

“Well, that’s a good attitude to have honey,” my
mother was saying, “If you’re going to be in the business. You can’t be getting
starstruck….it wouldn’t be fair to the other contestants.”

She cracked me up when she said things like, “in the
business.” I didn’t laugh at her though, I let her think she was cool and hip.
“Very true, Mom. How is Dad?”

I poured the ginger, garlic and red pepper into the
bowl and whisked it again while she talked.

“Oh, you know your father. He’s as ornery as ever.
Last night when we were watching the show he kept saying, ‘Where is she? I
don’t see her.’ I said, ‘Hank, she’s a producer not a performer. She’s behind
the scenes’.”

I laughed as I dropped the chicken into the glaze. I
mixed it up and then set the bowl in the refrigerator. I could hear my parents
having that conversation. They were so funny together. Someday I wanted to have
a relationship just like them. They’d set a really good example for a girl who
made such really bad decisions.
 
I missed
them, some days more than others. I had given a lot of consideration to how far
away from them I’d be when I moved out to California almost four years ago, but
being a producer was something I’d wanted to do so badly I could taste it. I
had pretty much two options, New York and California. I was from the Midwest,
so I had been hoping California wouldn’t be such of a culture shock. I also
have to admit that living in the same city as most of the stars in the U.S. was
also a draw. I will honestly say that bumping into Tristan had crossed my mind.
I wasn’t thinking it would quite go like it had. I’ve adjusted to L.A. now
though, and I can’t imagine working anywhere else.
 

“Are you enjoying your work, honey? Are they nice
people to work for?”

“I am. I like it a lot. They are super nice people,
and as a matter of fact, the Executive Producer of the show has offered me a
position touring with the top ten contestants next year. I’m seriously
considering it. I’ve already checked into taking my classes online for my last
semester.”

“Wow! That’s great, honey. Maybe you can stop by and
see us.”

I laughed again, “Maybe, Mom, we’ll see.”

“How is Susie?” she asked. On my parent’s trip out
here last summer they’d met Susie. They had both fallen in love with her. I
think if they were asked to choose between us, it would be a difficult choice
for them now. I’d gotten lucky finding Susie to room with. She and I had a few
classes together our first semester and we both lived in the dorms. We weren’t
really friends, but I heard her talking about finding her own apartment one day
and I asked if she needed a roommate. We talked about it for a while and found
out that we had a lot in common. We were both neat freaks, neither of us were
party girls and we were in the same program so we could study together and help
each other out with our classes. It’s been over two years now since we shared
our apartment and it’s still working out great.

“She’s good,” I said. “Working hard at school. She
got a part-time job too on one of the Nickelodeon shows. She only works a few
hours a week right now but they tell her it can work into something more. Her
parents pay for her school and bills, so she doesn’t need the money. She was
just looking for the experience. She likes it.”

I dropped the vegetables into the hot oil and they
made a loud sizzling noise. I could picture my mother grabbing her heart as she
said, “Oh my goodness! What was that?”

“Just stir-fry, Mom. I’m making dinner.”

“Oh wow! You work sixteen hour days, go to school
and cook? There’s some really lucky guy out there that’s going to find you
someday. What’s that Hank? Your father says, “And beautiful too.”

“Aw, thanks guys,” I said. Sometimes, when I was in
a blue mood I would wonder if that would ever happen. I imagined sometimes that
I would be alone forever. It was a fact that my judgment in men was
questionable at best. Maybe I would be better off staying single. I could be
like my Aunt Sally…she never got married or had children and now she spent her
time traveling the world. I could see myself as a world traveler. It would
break my mother’s heart though. She can’t wait to be a grandmother.

“I should let you get back to making your dinner,
Sweetheart,” my mom said.

“Okay, Mom. I love you. Tell Daddy I love him too.”

“We love you too; call us if you need anything.”

“I will, Mom.”

Then suddenly, “Do you need anything? Do you have
enough money?”

I laughed. “I’m fine, Mom, but thank you.” My
parents had worked and saved their whole lives for my college education. I was
extremely grateful to them for that. Their sacrifice was another huge reason I
couldn’t blow this internship or screw around with my education. The money I
made working was all for me right now, but I was also saving some of it so when
I went on for my Master’s life wouldn’t be so hard.

“Okay honey, tell Susie we said hello.”

“I will.”

“I love you.”

“I love you too.” It was the same thing every
Saturday. I could always hear the worry in my mom’s voice even when she was
trying to stay upbeat. I wondered if all moms were like that, even worried
after their children grow up. I didn’t mind it, I actually kind of appreciated
it and I would miss it if it ever changed.

CHAPTER
NINE

TRISTAN

I spent the better part of the last week practicing
for round four. I worked with the musician’s three times and I actually asked
their opinions and took their advice. That was huge for me. My own band is
usually afraid to say or change anything. I don’t mean to be a dick all the
time, I just get caught up in the music and I want to think I know best. The
truth is that I don’t always. Sometimes I needed help and part of the reason my
career had failed the first time was because I refused to acknowledge that.

The pianist thought the tempo was too fast and the banjo
guy thought that we didn’t really need a banjo. I changed the tempo, but I kept
the banjo. There was just something about it that I liked and the drummer
agreed with me on that point.

It had been five days since the elimination round
and a week or so longer than that since the “closet sex” and I hadn’t heard
from Emmy. I wondered if I ever would again. It was still shocking to me that
she was having sex with a guy like me in places like that at all. Even after
all that, she still didn’t strike me as the type. I wondered sometimes how much
of it had to do with who I used to be. I didn’t care, as long as it kept
coming. One thing I liked best about her was that she wasn’t my usual “type,”
and on top of that she wasn’t all clingy and asking where this was going and
all that girly shit. The only place I was going with a woman, ever was to bed
and so far Elly seemed okay with that. My mother had taught me a long time ago
that beyond that, women weren’t much good for anything other than complicating
your life and I definitely didn’t want to make the mistake my parents did and
bring a poor kid into my mess of a life. Of course, maybe that was why Elly
hasn’t called me. Maybe she didn’t need to ask where it was going and she
figured it out on her own.

I was going to have to find a woman soon, even if it
wasn’t Elly. My balls were turning blue. This was the longest I’ve gone without
getting laid in years. I usually went out a couple times a week even if we
weren’t playing a gig. The chicks I picked up in bars were so easy. All it took
was a joint or a vial to get most of them back to my place and naked. If all I
could find were the particularly skanky ones, I didn’t even take them home, I’d
just do them in a bathroom. Elly had been such a surprise to me that night,
even finding someone like her in that bar had been bizarre. I wanted to fuck
her as soon as I saw her. I was afraid if we went through the whole ritual, it
would give her time to change her mind, that’s why I fucked her in that
bathroom.

Tonight though, I had to push all of that to the
back of my brain and concentrate on my song. I was going to blow them away
tonight, this time I was sure of it.

When I got to the studio, I saw Elly. I smiled at
her and she smiled back, but it was a tight, fake smile. She seemed to be
spending as much time on the other side of the room from me as possible. Every
time I tried to catch her eye, she would turn her head away quickly. I finally
gave up and decided to go over the song again in my head until it was my turn.
I couldn’t afford to get distracted right now anyways.

Elly finally called me when it was my turn. The
sound of her voice made me horny. It was freaking ridiculous. I pictured my
mother’s face to get rid of the woody and I walked over to where she was
standing at the door to the stage. I started to open my mouth to talk to her
when she ripped open the door and practically pushed me out on the stage. I
don’t know what the hell was up her butt all of a sudden. The stage was set up
with the band and I left the stuff with Elly at the door. I strolled out to the
middle of the stage and up to the microphone. The stupid judges wanted to ask
me how I was doing and make small talk…I just wanted to get this over with. I
had to brush off the emcee that just got on my nerves, and then I signaled the
pianist and he started to play while the Diva was still talking. She was
looking put out right up until I started singing. Then, I could see the change
in her face…in all of their faces. The audience was going crazy and for the first
time in a really long time, I felt like a star all over again.

When the song ended, the judges not only clapped,
they all three got to their feet. The other contestants and most of the
audience were on their feet too. It was fucking sweet like being on the best
high ever. It took me back to the days when the ovation was the rule instead of
the exception.

When the applause died down the judges fought over
who got to talk first this time. They said things like, “awesome” and “amazing”
and “you brought a tear to my eye.” I walked out of there feeling like I had
this in the bag. I was already counting my million bucks.

CHAPTER
TEN

ELLY

I’d done my absolute best to ignore Tristan while he
was in the contestant’s waiting room. I wish it wasn’t so hard. I think part of
me is still fascinated by who he used to be and the other part of me is a
closet slut. I’m not really a slut, but I have definitely never been as
interested in sex as I have been since I met Tristan in the bar that night.
Every time I look at him, I want to jump the guy’s bones, and even when he’s
not around I’m thinking about it.

I think I did a good job of ignoring him tonight
though. I did smile back at him once, but that was because he caught me looking
at him and I didn’t really have any choice. Otherwise, I made sure the rest of
the evening that he didn’t catch me.

I was watching the monitor as he walked up to the
mic. I saw him run his hand across the cross that he wore around his neck, just
like he used to when he was a kid. It gave me a strange sense of nostalgia. It
was things like that…the cross and the significance of it that I’d like to know
about him. I was beginning to doubt that would ever happen. Tristan was
obviously only interested in sex and he didn’t want to waste time on idle chit
chat. My thoughts all came to a screeching halt as soon as he opened his mouth
and started singing. I’m not kidding; it was the most beautiful sound that I’d
ever heard. I was again taken back to the days when I worshipped him. It hadn’t
always been about his looks. Even when I was a kid, I knew he was incredibly
talented.