Stereo (14 page)

“What if he doesn’t try anything with me?”

“He will.”

Shaun looked up from the vending machine when she saw the band coming in from the stage as fans continued to scream for another encore in the arena behind them. Without another word she hung up the phone just as Adam made eye contact with her and ran over. To her surprise, Adam slowed to a stop and leaned down, wrapping his hands around the back of her thighs and lifting her off the floor.

Shaun screamed, but managed to wrap her legs around his waist and her arms around his neck, burying her head in the crook to hide her smile.  There were still quite a few press people lingering backstage from the interviews they’d conducted before the show, and they were now snapping away as she and Adam embraced.  She looked up from where she was holding him, and was truly shocked at the sight of cameras.  She’d completely forgotten they were there.

Was that why Adam had hugged her so enthusiastically?  All for the sake of the cameras?  She pulled back and looked into his eyes as he lowered her back down to the floor, holding her by the small of her back while pulling her body firmly against his.  Shaun was surprised to feel his body flush with hers and was even more surprised at the very evident excitement that she was sure she felt pressing against her.  His gaze was riveted to hers and he didn’t seem to notice the cameras, either.  Shaun kept her hands clasped behind his neck.

“I saw you out there,” Adam whispered.

“I saw you, too,” Shaun said, her eyes narrowing to all of the cameras around them.

“Look at me.”

Hesitantly, her eyes broke away from the many cameras and connected with Adam’s.  She couldn’t help but smile just looking at him.  The way he watched her mouth, desperately… hungrily… made it very clear to Shaun what his intentions were.

“I know you don’t want to be intimate in front of the cameras.  Not for work purposes…”  Adam took the knot she’d tied into the front of her XL White Keys t-shirt and twisted it nervously.  “I know your rules…”

Shaun nodded.

“What about doing it…Not because you have to…” He twirled the knot in her shirt around his fingers until it was tangled, holding them both hostage. “But because…”  He swallowed thickly. “Because you want to?”

Shaun’s entire body jolted in shock when the phone in her back pocket began to vibrate.

Adam froze, his face inches from hers, eyes searching as he watched her pull the ringing phone out of her pocket to answer it.  He kept his eyes on hers, her shirt still tangled in his fingers.  He tugged it gently with a small smile.

“Hello?” Shaun answered, breathlessly, unable to break eye contact.

“Did you just hang up on me? Who the hell does a girl have to sleep with to keep her best friend on the phone?”  Celia cried from the other line. “We’re not done talking.  I need to make sure you understand our rule #2 to from every conceivable angle.  We need to discuss it in depth to make sure you don’t mess up.”

Shaun wasn’t listening.  Adam still hadn’t broken their eye contact, and the look in his eyes only grew more intense with every second.  His fingers, which were still wrapped up in her shirt, had somehow snuck underneath the fabric and he was now running the back of his fingers along the sensitive skin under her belly button.  His gaze jumped from her eyes to her mouth, back and forth. 

“Hey… Hey friend.” She stuttered, hoarsely.

A small frown touched Adam’s face.

Shaun didn’t miss it.  That word ‘friend’ really did have much more power than she’d ever given it credit for.  Since she could see that the word was causing Adam distress—something she’d rather each chalk than do at that moment, she corrected herself. “Hey Celia.”

Adam raised his eyebrows and a tiny smile teased his lips.  The relief on his face spoke volumes.

“Hey Celia? That’s all you have to say to me?  What’s going on?”

Shaun continued to speak somewhat absently. “Oh, the flat iron?”

“What?!” Celia cried from the other line.

Shaun swallowed heavily when Adam continued to softly stroke the skin of her stomach, still watching her intensely.  She could feel his nails gently scratching at her skin, as if he were trying to grab hold of much more.  “Yeah, babe… it’s in the hall closet next to the wash cloths where it always is.”

“What the hell are you talking about?!”

“You see it? Okay, great.  Happy to help friend.  Bye.”  Shaun disconnected the call before Celia could say another word.  “Celia,” she said, holding up the phone in a trembling hand.

Adam could only nod, his eyes falling to her lips.  Suddenly, he spoke. “Shaun I…”  He released the hold he had on the knot of her shirt and boldly laid his hand completely against her stomach.  He could feel it heaving and was relieved to know that he wasn’t alone in his nervousness.

“You what?” she whispered.

Adam’s head fell and he took several deep breaths before looking back up at her. “I--”

Yoshi came charging into the area. “Adam!  Yo Adam!”

Adam and Shaun’s heads both snapped towards Yoshi, The White Keys’ drummer, wide eyed.

Yoshi motion behind him. “Veronica’s backstage.  She’s walking over here right now.”

Shaun looked back at Adam.  He looked like he’d seen a ghost. “Who’s Veronica?”

Swallowing heavily, Adam’s wide eyes were still riveted to where Yoshi had pointed, but his hand remained under Shaun’s shirt, warming her skin.  Finally, he answered. “My ex.”

“The Victoria’s Secret model?”

Adam could only nod and, just like that, Shaun’s eyes were just as wide as his as she waited with baited breath for the Victoria’s Secret Model to make her first appearance.

Shaun had a feeling it would be a night to remember.

Seven

Veronica was predictably tall with long, lean muscles that flexed ever so slightly with every step she took in the tiny black dress she wore.  Her blonde hair tumbled down to cover her breasts in gentle ringlets and bounced wildly around her face and body.  She looked like a Victoria’s Secret ad in real-time, right there in that dingy backstage hallway.  Shaun was almost tempted to bust out her camera phone just to catch the woman in action.  As Veronica stopped in front of Shaun, Adam and Yoshi, her bright blue eyes were only riveted to one of them—Shaun.

Shaun attempted to be cordial. “Hi Victoria.”

The blonde bombshell’s face fell.  “It’s
Veronica.”

Shaun jammed her eyes shut. “Right.  It’s just that you’re a Victoria’s Secret model and, you know, Victoria,
Veronica…
really similar names so…”  Shaun trailed off, waiting for Veronica to give her a break. When she didn’t, Shaun’s stomach fell.  “Freudian slip.” 

She suddenly felt very exposed under the model’s gaze.  Could models tell when they were in the company of another model?  Was it clear to Veronica that Shaun was a total fraud?  Did she even know anything about Shaun?  Maybe she was too busy being beautiful and perfect to follow any of the tabloids that Shaun’s face was splattered all over.

“So this is the infamous Shaun
.”

Whoops.  Apparently Victoria’s Secret models read the tabloids, too.

Shaun, surprised both by the abrupt and unexpected attention
and
the very sour, yet subtle undercurrent Veronica had just used to say her name, raised her eyebrows.  “That would be me—I guess.”  Shaun looked to Adam, but his eyes were riveted to Veronica.

“Why are you here?” he suddenly demanded.  There was a hardness behind his voice that Shaun had never heard.  The air in the room immediately stiffened.  She suddenly found herself curious to know what had gone on between these two.  It all had a very unfinished feeling and Shaun was instantly uncomfortable.

She and Yoshi met eyes.  In that moment, she felt like he was the only person in the room who was as uncomfortable as she was.  “I’ll just give you guys a minute,” Shaun mumbled, brushing past Adam and making a bee-line toward Yoshi.

“Don’t go. Shaun.”  Adam reached out and grabbed a hold of Shaun’s arm when she kept right on walking past him.  His eyes searched hers, slightly wide.

Shaun matched his hard stare.  “You are not going to drag me into this shit show,” she whispered. “Now let me go.”

Adam’s eyes searched hers for just a second longer, a hint of a smile peeking through the hard line on his lips.  “I’ll meet you later.”

“Mmhm.”  Shaun said, hurrying toward Yoshi who was already well on his way to the doors of the backstage area.  Shaun didn’t know where those doors led but she knew whatever was on the other side had to be better than what she was stewing in right now.  Adam and Veronica clearly had history—an unfinished one at that—and Shaun was in no hurry to get all tangled up in it.

Yoshi, clearly feeling the same vibe, was still making his way towards the door.  He made sure to check over his shoulder every once in a while, looking for Shaun.

Their eyes locked and Shaun smiled. It was a nice feeling to have someone looking to see if she was okay, if she was behind him.

Yoshi held the door open for her.  It led to a massive parking lot lined with buses.  Circling the parking lot was a long line of gates where hundreds of waiting fans screamed at the top of their lungs the moment they saw Yoshi.  Shaun hesitated at the sight only long enough for a large black van to pull right in front of her and Yoshi, blocking their view of the screaming fans.

Yoshi placed his hand on the small of her back as she passed.  “Welcome to the madness, Shaun.”

--

Later that night they managed to land at a rundown bar named Frieda’s. Shaun sat between Yoshi and Zach ‘Noodle’ Kernoodle, The White Keys’ bass player, at the bar--which was so wall to wall with people that the three of them were literally shoulder to shoulder.  Usually being this close to people she didn’t know well made Shaun uneasy.  Thankfully, Noodle and Yoshi were very easy to be around.

Behind them groups of friends and strangers ate, drank and grinded on the dance floor to an oddly wonderful combination of pop and western music.  The smoke filling the walls from corner to corner had taken some getting used to, but Shaun was in good company.  Yoshi was easy to talk to and Noodle was hilarious.  Shaun remembered Adam telling her that Noodle was a ‘fucking idiot’ and as she listened to his stories and jokes she felt like that was unfair.  Sure, Noodle was… a little left of center, but he clearly had a good heart.  She wished she’d taken more time to get to know them when she’d first met them at the video shoot, but she hadn’t believed she’d ever see them again.  Though the shoot had been just weeks ago, Shaun felt like it had been a lifetime.

Adam and Veronica had also made their way to Frida's and had been coupled up in the corner since they’d gotten there.  They had been at each other’s throats the entire time, far from lovey-dovey.  Shaun had read enough romance novels in her life, however, to know that being at each other’s throats was sometimes a more powerful a declaration of love than the actual act itself.  She did her best to ignore that Adam was on the other side of the bar with a woman who wasn’t her, and how shitty that was making her feel.  He wasn’t hers.  She was finding she had to remind herself of that more and more with each passing day.

Noodle slammed his third beer in under an hour and leaned into Shaun from where he was half sitting, half standing in the stool next to her.  His curly brown hair was Revlon status and the thick mane ran almost halfway down his back. “So what do you drink, Molten?”

‘Molten’ was the nickname that it had taken Noodle all of five seconds to brilliantly bestow upon Shaun.  It stood for ‘molten chocolate.’ Shaun rolled her eyes playfully and tried to raise her voice over the music.  “I told you, Noodle, I don’t drink.”

Noodle made a face. “What do you mean you don’t drink?!”

Shaun pretended to think about it. “I feel like we’ve had this exact conversation at least three times in the last twenty minutes.”

“That’s because you have,” Yoshi chimed in.

Shaun turned to Yoshi and smiled.

Yoshi’s eyes jumped from the scotch he was twirling in a slow circle and back to her.  “He likes you, you know.”

Shaun’s heart immediately sped up.  She attempted to be coy. “Huh?  Who?”  She blinked rapidly.

Yoshi didn’t entertain her faux confusion.  “He likes to play it cool, but…”

Shaun was now sitting tall, all ears.  The fact that Yoshi seemed to be done talking drove her insane, but she didn’t want to push him to elaborate for fear that it would make
her
seem insane.

“Hey,” Noodle whispered softly in her ear, prompting her to turn her attention to him. “You still don’t drink?”

“No, Noodle, I still don’t drink, but you’re sweet to…”  Shaun’s words came to a slow stop when Noodle produced a glass of white wine from what seemed out of nowhere.

“Oh Christ.”  Yoshi laughed with a shake of his head as he watched Noodle gingerly place the glass of wine in front of Shaun.  “You’re determined to make everyone around you as big of a drunk as you are.”

Noodle ignored Yoshi. “Look, Shaun, there’s no pressure or anything…. But you really do need to loosen up,” he said, smoothly, sliding the glass in front of Shaun.  He leaned in. “It’s moscato.  It’s sweet.”