A Mess of Reason (7 page)

“Maybe he’s cutting her loose…putting her
out to pasture, you know.”

“And maybe he’s not.”

“What do you want him to do?”

“How the hell should I know? I’m getting
married in two weeks. Two weeks.”

“So we’re all gonna hang out tonight like
we’re chummy buddies? Again, that’s not awkward at all. Creed will
love the concert, right? This is gonna be some fun to witness.”

“Ha ha! Actually Scout thought it would be
cool for Liberty to see, and he thinks Creed is being an idiot for
not using my technology—he thinks Creed should see it live in
action. Even though I know Creed will just snicker. He’s just not
into the concept.”

“Well, no shit. It doesn’t exactly afford
him the opportunity for hundreds of concert babes to throw
themselves at his feet or give him the chance to go back to his
dressing room to get high, now does it?”

“You are such a bitch. That’s my fiancé
you’re talking shit about.”

“Oh, please! Get your head out of your ass
already. I meant it all wrapped in love, sugar, and bacon. You know
I like Creed. Okay, that’s a lie. I do like looking at him,
though.”

“Stop talking. You’re making my stomach
sour.”

“Fine. Let’s talk bachelorette party! So,
since Scout and Striker are coming, we should all play strip poker,
right? The girls will love getting all naked in front of those two
man-pops.”

“
No!
We are not playing strip poker
at my bachelorette party. No.”

“What about skinny-dipping in the hot tub?
Or are you going to get all Liberty Storm on me and not want to get
your pussy all wet?”

“Shut up! I love skinny-dipping. I’m just
not sure I want to this time.”

“Why not? Because Scout’s there? He’s seen
your little white hiney before. So what’s the big deal? Plus you do
about the most half-assed skinny-dipping on this side of the
planet. You never take off your shirt. The rest of us sit there all
high-headlights and you just keep your bra and shirt on. What fun
is that?”

“That’s my business and you know it. You’re
so nosy tonight. Jesus. Just back off. You’re making me even more
nervous.”

“I’m sorry, love muffin. I’m not meaning to
do that. Want another beer? Might help settle your nerves. Or maybe
a shot or a lobotomy?”

“A beer. I think just a beer. No wait…a
shot. No…agh. Just get me something, I can’t even decide this. Just
be my friend and help me.”

“Beer, shot, and full strip lobotomy coming
right up! Lean on me tonight, okay? If you need me to distract
Scout or Creed, I can do it. I’ll just shake my moneymakers at
them, or whatever else you need.”

“God knows I can count on you, Rox. You and
your cans are always there for me. Thank you.”

CHAPTER EIGHT

SCOUT

I haven’t seen Tess all week and now,
walking into my bar, seeing her with Rox, makes my heart hammer. I
have a little guilt about Liberty coming into town with all that’s
gone on with Tess, but not enough for it to cause me any regrets.
Tess has made no mention of our newfound intimacy in any form. No
texts, no calls, nothing. I told her, ball’s in her court. No
pressure. Even though I feel like I have boulder on my shoulders.
So maybe it’s just status quo? Maybe we really are just back to
being best friends. The problem is, her wedding day is creeping up
on us and if she does or says nothing, then I guess that’s how this
thing’s gonna shake out. For the record, it makes me nuts.

The only beacon of clarity I’ve been able to
put my finger on over the last few days is that my relationship
with Liberty is over. I’m ending it. I won’t even fuck her tonight.
I hope to hell that’s the plan with Tess and Creed. I want to tell
her,
Please don’t, Tess…please don’t fuck your fiancé
. What
kind of a best friend says that? You see…I can’t do that to her. I
can’t tell her not to sleep with her fiancé. Can I? Too cruel?

“Well, look at you two beautiful girls
starting the party early. You guys are like chum sitting here all
gorgeous and ready for the bottom feeders.”

“Looks like we caught one! Hurry, Tess, sink
the hook.”

“Rox, I can always count on you, now can’t
I? Where the hell is Striker? I told him to get his ass here early
tonight.”

“He’s here. He’s in the back just tweaking
the equipment, but we’re pretty much good to go. Everything looks
great, and I have a little special surprise for you,” Tess says
with a wink.

Please tell me the surprise is that she is
dumping Creed. Please—even though I never pray, be good to me,
God—let those be the words she speaks.

“Do tell…or are you just going to tease me?”
She looks unbelievably gorgeous tonight. And I can’t help but
wonder if she looks this way because Creed is coming to town or
because of our lip-locking. She went a little further tonight: a
few more curls in her hair, a bit more shadow on her eyes…just
little things that I notice.

“Come with me.” She hops off her bar stool,
stumbling a tiny bit into me. That would be the five-inch heels
paired with the line-up of empty shots on the bar, I would
imagine.

“Steady, girl…you okay?” I grab her around
the waist to help her find balance, just happy as hell to be
touching her.

“Yeah, sorry. I’m a little nervous tonight.
Rox has been plying me with some extra happy juice.”

She grabs my hand and leads me to the back
room, where we manage our technology for the holographic concerts.
We walk into a crew of five guys tweaking stuff, getting ready for
tonight’s show. She takes me straight past them into the back booth
where we do previews. It’s dark and smallish, and in our current
situation, it’s amazingly intimate.

She walks to the very end of the room and
starts monkeying around with the levers, then turns to me, leans
against the wall, and lets out a deep, surrender-like breath. She
says nothing, but her vibes are intense. So intense that she pulls
me right into her. She doesn’t take her eyes off of mine and the
whole while she’s tracing her forefinger along her bottom lip. And
on her forefinger is the plastic promise ring I’d given her. It
stops me in my tracks, but not enough that I don’t place one hand
on the wall next to her head, caging her in.

“Hey, beautiful…what’s going on tonight? Am
I making you nervous, Tess?”

“I’m just…I don’t know.” Her eyes dance past
me, then bounce to my chest, my arm, my lips…she doesn’t know where
to look. Her foot taps on the ground. Sounds like nerves to me.

“Is it because Creed’s coming? Or Liberty?
Talk to me. It’s just us. I haven’t seen you all week…I miss you.
I’m guessing that’s been by design?”

“My stomach is just…it’s all in knots. I’m
sorry I’ve been avoiding you. I’m a little lost right now.”

“Come here.” I pull her into a hug—a solid
I love you
hug. Nothing more than just a boost of confidence
to let her know that we’re okay, that I’m here no matter what.
“We’re good, right? Me and you? Don’t be nervous about me, okay? I
love you, and no matter how your next few days go, I will love you
on the other side regardless. Now, I just have one question for
you.”

I have to ask. But I know I need to do it in
a way that doesn’t freak her out. So I give her my best
I-really-want-to-get-into–your-pants smile, along with a wink,
while I lift her chin up, forcing her eyes to look at me. Then I go
in close to her ear and whisper, “Are you going to fuck your fiancé
tonight?”

Cruel, maybe; thought-provoking,
definitely.

“Scout!” Then she smacks me as hard as she
can. I wrap her in my arms and kiss her forehead. No lips. Not now.
Not that I don’t want to—you know I want to kiss those lips—but it
just wouldn’t be right tonight. Not for either of us.

“Sorry, baby. I had to. Plus, look at that
smile it brought me, as well as a nice right hook. Have you been
doing push-ups?” I see her melt a little, relaxing her shoulders,
her face.

“Now, what’s my surprise? You didn’t bring
me back here so I could harass you, did you? Because if we’re back
here for another ten minutes, you might have a lot to be nervous
about.”

“Get over here so I can give you your
surprise.” She hits Play and the holographic concert starts on six
windows across the huge screen on the wall, each one showing a
separate segment. She’s standing facing the screen and I’m behind
her, so I automatically wrap my arms around her body, holding her
while we watch together. It’s what we would do any other time. I
don’t want her to feel anything weird with me. I refuse to be the
reason she feels nervous, if I can help it.

“You, my girl, are a brilliant genius.
Really, Tess, this is incredible. I’m so proud of you for all of
this, and I’m lucky as hell that I get to see you strut your stuff.
It’s cutting edge. The fact that this concert is playing tonight at
seven hundred bars around the world and will bring in almost three
millions bucks to the company…it’s unreal, baby. And we just have
to party and enjoy the show. I mean, my God, all these little bars
paying so little for this performance. Have you seen some of the
e-mails we’ve been getting? Seriously, this it it, Tess. This is
it, because of you. You are going to be a ga-billionare,
sweetheart. I’ll be able to say I knew you when, and just—”

“Tess. Hey, sorry to interrupt, Scout. The
guys told me you were back here. Hope I’m not ruining an intimate
moment between you two.”

That would be Creed, taking up oxygen in our
intimate moment.

“Creed…ohhhh, here you are!” She walks
quickly over to him with her tail slammed snugly between her
asscheeks. I could give a flying fuck that he saw me with my arms
around her.

“Creed. Hey. I’ll let you guys get
reacquainted. Nice work, Tess, truly spectacular. Creed, you are
one lucky son of a bitch.”

I walk past as Creed is planting a hardcore
mouth-fuck on her. It’s all I can do to not kick him in the nuts
and sink him to his knees. How, you might be wondering, am I going
to be able to watch her marry this cunt-lick? I have no idea. None.
Are you ready for this one? I’m the maid of honor in man-form and
yes, she has asked me to walk her down the aisle to give her away
to him since her dad uses a cane these days. How about that piece
of information to give you the warm fuzzies?

“
Scout!
” She’s running at me with
that mini-poodle-dog thing in her arms yipping. That would be
Liberty Storm, my girlfriend—soon to be ex. I need something to
take off the edge. I don’t even do drugs—okay, maybe a little pot
now and again—and Lord help me, right now I could use a hit of
something. It’s like I’ve walked out of one bad movie set onto
another. Funny thing is, I happen to be playing a rather
significant role in both of them. Brad Pitt has nothing on me
tonight.

I’m not counting, but there must be forty
bows on her. Tess is going to die when she gets a load of Liberty’s
get-up. It’s like she got dressed in a candy store. I actually feel
sick. What the hell am I doing with this woman? This girl-child?
She smells like the candy store, too. Not like Tess, whose neck
smells exquisite. She tastes like she smells, just fucking finer
than fine. How’s that for flustered vocabulary?

“Lib. Hey baby, how are ya?” She’s hanging
off me. Her legs wrapped around me like I’m a fire pole. Do you
think I’m hard? Nope. She is doing nothing for me. Zilch. Zippo. I
need to do it tonight for sure. This is over with. I knew it was
coming at some point; I don’t stay with anyone for long. But then
that kiss with Tess, that first one, got me thinking, and that
second one…it sealed the deal. I couldn’t tell Liberty on the
phone, or in a text. I’m not that guy. That’s a dick move. I’ll her
tell after we have a good time here. I’ll tell her before I go
home. She’s not coming home with me. I can barely stand her hanging
on me; fucking is definitely out of the question. Even as badly as
I need some.

We’re all sitting around a big table
drinking. About every minute and a half, Tess’s eyes find mine.
I’ve winked at her twenty times. Creed has his arm around her neck,
classic caveman style, but his eyes have been stuck between Rox’s
tits all night. I need thank her later—I guarantee she planned that
shirt just for me and Tess. She knows exactly what she’s doing with
those girls.

Liberty is trying to talk to Tess, but they
exist in separate worlds. So it’s about the most painful thing I’ve
ever witnessed. Striker, well…he’s just hanging with me. The
holographic concert is halfway done and I’m about to head back to
my dressing room to get ready for a walk-on in about fifteen
minutes. This is casual stuff—basically, I walk out of the
holograph and sing the song live with it.

“So, Scout, this is it?” Creed asks. “Your
new fabulous rocking life? No more road trips, no more fans at your
feet, no more of the truly good shit that makes us rockers the
lifeblood of the industry? This is where you think we’re all
headed…the graveyard of technology.”

I hear him, but my eyes are on Tess. Her
hand flies up to her mouth when he says those last few words. Her
whole face changes; it contorts and twists as she looks away from
me when her eyes gloss up with tears. She does nothing to defend
herself, and to see her just take it from him makes me ill. I want
to crawl across the table, pull his nuts straight out of his pants,
then choke him on them.

“You’re kidding, right? You think you’re
going to keep on doing things the way you have been forever?
Seriously? That’s your plan, Creed? Your life plan with your
almost-wife…and what about when you have kids? Are you ever going
to see them? Or are you going be out there rocking it as the—what
did you call it—lifeblood of the industry? I think you’re full of
shit. I also think you owe your fiancée a big fucking apology
because she’s created the most cutting-edge concert technology
that’s being used around the world right now. Do you get what a
game changer this shit is? Get your head out of your ass and wake
the fuck up.”