Private Show (The Private Series) (22 page)

“Yeah, I just got back to my place with Dan. You want to come over for dinner? I’ll cook something up.”

Dan is getting up from the couch and I see him holding a pillow. What the fuuu…

“Ugh!” He nails me in the nuts with a fucking throw pillow.

“Ben? Are you all right?” Tess asks.

“You motherfucker, I need those!” I jokingly yell at Dan.

“Okay, Ben, you are freaking me out, what just happened?”

This time I flip him the bird and whip the pillow back, “Jesus, nothing. Dan just chucked something at my sack.”

She laughs.

“So will you join us two wankers for dinner?”

“I don’t want to interrupt your time with your friend. And I don’t think we will be done here for a while.”

“Dan has been dying to meet you.”

“Yeah, that’s the way to take the pressure off!”

“How about we come over to the house for a bit?” Dan looks over at me as I am making new plans for us.

“This stuff won’t bore you guys to death?” She asks. If she only knew what I would endure just to spend time with her.

Dan yells from the couch, “I’m in! I haven’t seen little Caroline in forever.”

“Okay, we will be there in a bit.”

We get to my family’s house and Dan steps out of the car, “Man, just like it was in school. Dude do you still have those magazines under your mattress?”

“Ha. No, I got rid of those once I started getting some real action.”

Dan snaps his fingers in mock disappointment, “Ah, shucks!”

I open the door and yell that we are there, they yell from Caroline’s room upstairs. I knock on the door, “Everyone descent?”

“All clear,” I hear Tess announce.

“Damn.” Dan jokingly mutters, so I elbow him in the gut.

“Gwen, you remember Dan.”

She gives him a big hug, then a smack on the back of the head, “Of course I do.” And smiles at grinning Dan.

I walk us over to Caroline measuring Tess’s hips, “Hey C, you were young the last time you saw Dan…”

“I remember.” She says.

“Damn Caroline! You grew up!” Dan sounds shocked. “How old are you now? Seventeen?”

She stands up straight, “Fifteen actually.”

“Nice,” he smiles at her.

“Dan, I would like you to meet Tess, my girlfriend.” I walk over and plant a kiss on her cheek.

Tess goes in for a handshake, but Dan swoops her up into a big hug and swings her around. I know Dan enough to not hit on my girl, so I take this as a welcoming hug.

“Nice to meet you Tess. Ben, here goes on and on about you.” Dan’s words cause Tess to pink.

“It’s great to finally meet you Dan.”

Gwen starts to play catch up with Dan and Caroline looks like she is starting to clean up, when Tess pulls me to the side.

“Hey can we talk in the other room?” She asks, quietly.

I lead her out, “Of course.”

We go down the hall to my father’s office, “I am worried about Caroline, Ben.”
This again?

“Tess, I told you she is a normal teen girl, she is fine.”

“I don’t know. She is all over the place emotionally. I talked to her about her peers at school and she is out casted. Did you know that? And that they pick on her? Call her a slut?” Tess is really showing concern.

“She is seeing a professional Tess.”

“So? She can easily hide anything she wants from them too. She was texting this guy back and forth and when I asked who she was going back and forth with she told me ‘this senior’. She is fifteen Ben!”

“Fine. I’ll talk to her about it later.”

“I wouldn’t wait too long… Okay I should help her finish cleaning up.”

We walk back to C’s room and find her trying on Dan’s sunglasses and making kissy faces as he takes the funny pictures with his phone.

“Oh, I am sorry are we interrupting a photo shoot?” I tease.

“Shut up Ben.” Caroline sticks her tongue out at me.

Dan hold out his phone to Tess, “Tess, you’re a photographer. Take a pic of me and Caroline?”

“Um, sure.” She says a little reluctantly. I wonder what’s going on in that mind of hers. I really don’t think there is much to worry about with Caroline. I mean, yeah, if she is seeing an upper classman I will find out and put a stop to it. She is much too young for an older boyfriend, especially an experienced one.

“Why don’t you and Dan, go on back to your place and I will be there in a few?” Tess suggests.

“Yeah, dude I’m due for a shower anyways before we eat.”

Since it’s not raining for once, I fire up my patio grill and do up some steaks and vegetable kabobs. Tess arrives moments later and we embrace.

When we break away, I see her eyes widen. “What?”

She covers her face and turns. I find Dan in a towel at the counter.

“What the fuck, dude?” I throw my arms up.

“Sorry! I wasn’t expecting her to be here already.”

He takes a step towards us, and I throw my arm out from my body and point to the hallway. “Clothes first!”

Looking down, he smirks and retreats.

Still laughing, I pour us three glasses of wine and we make small talk.

“Hey, sorry about that!” Dan says as he walks in the room.

Dan scoops her up into another big hug, causing Tess to go into a fit of giggles

We sit around my small table to eat dinner. “So, Ben tells me you guys used to have a band back in high school.” Tess brings up my past story.

Dan tosses his head back, holding in a laugh until he swallows his beer. “That is true.” He rubs his hands together.
Oh this should be interesting…

“We would play at some local cafes at first and once we got some fake IDs, we began playing at some local dives. You know, the types of crowds that most of its patrons were already drunk before they walk in the door. Oh, but we could care less, just as long as we were playing.”

“So it was a two-man show?” Tess asks.

“No, it was Ben and I with a couple other dudes from school, but Ben and I called the shots. It was our band.”

“More like your band, Dan,” I remind him.

“No way, man, it was ours. We practiced every day in your garage and loaded your car with the gear. It was even your idea to name the band.”

Oh no, not the name of the band…

Tess looks from Dan to me. Rolling my eyes, I say, “Balls Deep.”

Her eyes pop out and she chokes on a piece of steak when I say it and takes a sip of wine, before she nearly falls out of her chair laughing. “Really?”

I just shake my head and laugh. “Yeah, well I was young and very horny.”

“Now imagine if you will…” Dan picks up his fork and knife, and beats on the table and plate as a drummer would, “Walking up on stage and announcing ‘We are Balls Deep!’”

We are all in tears laughing. This is turning out to be a great night.

“Has Ben played for you yet?” Dan asks.

“Kind of, only on his sofa, unplugged.”

Looking over to me as if in mock shock, he grabs his chest, “Ben! You haven’t played your bass for your girlfriend?”

I throw a spoon at him.

“Really, though man, why haven’t you played for her? When was the last time you even plugged in?” Dan seems a little saddened.

“I don’t know. I mean what am I going to play to? Bass isn’t something you can really play a whole song to.”

“Bullshit! You can slap a bass better than most famous musicians!”

I look to Tess, who is smiling at me. “Yeah, why haven’t you played for me?”

“Thanks, man… Well, if you really want, I am sure we could arrange something.”

Dan throws his arms up, giving the punk-rock hands and hanging his tongue out of his mouth, and starts to head-bang.

Oh, so I have a great idea.

I take a bathroom break and grab my phone. “Hey, Charles Thursdays are still karaoke night right…?”

If my girl wants a show, I’ll give her a show.

The rest of the evening slips by quickly, minus the hours of embarrassing stories that Dan offers up and Tess in tears from laughter. With laughter like that, she can laugh at me all she wants, at any cost to my humility.

After I reluctantly drop Tess back off at her place, I find Dan lounged out on my leather sofa texting.

“Hot babe?” I ask, smacking his head as I pass by.

He drops his phone down onto his chest and smiles, “Yeah, you could say that.”

Sitting in the chair adjacent from my friend I ask about the girl, “New girl back home?”

“Nah, we have known each other for some time now, met her around here. Nothing serious, not like you.”

I sit back and cross my arms over my chest and snort, man I have been around Tess a bit much, I am picking up her adorable quirks. “Hey man, sorry I found the perfect girl, now your shit out of luck.”

Dan sits up and grabs his nearly empty beer bottle off the coffee table, “I’m not looking for serious.”

“Maybe you should. Hey, why don’t you invite that girl to Chatz tomorrow night?”

“Oh, I don’t think so. But, hey I am all in for your plan. Dude, you should get Caroline to come, I bet she’d love to see the set and what you have planned for Tess.”

Caroline has never been to Chatz, I mean she is underage and all, that and she has no reason to step into a place like Chatz. “She isn’t twenty-one.” I explain.

Dan rolls his eyes and pounds the rest of his beer, “Yeah, but we both know you are able to make it happen.”

I think about it for a moment, “I’ll see what I can do.”