The Winner Takes It All (Love in L.A. Book 3) (9 page)

“So did she do it?”

“Yep, she sure did. They’re hanging in my living room right now.”

“That’s awesome. So does she make her living as a painter?”

“Nah, she’s actually a tattoo artist, but any medium of art she tries, she excels in.”

“Must be rough to be that talented.”

“You’re telling me. Every single creative thing I’ve ever wanted to do, she’s tried and done better than me. It’s not freaking fair.”

“Okay, but who’s the one competing in the finals for
The Next American Superstar
right now?”

“True.”

After seeing the long lines waiting outside the nicer restaurants, they opted to get burgers at Five Guys, and then they walked around Times Square, shopping for souvenirs and snapping pictures of each other to send back to their families. Erin sent Mike a text before dinner, but he didn’t respond until they were almost back to the hotel. He said he had plans with his family, but he might be free the next night. Ready for a long shower and a good night’s sleep, Annie said she was heading to bed, but she gave Erin a tight hug and told her to hang in there and keep her posted about Mike. Exhausted from the day’s stress, Annie was asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.

Annie woke up to Casey’s snoring the next morning. His arm was flung across her chest, one leg was wrapped around her, and his mouth was open and right by her ear, making the volume of his snoring extremely loud. Elbowing him away from her, she turned to roll out of bed, but just before she made it, a hand snaked out and grabbed her arm, tugging her back.

Protesting, she struggled against him as he started sliding his hand up her leg to grasp her firmly by the butt cheeks.

“No time for any of your shenanigans right now, mister. We need to get ready,” Annie scolded him as she tried in vain to wriggle from his grasp.

He responded by shifting his hand from grasping her butt to sliding it further down between her legs. She gasped as his fingers deftly shoved her panties to the side, and then one long finger was gently penetrating her, making her eyes flutter shut as she moaned and pressed against him, already wanting more. He pumped his finger in and out of her a few times. Then abruptly his finger was gone, and she felt the bed shift as he got up. Her eyes flew open as he escaped into the bathroom.

“Hey! No fair, that is cheating,” she called as he laughed and closed the bathroom door. Just then her phone alarm started ringing. She reached for her phone to turn it off and saw that she had an unread text message.

Alex:
Since I haven’t heard from you, yet, I’m assuming things are going well. Crossing my fingers and toes for you! Kill ‘em dead like I know you can! Love you

She smiled and texted him back.

Annie:
Thanks for the message. Love you, too. :) New York is great so far! Can’t wait to see more of it.

She did some warm-ups and sang through her next audition piece. Casey didn’t take long in the shower, and as soon as he was done, she jumped in to take her turn. He told her that he was skipping breakfast and going to meet up with the guys to run through their number. By the time she got out of the shower, he was just brushing his teeth and getting ready to leave. As she was wrapping a towel around herself, he wiped his mouth and hands and then came over and circled his arms around her in a big hug, resting his chin on her head. Her arms automatically slid around his waist as she snuggled close to him. They stood like that for a minute, just holding each other.

Finally Casey kissed her head and gently pushed back from her, but put his hands on either side of her face and raised her lips up to his. He gave her a soft, tender kiss, then looked down into her eyes and smiled, his green eyes twinkling at her.

“You make me so happy, princess.”

Annie couldn’t help beaming up at him. “Likewise, mister. Break a leg today. I know you’re going to be ridiculously awesome out there.”

“Of course I will. I’ve got my number one good luck charm here with me. Can’t lose.” He winked at her, kissed her nose and gently chucked her chin with his finger. “I’ll see you later?”

Annie nodded and leaned up on her tippytoes to give him another kiss and hugged him hard. Then she let him turn to leave and swatted his backside. “Go get ‘em, tiger.”

Erin joined her for breakfast before they wandered over to the auditorium and found seats towards center front. They had checked the schedule and seen that the dance groups were going first, but the vocalists wouldn’t be called until the end of the day. Casey’s crew was performing third, but they were nowhere to be seen, so she figured they were still finishing up their last minute rehearsal.

Twisting in her seat, Annie took a good look around, getting to see the vast array of talented performers waiting for their chance to prove that they were worth a five million dollar Vegas contract. She smiled warmly at a little girl with curly brown pigtails, wearing a white lace dress, who was sitting in between an attractive couple immediately behind her.

“Hi there,” Annie said to the little girl. “What’s your name?”

The little girl smiled, but then turned her face in, looking extremely bashful. The couple laughed and the father patted the little girl’s knee.

“This is Lara, and she is very shy at the moment, but usually very outgoing otherwise,” he said with a wink.

“Aw, that’s okay. How old is she?”

“Just turned five this month.”

“Wow, big girl!” Erin said as she grinned at Lara.

Annie smiled and waved at the little girl. “Hi Lara, my name is Annie, and this is my friend, Erin. We’re both here to sing. What about you?”

The little girl peeked up at them, making both Annie and Erin sigh and giggle about how cute she was. After hiding her face in her dad’s side for another minute, Lara finally ventured another peek at them and then nodded shyly. “Yes, I am going to sing
Somewhere Out There
, ‘cuz it’s my favorite song, and it makes my mommy cry, but she says that they are happy tears. So that’s what I’m going to sing.”

“Oh, I love that song!” Annie exclaimed as she flashed Lara a brilliant smile, making the little girl blush and giggle and hide her face again.

When Lara finally peeked out at them again, she asked Annie, “What are you going to sing?”

“
Georgia on My Mind
.”

“I don’t know that song.”

“Well, I hope you like it. It’s one of my favorites.”

“Does it make your mommy cry?”

Annie laughed and nodded. “Yes, it makes my mommy cry, but she says they are happy tears as well.”

“Mommies are supposed to say stuff like that, cuz they’re growed up,” Lara informed her matter-of-factly.

“Well, I’m glad we both make our mommies cry with our singing.”

“Yeah, Daddy says that’s how you know you’re really good. When you can make the chicks cry.”

Lara’s dad cleared his throat, his cheeks reddening slightly as he patted his little girl and smiled weakly at his wife who was now looking at him suspiciously. “Okay, precious, let’s not tell the nice ladies all of daddy’s secrets.”

Annie and Erin both giggled again and smiled sweetly at Lara’s parents before turning back around in their seats.

Just then, Kyle Atkinson walked out on stage and everyone applauded enthusiastically. The TV host briefly explained that the next round of eliminations was about to begin, starting with the dancers.

The first dance act was a hip hop group made up of six guys and four girls who specialized in breaking, popping and locking. They had been performing together for two years and called themselves the East LA Dance Crew. The ELADC was good. They were so good that after they finished, Annie looked a little worried and exchanged glances with Erin whose expression mirrored hers.

“Wow. That’s going to be a tough act to follow,” Erin said. “They were really good.”

“I know…”

“But hey, you said Casey and his crew are awesome, right?”

“I said Casey is awesome, but I’ve only seen him dancing back-up for Kayla. I’ve never seen him perform with his crew. I mean, I’m assuming that they’re amazing or they wouldn’t have gotten this far, right?”

Erin laughed as she put up her hands. “Whoa, girl, I’m not dissing your boy or his crew. No need to get defensive. All I said was that the ELADC is going to be a tough act to follow… for anyone, though. But I’m sure your man’s got skills or he wouldn’t have gotten this far, like you said.”

“Sorry, I’m just nervous for him. I want so badly for him to wi—” Annie stopped herself. “For him to do well,” she finished lamely.

“Girl, I don’t enjoy you at all. I don’t know if I could compete against the man I love. But you’re here, which tells me you want this. So go big or go home, chick, but don’t give him the crown before this shit has even started. If he’s meant to win, if you’re meant to win—it doesn’t matter. You make him earn it either way.”

Annie smiled at her new friend. “You’re pretty awesome yourself, you know? And I’m not even talking about your vocal talent, girl, which you’ve got in spades.”

“Aww, are we having a mushy girlie girl moment?” Erin said teasingly as she scrunched up her nose at Annie.

Laughing, Annie shook her head. “We were, but don’t worry. It’s over now, I promise. You’ve fulfilled your quota for the day.”

“Oh yay,” Erin said right before the lights flickered, indicating that another performance was about to start.

The next act was four tiny ballerinas in pink and purple tutus who performed a piece from
The Nutcracker
. Julia and Olivia, as the two eldest girls introduced themselves, were ten-years-old, and their younger sisters, Lilah and Mya, were eight-years-old. And the four of them looked nearly identical. The only noticeable difference between them was that the older sisters were about an inch taller than their younger siblings.

During the next break, Annie sat there with her eyes squeezed shut as she prayed silently for Casey and his crew to absolutely murder their first performance in the finals. Erin seemed to sense that it would be wise for her to keep quiet and did not make a sound until the lights flickered again.

“And here we go,” Erin said, reaching over to squeeze Annie’s hand. Annie gripped Erin’s hand tightly and gave her a nervous smile.

“It’s show time, “Annie whispered into the darkness as she waited for the music to start.

The beginning chords to
Black or White
by Michael Jackson began to play and two spotlights lit up the first two members of Casey’s crew who immediately began to pop and lock, making the crowd cheer enthusiastically in response. When Annie saw Casey lit up next with his own spotlight, she and Erin jumped up from their seats and started cheering loudly. This continued until all of the guys had hit the spotlight, and then Casey smoothly slid into the center front where he led his crew in perfectly synchronized movements to a Michael Jackson and Justin Timberlake mash-up. As the song transitioned into the next, Casey started doing some old school break dancing, eventually raising himself up to spin on his head.

Annie loved how her man and his crew seemed to have the crowd eating out of the palm of their hands. She would have felt shitty if Casey had been sent home way earlier than she was. In a perfect world, they would both make it into the finale, and then one of them would win and the other would put on their happy face and smile for the other’s good fortune. But with the amount of talent gathered there in New York, Annie guessed that they both would be lucky just to break into the top ten.

Casey and his crew began to break it down as they executed intricate moves that Annie knew were part of a difficult hip hop style called animation. She’d loved watching him dance whenever she got a chance, but this was the best she’d ever seen from him. He was in his element, and he was sexy as fuck. Annie knew she was going to have to beat the girls off of him eventually, but for the time being, she was trying to live in the moment and revel in the crowd’s response to him.

As the music ended, Annie applauded furiously along with everyone around her. Casey and his boys stood in the center of the stage and passed the microphone around as they introduced themselves. Casey started by saying that their name was Pure Flow and that most of them had been performing together for over ten years. As he was saying his name, a girl called out loudly, “Hey baby, are you single?”

Grinning, he shook his head before passing the mic to Chris, one of the other crew members who Annie recognized from the party at Casey’s apartment. Annie beamed a smile at Casey, happy that he wasn’t pretending to be single for appearance’s sake. They left the stage, and about half an hour later, Casey slid into the empty seat she’d saved for him.

“You were ridic,” she whispered in his ear as he leaned close to kiss her neck.

“Thanks, princess,” he murmured back into her ear.

The rest of the day’s performances sped along pretty quickly. There were some questionable contestants who Annie was pretty sure had been thrown in purely for good TV, such as a penguin that could walk backwards and a girl whose talent was nailing her tongue to a wooden board without drawing blood. Then there were some pleasant surprises, such as a young teenage magician who ended up being one of Annie’s favorite acts, and an older lady who was quite the seasoned comic, but had just never gotten her big break.