After leaving my job at Mosley I was at a bit of a loss of things to do. Yeah I had some money saved up, but I had no idea how I was going to land myself another production gig in just three weeks. I spent my entire first week of unemployment lazily sitting on the couch in my house, flipping channels on the television.
I was slightly relieved when I was called to DJ at Avalon on short notice. Sitting around was doing my head in and I needed something to kick start me and get me back on track.
That night I played one of my old sets, adding a few new things to it. In a way I sort of missed the London club scene. The music was very different to what I was playing in LA, and in a lot of ways I preferred it. After my set I packed my things up and placed them in one of the backstage dressing rooms, before slipping out into the club for a bit.
I was stood at the bar waiting the bartender to get me a drink, not really paying attention to anything that was going on in the club. After the bartender handed me my drink I passed him some money, telling him to keep the change, and then I just sat there for a minute. To be fair, my feet ached a bit from standing while DJing.
“Well I’ll be damned,” drawled a voice in my ear as someone sat down next to me.
Eyebrows raised I turned to look at the mystery person, nearly spitting my drink all over them. Where on earth had he come from? What was he doing in the same club as me? Why was this happening right now of all times? My mind was spinning.
“Hey!” I said attempting to hide my shock with a smile.
“Hey!” he smiled back, giving me a once over and then placing his elbow on the bar, resting his hand in it, playing it cool. “Great set,” he said after a moment, nodding towards the DJ stand.
“Thanks,” I smiled awkwardly. I wanted to ask him what on earth he was doing here, but instead only managed, “How are you?”
“Pretty good right about now. You?” he asked, his eyes sparkling a bit. God I’d missed those eyes. Wait what? I thought I was over him? It’d been three years!
“Great, yeah,” I said. I just sat there and stared at him for a minute, before it all got too much and I burst out laughing. This was all so absurd, like I was in some strange dream. He started laughing too, his beautiful smile sparkling away.
“Good to see you Jess,” he said after a few moments, standing up from his seat and enveloping me in a huge hug. God he smelt so good. I could see this spiraling somewhere, way to quickly for my own good.
“Good to see you too Ast,” I replied, wrapping my arms around him and giving him a gentle kiss on the cheek.
Eventually he sat back in his seat and ordered a drink, the pair of us sitting at the bar and chatting away nonchalantly. “Yeah, so I heard you were DJing here tonight and I thought I would drop by,” he said, telling the story of how he ended up in the same club as me. Unbeknownst to me he left out a few major details. Like the fact that he’d been by my work. But I’d find out soon enough.
“You come by yourself?” I asked looking around the club for the boys.
“Yeah, the boys are all doing their own thing tonight. Was just going to hang out at my hotel and maybe go to the gym, watch a film, but when I heard you were going to be here I thought I’d come down and see how you were.”
“That’s sweet,” I said.
“Well the set was great. I hope you’ll forgive me that I didn’t do too much dancing here by myself. Would’ve looked like a right wanker, but I did have a bit of a rave in my seat,” he laughed.
“I’m glad you liked it,” I said. “So you’re just here to record or what?” I asked. But before he could answer I felt someone wrap their arm around my waist and kiss my neck. It felt disgusting and made me feel dirty just the slight feeling of it.
“There you are…” the mystery guy said huskily in my ear, “Been looking for you everywhere.”
I turned to look at Aston and saw that he had wide eyes, like he was about ready to dart out of the room. Not this tonight, I thought with a heavy heart.
