Five Years of Fame [COMPLETE]

23. A Lunch Date

Spring, Year 3, Month 5

Dani had to work hard not to lose her cool between the front door and the kitchen. She recognized his long hair as soon as she had walked in. She had a split second of hope that she could turn and run up to her room without any interaction but they had both already seen her.

"Nice hair."

That was it. That was all she remembered of the conversation. She was kicking herself running up the stairs. All at once, there she was again, Reeve Keller's kid sister on tour with her, meeting her back-up band and tripping over herself getting introduced to the guitarist.

Dani worked hard to not think about Gage and only failed twice. The first time was when Olivia popped her head in to let Dani know Gage was going to be staying in the basement apartment for a few days while Kelly found him his own place.

There must have been a question of whether or not Dani was cool with it. Although it was Olivia's house, Dani assumed her sister had been considerate about it. But Dani couldn't remember. She had forced her eyes back onto her textbook, hopefully radiating nonchalance as she agreed to whatever Olivia was saying.

She only ran into Gage once while he was staying with them, failing to not think about him a second time because he was standing right in front of her.

During the two weeks he occupied Olivia's basement apartment, Dani's schoolwork and activities increased, Joe suddenly needed more hours at the record store and her mom was getting lonely at the house so Dani spent half her nights driving the extra half an hour to sleep at her mom's place.

Gage was grabbing breakfast when Dani came racing down the stairs, late for class, having slept past her alarm. She didn't have time to get nervous or to notice how truly long his hair had gotten since they had first met on tour.

She managed a wordless nod, slipped past him to grab her lunch and a yogurt from the fridge before tearing out of the house.

School helped Dani focus on something other than her complete lack of chill around Gage. She could fake a cool demeanor but inside she might as well have been a thirteen-year-old girl discovering boy bands for the first time. She hadn't experienced such an embarrassing rush of hormones since the senior captain on her debate team had congratulated her on a good argument.

But school was coming to a close. The days were warming up. Spring had finally arrived mid-May and with it came Dani's finals. Stress won out over unrequited affection and Dani didn't pull her head out of her textbooks until she skipped out of her final test.

There was no worrying over whether or not she had passed. A feeling in her gut told her she had crushed it but even if she had somehow bombed, she didn't care. She had the next three months completely free.

She was whistling when she pulled open the back door leading into Joe's Record Store the first morning of freedom. Joe gave her a suspicious side-eye and a once-over, confused over her lack of scowl and textbooks. He responded to her cheery "Good Morning, Joseph," with a grunt of irritation.

Dani's mind turned to when she could take her first nap break a few hours into her shift when Joe's door dinged open. Dani felt her heart constrict and her cheeks start to heat up and forced herself to take deep, constant breaths.

Gage nodded at her in recognition and then turned to browse the long rows of records. Dani let out of sigh of relief.

"Joe, I'm going to the back to take a nap. I'll be back in thirty."

Joe's backroom offered a cool, dark space to lay down. Dani had long ago brought a throw blanket and extra pillow from home as the slow hours at Joe's sometimes were her only chance at getting some sleep. Joe understood and left her nap area alone.