I was about half way through my packing before there was a knock at my door. I pushed myself from the floor and headed to my kitchen.
"Hey" I smiled as Rodney walked in. He seemed pretty comfortable with me at this point, I didn't know why but we seemed to click pretty well.
"So this is the place..." Rodney looked around and puffed his cheeks. "Guess you don't need me to water your plants or anything."
"Yeah no." I laughed, I knew exactly what he was thinking. There were just boxes. The only thing that had been unpacked were one set of dinner wear and a few glasses. I didn't really have an excuse. "But like I said just come by once in a while and make sure no one broke in? I know you have a roommate so feel free to bring your girl around just change the sheets."
"You are a guy aren't you" He gave me a look. "That's my theory about you at least."
"Oh there are theories about me now." I said as I went back to my room. "Any fun ones."
"Jamie, from accounting, thinks you ran from an abusive ex"
"Not surprised there... I have seen the romance novels on their desk. Isnt that the typical story of those main characters?"
"That's what I said, my favorite is Melissa thinks you are from a small town on the east cost-"
"Well I am"
"Oh I am not finished, she thinks you were involved in some crazy scandal and the only way you could live a normal life is to flee to the west."
"Jesus fuck- does anyone think something normal."
"I mean Charlie just thinks you are recovering over a bad break up."
I froze in my steps for a second but managed to keep my face straight. "Well I guess that is the best I will get."
"Yeah." I handed him the keys and nodded over to the fridge. "Vodka is in the freezer, beer and wine in the fridge, bud in the cabinet."
"Glad you got all the food groups..." Rodney said as he headed over. He wasn't judgemental but he had a way of pointing out your flaws gently. "So are we going to talk about it?"
"My drinking?" I called from my room as I packed more clothes away. "I really don't think.
"No asshat your date?"
"Oh fuck that." I laughed. "So... nothing is going to happen... until the tour ends."
"So you are going to travel around with this guy, that you are attracted to, while he meets his fanbase, who will want to sleep with him, unable to do anything about and just hope for the best." Rodney gave me a look.
"It will be fine. Honestly i am just happy that he won't try anything-"
"Who lied to you?" Rodney said as he handed me a beer. "He will most certainly try something."
"he said he wouldn't."
"Okay but now you are the forbidden fruit.... Any guy would want to fuck you even more now. Its fun."
I gave him a look. "I just worked this out for myself, I don't need you poking holes in it."
"Im not poking Lottie- I am pointing to the massive iceberg in your haul." He said. "But hey lets talk about something else. I heard Marcus wants to start recruiting travelling shows."
"Oh fuck really?" I was grateful we stopped there. Rodney knew when to stop pushing, he also knew he got the point across. But he didn't know me. I could do this. I really could.
ZZZZ
"Alright, so this is everything- your whole life- if you lose this your life will be over."
"Marcus- it's a chrome book-"
"That has your whole life on it."
"That I can also access through my phone."
"But it has your work credentials"
I sighed as I too the laptop and sighed. "I won't lose it, I promise"
That was the first thing I ever said that brought him such relief. He handed me my work cell and a few files (That I printed out for him, but I guess he wanted to just give it to me all together.). "I feel like I should take a picture for your mom or something."
I pursed my lips. "She would love that- but"
"Well you talked me into it." His phone was already out, I grimaced before I put on one of my kilowatt smiles. "Oh she is going to love this. I would send one to your father as well... but I don't have his number."
"My mom will send it to him." I waved him off. My parents were divorced but kept this pretty friendly. Marcus was my mothers friend for years before she met my dad , so when they split he pretty much cut all ties with my father.
"Well I am sure they will love it." He said as he looked over my shoulder. He then began to wave hysterically, that could only mean Cody and his friend were here.
I turned to around to see them walking towards the bus. I made eyecontact with Cody immeaditely. His smile was the same bright warm picture I remembered. And it still made me feel warm all over. Next to him was Noel? God I needed to remember his fucking name. I was horrible with names. He looked happy in fact incredibly happy with a very beautiful girl holding hands with him.
I walked forward and smiled at them. "So good to see you all again-" I shook both of ther hands then turned to the girl. "And very happy to meet you, I am Lottie-"
"Margie Walsh." The woman beamed at me while she shook my hand happily. "I am Noel's Fiancé" The way she said it was with such pride and happiness. Honestly I was jealous of her, I wasn't sure I wouldn't ever feel confident enough to marry someone.
My eyes flashed to cody before I focused back to Margie. "It is so good to meet you. Noel was talking about you the day we met."
Noel blushed a bit and Margie looked like she was on cloud nine. "Cody told me about you too."
I didn't let my face crack, but there was a strange emphasis on the sentence. "Well we should put our stuff on the bus right?" Cody interrupted.
Oh yeah, I would be asking him about that when we were alone. I turned to Marcus. "Anything else you want to talk about before we head off."
Marcus looked at us for a moment as he took mental inventory. He didn't get as far as he did by being the person he portrayed himself to be. He wasn't smart but he was very prepared. There wasn't one problem he hasn't thought of, most people with that skill also had anxiety, but not marcus.
"I think we went over everything." He smiled and pulled in a hug. "I want updates on every event as they happen, keep the documents up to date and if you can try to have fun."
"Yes sir." I said as I patted his back lightly. I pulled away and gave Margie one last wave. She gave me an apologetic smile, which was worse. Because that meant she did know.
I sighed and got on to the bus.
Cody was the first to get on, and it was clear he was going to take advantage of that. "Hey so about what Margie said-"
I didn't need to say anying I just turned and narrowed my eyes. My sister is a teacher, she taught me that skill. He gave an apologetic smile. "look the place we were at yesterday... it was hers. She was with Noel and I had to tell her who was coming over. And I already did talk about you to both of them after we met... but before we ... met again I guess."
I pursed my lips. "Okay... I mean I did tell Rodney about you, so I can't be mad... Just lets save the comments for when my boss isn't around." I saw the relief in his face when I seemed cool.
"No of course. She felt really bad, she just is really excited to meet you."
This made sense, friends at least good ones wanted to see you thrive. I sighed and leaned forward , I was letting myself relax. "Anyone else I should know about."
"Just one guy you won't meet... for a while But I promise, from here on out we are need to know." He sat next to me and but his hand on my thigh. I liked how big his hand was and how his thumb just rubbed my leg gently.
I turned towards him and smiled. "I am going to believe you... but for now" I took his hand in mine and leaned closer so close we were practically kissing. The temptation was there, but my conviction was as much of a bitch as I was. "lets put some professional space between us." I kissed him quickly on the cheek before I pushed away.
He blushed a bit as he backed away from me. "Right, strict no hanky panky" He flinched at his own choice of words. I found it cute, it meant he was being genuine and that was so hard to find. At least for me.
Soon Noel and the driver came onto the bus. "Lottie! You ready for this." Noel gave a cool smile but I am guessing from the lipstick on his cheek, he had a tough goodbye.
"Of course! You guys are going to kill it." I took out my laptop. "Also we need to just go over a few things for the first venue."
"Which will be tonight right?" Cody asked. He had switched to being focused on the work. I liked that, he wasn't some douche who only had sex on his mind.
As we went over the details in the bus I found the tension between us three was melting. Cody was sitting next to me but we were pretty professional. We could do this. We really good
I was falling in and out of sleep when Noel and Cody began to talk about something a little less professional.
"She wasn't mad?"
"I think more just put off than anything" Cody answered. I was close to him. It was almost as if I could feel his voice.
"I get that, Mars felt so bad."
"I know she did. And honestly its nothing we have to worry about man. Lottie just wanted to make sure we were on the same page."
"I am glad... but dude... I have to ask, do you think you can do a few months with this girl and not push it further."
"I have to man... I like her. And this is her job." I felt someone stroking my hair. "Its not my smartest move... but what to I have to lose man?" there was a pause. "there is also something so... honest about her. Despite the lies... she isn't trying to put on a front.
There was silence between them. "Well whatever you need man, we got you."
"Thanks-" the bus jolted causing me to learn forward. Someone grabbed my shoulders and I looked around confused.
"What..." I looked around the bus, my mind was groggy. "happened."
"The bus stopped unexpectedly." Cody said. That's when I realized I was completely wrapped in him. His arm was around my waist and the other caught my shoulder. When I looked up at him he gave me one of his crooked smiles. "Morning Lottie."
I smiled at him for a moment "Morning"
"Good morning to you guys too. Except its 4 in the afternoon" Noel's voice broke through the tension. "We need to be on stage at 8 right?"
Noel brought me back to reality. I smiled awkwardly and pushed away from Cody. "We should be close to the venue. We can grab food-"
"Sure." Cody said. "Where you going."
"To talk to the driver." I said. "We need to get the check in info to make sure you guys won't get dropped off at the wrong spot."
Before I could even open the door to the driver's seat it opened. The man came out with a panicked look on his face. Not the best start to a tour. "What's wrong." I asked point blank.
James – well I think his name is James – gave me a look, like he was surpised I could read the expression on his face. I am no detective but sweat and panicked eyes tend to be big indicators.
"We ran into an issue."
"What issue..."
"Well... a tire may have popped." He said quietly.
I was quiet for about five seconds. "Well... did it or did it not?" My voice was tight and controlled.
"I need to go out and check." He said.
"Then do that." I said as I pointed to the door.
The man nodded and headed out closely followed by me. I knew Cody was following me, because I heard him swear when he saw what was outside.
So the good news is we didn't have a flat.
We had two.
"What happened."
"I think... I think it was a pot hole-" poor james explained.
"On a highway-" I looked around. "Why aren't we on a highway." I had no fucking clue where we were. Which should be strange considering I had given the driver the route we were supposed to take. It was all highways. We were on some back route scenic route.
"The traffic can be bad... I wanted to make sure we didn't get held up so I knew this back route-"
"Maybe you should have run that by me." I hissed as I got out my phone. I googled the venue to see we were 2 hours away. "Fuck." I said. "its 2 and a half hours best to get there. If someone picked us up now we would barely make sound check-"
"Hey Lottie-" Cody began. I looked to him and I could tell he was freaking too. "What are we going to do."
Noel was next to get out of the bus, he had the good sense not to say anything.
I walked around to with my phone thinking about the best way to fix this blunder.
"I have a plan, it wont be ideal but we can get passed this." I held up my phone. "But I am going to need you all to listen to me for the next few hours, to the letter, you got that Mr. Scenic route?" I looked to the driver. he was close to tears but to be quite honest I didn't care. I had to get two people to a show in 2-3 hours at best or we were fucked.
But I could do this. I looked to Cody and saw something strange.
He trusted me. "You got it Lottie." He said. "What do you need."
I could do this.