“I can’t believe you brought a date to the party, Suse.” Chris scrubbed a hand across his head, regretting his decision to shave part of his head that afternoon. Since Darryl had gotten rid of his spikes Chris had been playing with different hair styles. He wanted to grow his hair out to look like Slash, but he knew from awkward experience that once his tight curls hit a certain length he would look more like a poodle than a rocker. And no way was he going to dedicate more than a few minutes to his hair every day.
“The producer encouraged me to. She said the party shouldn’t look like a meat market.” Sue knocked Chris’ hand from his head. “Besides, Adam can play darts with you until Justin gets here.”
“Why don’t you play darts with him?” Adam asked. “They want to see how he interacts with women.”
“It’ll be less embarrassing for him to lose to you than to me.”
Chris glared. “What makes you think I’ll lose to you?”
Sue grabbed Chris’ hand and held it in front of his face.
He curled his shaking fingers into a fist and pulled his hand away. “Always so fucking smart, huh, Suse?”
“And there’s the Chris I know and love!” Sue punched Chris in the shoulder.
Chris sneered, but cleared his expression when he noticed Adam taking a defensive posture. “Please help me. I’m tired of always being the awkward one.”
Sue nodded. “I like your hair.”
Chris sneered again. “That’s a girl thing to say.”
Sue held out her hands. “Seriously? Do you guys not realize that I am a girl?”
Adam wrapped his arms around Sue’s waist from behind and kissed her neck. “I know you’re a girl.”
Sue hummed and ran her hand up into Adam’s hair. “I’m thankful for that.”
Chris rolled his eyes. “Can you guys stop being gross for like two minutes?”
Sue giggled as Adam kissed her again. “Anyway, your hair. You going for a Mohawk?”
“Thinking about it.”
“That would be cool. You gonna spike it like D used to?”
“Nah. I don’t want to copycat him. Besides. Only D could make those spikes look good.”
Sue nodded. “He does have a larger-than-life presence.”
Chris shook his head. “And I don’t. Great.”
“I didn’t say that.”
Adam straightened his posture. “Let’s get you a beer and play some darts.”
“Beer will not help this level of awkward,” Chris said.
“Tequila, then.” Adam went to the bar.
Sue jerked her head toward the dart board. “Come on, I’ll get you started. Maybe we’ll be able to find a woman to fill in for me.”
“Do you think any of the women here are trying out for the show?”
Sue looked around the room. “I don’t know. Does the station do other reality shows? They could be trying out for one of those.”
“We’ve been gone so long I don’t even know.” Chris handed Sue a set of darts and went to the board to pull out the rest.
“You don’t watch the station?”
“I hardly watch TV. School. The album. I’m busy.”
Adam rejoined them with a round of shots along with their usual drinks – beer for Chris, and manhattans for him and Sue.
Chris leered as Sue sipped her drink. “Gonna get her drunk and take advantage of Suse later?” He held out a fist, but Adam left him hanging.
“No.”
“Oh-kay. Sorry, man.”
Adam nodded.
“Cheesy,” Sue said. “Not creepy, Chris. Cheesy.”
Chris threw the first dart. “My pick-up lines are not cheesy.”
“Yeah they are, man.” Justin joined the group and took a dart from Sue. “Baby, I know I can make you hit all the high notes.”
Sue laughed. “Can I strum your G-string?”
Chris faced them and crossed his arms. “I haven’t used either of those lines.”
“You used the high notes line with that reporter.” Justin threw his dart, but Chris didn’t turn to see where I landed.
“Did not.”
Sue cleared her throat. “It was in the article. And you used the G-string line all over Europe. Every. Damn. Time. A woman bent over.”
Justin nodded. “Every time.”
Adam leaned in, his hand on Sue’s hip. “In England I heard you say something about your bass not being the only wood you were willing to put in a woman’s hands.”
Chris groaned. “I am not that bad.”
Justin put a hand on Chris’ shoulder. “You are. But it works for you. Own it.”
Chris made a face, hoping his embarrassment wasn’t obvious. He turned to the dart board and took his next throw.
“How’d your date go, Just?” Sue asked.
“Pretty good. At least I think it was good.”
“Who’d you take out?” Chris stepped out of the way so Justin could take his turn.
“Vaughn.” Justin’s throw landed in the first ring outside of the bull’s eye.
“Vaughn?” Chris wrinkled his brow. “You don’t need to take her out.”
“I wanted to. We had a good time.” Justin gestured for Chris to take his turn.
“Got another date lined up?” Sue asked.
Justin nodded. “Even better, she asked me.”
“You sure she wasn’t lining up your next booty call?” Chris threw his last dart.
Justin glared. “Positive.”
Chris shrugged. “Just asking. I mean, you guys kind of have a routine.”
“What’s the routine?” Adam asked.
“Justin texts her as soon as we get back in town and usually within a few hours, they’re banging.”
Adam nodded. “Babe, we need that routine.”
Sue grinned. “We have that routine.”
Chris held up a hand. “Gross. You guys are gross.”
“Well, I want a new routine.” Justin threw his dart. “We had fun and she asked me out again, so I’m guessing that means she’s open to it too.”
Chris rubbed his hair again. “Man, it never occurred to me that I’d be single with Brad. I figured D would always be my wingman.”
“Darryl can still be your wingman even though he’s married,” Adam said.
“Dude. He’s never away from Lena. I can handle a married wingman. But a wing couple? No way.”
Justin laughed. “Lena might help you get more than a one-night-stand.”
“That’s exactly the kind of pressure I don’t need,” Chris said.
“Enough bitching.” Justin took Chris’ tequila shot. “Let’s mingle.”
With Justin at his side, Chris relaxed enough to talk with people, even starting a few conversations on his own. When the producer pulled him to the end of the bar for an interview his stomach rolled, but he was able to sit and relax. His past experiences with this woman made it easier to think of this as a conversation, rather than the cross examination he usually considered interviews.
“Are you having a good time tonight?”
“Yeah,” Chris bobbed his head once. “This is a cool place.”
“Have you met anyone interesting?”
“Sure. There’s lots of cool people here.”
The producer signaled to the camera operator to cut and leaned forward, putting a hand on Chris’ knee. “Listen, I know normally guys keep it short and sweet. But for television I need a lot to choose from. I know this is a weird circumstance, but if you’re chosen for the show, we’re gonna need you to talk more in interviews like this.”
Chris nodded.
“Do you want to chat a bit to loosen up before we put the camera on you again?”
“Sure.”
“Okay.” The woman sat back and stared at Chris for a moment. “What are your hobbies?”
“Music.”
The girl lifted her eyebrows at Chris.
“Okay, okay, I get it.” Chris blew out a breath. He scrubbed his hand across his head for the umpteenth time that night and remembered what Sue had told him about keeping busy. “It’s easier for me to talk if I’m also doing something. Let’s shoot some pool and I’ll tell you about the album we’re working on.”
The producer lit up. “Let’s do it.” She hopped off her bar stool and gestured for the camera to follow.
Chris racked up the balls and let the producer break. He took a deep breath as he chalked his cue. “I realize this is kind of an asshole thing to have done and I’m sorry, but I don’t remember your name.”
The producer stood and smiled. “Nala. You’re stripes.”
“Have you worked at the station for a long time, Nala?” Chris watched her line up a shot.
“A few years.”
“Do you like it?” Chris stood back as she rounded the table for her next shot.
“I’ve always wanted to work in television, so yeah, I love it.”
Chris nodded. “Did you go to school for it or just fall into it?”
Nala stood and gave Chris an amused look. “Who’s the producer here?”
Chris grinned. “Sorry. It’s easier not to talk about myself.”
“I get it,” Nala said. “Why don’t you tell me about your bandmates.”
Chris leaned over the table and took his first shot, smiling when he sunk two balls. “They’re the best guys I know. Darryl is my closest friend on the planet. His mom might as well be my mom. She’s awesome. I used to be so jealous that Darryl got to grow up with her.”
“You’re not jealous anymore?”
“Nah.” Chris lined up his next shot. “I probably wouldn’t appreciate her as much if I had her nagging me to clean my room and shit.”
“Darryl doesn’t appreciate her?”
“Oh, he does.” Chris clicked his cue stick against the ball. “But he’s much smarter than I am.”
“You don’t seem dumb, Chris.”
He missed his next shot and stood back. “Darryl has an impressive kind of intelligence. He makes everything look easy, even if he struggles with it.” Chris gave a quick laugh. “I make everything look like a struggle, even if it’s easy for me.”
Nala smiled. “You guys balance each other out.”
“I guess.” Chris shrugged. “Darryl is a genius in the studio. Brad writes fucking kick ass songs and Darryl takes them and works some kind of magic on them and makes us all sound like fucking geniuses.”
“Like with Pro Tools?”
“Sometimes. He has an ear for what needs to be different. Sometimes he can fix it digitally, but mostly he listens to the songs over and over then comes back and tells us how we should really play them. It used to piss me the fuck off. But he’s always right.”
“Does it ever upset Brad that Darryl changes the stuff he writes?”
“Nope.” Chris circled the pool table to take his next shot. “Those two are music twins. Brad’ll work up all kinds of stuff. He and Justin have written and recorded entire songs, taken them to Darryl and let D strip them down and rebuild them. Because Darryl is always right.”
“You’re very sure of him.”
Chris straightened and jutted out his chin. “I’m not the only one. He worked on Caceres’ last album. Their radio hit? Darryl made that song a hit. I heard it before he got his hands on it. It was all right. But Darryl made it an earworm.”
“Didn’t Justin play on that album too?”
Chris nodded. “Can’t beat Justin on the drums. The guy can play like twenty instruments, but he loves the drums. He breathes life into even the most mundane songs. You should hear him when we play covers.”
“Why? I mean, how can the way he plays the drums on some other song be exceptional?”
Chris chalked his cue again. “Are you familiar with the phrase ‘the letter of the law and the spirit of the law’?”
“Yeah.”
“Justin finds the spirit of the song and makes it really burn.” Chris put down the chalk. “Seriously. You should come to one of our shows. Pay attention when we slip into a cover. He makes it a whole new thing.”
“I will.” Nala looked around. “It’s too bad you guys can’t play something here. Or do you want to call Brad and Darryl to come over?”
Chris laughed. “We’ll play anytime, no questions asked. But D is on his honeymoon. Better to wait for the full effect.”
“Will do.” Nala missed her shot. “Think you can sink your last two balls on the next turn?”
Chris surveyed the table. “Maybe even my next shot.” He wiggled his eyebrows and leaned across the table.
He lined up his cue and slowly pulled it back. Another study of the table and Chris could see how he had to make the hit. He clicked his tongue in his closed mouth to the beat he saw the balls making as they rolled across the felt. Finally, he pulled the cue forward and put everything in motion. He stood to watch it play out.
Nala nodded. “Nicely done.”
Chris turned to her. “Next time, don’t let me win.”
“I–” she tried to protest but Chris lifted his eyebrows. She blushed and nodded.
