I had kept track of Double Strife over the years and watched as Justin transformed into the ultimate rock star. Every time I saw him in a magazine or on T.V., he had a different girl tucked under one tattooed arm, and a cigarette or guitar in the other. Women had always swooned over Justin and Kyle, but in the last few years Justin had emerged as the mega star as the band grew to iconic levels. I was sure it was because of his devastatingly handsome looks coupled with his cocky smile, ice blue eyes, and body covered in artistic ink. His look screamed bad boy and it seemed to make the women want him even more.
As I got ready for Sienna and I to meet the band for the first time in years, I was riddled with emotions: guilt because I hadn’t mentioned to Jack that Justin had a thing for me years ago, and excitement to see the guys again. I knew telling Jack would only upset him, and I really didn’t want to worry him when I was thousands of miles away, so I had decided not to mention the past to Jack. Besides, it was a long time ago and Justin and I had both moved on.
***
Sienna and I were at the bar, warming up with our usual tequila shot, when I felt a strong arm wrap around my waist from behind. I jumped from the touch and quickly swung my body around ready to assault the offender, only to find Justin smirking at me with a cocky dimpled smile.
“Still drinking tequila I see.”
“Justin! You scared the shit out of me. You almost got yourself smacked across the face.”
“Still feisty huh, blondie.” Justin arched an eyebrow, gracing me with the smile that made his fans drop their panties.
I smiled and shook my head at his playfulness, only then realizing that he was still holding me close against his body. And it didn’t look like he planned to let me out of his grip anytime soon.
I playfully smacked him and detangled myself from his arms, making my way to his brother to give him a hug as Sienna stepped in to greet Justin.
“Kyle, it’s great to see you,” I said with sincerity.
“You too, Syd. We are stoked that the four of us are back together. It’s going to be like old times — minus the barroom brawls at three in the morning. Well, that’s if this as**ole behaves.” Kyle motioned to his brother. I had forgotten about how many fights Justin used to get into at the fleabag bars we played at years ago.
We all laughed and did a celebratory tequila shot together. Oddly, even though it had been years since we’d all seen each other, there was a warm familiarity to the four of us, as if we had picked up right where we left off.
***
It didn’t take long before word must have gotten out that Double Strife was at the bar, because the bar that had been almost empty when we walked in was suddenly filled with young women. Scantily clad young women in tight clothes, eagerly salivating in Justin and Kyle’s direction, looking like wolves about to pounce on their prey.
Sienna looked around and saw what I saw. “I see you boys don’t have to work too hard for it anymore, do you?” She smiled as she motioned for them to look around the room.
Kyle laughed. “I never thought I’d say this, but that shit gets old. The other night Justin had a woman rip open her shirt and display a full-face picture of him tattooed on her stomach. A few years back I wouldn’t have noticed the tat, since the woman had no bra on and a set of double-d’s, but instead of checking her out I found myself looking at the artwork and thinking I should get the artist’s number.” Kyle laughed and took a swig of his beer.
Sienna turned to Justin, intrigued. “What did you say to the woman with your face on her chest?”
Justin went to speak, but Kyle beat him to it. “Say? He took her in the back and f**ked her kneeling while she laid on the bed so he could look at himself while he gave it to her.”
Sienna and I cracked up at Kyle’s response. I had forgotten how much the two brothers constantly busted on each other. It was one of the things that made hanging out with the two of them so entertaining. One was always trying to embarrass the other or put the other down. But it was usually all in good fun.
I looked over at Justin and he was glaring at Kyle, obviously pissed at his brother for the story. It made me wonder whether the story was just Kyle teasing or if Justin really had slept with her.
After a minute of angry glaring at his brother, Justin chugged his beer and slammed down the bottle. “Come on, you fucker, let’s go play a song so you shut the hell up.” Justin looked to me and Sienna, “You ladies remember the words to Gone?”
Sienna jumped up. “Of course. I masturbated to it last week.” Her eagerness and playfulness seemed to bring Justin out of his mood.
***
The hotel bar was more than happy to let us play two songs for the crowd. Although we hadn’t played anything together in years, even I had to admit we sounded good together. Justin and Kyle were more than happy to share the spotlight with Sienna and I, although I was pretty sure the mega-horde of women watching had no idea we were even in the room.
By the time we were done, the bar was getting out of control. Swooning women were beginning to push to try to get closer to Justin and Kyle. The bar manager was kind enough to see the panic in my face and offered us a back exit through the kitchen that led us to an empty stairwell.
We found our way downstairs and the four of us slipped outside and spent another hour lounging on chairs around the closed pool, talking about the tour. Even though we had only played two songs, we were all on a post-show high. Kyle told us about their mom coming to forty-two of their shows and we all laughed. I’d always thought it was sweet that Mrs. Smith had been the biggest supporter of her boys before they ever found success. When we were back in Boston, their mom could almost always be found during their show. She didn’t come early or linger after the show, but she was always there to support her boys.
Eventually the conversation found its way to me and I took a few playful jabs about my decision to teach, leaving playing music for a few years. They all enjoyed taking their turn poking fun at my temporary insanity, and then the topic of Michael made its way to the forefront.
“I have to say, Syd, I was a bit surprised that you agreed to join the tour. I would have bet that Michael would have convinced you to stay back in Boston.” Kyle spoke matter-of-factly as he took a swig from the bottle of tequila he had managed to swipe from the bar before our exit.
Sienna responded quickly. “Dude, they broke up a few months ago. You don’t have to be so polite now. You can tell her what an as**ole that man was.” She reached for the bottle as Kyle passed the tequila to her.
Kyle laughed. “No shit. Good for you. That guy really was an uptight dick. Right, Justin, you were never a big fan?” Kyle nodded toward his brother.
I looked to Justin for his response and found him staring at me, a cocky smile on his face. Justin arched his eyebrows in my direction and held my stare before responding.
“Yep, never liked that asshole. Always thought he didn’t deserve Syd.” Justin responded to his brother, but never looked away from me when he spoke, his famous sexy dimpled smile never faltered.
For some reason, his response made me nervous. I stood, needing to extract myself from the conversation and the sudden intenseness of Justin’s stare. “If you are all done talking about me as if I wasn’t actually sitting here, I think it’s time for me to go get some beauty sleep.”
Luckily, we slipped back into the hotel without getting noticed. But I saw there were at least two dozen women being kept outside of the main lobby by security when we ducked in through the side door.
***
The night before we were to check out of the hotel and start our life on tour with Double Strife, we had planned to sit down and spend a few hours going through the tour schedule and our playlists. Sienna suggested that the guys come to our room so that we could have privacy. I was a little uncomfortable having Justin in our room for some reason, but since word had gotten out that Double Strife was staying at the Chancery, the hotel was a minefield of eager fans trying to get the attention of Justin, so it only made sense to meet in one of our rooms.
The guys arrived together and were obviously confused when they walked in to our suite. “Holy shit, what did you ladies do to get a suite like this? I’ve been sharing a suite as big as your living room with this smelly as**ole for the last few nights.” Kyle laughed as he spoke.
I was a little embarrassed and not sure how to respond. But of course I didn’t have to think about it long because Sienna, as always, was ready with a response. “Didn’t we mention that Syd’s new boyfriend is a gazillionaire and owns this hotel chain?”
Kyle’s response was sincere. “No shit. Good for you, Syd.”
Justin, who was usually the first one with a sarcastic response, didn’t say a word.
We ordered dinner and, when Sienna told him our whole stay was comped by Jack, Kyle decided we needed dessert too. Before I knew it, the hours had flown by and it was almost midnight when my phone rang flashing a picture of Jack.
I answered. “Hey.”
“How was your day?” Jack’s voice was low and he sounded tired.
“Really good, how about you?” I smiled at the phone and caught Justin watching me out of the corner of my eye.
“Rough. Wish you were here with me to help work my stress out.” His voice was sexy and raspy. It sounded like he’d had a rough day and I instantly wished I was there to work the stress from his gorgeous body.
“Mmmm. And how would I do that?” I teasingly responded, completely forgetting that I had an audience.
“Excellent, we get to hear Syd have phone sex!” Kyle yelled in the background.
“Who was that?” Jack’s low, sleepy voice was suddenly at attention.
I gave Sienna and the guys the middle finger and walked to my bedroom for privacy.
“That was Kyle, he was just kidding around. We are going over our set list.”
“In your room?” Jack’s response was short.
“It’s already becoming difficult to find privacy. The hotel is crawling with fans since word got out they were staying here.”
“The hotel has conference rooms, you know.”
“We aren’t hanging out in the bedrooms, Jack. We have either been sitting at the dining room table or on the couch. It really isn’t that different than if we were in a conference room.” My reasoning sounded logical to me.
“Who is there?”
“Kyle, Justin, Sienna and I” As I responded, I realized that it sounded worse than it actually was. Would I want Jack hanging out with a friend and two girls in a hotel room, even if the girls were people he did business with?
“Syd, how would you feel if the situation was reversed and it was me in a hotel room with two women and a friend?” Even thousands of miles away the man still had the ability to read my mind.
“You’re right. I didn’t think of it that way. I wouldn’t like it at all.” I blew out a breath I didn’t realize I had been holding.
Jack’s voice was tense. “I’ll let you go so you can finish your work before they wind up spending the night in your suite and I completely lose my f**king mind.”
“I’m sorry, Jack. I didn’t mean to upset you. I love you.”
“I love you too. Give me a call tomorrow.” Then Jack hung up. I felt a hollow feeling in the pit of my stomach. He had gone out of his way to make sure I felt comfortable by arranging our suite and how did I repay him? By entertaining men in it.
I went back to the living room feeling deflated and all three of them shut up as I walked into the room. I didn’t think they could have heard my conversation. “What?” I asked, the question coming out a bit too defensive.
Sienna went to speak, but Justin beat her to it. “I didn’t realize this hotel was part of the Heston chain, so I didn’t put two and two together until Sienna just told us who your boyfriend was.”
I furrowed my brow, confused, waiting for the rest of the story. But Justin didn’t make me wait long for the rest. He had a sly smirk on his face as he said, “You don’t know who our tour sponsor is, do you?”
I shook my head, further confused.
Sienna spoke carefully, as if she was afraid to speak her words. “Heston International is the tour sponsor, Syd.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Heston is the money behind our tour, blondie. Without them, we wouldn’t have a tour. They were the ones that recommended you ladies fill in as the opening band — not that we didn’t think it was a great idea.” Justin looked at me, trying to gauge my reaction.
It felt as though all the air had been squeezed out of my lungs. My chest grew tight and the room swayed a bit as I took in the meaning of his words.
I lowered my head, embarrassed as I spoke. “I had no idea guys. I didn’t realize that we were bought onto this tour. “
Justin stepped forward and lifted my chin. “Bullshit, blondie. Don’t think that for one minute. He may have opened the door for you, but there is no way in hell that we would have brought anyone on who we didn’t think was good enough. You ladies kick ass, and that’s why you are here.”
I attempted a smile and shook my head to placate Justin. He was sweet for trying to make me feel better. I just needed to be alone and process what it all meant.
I reached out and hugged Justin. “Thank you, Justin. You are sweet. I think I just need to get some rest and think about it with a clear head.”
Justin nodded and the guys took the cue to leave. We agreed to meet in the lobby at 10am to board the busses in the morning. Once they were gone, I told Sienna that I had a headache and didn’t want to talk, but promised we could talk about it in the morning,