I do my best to ignore them and head straight for the little kitchen area, and hope they’ll do the same for me.
No such luck.
Riff stands and pulls Aubrey up with him. I roll my eyes as they plop down at the bench seat at the table. I squat down and look through the cabinets. The fabric from Noel’s shirt is big enough that it hangs down to my thighs, but I wish I would have put some shorts on. The fact that I can feel Riff’s eyes boring into my back has me on edge.
A cabinet door shuts behind me and I glance in their direction. Riff sits down with a package full of Oreos at the table. The rumble in my stomach is audible. What I wouldn’t give for one of those cookies right now. He peels back the wrapper and my mouth waters.
“Make yourself useful and grab us some milk from the fridge,” Riff says. “I always keep it in there. The guys know better than to take my stuff.”
Sure enough, there’s a gallon of two percent white milk in there. I sit it on the counter and search for a couple glasses.
“There should be some plastic cups on the stop shelf, above the sink,” Riff informs me as I poke around.
There’s only one cup left in the bag, and my heart sinks. Damn. Oreos aren’t the same without milk. I pour the milk into it for Riff and walk over to the table. I set the cup down, and slide into the seat across from them.
He pushes the package across the table to me. “You don’t want some milk, too?”
I shrug and pull out a cookie. “Only one cup.”
Riff smiles and puts his cup in the middle. “We can share it—just no double dipping. I heard where your mouth’s been.”
Aubrey smacks his arm. “Sorry, Lanie, but you were kind of loud.”
Heat rises up my neck, and my face flushes. It never occurred to me that I’m loud enough for the guys on the bus to hear Noel and I having sex, but it is obvious they could. I mean, I heard every single moan when they had their parties in full swing on the other side of the door. How could I be so naive to think they couldn’t hear me too?
Riff chuckles and dunks a cookie in the milk. “Nothing to be embarrassed about, it was fucking hot. Noel’s one lucky son of a bitch.”
Aubrey giggles and then winks at me.
I cover my face with my hand. “Oh, God.”
Riff bites into his cookie. “You say that a lot, don’t you?”
My head snaps up. “Can we please stop talking about this? It’s not exactly the kind of conversation I should be having with you guys.”
He shrugs. “You know, about the ticket thing, I’m sorry. You did try to blow me off. I didn’t think you meant it. I thought it was your angle.”
“My angle?”
Riff nods. “Most chicks play games with me. You weren’t the first girl who tried to play the hard-to-get card with me. I figured you read one of my interviews where I said that turned me on.”
The tension I feel towards him melts a little with his apology. He seems sincere, and since he put it that way, I could see why he thought I’m a groupie.
I dip my cookie in the milk, too. “An interviewer actually asked what your turn-ons were?”
“You wouldn’t believe some of the shit we get asked. Noel gets the worst of it, though, being the front man and all. People are constantly trying to dig things up on him, but he’s good at keeping his life secret.”
I swallow the food down. “It’s not like Noel has a lot of dirt to find.”
Riff raises his eyebrows. “How long has it been since you dated him?”
“A little over four years. Why?”
Riff looks away from me and takes out another cookie. “A lot can happen in four years, Lanie.”
What is that suppose to mean? Is he saying there is a lot of dirt on Noel—dirt that even my hours of internet stalking didn’t uncover? Noel is a good guy. I don’t buy it.
I shrug. “I’m sure Noel isn’t intentionally hiding things from me. We all have our pasts and secrets we don’t want people to know.”
Riff’s eyes scan my face. “We most certainly do.”
Riff pops the last Oreo in his mouth. His gaze never leaves me, like he’s waiting for more questions, but I never ask. Anything in Noel’s past is just that, in the past. If there is something I need to know, I’m sure he’ll tell me.
Riff stands beside the table and then sticks out his hand. “Truce?”
I smile as his large fingers wrap around my hand. “Truce. I would like that. We should be friends since you and Aubrey…you know.”
Riff glances over at my friend and wiggles his eyebrows. “Oh yeah, I know. Friends it is.”
When Riff leaves the room, Aubrey turns in my direction. She smirks and I shake my head. “Don’t you shake your head at me, missy. I told you all about mine, now it’s your turn to dish. It sounded like it was incredible!”
I pinch the bridge of my nose. “Aubrey…”
She yanks my hands away from my face. “Stop it. Don’t be embarrassed. You had a good time—nothing wrong with that, Lanie. So, tell me, does he get his Sex-god title back now?”
I roll my eyes and smile.
She smacks the table and grins. “I knew it. That guy is sex on a stick.”
Aubrey stays on the bus with Riff and me until it’s ready to head to the next stop on the tour. Riff walks her out to the car, no doubt for a hot goodbye make-out session. I’ll miss her, but I only have a week or so left until I’ll see her all the time.