Page 112 of Talk Nerdy To Me
Chapter 32
BASE
“No, the set tomorrow will be completely new, aside from our best covers we do,” Sticks is saying to the girl in his lap as he gives her a lazy grin.
My attention flicks back to the door as I lazily strum the strings on my guitar, waiting on Britt to get here.
A body drops to the chair next to me, and I look over at a smiling blonde.
“You’re the lead singer of the band, right?” she asks.
I just nod,
“I thought about playing it cool and waiting for you to notice me, but clearly you’re the type of guy who prefers to be noticed while you play aloof and mysterious,” she quips. “My name’s Lina.”
I glance back to the parking area behind the pool, waiting for the right headlights.
“Sorry, Lina. I’m not being aloof nor mysterious, and I’m not trying to be noticed,” I tell her dismissively.
“Oh. So girlfriend or something?” she asks, not sounding overly upset by the rejection.
I pause. It’s oddly the first time someone has presented that question to me over these last several weeks.
“Unofficially, yes,” I say instead of trying to explain the increasingly complicated situation that is Britt Sterling.
It’s not like I haven’t dated over the years, but it was always easy to keep the relationships easy, simple, casual and temporary. But I have to figure out a way to get over the year-long-tour hurdle without losing Britt.
I’m not okay at all with the expiration date anymore. I’m not sure if I ever was.
“I’m good at this. Let me guess, since this is Sterling Shore, she’s a model, has a lot of Instagram followers for her daily selfie, and her goal is to save the planet by running and car-pooling. How close am I?” Lina asks as she lifts her beer to her lips.
Taylor snorts as he sits down.
“She does have a lot of followers,” Randy says with a shrug from the end of the table.
“She is at a photoshoot right now,” Sticks adds, causing me to roll my eyes.
“Knew it,” Lina says as she lazily clinks her beer bottle to mine the second I lift it.
“She’s off-the-charts hot if he’s this uninterested in all other women,” the girl across from us says. “Now I want to see her. I’m too curious.”
I have no idea where Randy even found these girls, but they’re oddly not as vicious or volatile as the usual ones he brings around.
“She’ll be here soon and you can look your fill,” I tell them absently, checking the time on my phone.
“If she’s that hot, it’s possible I’ll hate her just for that,” the girl in Sticks says very seriously. “Some girls are just too—”
Headlights shine over us, and I stand as a lazy grin spreads over my face.
“Oh, she’s going to be really hot. Look at him light up like a kid at Christmas.”
I don’t even know which one of them says that, because Britt comes walking up the steps to the deck, and my grin only grows when I see her.
Her hair is in tightly braided pigtails, and she apparently needed elf ears for the shoot. She’s still half painted with the makeup, but some of it has rubbed off. She’s wearing a T-shirt with the game logo on it, along with a pair of crazy monster shorts.
“Sorry. My locker got soaked by an ill-capped bottle of water, and I had to settle for the downstairs store for new clothes so I didn’t have to go home first.”
I’m officially addicted, and I don’t want or need help.
