Page 9 of Risk It All

I look over to the bathroom door that Anthony disappeared through just a few minutes ago.He said that he was going to take a shower before he went out to some open mics.I had told him that I would come with him, but now I’m second thinking that.

“The hotel only has queen size beds left and Denver is expensive.Every other hotel is twice as much money.”

“Who said that the queen bed was okay?”Layla asks and I wonder why she thinks that’s the most important question to ask right now.

“He did,” I say, remembering how Anthony hadn’t seemed to think it would be a problem for us to sleep in the same bed.

Maybe he doesn’t think it will be a problem because he has no interest in sleeping with you,my mind whispers to me.

“Okay, then what’s the problem?Anthony is hot.I always thought that the two of you would be perfect together.”

“You did?”I ask, shock clear in my voice.

“Yeah.He’s smart and funny and you need someone smart and funny.Someone who will help you remember that there’s more to life than art and TV shows.”

“So what, you were hoping that we would just fall in love on our way to New York?”

“That was the plan, yeah.”

I don’t know whether to laugh or scream at that so I just remain silent.

“How’s the road trip going, anyway?”Layla asks, a slightly sarcastic edge to her tone and I can’t help but laugh.

“Good.We stayed in Las Vegas last night so that Anthony could do an open mic.Then we drove all day today.We just got to Denver.”

“How was Vegas?Did you two get married?”she jokes and I snort out a laugh.

“No.I watched him do stand-up and then we went and watched the Bellagio fountain show.He walked me back to the hotel after that and went out to check out some casinos or something.”

“Bummer.”

I roll my eyes at that.

“It was fun.Today was long.We drove for over twelve hours.”

“What are you doing tonight?Hopefully each other,” I hear her whisper under her breath and I laugh.

“He’s going to a few open mics and I told him that I would go with him.We already had dinner and I’m tired.Who knew driving all day could be so exhausting?”

“What did you think about his stand-up?”Layla asks and I can hear the Los Angeles traffic in the background.

“He’s really funny.He killed last night at the club.Was easily the funniest guy in there,” I realize that I’m gushing about him and cut myself off.

“You like him,” Layla sings and I wonder if she’s drunk.

“No, I don’t.All that I said was that he’s funny.”

“Uh huh.”

I can tell that Layla wants to say something else about Anthony and me, but someone calls her name in the distance and I take her distraction to tell her goodbye.

“I’ll talk to you tomorrow,” I promise, knowing ful well that I’m not off the hook.Just delaying the inevitable.

“Okay.Go do something that I would do!”she calls before she hangs up and I laugh, ending the call.

That might have sounded dirty but I’m not sure that Layla has ever even had sex before.Sure, she dates more than me, but a monk dates more than me.I never had time for dating and boys.

I’ve never found anyone who could distract me the way art could.I had to work all through high school and save so that I could buy my car and pay for my college tuition.Then I worked all through college to keep up with next years tuition,

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