Page 12 of Half Notes and Highlights
“Wow.” Marshall raised his brows high on his forehead. “That’s one for the record books. Ethan Jones gets ghosted by latest hookup.”
Every part of that statement pissed Ethan off. “He’s not ghosting me,” he said, sitting on the couch next to his bandmate. “And it wasn’t a hookup.”
“Are you sure about that?”
Ethan didn’t answer. The thought had been swimming around in the back of his mind, invading his head more and more the past couple of days, but he didn’t want to believe it. He really liked Tyler. As he continued to think about it, the hurt he felt at the quick dismissal turned to anger.Who the fuck does this guy think he is? I’m a rock star. If anyone is ghosting anyone, I’m ghosting him. Except . . . I’m not.
As quickly as the anger flared, it disappeared. He didn’t want to ghost Tyler. He cared about the guy, and that hadn’t happened in a long time. He tried Tyler again, and this time it was obvious that Tyler blocked his number.
Four hours later, he was standing in front of Tyler’s apartment building. “You don’t have to come inside with me,” he told Joel, his on-duty bodyguard tonight.
“Yes. I do.”
He knew there was no shaking this guy, so he conceded. “Fine. But stay out of the way.” He knew telling Joel to stay out of earshot wasn’t an option, because the guy needed to know if he needed to intervene, but Ethan didn’t want a bodyguard to overhear the rejection.
Following several feet behind Ethan, they both walked up to the second floor and stopped in front of Tyler’s apartment. Ethan looked down the dark, deserted outdoor hallway. Anyone could have walked up here. Why the hell wasn’t there a gate at the bottom of the stairway or at the front of the courtyard?
He tried to text Tyler one more time, just in case there was some kind of glitch earlier, but again he got a restricted message. Annoyed, he pounded his fist on the door, harder and louder than intended. It was the middle of the night, and he didn’t want to cause a disturbance, but his frustration got the better of him, and he pounded the door again ten seconds later.
The door swung open, and Tyler stood there in a short, plush, bright red robe with a giant furry collar and matching fuzzy slippers, a serious case of wild bedhead, holding a baseball bat like he was ready to hit a homerun. His eyes opened wider, and he jumped a little when he saw it was Ethan. “What the fuck are you doing here? It’s four o’clock in the morning!” Tyler took a quick look down the hallway and tugged Ethan inside with one hand. “You stay outside,” he told Joel.
Still holding the bat over one shoulder, Tyler locked the door and spun around. “What do you want? Aren’t you supposed to be on tour? In another state?”
“Why did you ghost me?”
“Why didn’t you tell me you had a boyfriend?” Tyler shot back, holding the bat a little tighter.
Ethan backed up. “Are you going to hit me with that thing?”
“No.” Tyler dropped it to the floor. “You banged on my door in the middle of the night. I’m from New York. You’re lucky I didn’t swing first and ask questions later.”
Surprised laughter flew from Ethan’s mouth. “I love your sense of humor.”
“I’m not kidding. I’m dead fucking serious.”
Apparently, Tyler had a giant set of balls. And he was so cute the way he was acting all tough while dressed like Elmo. “You stopped to put on your robe and slippers before picking up a bat to ward off a would-be intruder?”
“I sleep in the nude. I wasn’t going to fight off a robber naked.”
Ethan stopped to ogle that image in his head for a moment before he said, “I’m sorry to just show up unannounced, but you blocked my number, and I didn’t know how else to get in touch with you.”
Tyler’s brows pinched together. “Why are you calling me? Why . . . anything? You have a boyfriend.”
“No, I don’t.”
“Don’t lie to me. Everyone knows you’re in a relationship with the bass player in your band.” Tyler huffed. “Everyone but me. Until it was too late.”
“We’re not in a relationship. We’re just . . . friends with benefits. Sometimes. It’s not a big deal.”
“Does he know that?”
“Yeah.”
“And you didn’t think to tell me?”
“We’ve known each other for two weeks, and we only slept together once. We never talked about a commitment.”
“Whoa.” Tyler held up his hand and took one step back. “I never said anything about a commitment. I’m all for casual sex. I’ve led a very promiscuous lifestyle, and I make no apologies for it. But I don’t want to hear from someone else that you have asteady booty call. I’m not gonna be taken for a fool or be made to look like an idiot.”
