Page 39 of Love Notes and Late Nights
“Food is on the way,” Tyler’s voice called from the other side. “I hope you’re dressed to impress!”
Wolf opened the door for Ethan and Tyler, anticipating similar naughty shark-humor T-shirts, but they weren’t wearing novelty shirts. Ethan’s plain T-shirt was torn into shreds on one side exposing an elaborate bloody shark bite on his torso, brought to life by makeup. Tyler was missing an arm. A bloody stump hung out of the short sleeve of his shirt, leaving a blood-stained mess on the entire side of his body.
“Wow.” Wolf didn’t have any other words to describe his reaction.
“Look at you two!” Harris exclaimed, walking over to greet Tyler and Ethan. “Who did that? It looks so lifelike. And where’s your arm?”
Tyler, who wore a baggy shirt instead of his usual skin-tight cut-off, snaked his hand out from under the bottom of the T-shirt and wiggled his fingers. “Right here. And I’m the one who did the makeup. I’m not just a hairstylist. I’m a makeup artist.” His brows furrowed into a scowl. “Why don’t you know that about me? You’re supposed to be my friend.”
“I do know that,” Harris replied. “I thought you did makeup to make a person look pretty. I didn’t know you did theatrical makeup.”
“It’s all theatrical,” Tyler drawled, with the wave of his hand, then his eyes widened as he noticed Wolf and Harris’ T-shirts,and he threw his head back and laughed up to the ceiling. “I love the way the shirts look on you two.”
Ethan read the shirts, then shifted his gaze to Tyler with a confused expression on his face. “Were they for us?”
“No. I bought them for Wolfie and Harris,” Tyler answered, casually, as he walked into the suite. “By the way, boys, the hats were a joke. I knew you wouldn’t wear them, but you never know what’ll happen after a few drinks.” He looked at Wolf and Harris and waggled his eyebrows.
It made Wolf wonder if Tyler overheard anything last night, or if the guy was just being coy.
Ethan walked through the suite, taking in the elaborate decorations. “This is incredible. You did this all by yourself? We would have helped.”
“Glad you like it,” Tyler replied. “I was happy to do it as a surprise for everyone.”
Wolf was about to shut the door when he heard the elevator ding. It was catering, and it looked as if they brought enough food to feed 50 people. While the hotel staff was busy setting up, Wolf moved next to Ethan and snickered. “Hi, shark bait.”
“Crazy, right?” Ethan looked down at his side. “I had no idea he could do something like this, and so quickly.”
Tyler joined them. “It would have come out a lot better if someone wasn’t so ticklish and kept moving.” He held up two paper cups. “Punch?”
Ethan inspected it and asked what kind of liquor it contained to make it light blue, but Wolf downed the entire thing before hearing any of the answers. It was sweet, but not too sweet, and cold, which he still needed after the T-shirt remarks.
Marshall and Amy arrived just as Wolf was pouring himself another cup of fancy blue punch from a big bowl that looked like the ocean, complete with tiny floating sailboats.
“You look adorable!” Tyler exclaimed, which made Wolf turn in their direction.
Marshall carried an inflatable surfboard that had a jagged chunk missing, obviously from a shark attack, and wore a T-shirt that said, “Bite Me.” Amy wore a fitted light gray tank dress that landed mid-thigh, showing off her long legs. The neckline was adorned with white fabric shark teeth, there was a fin on her back, and a cute shark’s tail on her butt. It was precious!
“Where did you get that?” Tyler asked, his voice higher than usual. “It’s so much better than that Baby Shark tee I gave you.”
“Amazon same-day delivery.” Amy flashed a grin. “Look at this.” She lifted the attached hood, which continued with the shark teeth from the neckline of the dress and completed the shark’s jaw around the edge of the hood. As if that wasn’t cute enough, the shark’s eyes were embroidered on either side of the hood.
“Oh. My. God.” Tyler threw his one hand up in the air and walked away. “I can’t even . . . there are no words.” He spun around. “You’ve done it. Girl, you shut me up.”
The retorts were begging to roll off Wolf’s tongue, but he kept quiet. Personal growth at its finest.
“I’m glad you like it,” Amy replied. “Oh, I invited my sisters and their boyfriends. Marshall assured me it was OK. They flew in this morning to see tomorrow night’s show.”
“And I invited two more roadies,” Marshall added.
“Now it’s a party!” Tyler replied.
People started arriving, not enough so it was out of hand, but enough to make it feel like a real party and not just the guys getting together. The roadies and the bus driver were honored to be invited, and it lifted their spirits. Even Paul shed his rigid exterior and was having a great time.
The only one not having a great time was the one person who should be enjoying it the most—Wolf. He couldn’t enjoyhis favorite movie of all time, because he couldn’t stop thinking about Harris and the little fantasy in the shower. He pretended to watch the movie, jumping in all the right places and laughing at the classic one-liners, even reciting them in tandem on occasion, but his mind was on Harris. He stole a glance in Harris’ direction, and the guy was looking straight at him. His heart fluttered a little when they made eye contact, and a genuine smile turned up the corners of his mouth.
Harris raised his punch glass at Wolf as sort of an acknowledgement or toast, and Wolf returned the gesture. He didn’t want to watch the movie anymore. He wanted all these people to leave, and he wanted to hang out with Harris, alone.
Instead of sitting in front of the TV, Wolf moved around the room in an effort to make his way over to Harris who was standing behind the couch off to the side. But he kept getting interrupted. One of the roadies thanked him for the invite, and another joined in the conversation. Then Richie, the bus driver, shared an anecdote about something Wolf wasn’t paying attention to. When he was finally making headway toward Harris, Ethan caught his arm.
