Page 78 of Broken Rock

He takes her hand as they leave the carpark and step onto the busy Dublin street. As they make their way through the crowd, Chloe catches someone staring at them more than once. Well, more specifically staring at him. A woman about her age stops and asks for an autograph and a photo with him, which he agrees to. After gushing over him for a minute, Tate finally manages to break away, taking Chloe’s hand again.

‘Sorry about that.’

‘Does that happen often?’

‘It’s hit and miss. One day I could walk through Grafton Street at lunchtime and no one would bat an eyelid. Then something like this happens on a side street.’

‘And you always agree?’

‘Of course. Well, unless they’re being a dick about it. I had one girl ask me for five autographs once. She wanted to sell them. She got fuck all. The way I see it, I can only be successful at what I do if they support me and the guys. If no one buys our music, I’ll be back to singing in the shower to myself. A few autographs and photos is nothing.’

He opens the door to a shop and gestures for her to go in. Chloe smiles as she looks around. There are art supplies crammed into every corner of the small shop. A woman steps out from behind the counter and comes up to shake his hand. ‘Mr. Archer. I’m Rachel. So nice to meet you.’

‘You too. And it’s Tate.’

‘Of course. We’re at your disposal.’

Tate drapes his arm around Chloe’s shoulder. ‘This is Chloe. With your help she’s going to go a little nuts in here, if that’s okay?’

Rachel grins widely. ‘I have no problem with that in the slightest.’ She locks the door, turns the sign from open to closed then faces Chloe. ‘Shall we get started?’

‘Get started on what? What’s going on?’

‘Tate rang us yesterday and asked if we would be able to sort you out with some supplies.’

‘What supplies?’

‘Whatever you want,’ Tate says. ‘You had to use a pen and some copier paper before. I’m not having that. Rachel is going to make sure you have anything and everything you need.’ He leans closer to whisper in her ear, ‘I fully intend for you to stay over a lot. This will give you something to do while I’m snoring my ass off.’

‘No way, Tate. I can’t accept this.’

‘Tough. You either cooperate and let Rachel sort you out or I’m going to have to do it myself and fuck knows what you’ll get. I want to do this for you. Let me.’

Chloe is quiet for a few minutes then the smile breaks. ‘You’re an irritating man. Do you know that?’

‘It’s been mentioned a few times. Go on. Have fun.’

Two hours later, Chloe thanks Rachel for her help and Tate gently pushes her towards the door and away from the till. He arranges to have everything delivered to her gran’s house the following day so she can sort through it all and see what she wants to bring to his house. Rachel writes down the total and shows it to Tate who simply nods and hands his credit card over.

Chloe had tried to keep a tally of the total in her head as they walked around the shop but gave up after the first few minutes. She had made a valiant effort to keep the total as low as possible, but as items were added to the list, she realised Rachel had been prepped in advance. She knew exactly what Tate’s budget was and from the length of the receipt, it was a healthy one. She dreads to think how much of his money Rachel helped her spend. Not that the shop owner would be complaining about that.

Tate finishes with Rachel and shakes her hand. ‘Chloe, could you take a picture. Bit of publicity for the shop.’

Rachel holds out her phone and Tate wraps his arm around her shoulder as Chloe takes a few pictures. Rachel thanks them again then Tate leads Chloe back outside and towards the car park.

‘That’s now officially Tate Archer’s favourite art supply shop.’

He laughs and squeezes her hand. ‘Independent places like that are a dying breed. If a photo of me brings more people through the door that’s a good thing. Now, I don’t know about you but I am starving.’

‘You’re always starving. I dread to think how much exercise you have to do to work it all off.’

‘There’s only one kind of exercise I’m interested in.’ He lifts his sunglasses up and wiggles his eyebrows.

‘Oh my God. Do you ever stop?’

He opens the passenger door for her then climbs into the driver’s seat. ‘Nope. Back to the food issue. I know somewhere that does amazing seafood.’

Tate drives them back down the coast to Bray, stopping on the way to sort out the seafood he promised. He pulls up at the side of the road and a man hurries out of a doorway with a bag which he carefully places on the floor in the back of the truck. Tate thanks him and drives them to down to the seafront. He pulls into the carpark at the promenade overlooking the sea.

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