Throwing his phone on the couch, I say, “I don’t need to quit being anything, Xander.”
“Look River, just bring her with you,” he says, setting his cup down on the counter.
I throw myself on the couch and shake my head. “That’s not it,” I say, shoving my boots on the glass coffee table. “I don’t want to be on the road that long. I hate that life. Living on a bus, people in my face all day long, eating shitty food, and drinking every night, never being alone.” I finally admit to him my biggest reasons for not wanting to sign.
“Let me see what I can do,” he says, maybe finally resigned to the fact that I’m not going to sign that contract.
“So, did you tell her yet?” I bolt straight up in reaction to his question. He knows better than to talk about this when Dahlia is in the house.
“No, and I told you I’m not going to.”
“Not a smart idea. What if Bell figures it out and tells Dahlia?”
“Bell’s not going to figure it out. You only did because I told you. I asked you not to bring it up again, and I meant it.”
“River, I understand your need to always protect women more than you think I do, but I think you’re making a mistake here. If she finds out, she’s going to be really pissed off at you.
“I don’t have a need to protect women, Xander. I just don’t see the purpose in unnecessarily hurting someone’s feelings.”
“Yeah yeah, I get it. You’ve always wanted a chick you could talk to, not just fuck around with. That's why you hardly ever went out with someone more than once. I told you I get you, and I do. Really. But now you found an amazing girl, and you have it all, so don’t fuck it up. That's all I’m gonna say about it. You know I got your back no matter what.”
As I hear footsteps coming up the stairs, I quickly throw Xander a shut-the-fuck-up look. I turn my head just in time to get a look at my hot girl coming up the stairs.
“Hey there beautiful.”
“Hey there beautiful yourself,” she says in a flirty tone.
Looking over to Xander, she smiles at him. She has the most awesome smile. “Xander,” she flatly says.
“Muse,” he says just as flatly.
“Did you park your Mercedes out front? Because if you did, I hope it doesn’t get stolen while your slumming,” she says to him, barely able to contain her laughter, and then they both start laughing.
They have actually become friends since she moved in three weeks ago. It took a while, but one drunken night and many funny stories later told about USC, they actually decided they liked each other. In fact, she gets along great with my whole family. She goes out to lunch with my mom and sister at least once a week. My mom even convinced her buy a lot of the stuff we have in the house. Since moving in, we’ve actually bought everything in here together. It’s like I bought this house for us. It fits us perfectly; we both love it and we both love living here together.
Dahlia enjoys the view and photographs it all the time. We even planted wildflowers together before she moved in. They bloomed last week, and the look in her eyes when she saw the flowers made me want to fuck her right there in the garden. We run the trails every morning and whoever wins gets to soap the other one down. She thinks she wins every time. God, I love her.
She walks over and plops herself on my lap, and I start kissing her neck. “What are you doing here anyway?” she asks Xander as he walks over, picks up his phone, and sits right next to us.
He leans over as if he’s going to kiss her neck, and I shove him hard. “Get the fuck out of here man. Don’t you have someone else to go harass?”
“Actually I do have people to see and places to go,” he says as he stands up. “I can let myself out.”
“Great man because I wasn’t getting up.”
“Bye Xander,” she says, waving as he leaves the room, and I turn her so I can really kiss her. The sound of her voice sends a jolt of electricity through my body that lights up deep within my soul.