Connected (Connections, #1)(94)

“Dahlia wants to do it herself. She’ll get around to finishing the unpacking Xander, don’t worry your pretty little head about it.”

Smirking, he pours himself a cup of coffee. “Whatever, better you than me. This mess would drive me f*cking insane.” Then raising his coffee mug, he asks “Coffee?”

Chuckling and nodding my head, I say, “Xander, leaving the mail on the counter drives you nuts.”

“Speaking of nuts, you were worried the necklace wouldn’t get here. Weren’t you?”

I swivel my chair as he walks back into the room and tap my fingers on the counter. “Not worried. Concerned.”

“Well maybe next time you’ll order your girl’s gift sooner,” he laughs, taking his jacket off and putting it on the back of the stool.

I nod my head in agreement as he sits next to me, handing me one of the cups of coffee. “So the record contract . . .” he starts to say.

Dropping my foot to the floor, I twirl my seat around to face him. “Xander, I don’t want to argue about the label’s shitty stipulations right now.”

“Look bro, I know your mind is elsewhere,” he says, tapping on his phone’s screen and pushing it in front of me. “But we need to get this shit straightened out and sign a contract or we won’t have a deal.”

Glancing at his phone, he’s showing me an email listing the changes to our original unsigned contract. I’ve seen these at least three times, so I roll my eyes.

“Xander, come on. You know the label doesn’t want to negotiate, they just want us to agree before we can move forward and cut the damn album.”

Also listed in the email are the promotional requirements of the band. I haven’t seen these before.

“This touring stipulation is bullshit,” I say to Xander, standing up and continuing to read the new requirements. “Everyone knows the only reason a label asks a band to tour for nine months is because they don’t believe an album can make it on it’s own.”

“You need to quit being a * and get over it, River,” he says as walks over to refill his coffee.

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 f*ck 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 f*ck 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-f*ck-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 f*ck 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.