Chapter 22

CHAPTER 22

Holden

“Look what the cat dragged in!” Dylan said.

That night, we were setting up for our second show in Oregon when I turned to find our manager, Daisy, walking toward the stage.

She held her arms in the air. “Surprise!”

Each of the guys walked over and greeted her. Daisy was really cool. She’d been our manager for almost two years now. Right before we’d signed with her, she and I had a little thing together. It only lasted for two months, since she lived out in California and was looking for a husband-type, and I was on the east coast and looking for a good time. But we’d parted as friends, and our past had never been an issue since we’d started working together. She was also engaged now.

“What’s up, Daze?” I kissed her cheek. “Looking good, as always.”

She smiled. “And you’re looking the part of a rock star, as always. Good to see you, Holden.”

“What brings you to Portland?” Dylan asked. “I know you don’t go this far north for nothing.”

“You’re right, I don’t. It’s too freaking cold up here. But I made an exception to watch my favorite clients play and to give you some good news.” She clapped her hands. “I have a record label coming to see you when you get down to San Francisco in a few days. And not a small one—a major one with a shitload of Grammy-winning artists: Interlude.”

“Holy shit,” Dylan said. “Interlude is huge!”

“I sent them your newest demo, and one of the scouts really loved a few of your songs, enough to come hear you in person.”

Dylan lifted Daisy off the ground and spun her around. The rest of the guys and I settled for high fives.

After we caught up for a little while, it was almost time for us to go on. Daisy took a seat at a table off to the side of the stage, and the guys started warming up. I walked over to her.

“Hey, Daze? Can you do me a favor and keep my phone?”

She smiled. “You want me to field calls from groupies and arrange for them to come by your room at different times?”

“Nah. I’m waiting for a call from someone. If you could just let me know if it rings. You don’t have to answer it. But if the call comes in, we’ll take a quick set break so I can call back.”

“Sure, of course.”

I pulled out my phone and handed it to her. “Thanks.”

She tilted her head. “You okay, Holden?”

I shrugged. “I’ve been better.”

“You want to talk about it?”

“Maybe later. We gotta get started.”

“Okay.”

I pointed to my phone. “Lala. That’s the name of the person I’m waiting for a call from. If you can just give me a signal if she pops up.”

“You got it, Holden.”

Over the next ninety minutes of our set, I must’ve looked over at Daisy a hundred times to see if Lala had called. But she never did. After we were done playing, the guys headed to Daisy’s table for drinks. I didn’t much feel like partying, but the mood among the rest of the band was celebratory, and I didn’t want to be a downer. So I joined in. After two rounds, the guys were all talking to different women at various places around the bar, and it was just me and Daisy. She’d had a few drinks already, which was unlike her.

“How about a shot of tequila?” she asked when the waitress came to check on us.

I’d been nursing my second beer for the better part of an hour. Before I had the opportunity to decline, she turned back to the waitress. “Two shots of Don Julio, please. And I’ll take another tequila sour.”

I lifted a brow when the waitress left. “You’re celebrating pretty hard tonight. Does that mean you’re feeling good about the producer who’s coming to see us?”

She let out a big sigh. “I broke things off with Rob last night.”

“Your fiancé? Why? I thought he was such a great guy.”

“He is. He’s the greatest guy. That’s why it sucked to have to dump him.”

“What was the problem?”

“We just had no chemistry. I’ve tried a bunch of things to get some sparks going, but it just wasn’t there.” She shook her head. “I’m too young to be in a dull marriage. I like sex too much.”

I finished off my beer. “That sucks. You can force a lot of things, but chemistry isn’t one of them.”

The waitress brought over our shots and Daisy’s drink. “You want another beer?” she asked.

“No, thank you.”

Daisy held up her shot, so I raised mine. “To good sex, like we used to have.”

I clinked but didn’t add anything, not wanting to give her the wrong impression.

“So who’s this Lala you were waiting for a call from?”

“A woman I’m seeing.”

“And you’re waiting on her, not the other way around? That doesn’t sound like the Holden Catalano I know.”

I smiled. “Yeah, it’s definitely new to me. And I can’t say that I’m enjoying being on the receiving end of the person not calling when they said they would.”

“She must be special.”

I nodded. “She is.”

“I’m guessing you have chemistry together?”

“We do.”

She started to laugh. “I bet no woman has ever complained about not having enough chemistry with you. You’re too sexy for your own good.” She pointed to my face. “The eyes, the scruff, the whole I-don’t-give-two-shits attitude. Hell, even a damn beanie is hot when you wear it.” Daisy chugged back half her drink.

“Maybe you should slow down a little?”

“Fuck that. I’m on the road to getting shit faced.”

An hour later, she arrived at her destination. Somehow I’d become her babysitter, and now I was stuck helping her into an Uber to get back to our hotel. She was so drunk, I had to keep my arm around her to make sure she stayed upright when we got out. At her room, I opened the door and flipped on the lights. Two steps inside, she dropped her purse. It landed upside down, and the contents spilled all over. I helped her to the bed before gathering all the crap from the floor. Then I put everything, including her leather clutch and phone, on the end table and walked down to the foot of the bed to take off her sandals.

“Alright, Daze. You’re in your room. I’m going to head out. You going to be okay?”

She smiled with her eyes shut. “Where are you going? Don’t you want to fuck me? I’m single now, you know.”

It was probably the alcohol talking. But drunk or sober, I had zero interest in any other woman than Lala. In fact, just being alone in a hotel room with another woman made me feel uneasy. So I leaned down and kissed Daisy’s forehead.

“I’ll check on you in the morning.”

I thought I might’ve heard snoring as I pulled the door closed behind me.

Back in my room, I was relieved to be alone. I couldn’t wait any more to call Lala. Her lack of communication was freaking me out. I needed to get some sleep tonight, so I was going to reach out, even though she was supposed to call me. I kicked off my shoes and chugged half a bottle of the free water the hotel left each day, then sat down on the bed and took out my cell.

Except…my code didn’t work.

I tried a second time. Then a third, before turning the phone over.

A purple case? Mine was black. Fuck, this wasn’t my phone. I’d had my cell in my hand when I picked up Daisy’s shit from the floor, including her phone. I must’ve taken hers by mistake and not mine.

Fuck.

I hated to be a dick and wake her, but I really needed my phone. I didn’t even know Lala’s number without it. So without bothering to put my shoes on, I went back to Daisy’s room and knocked.

No answer.

Great. Just great.

I knocked louder, then put my mouth near the crack of the door.

“Daisy! It’s Holden. I think we have each other’s cell phones! Can you open the door?”

The third time I knocked, a door opened, but it wasn’t the one I was knocking on.

“People are trying to sleep, goddammit!” An older man yelled.

I waved. “Sorry.”

He slammed the door, and my shoulders slumped. I put my ear to the door, hoping maybe the commotion had stirred Daisy, but the only thing I heard was a loud-ass snore.

Fuck my life.

***

The following morning, I waited until seven o’clock before going back to Daisy’s room. I hadn’t slept yet again, and I was going out of my mind not having my phone and being able to communicate with Lala with everything she was going through.

Daisy had always been a morning person, so I hoped that hadn’t changed. I knocked lightly, not wanting to piss off the guy next door again. Thankfully she answered this time. She was still wearing the clothes from the night before and looked like crap.

“I’m sorry to bug you so early.” I held out her phone. “But I think we have each other’s phones. I must’ve taken the wrong one when I left your room last night.”

She nodded. “Yeah, we do. I was going to go down to the lobby and see if I could schmooze your room number from the front-desk guy once the Tylenol I just swallowed kicked in and took the edge off the pounding in my head.”

She walked inside and grabbed my cell, while I held the door to her room open and waited. “I didn’t realize it wasn’t mine when I answered it a few minutes ago. That’s what woke me up.”

“My phone rang? Who was it?”

“Lala.”

I closed my eyes and dropped my head. “Shit.”

“Yeah, I’m sorry. I told her you weren’t here, and you must’ve left your phone here when you helped me to my room last night, but she didn’t sound like she believed me.”

Awesome. Just freaking awesome.“Alright. Thanks, Daisy. I’ll see you later at checkout?”

She nodded. “I’m sorry for being such a lightweight last night. I hope I wasn’t inappropriate or obnoxious. Some of the evening is a little fuzzy.”

I forced a smile. “Nah. You were all good.”

Rather than go back to my room, I went downstairs and got some coffee and fresh air. I was going to need to be more alert than I felt right now for my conversation with Lala. Searching my missed calls, I found that she’d called twice last night and then again this morning when Daisy had picked up. Given my history with women, I knew it wasn’t going to look good. But I hung onto the hope that she and I had built some trust over the last two months. Though that hope went in the toilet when she picked up and I heard her curt tone.

“Yes?”

“Hey, babe.”

“Seriously, Holden? You’re going to hey, babe me like nothing happened? Or did your groupie forget to tell you I called?”

I shut my eyes. “It wasn’t a groupie. It was Daisy, our manager.”

“Who was in your bed…”

“No, she wasn’t in my bed. She was in hers. And I was in mine—not sleeping because I couldn’t contact you. I accidentally took Daisy’s phone and left mine with her last night. She’d had too much to drink, and I walked her to her room, where she proceeded to drop her purse and spill everything inside all over the floor. I picked her stuff up, and I grabbed the wrong phone.”

“Oh? I see. So you’re a gentleman, then?”

I didn’t have to ask if she was being sarcastic. “I’m telling you the truth, Lala.”

“Whatever.”

“No, not whatever. I’m telling you the honest-to-God truth that nothing happened. And I think you should believe me. I’ve not done anything to make you doubt my loyalty to you.”

“You don’t have to. Your history tells the story, Holden.”

I didn’t have any right to get angry. I knew exactly how it looked. But for some reason, her blaming my history for her lack of trust in me pissed me off. “How about giving me some credit, Lala? I know you think I’m a big manwhore because I have more experience than you. But not once have I cheated on a girl I was in a committed relationship with. I slept around when I was single. I know you don’t like to hear that, but I can’t go back and change it.”

“No, you can’t,” she said.

“As long as we’re on the topic of sleeping around, where did you sleep last night? Last we talked, you were with Warren and were going to call me back. My phone didn’t ring all day. Have you gone back to him? Are you done with me already? Did you get what you needed and I’m dismissed?”

“I can’t do this right now.” Lala sniffled. “My mom is in the ICU, and I can’t take any more stress.”

Oh fuck. I made her cry.“I’m sorry, sweetheart. I didn’t mean to upset you. I just…I feel so frustrated that you don’t believe me. Trust me, if you understood how much I think about you, you would not have any questions about whether I could be with another woman. I’m freaking crazy about you, Lala.”

“I’m sorry, too.”

“Can we start this conversation over?”

“I can’t right now. I need to go back inside for rounds in a minute. They just started when my phone rang, so I stepped out.”

“Alright. But tell me how your mom is doing first.”

“They were able to clear the blockage, and she tolerated the surgery well. But it’s open heart, so they had to cut through her breastbone to get in. She’s in a lot of pain and groggy still. But her doctors think she’ll make a full recovery.”

“Oh, thank God.”

“Yeah.”

“I hate to let you go, but I know you need to get back in there. Are we good? I swear nothing happened, Lala. I would never do that to you.”

“Yeah, we’re good.” She didn’t sound too convincing.

“Will you call me later?” I asked.

“I will.”

“Alright. Bye, sweetheart.”

***

“Hey. Sorry to bother you all so early.”

Two days later, I’d texted the guys in the band at nine o’clock in the morning, asking if everyone could meet me in the lobby. We weren’t supposed to get on the road to San Francisco until checkout time, which was eleven. Today would be a lot of driving, and tomorrow night was the gig the record producer was scheduled to come to. I rubbed the back of my neck as I spoke to the group. “I need to leave for the day today. But I’d like you to all be okay with it.”

Everyone started to freak out.

“What do you mean leave?” Kevin said. “We have the producer coming tomorrow night. We can’t play without a drummer.”

“I know. And I promise I’ll be back in time. I booked a noon flight out today, and tomorrow I’ll be on a noon flight from the east coast, which gets in at three because of the time change. We don’t go on until ten, so I have a good cushion.”

“What if they cancel your flight back?”

“I’ll get on another one. I’ll take three planes if I have to. Or if there’s high winds or some reason why I can’t fly into San Francisco to meet you, I’ll fly as close as I can get and drive the rest. I won’t let you guys down.”

Dylan shook his head. “Don’t fuck us over, dude.”

“I won’t.”

“You’ve never once flaked on us, so if you say you’ll be there.” Monroe shook his head. “You’ll be there.”

I nodded and looked to Dylan. He looked less confident, but nodded.

Kevin frowned. “Can you at least tell us what’s so important?”

“Lala’s mom is sick.” I paused and was going to leave it at that, but then decided better of it. “And Daisy answered my phone when she called the other morning. I wasn’t even with her. We’d inadvertently switched phones the night before. But it didn’t look good, especially with my history and all. We’ve been talking, but things are off, and I don’t want to leave it any longer. I need to see her in person.”

Dylan nodded. “You want a ride to the airport?”

“Yeah, if you don’t mind. That would be great.”

Nine hours later, I pulled up at Jefferson Hospital. I went to the waiting room closest to the ICU and texted Lala. She had no idea I was coming, and I had no idea if she was even here…or if Warren was still hanging around.

Holden: Are you still at the hospital?

She texted back a few minutes later.

Lala: Yes. I’ll probably leave in an hour or two. Dad’s going to stay overnight tonight.

Holden: Can you go to the waiting room for a minute? I have a surprise there for you.

Lala: A surprise in the waiting room? Which one? And how?

Holden: The one closest to the ICU entrance.

Lala: Okay.

I leaned against the doorway. It was directly at the end of the hallway that led to the ICU ward, so I figured I’d see her when the double doors opened. Thirty seconds later, they did, and Lala’s eyes went wide.

“Oh my God.” She ran to me.

I engulfed her in a bear hug, lifting her off her feet.

“What are you doing here?”

“I wanted to make sure you were okay.”

“But you have your big show tomorrow night. The one with the record producer.”

I nodded. “I know. I’ll be back in time. I’m on the noon flight out tomorrow.”

She looked into my eyes. “I can’t believe you’re here.”

“I’m sorry I couldn’t come sooner.” I pulled her against me and took her mouth in a kiss. “I’m sorry for upsetting you, Lala.”

She softened. “Thank you for coming. It means a lot.”

The double doors leading to the ICU opened again. Lala’s back was facing them, but I saw the man coming out before he saw me…before he saw us.

“Your father…” I whispered.

Lala stepped back and smoothed her top. Mr. Ellison noticed his daughter at the end of the hall and smiled. Then his eyes lifted to my face and his smile wilted.

Bill is definitely not giving me his cell phone number anytime soon.“Hey, Mr. Ellison.”

“Holden. What are you doing here?”

I looked at Lala, and she gave me a face that confirmed what I’d suspected—her parents had no idea about us. Extending my hand, I smiled as best I could. “I’m in town for a gig, and I heard about Mrs. E. I figured I’d come see how she was and check on Lala.”

He smiled. “That was very nice of you. Jean is doing much better. Thank you.”

“I’m glad to hear it.”

“I was just heading to the men’s room, if you’d like to go in and visit. They only allow two people at a time. Lala can take you in.”

I nodded. “Thank you.”

I followed Lala down the hall to her mother’s room. Mrs. Ellison was sleeping, but she looked better than I would have thought. “She looks really good.”

“I put a little makeup on her and did her hair. My mom is old school and would hate for anyone to see her without her face on.” Lala made air quotes.

“Whatever makes her happy.”

We visited for a little while, and then Mr. Ellison returned. The three of us made small talk. Lala had been here since last night, and Mr. Ellison was taking the overnight shift this evening.

“Dad, I’m going to get going,” Lala told him. “I don’t want us to get in trouble for having three people in here. And I’m really tired. All the bells and whistles kept me up last night again.”

Mr. Ellison nodded. “Go get some sleep.”

“I’ll be back in the morning before rounds.”

“Alright, honey.”

I extended my hand to Lala’s dad. “I’m going to head out, too. It was good seeing you, Mr. Ellison. I hope Mrs. Ellison makes a speedy recovery.”

He smiled warmly. “You’re going to be thirty soon. I think you can call me Bill now, son.”

Well, well, well…maybe there’s hope after all.