In The Heat of Los Angeles

The plane taxied onto the runway and came to a stop. There were two cars waiting for us, one for Ty, Kammi and Nick who were headed to the Upper East Side and one for Joe, Eliza and I to head to Tribeca. I had managed to sleep most of the trip by putting on headphones and a sleeping mask. I was exhausted after Harry and I had decided to stay up all night. I really just wanted to go home, crawl in my bed and sleep. But I had a meeting. I dropped everything off in my bedroom and quickly threw everything in my backpack to head to the recording studio to meet with my studio manager.

“Where are you headed?” Joe asked as I came downstairs. He was in the kitchen getting a glass of water.

“Studio. I’ve got a meeting with Jax.”

“Are you coming back here before dinner?” he asked.

“Yeah, there’s no way I’d go to dinner at the Mackin's house in this." I had bothered to try and change before my meeting. Jax wouldn't care if I showed up in leggings and my boyfriend's shirt, he'd probably think it was mine actually. Victoria however would not like me showing up in my boyfriend's clothes to her house for dinner. "I'll text you when I come back here. We can all head over there together."

"Okay, have fun at your meeting," Joe said. I headed out the door slipping my headphones in and clicking through the phone to call Harry.

"Hey love," he answered.

"Hi baby."

"Did you land okay?"

"I did. I slept most of the flight now I'm headed to my meeting."

"What is your meeting?" he asked.

"It's with my studio manager, Jax. We are going over the schedule for the next few months. I want to make sure that the higher priority artists are getting their time in the studio. Sometimes our producers have pet projects they want to work on and I need to know the studio space is going to the artists that have a higher profile. Which sucks because the pet projects a lot of the time are the thing I love listening to. But I need to make sure that if you wanted the studio space that you have it over the unknown songwriters that my producers love working with."

"Sounds tricky."

"It is. I don't want the producers to refuse to work in the studio but I also need to make sure shit gets done. The pain of running multiple businesses under one umbrella." I took a deep breath as I walked out onto the street. "How was your day?"

"Good. I got some laundry done. Worked on my second audition with some of the notes Eliza and the casting director gave me. You left some of your stuff here."

"Anything important?" I asked.

"Me?"

"Aww, miss me already?"

"More than I should probably admit."

"You're cute."

"At least you don't find me psychotic for missing you."

"I miss you too."

"So who is staying at your place?" Here was what I wish I could avoid telling him. I hadn't realized Joe was going to be coming with us to New York, despite inviting him to Chicago for Jonny's birthday I didn't actually think he'd come.

“Well, Ty on the flight decided to stay at Kammi's parent's house with she and Nick. Makes sense to have her assistant with her. Which leaves Eliza and Joe staying with me."

"Joe came with you?”

“Yeah.”

“Why didn’t you tell me Joe was coming?”

“I didn’t know he’d decided to come until I got to the airport this morning.”

“Does this mean he’s in Chicago?”

“Yeah, they are all going to be there Friday through Sunday morning.” I heard him sigh on the other end of the phone call. “Are you upset?”

“I can’t say I’m not the tiniest bit upset that my girlfriend has a guy with her that obviously as some point had feelings for her based on how he behaves around her.”

“Joe doesn’t have feelings for me. Never has. We are just friends.”

“I doubt that.”

“Harry, baby, you need to trust me. Nothing is going to happen between me and Joe. Never will. YOU are who I like spending my time with.”

“I know and I really don’t want to be an ass about this. I just wish I’d known he was going with you before you left.”

"I know. I wish I’d known as well. I’ll talk to Nick and Kammi. They’ve always done this shit to me. They had ulterior motives for a long time. They can’t anymore. And neither can Joe as much as I think he maybe has a girlfriend, that doesn’t matter. I have a boyfriend and he cares that Joe just shows up places.”

“I don’t want you to cause problems. But it does make me uncomfortable.”

“I’m sorry.” There was silence on the other end. “I miss you. I wish you were here.”

“I wish I was too. We will have to take a trip to New York together sometime.”

“I’m sure we will but I wish you were here now. I just know that you can’t be. Your audition is too important to be here with me. And I get you on Friday, though not all to myself. I have to share you with The Circus and the entire Fazio/Ferrera clan. I won’t have you to myself until Wednesday night next week.”

“We will make the best of that. Maybe the weekend after we get back from Chicago we do something just us. No circus. No family. Just us.”

“If I don’t end up having to work the whole weekend maybe we can do that.”

“No working the whole weekend.”

“Well, I’m not doing a whole lot of work while I’m in Chicago so I don’t know that I can afford to go that long without working. Plus I got the deal worked out for that magazine. You will need to be back home the beginning of May for it.”

“Will you come with me?”

“We can talk about it. I can look at my schedule. It would probably be good if I was with you for your first major magazine cover.”

“And so you can come home with me. I’ll have met your whole family by then. You could come meet mine.”

“We can talk about it when I’m not walking through the streets. Maybe tonight. I don’t think we are going out tonight because we have dinner at the Mackin house. I think we are all going out tomorrow night.”

“Sounds like fun. I’m going to be sitting here at home.”

“Whatever, you have friends to go out with that you’ve been ignoring for a week.”

“That’s true. I have dinner with Ben and James tonight.”

“That will be fun. Tell them both I say hi.”

“I will. Evidently when I got off the phone with James yesterday he told Ben that we’d been hiding from them.”

“Those two are hilarious.” I walked up to the front door of the studio and stopped outside for a second. “H, I’m at the studio. I should probably go. I’ll text you when I get home from dinner so I don’t bother your dinner if you’re out. Then you can just FaceTime me when you get home from dinner. I’ll probably be up late working.”

“Don’t work too hard.”

“Oh, I will but I can here. You aren’t here to tell me no laptops in bed.” He started to laugh me.

“God I miss you,” he said.

“Me too. We will talk later. Have fun tonight.”

“You too.” We said our goodbyes and I headed into the studio. This was my happy place in New York. As much as I loved our offices in Hudson Yards I often just skipped out on the office when I was in town and worked from here. It was a few minutes of walking from my condo and so much more chill. The office in LA pretty much knew that I’d run around barefoot on busy days and often had pens stuck in my bun. In New York there were people who thought that I acted like a child and so I was always dressed like I had the biggest presentation of my life here. The culture of our offices was so different. Moving from Midtown to Hudson Yards had changed the culture of New York a little and made people relax a bit and enjoy some down time when they were in the office but it was rare. New York truly was the city that never slept and never stopped hustling.

My meeting with Jax went well and we had the schedule worked out. He of course was full of questions about Harry being a client, just like nearly every person in our company had been since the announcement. I answered the questions without being too specific. All of our studios and producers had opinions on him going solo. Some wanted to record with him, they knew it would raise their profile to work with someone like him. Some wanted nothing to do with him, fearing it would lower their credibility to work with someone going solo from a boyband. None of them had any idea what he would decide to do, I didn’t either. I was starting to build a list of the producers we usually worked with and some people I knew through the industry that I thought he would mesh well with so he could meet with them and make decisions on his own time. I didn’t want to make this decision for him. His debut album was going to be his chance to show the world what his music was and what he was made of. It had to be completely his decision.

I headed back to the condo and quickly changed into something more appropriate for dinner at Cameron and Victoria’s house. They were much more formal than anyone in my family ever was. Mom a lot of times had fancier events where I had to dress nice but if it was just dinner with my friends because we were in town we could show up in ripped jeans and t-shirts or whatever we were comfortable in. Dinner with Pops was usually at a restaurant but if it was at his house it was always casual because it usually involved either a day at the pool or riding horses. It was only a more fancy occasion if whatever woman was in his life at the time decided she wanted to impress people.

I looked through the clothes I’d brought with me. I wanted to be comfortable because I was completely exhausted but I knew a dress would be my best option. I settled on a black and red patterned cap sleeve dress that was form fitting and came to just above my knees. I had packed it thinking I could maybe wear it for Jonny’s birthday party but had another option for that as well. The other option was lower cut and something that wouldn’t shock my mother but might shock Victoria. I touched up my hair and makeup before putting on a pair of heels. I grabbed my coat and headed downstairs. I found Joe and Eliza in the living room laying on the couch watching TV. They were both dressed and ready.

“Are we taking the subway or a car?” Joe asked.

“Car,” Eliza said. “I ordered it and it should be here any minute. We have to wear heels to this sort of shindig. I’m not doing a train in these.” She held her foot up and her heels were about as high as mine. Her phone buzzed in her hand. “Car is here.” We all put on coats, Eliza and I grabbed our purses and we headed down. We were in the car and headed across town for dinner.

“Anyone else nervous about this?” I asked.

“Yes,” both Joe and Eliza replied.

“Why are you nervous?” Eliza asked.

“I value what Cameron and Victoria think of me. I’m dating my client. This is almost as bad as telling Jimmy all over again.” They both laughed at me referring to my father by his nickname. It wasn’t an unusual thing to have happen. I had a lot of parents. I often referred to my mother as Grace with them. They were just used to it by now.

“They will be happy for you. Jimmy was,” Eliza said.

“I know. I’m just keeping my fingers crossed and maybe thankful that I don’t have him here with me. Though admittedly I miss him.”

“Of course you do,” Joe said. “You’re still in the phase where everything is new and awesome and you like being around each other. For most people that phase eventually ends.”

“Something happen that I don’t know about?” I asked.

“I’m here to have fun and replace you as the single one on the trip.”

“Oh no. I’m sorry Joe,” I said resting my head on his shoulder. He was in the middle of the seat in the back of the car Eliza had ordered. She put her head on his other shoulder.

“We are here for you,” Eliza said.

“Thanks, I knew a few days away with all of you could make me forget yet another break up.”

“Of course. Maybe we can go grab drinks tonight, though I sort of figured tomorrow night would be our big night out.”

“Yeah, I think tomorrow is the big night out,” Joe said. “Nick said that Kammi’s sisters were going to be at her parents’ place tonight so she wanted to stay home. Plus we all figured that with you not sleeping last night that you might want to just go home and crash.”

“I do,” I replied. “I don’t even want to go to this. I want to go home, crawl in bed and sleep. But when your business partner invites you to dinner, you go. Tired or not.”

“True,” Eliza agreed. “You can’t exactly say, ‘Sorry Cameron and Victoria, can’t come too dinner. I was too busy screwing my boyfriend.’ That wouldn’t work.”

“No and I’m pretty sure Jimmy would be pissed off about all of it. He reacted almost too well to the news. Which I know that Grace told him about it before I did but still, it seems too good to be true.”

“He did react really well. I can see why that would make you uncomfortable,” Eliza said. “Jimmy very rarely reacts and doesn’t have some sort of criticism to go along with it.”

“Exactly!” I exclaimed. Joe just laughed.

“Maybe he is actually happy about it though." Joe always tried to give my father the benefit of the doubt. He had always gotten along really well with him.

“Maybe, but it’s suspicious,” I said through my laughter. I felt my phone buzz in my hand and looked down.

Have fun at dinner tonight. I'll FaceTime you when I get home.

The car pulled up in front of the Mackin house. They’d had this same house my entire life. A half block from Central Park, a rod iron gate going around a little area at the front that lead to the front door and a service entrance that went straight into the basement. I’d snuck in and out of that service entrance a time or two when I was a teenager and didn’t want to get caught by Cameron and Victoria. We went to the front door and rang the doorbell. This was the easiest way to tell the difference between the households. At my Mom’s you just walked in to the house and yelled for someone. You’d hear the boys playing their video games in the family room upstairs and Mom singing along to the radio in the kitchen. At my Pops’ house you had to have a code to get in the gate. We all had it. We all let ourselves in. There had never been knocking. Eliza’s parents were a lot like my Mom and Dad. They had a house full of noisy kids. They were prepared that any of the their friends or their kids’ friends would just walk into the house. Mom usually showed up with a bottle of wine and had the first glass poured before Marie even made her way into the kitchen. At Kammi’s parents’ house you knocked and waited for the butler to answer the door. Ty’s grandparents’ house was the same way. New York life was just so much different to me than anything I’d grown up with.

“Welcome,” the butler said as he opened the door.

“Hello Alfred,” I replied.

“Miss Scarcello, Miss Richards, Mr. Jonas, welcome. Let me take your coats. The Mackins are in the bar.” Alfred took all of our jackets and we went up the few steps into the main foyer and to the bar that was on the first floor. Kammi, her sisters, her parents, Nick and Ty were all sitting and talking. I was glad I’d opted for heels as each of the women already sitting in the room had on sky high Louboutins.

“Hello everyone,” Cameron said. Victoria stood to hug all of us giving us all an air kiss on each cheek. I headed over to Cameron at the bar and hugged him before taking the glass of scotch he was offering me. “Did you have a good flight out?”

“Yeah, I slept most of the way,” I replied. “I had a meeting with Jax as soon as I got off of the plane. We needed to start working through the summer recording schedule.”

“Yeah, you’ve got a lot of artists in the studio. Should be a busy time for you. Any word on when Harry plans on going in the studio?” he asked.

“None at all yet. We need to get him through his second audition for a Christopher Nolan movie this week and then figure out if he’s spending his summer on a movie set or in a recording studio.”

“When is his second audition?”

“Thursday morning. It’s all pretty rushed. But he did great. Then in a couple weeks he’s off to head home for a magazine cover and then who knows what. Maybe France to film a movie or a recording studio somewhere.”

“And what about you?” Cameron asked. “Will you be tagging along?”

“My job is my first priority,” I replied. “I may be going to London for the magazine cover shoot. But if he gets sent to France for an extended period of time to film a movie I can’t feasibly work from there for a whole summer. So I would not be attending. He doesn’t need his manager with him.”

“He might like his girlfriend.”

“So who told you? Jimmy or your kid?”

“Jimmy, but Kammi and Nick filled me in on everything. They say you’re happy.” I nodded. “And finally not living in your office.” I laughed as I nodded again. “That’s all we can ask for as parents. And as your business partner, I’ve always been a little worried that you’d burn out early. So knowing that you might have a reason to skip town this summer and go to France for a while and maybe not spend your life in your office, has me believing that you aren’t going to tell me you’re quitting before you hit 30.”

“Thanks,” I replied laughing. Cameron hugged me. “It’s been an unnerving situation to say the least. I never expected it to happen. Hell I never expected him to walk into my office that day.”

“Things happen when we least expect it. Look at Kammi and Nick. She never expected him to be interested in her after all the years they spent growing up together as friends. Now they are moving in together and their future together looks promising.”

“Yeah, I’m happy for them both. They are good together. It’s nice to see them both so happy.”

“It’s nice to hear that you’re happy as well. You deserve it.”

“Everlee, I hear you have a new boyfriend,” Victoria said.

“I do.”

“Will he be joining us on the trip to Mexico next month?”

“I have no idea. He is coming home to Chicago with me this weekend to meet Mom, Dad and the boys. Considering Mom is who invited him to Chicago I imagine she’ll invite him to Mexico but it will all depend on his work schedule. I also don’t know that I should overwhelm him with everyone and that trip so fast.”

“Overwhelm him?” Nick asked. “He’s basically jumping in head first to all of this. And I could use help judging all you idiots when you do karaoke roulette.”

“We will have to wait and see. He could be gone filming a movie or something.”

“Well, if he’s not I say he comes with. Maybe this year even Joe can come along,” Victoria said. She must’ve had a few drinks before we got here because she was acting like my Mom, inviting everyone along on trips.

“I’d love to finally get an invite,” Joe said. “If we all end up going we can be like the judges on The Voice and get spinning chairs.”

“No,” I replied glaring at him. “Nick drinks enough that the spinning would have him puking everywhere.” Nick flipped me off from where he was sitting.

“So Eliza, are you seeing anyone these days?” Victoria asked.

“Not currently. I’ve been working a lot. Between SME and the few shows I have booked right now I’ve been pretty busy. Hard to find time to date. And unlike E, they don’t come marching into my office.”

“What about the cute guy you were in the play with last winter?” I asked.

“Turns out he was more into Ty than me.”

“He was definitely in to me.”

“Ty does this mean you are seeing someone?” Victoria asked.

“No, not seriously. I’m too young to be tied down,” he said causing everyone to laugh.

“Are we all going out tomorrow?” Kammi’s sister, Stassi asked.

“We better be,” Blair said. “I cleared my normal Wednesday schedule so that we could all go out tomorrow night since you all came home.”

“Don’t get into too much trouble, Blair. You’ve got auditions coming up for your summer programs,” Cameron said.

“I’ve got it covered, Dad.” She took a sip from her wine glass. She was only 19 but it was common amongst all of our families to allow us to have wine at dinner parties once we were out of high school. None of the parents were naive enough to think we weren’t drinking elsewhere. We sat chatting before moving towards the dining room and sitting down. Joe sat in between Eliza and I on one side of one of the tables in the room. Dinner parties at the Mackin house always meant multiple courses and delicious food. Their chef was talented and had been with the family for a number of years.

“Thank you so much for having us all,” I said as we were enjoying our dessert.

“We are happy to do it. It’s not often we get all six of you in town together. Let alone when we can get Stassi and Blair to show up at the house.”

“I’m always here,” Stassi replied. “If I’m not in class or working I’m here.”

“True,” Cameron replied. “It’s Blair that is the struggle.”

“I’m busy,” she responded taking a sip of her wine making us all laugh. The 19 year old who didn’t have a job was of course the one hardest to nail down in this family. Not the 21 year old who was on track to graduate in December and had worked for her mother since she was 18. And not the 25 year old who lived on the opposite coast helping run their father’s business. It was the 19 year old who was always busy having fun. I’d give my right arm to have approached life the way Blair did. She didn’t feel pressure to meet any sort of expectation, she just did what she wanted. I’d never done that. Kammi hadn’t really either. She’d been able to have a bit more fun in college than I was because she was away from her family and SME. She only worked in summers whereas I was a workaholic all through college. I would’ve been able to graduate a year early if I’d focused myself on my school the way I did on work. My Mom and Dad were always worried that I’d have a breakdown or burnout early. But I just kept going. The thought of being 19 with New York as my playground sounded like a blast. I was jealous of Blair.

“You’re busy out finding a new guy every week,” Kammi said as she stuck her tongue out at her sister.

“Not all of us are lucky enough to land a hot boyfriend that we’ve known practically our whole life,” Blair responded. “Hey Joe, you single these days?”

“Uh…” Everyone in the room erupted into laughter. “Blair, you’re cute but you’re also like a little sister to me. Sorry?”

“What about your new client?” Blair asked as she turned to look at me. “Is Harry Styles single or is he still dating Kendall Jenner?” I didn’t even know how to react. I had noticed that Blair had been on her phone the entire time we were in the bar so she obviously wasn’t paying attention. Phones however were not allowed at the dinner table, Cameron’s #1 rule. We all put them in a basket at the door to the dining room when we came in. You could hear them vibrating against each other in the basket which usually gave me anxiety.

“He’s got a girlfriend,” I responded. Everyone else was holding in their laughter.

“Like a serious girlfriend or am I hotter than she is?”

“Everlee is his girlfriend,” Nick said. “Based on how they act around each other neither of them are looking for anyone else.” I smiled.

“That might be true.”

“Things are serious already?” Stassi asked.

“I mean we aren’t talking about running off together or moving in together.”

“They practically are living together. She’s stayed with him every night since they started dating,” Ty said.

“His house is quiet. The sound of silence is the most beautiful sound in the world after living with all of you.”

“So you are sleeping with Harry Styles?” Blair asked.

“Blair!” Victoria scolded her daughter.

“What? She probably is.”

“It’s none of your business if she is. They are enjoying each other’s company and having fun together. You care about each other. Right?” Now Victoria was looking at me.

“Yeah, we care about each other a lot. He’s pretty special.”

“Have you guys talked since you got here?” Kammi asked.

“Yeah, I called him on my walk to the studio this afternoon.”

“He miss you already?” I nodded.

“He told me that I forgot some of my stuff at his place when I was packing to leave last night. When I asked if it was anything important his response was ‘me’.” I smiled at her.

“Awww,” Kammi said. She’d taken the seat next to me and hugged me. “I’m happy to see you this happy. Though I admit I’m excited to see him meet Grace and Marco. If I know Marco well enough he’s going to try and intimidate him.”

“Already did,” I replied laughing. “He called him the other morning because Mom gave him Harry’s phone number. She’s crazy in case you forgot. He tried to act all intimidating and just when he’d about given my boyfriend of like a week a heart attack he started laughing and I’m sure it was his maniacal asshole laugh that I’ve gotten most of my life when he tortures me.”

“That’s funny,” Cameron said. “Marco can get away with that.”

“And he too often does.”

“Are you excited to go home?” Victoria asked. “We were invited to the birthday dinner but I’ve got several open houses on some high end property that hits the market this week so we couldn’t sneak away. I’ve got a gift for your brother for you to take with you.”

“I am excited to go home. I miss my Mom and Dad. I’m sure that Toph has grown like a foot since I’ve seen him or something. Jonny is going to be 16 which still blows my mind. These are my baby brothers. They are still all little guys playing in the park while Mom and I sat together watching them on warm afternoons. I’m not ready for them to be grown up.”

“We were the same way when you girls all started to get older,” Victoria said. “You and Kammi are born so close to each other that when we did the trip to Los Angeles together to celebrate your 16th birthday Grace and I just stood there crying in Jimmy’s driveway as you three drove off in that Jeep Jimmy gave you for your birthday.”

“I loved that first Jeep!” Eliza said.

“I thought Grace was going to kill Jimmy for taking the roof and doors off before setting you girls free,” Victoria said. “When you finally rolled back home at midnight and were alive we all felt a little better.”

“That was the best trip. That was when all three of us decided that we were moving to LA after college,” I said.

“It was,” Kammi replied. I rested my head on her shoulder. That had been the trip that changed our path in life. We made a decision that night as the three of us girls stood staring at the Hollywood sign that when we were all done with college, which we knew was several years off in the distance, that we would all come back here. We took a picture of us out the top of my Jeep that night with the sign in the background. We came back the first night we were all in LA and recreated the picture, we were even nice enough to even take a new version that had Ty and Nick as part of it. It had started with a dream the three of us had and had become so much more in the years since we made the decision.

The rest of dinner was nice, we said our goodbyes and climbed back into the car to head across town. It was obvious we were all tired because we were relatively quiet. Once in the apartment we said our goodnights and headed to our respective bedrooms. I sent Harry a quick text to let him know I was home and started in on my work. I had to have a lot of stuff prepped for a full scale meeting with my New York team. I don’t know why but my New York meetings still felt like I was going in to give a presentation to every professor I’d ever had in college asking them to grant me the right to graduate. I was going over my presentation and notes when the FaceTime notification popped up in the corner. I clicked okay and the screen transitioned into showing me Harry, laying in bed with no shirt on and based on his smile he was a bit tipsy.

“Hi,” I said.

“Hi,” he replied.

“How was dinner?” I asked.

“Good. We all three agree that it was bullshit that you went to New York for a few days because we all miss you.” I laughed.

“I miss you all too.”

“James thinks you miss him more than you miss me.”

“Doubtful.”

“That’s what I said.” He smiled at me and I sort of melted back into the pillows behind me. “He doesn’t give you multiple orgasms in an evening.”

“No, he doesn’t. Thank god!”

“Are you working in bed?”

“I am. You aren’t here to tell me I can’t.”

“You shouldn’t be working. You should be sleeping and dreaming of me.” I laughed.

“I have a big meeting with my team tomorrow. Dreaming of you will only end up getting me in trouble.”

“I miss you.”

“I miss you too,” I replied. “Friday can’t come soon enough.”

“Maybe if we both close our eyes and wish really hard we will be together.” He closed his eyes tight and I watched him crack one open when he heard me laugh at him. “You aren’t closing your eyes. It won’t work if you keep your eyes open.”

“How much did you have to drink tonight?”

“A bit of wine. Probably too much wine because I miss my girlfriend.”

“I know the feeling except I started with scotch. Had to pace myself on the wine after that.”

“It’s so hot that you drink scotch. I don’t even do that well.”

“I noticed that first night. You had a reaction face that was funny. Made it obvious scotch was not your drink of choice.”

“Yet you still came home with me.”

“Your accent did me in.”

“Is my accent doing anything to you now?” he asked raising an eyebrow at me.

“Are you trying to get me to have sex with you via FaceTime?”

“Maybe…”

“Harry,” I responded now laughing uncontrollably.

“What? I miss you. I’m going through withdrawal symptoms. It’s been like almost 24 hours since I had sex.” The laughing got harder. “You know you miss me too.”

“I do. I miss you a lot. It’s going to be a rough two days until Chicago.”

“Are you picking me up at the airport?” he asked.

“Of course. I want to see you first. If you just show up at my house it would be my luck that my Mom would just sit on the front porch waiting for you to get there.”

“I’m excited to meet everyone.”

“I’m really excited for you to meet them all too. It will be a good time. I just need to warn you though. Wrigley Everlee is unlike anything you’ve ever seen. So be prepared.”

“I’ve watched baseball with you. I know how you get.”

“You haven’t been to a baseball game with me. It’s just different.”

“I’m prepared. So what should I get Jonathan for his birthday?” he asked.

“You don’t need to worry about it. I’ve got him a really nice gift. I can put your name on the card.”

“What did you get him?”

“Well other than the suite for the game, I also got him a new personalized jersey with the number he wears for his high school ball team. I had been considering getting him a guitar. He started taking lessons on an acoustic like a year or two ago because he thought he could woo girls if he could play guitar.”

“It is a nice trick. I’ve been able to woo his sister with a guitar a time or two.”

“You have. I like listening to you play while I do shit around your house.”

“So you were going to get him another guitar?”

“A nicer one. He started on the old acoustic I left at home so I had a guitar there for when I visit. But then he started bugging me about wanting an Apple Watch so I weakened and got him that.”

“You spent a lot on your brother for his birthday,” Harry said.

“Yeah, but you only turn 16 once, right?” I shrugged. “He’s a great kid. And it’s nice to do nice things for him. Dad is insisting on splitting the cost of the suite with me since I won’t just let him pay for it.”

“Well, I’d like to get him a gift if that’s okay.”

“That’s fine. It doesn’t need to be anything extravagant though. Really the funny part is as much as I’ve shelled out this money on Jonny the thing he’ll love most is that I came home.”

“That’s nice. I know what it’s like to want to spoil family. I wish Gem would let me spoil her, she’s a pain in my ass about me spending money on her.” I put the laptop next to my pillow where he would normally be laying in bed and laid on my side to look at him. “You look tired.”

“I’m exhausted. I didn’t get any sleep last night.”

“I bet it was for a good reason.”

“It was for a great reason.”

“Well get some sleep now.”

“Okay. I’ll call you tomorrow.”

“Okay. Goodnight, love. I miss you.”

“I miss you too, H. Goodnight, baby.” I ended the FaceTime call and quickly passed out. The next morning I was up and dressed to head to the office. I had some cute pant suits and only really ever wore them in New York. It was crazy the way I treated the offices different because of the way I felt going into them. Rather than have an office devoted for each of us Kammi and I shared an office in New York, Chicago and London. Made work difficult when we were traveling together. We often ended up spending more time goofing around because Ty and Eliza’s desks were in here too. It was our own mini-bullpen of sorts.

The meeting with the New York staff went well. They were a great team but were so used to working without me present that it was always unnerving to try and tell them about a new initiative or something that I wanted to try out. They knew that I would be receptive to their ideas but also knew that the staff in Los Angeles had an easier time swaying me to what they wanted because I interacted with them every day. I’d often thought that I needed to split time more evenly between each of our offices, but as we grew and now had four offices with the potential of adding more down the road, it became harder to imagine splitting my time more evenly between each of the places. I had lunch with my New York head to get caught up on some of the stuff going on and then was back to my normal work in the afternoon.

Kammi and Ty left at about 6:00 to head to her parents to get ready for our night out tonight and Eliza and I headed home shortly after. Joe and Nick were both hanging out on the couch when we walked in the door.

“Get tired of hanging out at the Mackin house?” I asked.

“It’s weird there during the day. Like if I’m at the condo I’m by myself. But Alfred and Penny constantly ask if they can get anything for me. I’m not used to having a staff who wants to like make me lunch or coffee. So I came down here this morning.”

“Have you told Kammi?”

“Yeah, I told her that we should all just meet here before dinner since I’ve relocated.”

“Good to know. I need to change before we go out. I’m done rocking my pantsuit look today.”

“It’s at least cute,” Eliza said.

“Thanks, but I need to feel like myself for a little bit. Before I return to the more stuffy Everlee look again tomorrow for work.” I headed up to my bedroom to find something to wear and make a quick phone call to Harry. He didn’t answer so I left him a message telling him that I’d be heading out with The Circus for dinner and a night out and to just give me a call. I wouldn’t hesitate to answer a phone call from him in a bar when I’m out with my roommates. Especially considering I didn’t want to wake him up when I headed to the office this morning so we had only managed to exchanged a few texts in between my meetings.

I got dressed in a black mini dress that had a few transparent stripes at the bottom and was low cut. It was a bit on the sexier side of my style but it felt like I was rebelling by acting my own age for a few hours. The pantsuit had done me in today. I put some ankle booties on and grabbed a black leather jacket before switching my purse and heading downstairs. Ty and Kammi had arrived while I was upstairs. Kammi was obviously also feeling the need to sex it up a bit tonight. She had on skintight red pants that I was pretty sure at first glance as I walked down the stairs were leather and a black silk shirt.

“Are we ready?” Ty asked.

“Yup. I need a drink and to feel like I’m 25 for a few hours and not 50,” I replied.

“Stressful meetings?” Joe asked.

“You all know that New York stresses me out. There’s a reason I didn’t move here after I graduated. I can only do New York in small doses.”

“You know, I grew up here and even I get it now. I want to go back to the life where if the weather is really nice people get that you might show up in a sundress on a Tuesday or come in from lunch with a tan you didn’t have when you left. I make my mother cringe every time I tell her I’m pretty sure I could stay in LA for the rest of my life.”

“My parents gave up on Joe and I moving back to the East Coast permanently a long time ago. At least they aren’t up here anymore or they’d probably start the same sort of thing. Now, Kevin and Dani, that’s another story. They want us home,” Nick added.

“You could go back to Chicago in a heartbeat though, right E?” Joe asked.

“If business became big enough that I could rationalize being in Chicago full-time I’d go back. Well maybe.”

“You’d also maybe go to London these days,” Eliza said.

“Maybe.”

“Did you finally get him on the phone?” I looked at Eliza and shook my head. “That sucks.”

“Yeah, I left him a message and told him to just call me when he had a chance and as long as I wasn’t at dinner with all of you I’d just take off to answer so I could talk to him. He’ll have to go to bed early tonight is my guess. Audition in the morning.”

“What is he auditioning for?” Joe asked. We were now in the lobby waiting for the car service to pull up.

“Dunkirk. It’s a new project by Christopher Nolan. A World War II drama about British soldiers during the battle of Dunkirk.”

“That’s an intense first flick.”

“Yeah, Nick told him to avoid the Camp Rock type scripts.”

“I’d do another Camp Rock in a heartbeat,” Joe said. “It would be a chance to spend a few weeks with my best friends at a camp acting like idiots.” Kammi and I had managed to convince Joe and Nick to get us parts as extras in Camp Rock 2 just so we could come spend a few weeks with them while they filmed it. It was a lot of fun despite it being a sort of cheesy movie, though it was perfect for their fan base at the time. The car pulled up and we all climbed in.

“A summer away with everyone and no work might be awesome, but I doubt that we would be able to not work,” I said.

“Yeah, we’d both end up working the whole time,” Kammi said. “Mexico is about the only time during the year that we get without working and even then we all dedicate an hour a day to email.”

“I know. I have a lot of friends from school who are envious that I’m not working a shit job at an agency or struggling writing and everything. I’ve offered to trade jobs with them for a week. I would kill for a week working freelance where I could stay in my pajamas and write whenever I wanted.”

“That sounds like heaven,” Kammi replied. “My friends from school do the same thing. Granted we both know our friends who are freelancers hustle their ass off and most of them are still bartending.”

“True. But seriously they think that because my name is on the door that I am just like a figurehead in an office that doesn’t work. I've threatened to blog about what my normal days are like.”

“Just leave out the days you’ve had lately,” Ty said. “You practically have been in your pajamas since you strolled in the office in the outfit you wore the night before.”

“I have. I don’t have clothes at his house. I have to figure out how to deal with that without being like ‘Hey H, baby, I like you and you’re cute and I basically use you for your super comfortable bed. But I need space in the closet.’ It would be so weird.”

“So just stay at home,” Ty said.

“And give up sex? E isn’t crazy,” Kammi replied. I started to laugh. The phone rang and I glanced down to see Harry’s name.

“Hey baby,” I answered. The whole car started to make cat calls. I flipped them off.

“Hey love. It’s so loud, where are you?”

“The car. We are headed out to dinner. The Circus says hi.”

“Fun. I didn’t realize you would’ve left already. I had just got your message I was in the gym when you called.”

“It’s okay. I wanted to call you between work and dinner. Can I call you later? I’ll sneak out of the bar for a few minutes to call or something.”

“Don’t worry about it. Just call me when you get home. Even if you got home at like 2AM, which I know is unlikely, it’s still early for me. Have fun tonight.”

“Okay. I miss you.”

“I miss you too,” Ty yelled. I heard Harry start to laugh.

“We all miss you,” Joe said as he leaned in towards the phone. “See you in the Windy CIty!”

“Be careful tonight.”

“I will. I’ll call you later. Bye baby.”

“Bye love.”

“You are all a bunch of assholes,” I said as I slid my phone back into my purse.

“You just aren’t used to us giving you shit for being in a relationship,” Ty said. “You were never cutesy with Drew.”

“There was nothing to be cutesy about. You never saw us act like a couple. You three guys touch me more in public than he did.”

“True,” Joe said. “It just wasn’t his thing. Clearly, it is Harry’s.”

“Yeah, it’s strange to be in a relationship with someone who is so okay with the PDA thing. I mean it’s what I grew up around. Every married couple in my family was super affectionate. It was always weird to have Drew who wasn’t.”

“I can see that,” Kammi said. “I never really cared either way until Nick. And I like that he’s okay with it because sometimes in a crowded room when I really would rather be anywhere but there just the simple gesture of him holding my hand is something that makes me feel better. Drew didn’t do that with you.”

“Nope, even that made him uncomfortable. Funny thing is, his Mom and Dad are very affectionate.”

“I noticed that,” Eliza said. “I only met that am his graduation and they were affectionate with each other and him. I never said anything because it didn’t feel like my place.”

“Eh, I don’t need to worry about it now. New York is just tough. It brings back memories. I spent a lot of time traveling here to wait for him to not be busy and spend some time with me.”

“You’ve got someone so much better now,” Kammi said. I felt her hand rub my shoulder from behind me. “You are so much happier with Harry and it’s only a week. Imagine what it will be like when you’ve been together as long as you and Drew were. You won’t even think about it. You’ll have made your own memories in places.”

“Thanks.” We pulled up to the restaurant we’d decided on and all climbed out of the car. We had enough of a party tonight with the six of us, Stassi, her boyfriend Darren, Blair and whatever guy she’d decided on bringing to dinner that Eliza had called in a few favors and gotten us a private dining room at the restaurant. Stassi and Darren, were already there when we arrived so there were hugs all around. It was about fifteen minutes later that Blair came in with someone none of us at the table had ever met. I gathered this because even Stassi introduced herself to him. His name was Brock but he didn’t really talk much at first, he basically just stared at the chest of every woman sitting at the table, it clearly made Nick and Joe uncomfortable.

Dinner wasn’t too terrible until Brock started talking. He played lacrosse and it was the only thing he wanted to talk about all night. I forget that despite 19 and 25 not being too far apart in age that there is a huge maturity difference between those ages. I take back what I said last night, I was not jealous of Blair. I was happy to have someone in my life who could carry on a conversation about more than lacrosse. I grabbed my phone midway through dinner to text Harry.

Please tell me you aren't secretly a huge lacrosse fan.
No. Why?
Blair brought some new guy to dinner with her tonight. He hasn’t shut up about lacrosse the entire night. The Circus is in our group text and sending each other texts just so we don’t go crazy listening to him.
Who is Blair?
Kammi’s youngest sister. She’s 19 and this guy is evidently the captain of the lacrosse team at whatever college he attends. I haven't figured that out yet. His name is Brock. Brock the Jock. Hehe.
Honey, are you drinking?
Yes.
How much?
I ordered a different wine than everyone else and it made more sense to get a bottle. I just poured the last glass.
I told you to be careful.
I will be. And I wouldn’t have drank this much if anyone else could talk. If I’m forced to be quiet I use my mouth to consume alcohol.
I can think of another thing to put your mouth to work doing.
That sounds like a good idea. Can I close my eyes now and get you to New York?
I wish.
Me too. Not much longer. It's just unfortunate that between now and then I have to be in a room with this Brock person.
You’ll be okay. FaceTime me when you get home.
I will. I miss you.
I miss you too.

We finally left the restaurant and headed to a bar that we usually loved going to. I ordered another glass of wine when we got there and managed to find a tall table that most of us could sit or stand around. I took a seat and looked down at my phone. Harry had sent me a few pictures of the random stuff I had left around the house as if my things were missing me. One of the photos was of a hair tie. It was pink, I knew it wasn’t mine. So I had fun picking on him for having a pink hair tie laying around his house. It was weird being out with all of my friends and feeling like I’d rather be somewhere else or at least with someone else. Nick sat down next to me first and Joe came to stand on the other side.

“The brothers Jonas.”

“Are you getting drunk Ev?” Nick asked.

“Maybe a little.”

“Why?”

“My bed is lonely. I wish that the Brit had come with.”

“It’s fun to see you like this,” Joe said. “I mean not drunk and lonely but you really do like him. It’s nice.”

“Everyone appears to think it’s nice that I’m happy, which is…nice. But also weird that everyone thinks they need to tell me how nice it is to see me happy.”

“Well to see you not only working is a change. Maybe next time I’m in the studio I won’t get 3AM texts about demos,” Joe added.

“Maybe. I mean I would say it’s doubtful but I’m not allowed to bring my laptop into the bedroom.”

“Is that why you were working in bed last night?” I nodded which made Joe laugh.

“I love just laying in bed with Netflix on and going through my email and meeting notes. But evidently it’s a mood killer to hear my email notification go off constantly.”

“I would imagine it is.” That was when the whole mood of the night changed. I saw the door open and in walked Drew. I think I forgot in that moment how to breathe and swallow, I began to choke on my wine. Nick rubbed my back.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

“What is he doing here?” They both followed my glance to the door. I saw that Eliza must’ve seen the same thing and she came over immediately.

“Are you okay? Do you want to leave?”

“Why would she want to leave?” Joe asked. “I invited him. We are all in New York. We haven’t all six been here in almost a year and a half. I thought it would be a good chance for everyone to hang out.”

“What on Earth makes you think I want to hang out with my ex-boyfriend?”

“You two are fine.”

“Aren’t you?” Nick finished the sentence his brother’s sentence.

I mean of course we aren’t fine but my friends wouldn’t know that because I was the girl that tried to save face when she got her heart shattered by her boyfriend. I was the one that told everyone we decided to take a break after my visit over Valentine’s Day. I was the one that made up the lies and the stories and told them everything was fine but we had just grown apart. He was friends with my friends. I didn’t want them to think less of him and I didn’t want them to think I was an absolute idiot. I knew that I should’ve told them the truth, told them that the reason Drew was pissed off at me for my surprise visit to New York for Valentine’s Day was that he’d gotten an expensive hotel room for the weekend to spend time with the girl in his program he’d fallen for. That he was a big enough asshole that he tried to play me that weekend and act like he’d been called to the hospital. He forgot that Apple invented the ‘Find My Friends’ feature. That I found him at a five-star hotel near the park. That I actually went to the hotel that night and knocked on his room door. She’d answered the door in a robe thinking I was room service. He was wrapped in a sheet when he followed me down the hall as I was running and crying.

I had called Eliza crying when I got into the car to go back to my apartment that night. I was in the city alone or at least I thought I was. Joe was in town. He took me out and got me drunk. I admittedly told him that night that we should sleep together so I could forget about how much my heart hurt. Pity sex was not something I got from Joe and looking back on it I’m glad I didn’t. It would’ve made this entire moment a million times worse. He didn’t know anything other than I showed up in New York for Valentine’s to surprise my boyfriend and we ended up breaking up instead. I played it off with everyone like nothing happened. I’d always felt guilty for not telling Kammi but she would’ve told Nick who would’ve told Joe and then I would’ve had to deal with pissed off Drew, which was the only emotion I saw for the last two years of our relationship. I picked Los Angeles over him, that was how he viewed it. Not that I picked the chance to live in the same city as my father for the first time I since I was five and build a stronger relationship with a man I worshipped but often times felt like I barely knew.

And now here he was, the first time I was seeing him since that night in the hotel room hallway. I’d told everyone I went back at the beginning of April to see him and that we’d called it off then. In reality I’d spent that weekend eating carry out food from my favorite restaurants and listening to really depressing music. But I needed to follow along with my story that I’d told everyone.

“Yeah, sure,” I replied. “I’m fine, EJ. I’ll be fine.”

“If you want to leave just tell me.” Eliza was whispering in my ear. “I know this isn’t going to be easy.” I saw Drew move to waive at us and that’s when it got worse. SHE was with him. “Shit. Is that her?” I just nodded. “We are leaving.”

“No, I’m going to stay right here. These are my friends. I can handle this. I’m better without him.”

“You are. But if you want to leave I will leave with you.”

“I’m fine.” They finally walked up to the table and he started doing the man hug with all of the guys. Kammi looked over his shoulder giving me a sympathetic glance as she hugged him. He got up to me.

“Hey Ev. It’s been a long time,” he said as he came to me.

“Not long enough,” I mumbled. I knew he heard it as he hugged me. It was the most awkward hug of my life.

“Are you going to be a bitch tonight or are you going to be civil?” he asked quietly while still hugging me.

“I haven’t decided yet. The longer you hug me the lower your chances of me being civil become.” He backed away and I gave him my fakest smile.

“Everlee, this is my girlfriend, Kayla.”

“It’s nice to officially meet you,” she said. Oh she was going to use the officially so she could act like she’d never met me.

“Nice to meet you with clothes on,” I said loud enough that only she, Drew and Eliza could hear me.

“Everlee,” Drew said in his stern tone.

“What? You thought that bringing her out tonight was a good idea? You thought wrong and you found me a bottle of wine into my evening. Best of luck to you both.”

“You could’ve warned her,” Eliza said to Drew.

“Joe invited me. I thought she knew I’d be coming.”

“You know better than to accept an invitation out with all of us. You aren’t part of this group anymore, despite wishing you were.”

“Eliza, don’t worry about it. I’m fine.”

“She’s always been fine on her own,” Drew said. I glared at him until he and Kayla took a seat at the table. I saw my phone light up and this time it was a picture of Harry shirtless on the couch reading through his script.

“Has he been sending you shirtless pictures all night?” Eliza asked loud enough the whole table heard it.

“Pretty much. He’s also been sending me my stuff laying around the house and saying things like ‘You forgot your favorite hair tie. You should hurry home for it.’ The hair tie was pink. Clearly not mine.”

“He would use pink hair ties,” Kammi said.

“Everlee, are you dating someone?” Kayla asked. The whole table turned to look at her. Eliza and I both glaring.

“Yeah, I am.”

“She’s dating Harry Styles,” Blair said. “Total bitch for that by the way E. You should’ve saved him for me.”

“Sorry, no saving him. He’s all mine.”

“Is he at least good in bed?” she asked. Blair loved the details.

“I don’t want to know this,” Nick said.

“Best I’ve ever had,” I said as I looked at Drew and smiled. “First night was the best sex of my life and it’s just gotten better.”

“Like can he go multiple rounds?” Stassi asked. She wasn’t usually the one asking the questions.

“All I’m going to say is I’m satisfied, completely satisfied.”

“When did you become so crude, E?” Drew asked.

“I’ve always been this way. I just had to censor myself around you. No censorship required now. He finds me funny. He likes the things you hated, mainly me.”

“I never hated you. I hated this side of you.”

“Well, this, is me.”

“I did something wrong didn’t I?” Joe asked as he turned to look at Eliza.

“Ya think?” she replied.

“So Kayla, how long have you and Drew been together?” I asked. She froze.

“Umm, just about a year,” she said timidly.

“Oh honey, it’s longer than that isn’t it. It’s at least a year and a half now, right?” She didn’t answer. “So did you know about me when you started dating?”

“Everlee, leave her out of this,” Drew said. “This wasn’t her fault.”

“You’re right. It wasn’t. It was yours. So Drew, did she know about me when you started dating? Did she know that I was sitting in Los Angeles waiting for you to call me every night when you’d tell me you were on call late but in reality you were with her? Did she know I was in town Valentine’s Day weekend when you rented a suite to celebrate without either of your roommates or was she as naive about how big of an asshole you were like me?” The whole group sat stunned as my phone started to ring on the table. There it was, the cheesy photo of Harry and I from Malibu that he’d snuck on my phone. “Looks like you’re lucky, I need to take this.” I grabbed my phone and headed away from the table. “Hi,” I said trying to hold back tears.

“Hi.” His voice was cheery as I let out a sob. “Are you okay, honey?” I stepped out onto the street and walked away from the bar. I found stairs to a nearby apartment building and sat down.

“No.”

“What’s wrong? Did you hurt yourself?”

“No.”

“Why are you crying?”

“Drew is here. With her.” I’d told Harry about everything. I don’t even know why I did. But the night before I left for New York I spilled everything to him. I wanted him to know what held me back emotionally from feeling like I should just dive head first into us.

“Fuck. What happened?”

“I reacted so badly, baby. I can be such a bitch.”

“I’m aware.”

“I asked how long they’d been together and when she lied I called her out on it. I asked if she knew about me when they first started hooking up of if she was as naive as I was and just thought he loved her.”

“I’m sorry. I wish I was there. I mean first of all, I’d punch him for ever treating you poorly.”

“No, you wouldn’t. You’re too kind.”

“You’re right. I’d want to punch him but wouldn’t.”

“I wish you were here.”

“Me too. Only just over a day and we are together. You should just go home, love. I bet Eliza would go home with you.”

“She texted you didn’t she?”

“Yeah, she said you needed an excuse to remove yourself from a situation and knew that you wouldn’t ignore my call. She didn’t tell me what was going on though. Just text her and tell her you’re ready to leave.” I looked up from the ground to see The Circus standing in front of me.

“I think they all know I’m ready to go home. Can I FaceTime you in a little bit?”

“Absolutely love. You’ll be okay.”

“I miss you.”

“I miss you.” I hung up the phone and was engulfed in a hug by everyone who had been at that table except Drew and Kayla.

“I’m so sorry. I wish I hadn’t invited him out,” Joe said.

“It’s okay. It’s not your fault. I should’ve told all of you what really happened.”

“You should have,” Kammi said. “But I get it. Sometimes we want to protect ourselves from reliving something really terrible. Let’s go back to your place and drink there. None of us have big meetings tomorrow, that was just today. We can work from your place in our pajamas tomorrow.”

“We are going to head home,” Stassi said. “Sis, I’ll get your luggage put together and have Alfred deliver it to you at Ev’s.” I hugged Stassi. “You looked so happy when you got here. Focus on that.”

“I will. Thanks,” I replied as I hugged her tighter. “You can come over if you want.”

“Nah, I’ve got class early tomorrow and I barely got Darren out of his apartment. He’s studying for the bar.”

“Sounds like fun.” I hugged Darren. “Sorry about the shitshow.”

“Eh, it’s okay. Sometimes it’s nice to be reminded we are all just kids.” Darren was as ambitious as Stassi. He’d graduated college a year early and started law school right away. He had been in Kammi’s class in school growing up and had always had his eye on her younger sister. They started dating in high school and were still together despite both of them being crazy and working so hard.

“You two are cute. Go study you crazy student people.”

“We are going to another bar if you guys don’t want to go home,” Blair said.

“No, we need to take Ev home,” Kammi replied. “Be careful and call a car if you need one.”

“I will.” There were hugs all around and in the time span of saying goodbye our car had arrived. We all headed back to my place and were quickly in pajamas; Nick, Kammi and Ty borrowing from those of us who were already here. We opened a bottle of wine and I spilled the whole story to all of them. They sat with shocked faces.

“Why didn’t you tell us?” Kammi asked.

“I only told Eliza and my Mom, until our last night in Los Angeles, I told Harry. I didn’t want to burden all of you guys with the drama between Drew and I. You were friends with him. And there had been so many signs that he was cheating and I should’ve seen it coming. It was easier to just tell all of you a giant lie than to be honest and admit that I’d been played by the asshole. Worst of all, did you see him walking in tonight holding her hand?”

“Yeah,” Nick said. “I’m sorry.”

“Well, I’m sorry I invited him out. I didn’t realize it would be that bad,” Joe said.

“It’s not your fault. It’s mine. I should’ve been honest. I just wanted to forget about it. But when she walked in tonight it was hard to forget what she looked like in the hotel robe and the look on her face when she realized it was me at the door and not the champagne Drew had ordered.”

“Well at least you spoke your peace,” Ty said. “I mean the asshole had it coming. He deserved more. He’s lucky Harry called you.”

“He’s lucky Eliza told Harry to call me.”

“You mean I could’ve gotten to see more of the show and Eliza cancelled it. Bitch.”

“You can sleep on the couch now,” she said.

“Then where are we supposed to sleep?” Nick asked.

“Eliza can sleep with me,” I replied. “You can have her room, Ty can sleep on the sofa unless he gets an invite into Joe’s bed.” I took a drink of my wine. “Now onto a better subject. Brock the Jock?”

“I’m so glad you came up with that nickname,” Kammi half yelled. “What is my fucking sister thinking?”

“That he probably has nice abs,” Ty said.

“Probably,” I replied. “But he has no brain. Brains are better than abs.”

“You only say that because you have both,” Eliza said.

“And so do all of the men in this room,” I replied. A few more glasses of wine and I headed up to my room to FaceTime Harry.

“Hi,” he answered.

“Hi,” I replied giggling.

“You look like you’re in a better mood.”

“Much better mood. I still miss you though.”

“I still miss you too. You are drunk aren’t you?”

“Sure am. We declared we were working from here tomorrow. I don’t want to deal with the office tomorrow. I have no meetings they don’t know what I’m doing so I can just stay here and work in my PJs that way you can call me or FaceTime me when you’re audition is done.”

“Good. As long as you’re feeling better. Though you’ll probably be hungover as hell tomorrow.”

“Probably,” I replied giggling. We talked until I was tired enough that I needed sleep and he was tired of listening to me giggle and yawn. I passed out and the next morning woke up to my phone ringing. It was a text from Drew telling me to fuck off. I thought about responding and didn’t. I rolled over expecting Eliza in bed next to me and found Ty. “What are you doing in my bed?”

“I fell off the couch so I came up here. Your bed is big enough for all three of us.”

“There’s only two of us.”

“Hmm, maybe Eliza woke up already.” I got out of bed and went through my normal morning routine then headed downstairs to make breakfast. Eliza came strolling in the kitchen a few minutes after me. Her hair was in the messiest bun I’d ever seen, she had a smile on her face and wait…is that the t-shirt Joe wore yesterday.

“You didn’t!” I exclaimed.

“Umm, I did.”

“Did what?” Kammi asked as she came into the kitchen in the sweatpants I’d given her yesterday.

“Slept with Joe!”

“Whoa!” Kammi said. “Sit. Spill.”

“It just happened,” Eliza said as she took the cup of coffee I handed her.

“Had it happened before?” I asked.

“Yeah,” she replied.

“More than once?” Kammi asked.

“Maybe?”
“When?” Kammi and I both questioned this time.

“Malibu and before his last girlfriend.”

“Well this is just too good,” I said laughing. “I guess it’s Ty that’s alone now.”

“Why am I alone?”

“Because Eliza and Joe hooked up.”

“Dammit.”

We eventually all got to work and it was no different at home today than it had been at the office yesterday except there were no pantsuits and we had Nick and Joe bothering us on occasion. We went to a restaurant around the corner from my place for a late lunch. Harry called after his audition to let me know that it went well and they said they’d get in touch with me as soon as they’d made a decision. Our dinner was our normal Chinese take out place in the city and a night of TV with two Jonas boys added in. We all said our goodnights, Ty coming up with me while Eliza went to Joe’s room. Harry got the joy of FaceTiming Ty and I both before bed tonight which was rather entertaining. He looked relieved when I told him that Joe and Eliza had evidently been hooking up for a while. Ty sleeping in my bed wasn’t a threatening thing to him. It was just like me sharing a bed with Eliza or Kammi.

Our alarms all went off earlier Friday morning than any of us would’ve liked considering how much we had drank the prior two nights. Showers were quick with all six of us staying here. We were packed and out the door before 8:00 to catch our flight to Chicago. I was practically dancing in the car and up the steps to the plane. I got myself buckled into my seat and should’ve slept, but it was like a kid before Christmas. I was headed home for a few days to see my Mom, my Dad, my baby brothers and my boyfriend. There were few things that could possibly have made me happier. As the plane flew over the city and into the private airport my heart filled up. This city just did something to me that I couldn’t explain. We all climbed into the car waiting to take us to my house. I loved driving through the city and along Lake Michigan before pulling up to the house. There it was, the house of my mother’s dreams, standing grandly amongst modern buildings showing the history this city once had. We got in the house to find it was buzzing with people setting up for today’s party. Everyone headed to their respective guest rooms and after dropping off my bags in my room I found my Mom in the ballroom.

“Hey Mom,” I said hugging her.

“Evie Mae, I’ve missed you,” she said as she started to tear up.

“Me too, Mom. Me too. I hate to have this be a short reunion but I need to go pick up Harry.”

“Take my car. The keys should be in the foyer.”

“Thanks Mom,” I replied. She hugged me again.

“I’m really happy to have you home.”

“I’m happy to be home.”

“Now go get that boyfriend of yours. I can’t wait to meet him and your Dad should be home any minute.” I took off down the stairs, grabbed her keys and headed out to the garage. I jumped in the car and took off for O’Hare. I looked at my watch as I pulled into pick him up. I had timed it perfectly. I got out of the car and stood leaning against the door trying to pull off my best Ferris Bueller picking up Sloan look possible. I saw him before he saw me. His hair wild and curly, his sunglasses on as he walked out the door. Tight black jeans and a white t-shirt. His bags slung over one shoulder and a guitar case in his hands. When he saw me the smile spread across his face. He walked across the traffic carefully stopping in front of me.

“Hi,” I said.

“Hi.”

Notes